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Hill,  George,  1750-1819 

Lectures  in  divinity 


LIBRARY  OF  PRINCETON 


FEB  I  0 


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THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


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LECTURES 


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IN 


DIVINITY. 


By    THE    LATE , 


GEORGE  HILL,  D.D. 

PRINCIPAL     OF     ST.     MAKY's     COLLEGE,     ST.     ANDREWS. 


EOITED    FROM    HIS   MANUSCRirT, 


BV    HIS    SON, 


THE  REV.  ALEXANDER  HILL, 


MINISTER    OF    DAILLV. 


tieRARYOfPRINCnON 


1 


FEB  I  0  20(6 


THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


PHILADELPHIA: 
PUBLISHED    BY    HERMAN   HOOKER, 

N.  W.  CORNER  OF    CHESTNfT   AND   FIFTH   STS. 

18  42. 


PREFACE 

BY    THE     EDITOR. 


The  author  of  the  following  Lectures  was  appointed  Pro- 
fessor of  Divinity  in  1 788,  and  completed  the  plan  which  he  had 
formed  for  himself,  in  about  four  years.  In  every  succeeding 
year,  he  revised  with  unwearied  care  that  part  of  his  course 
which  he  intended  to  read  to  his  students ;  and  not  a  few  of  the 
Lectures  appear  to  have  been  recently  transcribed.  He  took 
no  steps  himself  for  publishing  them  as  a  whole ;  but  he  is  known 
to  have  had  this  in  contemplation ;  and  at  his  death  he  consigned 
them  to  the  Editor,  in  such  terms  as  implied  that  the  publication 
of  them  would  not  be  in  opposition  to  his  wishes. 

It  will  be  agreeable,  the  Editor  believes,  to  the  wishes  of  that 
large  proportion  of  the  ministers  of  the  church  of  Scotland, 
who  went  from  the  hall  of  St.  Mary's  College  with  unfeigned 
respect  for  the  character  and  talents  of  the  Author,  to  peruse 
those  prelections  which  commanded  the  attention  of  their  earlier 
years.  And  he  is  well  persuaded,  that  there  are  many,  who, 
from  personal  attachment  to  the  Author,  or  from  a  knowledge 
of  his  high  reputation,  are  anxious  to  become  acquainted  with 
his  sentiments,  on  points  so  important  as  those  which  his  Lec- 
tures embrace. 

These  considerations  alone,  however,  would  not  have  induced 
the  Editor  tb  disclose  liis  father's  manuscripts  to  the  public  eye. 
In  the  conclusion  of  his  opening  address,  as  Professor  of  Di- 


lU 


IV  PREFACE. 


vinity,  the  Author  pledged  himself  by  making  this  solemn 
declaration  :  "  Under  the  blessing  and  direction  of  the  Almighty 
in  whose  hands  I  am,  and  to  whom  I  must  give  account,  no 
industry  or  research,  no  expense  of  time  or  of  thought,  shall  be 
wanting  on  my  part,  to  render  my  labours  truly  useful  to  the 
students  of  divinity  in  this  college."  It  was  under  a  strong 
impression  that  this  pledge  has  been  fully  redeemed  : — in  the 
firm  belief  that  the  publication  of  his  theological  lectures,  one 
of  the  principal  fruits  of  the  Author's  active  and  laborious  life, 
will  do  honour  to  his  memory ; — and  in  the  anxious  hope  that 
the  object  for  which  the  Lectures  were  written,  to  teach  and  to 
defend  "the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,"  may  be  thus  more  largely 
attained,  that  the  Editor  resolved  to  present  them  to  the  world. 

He  cannot  withdraw  from  the  charge,  which  he  has  felt  it 
both  a  duty  and  a  pleasure  to  fulfil,  without  expressing  the  in- 
creased veneration,  which  an  attentive  perusal  of  the  Lectures 
has  excited  in  his  bosom  for  the  Author;  and  without  ofiering 
a  fervent  prayer  to  God,  that  the  church,  of  which  he  formed 
so  distinguished  a  member,  may  never  want  men,  on  whom  the 
example  of  his  diligence  and  success  may  freely  operate,  who 
may  be  equally  eminent  in  biblical  and  theological  learning,  and 
may  cherish  his  liberal,  enlightened,  and  truly  Christian  views. 

The  Author  himself  divided  his  course  into  Books,  and 
Chapters,  and  Sections,  first  when  he  printed  the  heads  of  his 
Lectures  for  the  use  of  his  students,  and  afterwards  in  a  larger 
work,  entitled  "  Theological  Institutes."  In  the  present  publi- 
cation, the  same  arrangement  has  been  adopted.  This  has 
necessarily  led  to  some  inconsiderable  changes  on  the  Lectures, 
as  they  were  read  from  the  chair.  But  the  Editor  has  been 
scrupulous  in  making  as  few  other  alterations  on  the  manuscript 
as  possible.  The  introductory  discourse  to  the  students,  which 
related  to  the  sentiments  and  character  essential  for  them  to 
maintain,  has  been  much  abridged,  as  it  bore  in  some  measure 


PREFACE. 


upon  local  circumstances  in  tlie  University  of  St.  Andrews. 
And  towards  the  end  of  this  work,  it  will  be  found,  by  a  refe- 
rence to  the  notes,  that  those  parts  of  the  course  have  been 
omitted,  which  the  Author  himself  had  previously  given  to  the 

public. 

It  was  the  wish  of  the  Editor  to  subjoin  a  note  of  reference 
to  every  quotation  made  by  the  Author.  But  in  the  manuscript 
it  frequently  happened  that  there  was  nothing  to  lead  him  parti- 
cularly to  the  passage  or  authority  cited.  In  his  remote  situa- 
tion he  had  not  access  to  all  the  books  which  it  was  necessary 
to  consult ;  and  even  with  the  assistance  of  his  friends,  he  has 
not  been  uniformly  successful  in  comparing  the  quotations  with 
the  works  from  which  they  are  extracted. 

He  has  annexed  to  different  chapters  the  names  of  the  books 
which  the  Author  was  accustomed  to  recommend  to  his  students, 
with  some  of  the  comments  which  he  made  on  them.  His 
remarks,  however,  were  usually  delivered  without  having  been 
written  ;  and  hence,  comparatively  few  are  preserved. 

It  may  be  thought,  that  the  printed  lists  of  books  recom- 
mended are  far  from  being  complete.  But  it  is  to  be  considered, 
that,  at  the  commencement  of  the  Author's  labours,  the  library 
of  St.  Andrews  was  deficient  in  modern  theological  works ;  that 
those  which  were  more  immediately  useful  were  only  gradually 
procured ;  that  it  was  far  from  being  his  object  to  load  the 
memory,  or  to  distract  the  attention  of  his  students  by  multi- 
farious reading ;  and  that,  as  the  business  of  his  profession 
occupied  his  mind  to  the  end  of  his  days,  it  is  probable  that 
there  was  no  publication  of  moment,  which  he  had  an  opportu- 
nity of  perusing,  of  which  he  did  not  in  his  class-room  deliver 
an  opinion. 

Manse  of  Dailly, 
April  23,  1821. 

2 


PREFACE 

TO    THE    SECOND    EDITION. 


It  was  in  contemplation  to  present  the  following  course  of 
Lectures  complete,  by  subjoining  to  this  edition  the  View  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  the  Counsels 
respecting  the  Duties  of  the  Pastoral  Office,  which  were  pub- 
lished during  the  Author's  lifetime.  But  being  unwilling  to 
make  alterations  on  a  work  which  has  been  so  favourably 
received,  the  Editor  sends  it  forth  in  the  state  in  which  it 
originally  appeared,  only  freed,  he  trusts,  from  many  of  the 
errata  which  had  crept  into  the  first  edition.  Such  readers  as 
may  wish  to  peruse  those  parts  of  the  course  which  are  not 
contained  in  this  work,  will  find  a  note  referring  to  them  at  the 
end  of  the  volume. 

Manse  of  Dailly, 
^pril  21,  1825. 


Vll 


CONTENTS. 

BOOK  I. 

EVIDENCES    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    RELIGION. 

INTRODUCTORY   DISCOURSE, 1 

Belief  of  a  Deity  founded  on  the  constitution  of  the  Human  Mind — Almost 
universal — Moral  government  of  God  traced  in  the  constitution  of  Human 
Nature,  and  the  state  of  the  world — Brought  to  light  by  the  Gospel. 

CHAP.  I. 

COLLATERAL   EVIDENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    FROM    HISTORY,      ,      .  10 

CHAP.  H. 

AUTHENTICITY    AND    GENUINENESS    OF    THE    BOOKS    OF    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT,       12 

Sect.  1.  External  Evidence  of  their  authenticity  full  and  various — Internal 
marks. 
2.  Various  readings — Sources  of  correction. 

CHAP.  m. 

INTERNAL    EVIDENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY, 18 

Manner  in  which  the  claim  of  containing  a  divine  revelation  is  advanced  in  the 
New  Testament — Contents  of  the  Books — System  of  religion  and  morality — 
Condition  of  the  sacred  writers — Character  of  Jesus  Christ  and  of  the 
Apostles. 

CHAP.  IV. 

DIRECT    OR    EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY MIRACLES,        .       .       27 

Sect.  1.  Argument  from  the  miracles  of  Jesus — Uniformity  of  the  course  of 
nature — Power  of  the  Almighty  to  interpose — Communication  of 
this  power  a  striking  mark  of  a  divine  commission — Harmony 
between  the  internal  and  external  evidence  of  Christianity — Mira- 
cles of  the  Gospel  illustrate  its  peculiar  doctrines. 

2.  Mr.  Hume's  argument  against  miracles — Circumstances  which  render 

the  testimony  of  the  Apostles  credible — Confirmation  of  their  testi- 
mony— Faith  of  the  first  Christians — Manner  in  which  the  miracles 
of  Jesus  are  narrated — No  opposite  testimony. 

3.  How  far  the  argument  from  miracles  is  affected  by  the  prodigies  and 

miracles  mentioned  in  history — Duration  of  miraculous  gifts  in  the 
Christian  church. 

CHAP.  V. 

ILLUSTRATION    OF    THE    EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY,     ....       53 

John  xi.  Exhibition  of  character — The  historian — The  other  Apostles — The 
family  of  Lazarus — Our  Lord — Resurrection  of  Lazarus — Effects  produced 
by  the  miracle.  / 

CHAP.  VI. 

EXTERNAL    EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY PROPHECY,     ....       70 

Si:cT.  1.  Antiquity  and  integrity  of  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament — Hope  of 
the  Messiah  founded  on  the  received  interpretation  of  the  prophecies. 
2.  Correspondence  between  the  circumstances  of  Jesus,  and  the  predic- 
tions of  the  Old  Testament. 
2*  C  ix 


CONTENTS. 


Pase 


3.  Direct  prophecies  of  the  Messiah — Double  sense  of  prophecy — Not 

inconsistent  with  the  nature  of  prophecy — Supported  by  the  general 
use  of  language. 

4.  Quotations  in  the  New  Testament  from  the  Old  Testament. 

5.  Amount  of  the  argument  from  prophecy. 

CHAP.  VII. 

PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED    BY    JESUS, .       93 

Magnificence  and  extent  of  the  system  of  prophecy — Jesus  the  object  of  the  old 
prophecies,  and  the  author  of  new  ones — Advantages  of  attending  to  the  pro- 
phecies of  our  Lord  and  his  Apostles — Clearness  and  importance  of  his  pre- 
dictions— Specimens. 

CHAP.  VIII. 

RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST, 123 

Resurrection  of  Christ  an  essential  fact  in  the  history  of  his  religion — Evidence 
upon  which  it  rests — Evidence  of  it  in  these  later  ages — Universal  belief  of 
the  fact— Clear  testimony  of  the  Apostles — Their  extraordinary  powers. 

CHAP.  IX. 

PROPAGATIC^    OF    CHRISTIANITV, 132 

Sect.  1.  When  the  success  of  a  religious  system  forms  a  legitimate  argument 
for  its  divine  original — Progress  of  Mahometanism  and  Christianity 
compared. 

2.  Secondary  causes  of  the  progress  of  Christianity  assigned  by  Mr. 

Gibbon  considered. 

3.  Rank  and  character  of  some  of  the  early  converts  to  Christianity. 

4.  Measure  of  the  effect  produced  by  the  means  employed  in  propagating 

the  Gospel — Objections  drawn  from  it — Answers. 


BOOK  II. 


GENERAL    VIEW    OF    THE    SCRIPTURE    SYSTEM. 

CHAP.  I. 

INSPIRATION   OF    SCRIPTURE, 154 

Inspiration  not  impossible — Three  degrees  of  it — Necessary  to  the  Apostles  for 
the  purposes  of  their  mission — Promised  by  our  Lord — Claimed  by  them- 
selves— Admitted  by  their  disciples — Not  contradicted  by  any  thing  in  their 
writings. 

CHAP.  II. 

PECULIAR   DOCTRINES   OF   CHRISTIANITY, 173 

CHAP.  m. 

CHRISTIANITY   OF    INFINITE    IMPORTANCE, 188 

Sect.  1.  The  Gospel  a  republication  of  Natural  Religion — Mistakes  occasioned 
by  the  use  of  this  term. 
2.  The  Gospel  a  method  of  saving  sinners — Duties  consequent  upon  the 
revelation  of  this  method. 

CHAP.  IV. 

DIFFICULTIES    IN   THE    SCRIPTURE    SYSTEM, 203 

Difficulties  to  be  expected — Extent  of  our  knowledge. 

CHAP.  V. 

USE    OF    REASON'    IN    RELIGION,  • 209 


CONTENTS.  XI 

Pige  - 

CHAP.  VI. 

CONTROVERSIES    OCCASIONED    BY    THE    SCRIPTURE    SYSTEM,       .       .       .216 

Multiplicity  of  Theological  Controversies — Platonic  and  Peripatetic  Philosophy 
— Progress  of  Science — Authority  of  the  Fathers. 

CHAP.  VII. 

ARRANGEMENT    OF    THE    COURSE, 234 

The  Gospel  a  remedy  for  sinners — All  opinions  respecting  it  relate  to  the  per- 
sons by  whom  the  remedy  is  brought,  or  to  the  nature,  extent,  and  application 
of  the  remedy — Church  government. 


BOOK  III. 


OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE    SON,    THE    SPIRIT,    AND    THE    MANNER    OP 
THEIR    BEING    UNITED    WITH    THE    FATHER. 

CHAP.  I. 

OPINIONS   CONCERNING   THE    PERSON   OF   THE    SON,         ....   231 

Three  systems — Socinians — Arians — Council  of  Nice. 

CHAP.  II. 

SIMPLEST    OPINION    CONCERNING    THE    PERSON    OF    CHRIST,        .       ,       .    239 

Christ  truly  a  Man — Not  the  whole  doctrine  of  Scripture  respecting  him. 

CHAP.  III. 

PRE-EXISTENCE    OF    JESUS,       '. 242 

Explicit  declarations  of  Scripture — Socinian  solution. 

CHAP.  IV. 

ACTIONS    ASCRIBED   TO   JESUS    IN   HIS    PRK-EXISTENT  STATE — CREATION,     .    252 

Sect.  1.  John  i.  1 — 18. 

2.  Coloss.  i.  15—18. 

3.  Heb.  i. 

4.  Amount  of  the  proposition,  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Creator  of  the 

world. 

CHAP.  V. 

ACTIONS    ASCRIBED   TO   JESUS    IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT   STATE — ADMINISTRATION    OF 

PROVIDENCE, 282 

Sect.  1.  All  the  divine  appearances  recorded  in  the  Old  Testament,  referred  to 
one  Person,  called  Angel  and  God. 

2.  Christ  the  Jehovah,  who  appeared  to  the  Patriarchs,  was  worshipped 

in  the  Temple,  and  announced  as  the  author  of  a  new  Dispensation. 

3.  Objections  to  the  preceding  proposition — Different  opinions  as  to  the 

amount  of  it. 

CHAP.  VI. 

DOCTRINE    CONCERNING   THE    PERSON   OF    CHRIST    TAUGHT    DURING   HIS   LIFE,     309 

Reserve  with  which  he  revealed  his  dignity — Circumstances  attending  his  Birth 
— Voice  at  his  Baptism — Manner  in  which  he  spoke  of  the  connexion  between 
the  Father  and  him — Omniscience — Miracles. 

CHAP.  VII. 

DIRECT    PROOF    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD, 319 

Sect.  1.  Jesus  called  God — Circumstances  which  intimate  that  the  name  is 
applied  to  Jesus  in  the  highest  sense. 

2.  Essential  attributes  of  Deity  ascribed  to  Jesus. 

3.  Worship  represented  as  due  to  Jesus — Supreme  and  inferior  wor'^hip 

of  the  Arians — Socinian  explanatiLin  of  passages  in  which  wor.-siiip 
is  given  to  Jesus. 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

CHAP.  VIII.  '''"' 

UNION    OF    NATURES    IN    CHRIST, 341 

Passages  which  present  the  divine  and  human  nature  of  Christ  together — Opi- 
nions as  to  the  manner  of  their  union — Gnostics — ApoUinaris — Nestorius— 
Eutyches — Monophy sites — Monothelites — Miraculous  conception — Hyposta- 
tical  union  the  key  to  a  great  part  of  the  phraseology  of  Scripture — That 
which  qualifies  Jesus  Christ  to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world. 

CHAP.  IX. 

OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE    SPIRIT, 358 

Form  of  Baptism — Instruction  connected  with  the  administration  of  Baptism — 
Catechumens — First  Christians  worshipped  the  Holy  Ghost — Gnostics — 
Macedonius — Socinus — Personality  of  the  Holy  Ghost — His  divinity. 

CHAP.  X. 

DOCTRINE    OF    THE    TRINITY, 367 

Sect.  1.  Unity  of  God,  the  doctrine  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament. 

2.  Three  systems  of  the  Trinity — Sabellian — Arian,  and  Semi-Arian — 

Catholic. 

3.  Principles  by  which  the  Catholic  System  repels  the  charge  of  Tritheism. 

4.  Dr.    Clarke's   system — Amount    of    our   knowledge   respecting    the 

Trinity — Inferences. 


BOOK  IV. 


OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE    NATURE,    THE    EXTENT,  AND    THE    APPLI- 
CATION   OF    THE    REMEDY    BROUGHT    BY    THE    GOSPEL. 

CHAP.  I. 

DISEASE    FOR    WHICH    THE    REMEDY    IS    PROVIDED,  ....    391 

Sect.  1.  Genesis  iii. — History  of  a  real  transaction,  related  after  the  symbolical 
manner. 
2.  Effects  of  Adam's  fall  upon  his  posterity — Four  systems — Pelagius — 
Arminius — Human  nature  corrupted — Sin  of  Adam  imputed — 
Calvinistic  view  embraces  both  corruption  and  imputation — Adam 
the  representative  of  the  human  race — Difficulties. 

CHAP.  II. 

OPINIONS    concerning    THE    NATURE    OF    THE    REMEDY,   ....    413 

Sect.  1.  Socinians — The  Gospel  the  most  effectual  lesson  of  righteousness — 
Defects  of  this  System. 

2.  Right  acquired  by  Jesus  of  saving  men  from  their  sins,  and  giving 

them  immortality — Merits  and  defects  of  this  system. 

3.  Catholic  system,  or  that  which  has  been  generally  held  in  the  Chris- 

tian church — Atonement  or  satisfaction  of  Christ. 


/ 


CHAP.  HI.  / 

doctrine    of   THE    ATONEMENT, 4jiO— ?^ 

Sect.  1.  Not  irrational — God  the  righteous  Governor  of  the  universe — Honour 
of  his  laws  to  be  maintained — Sin  the  transgression  of  law — Mean-' 
ing  of  Satisfaction — Acceptance  of  the  Lawgiver,  and  concurrence 
of  tlie  Substitute  in  the  substitution  of  Christ — Vicarious  punish- 
ment— Why  not  practised  in  human  judgments — Power  of  Christ 
over  his  own  life — Deep  malignity  of  sin,  and  exceeding  kindnesfe 
and  love  of  God. 
2.  Whethfr  there  was  understood  to  be  a  substitution  in  the  heathen 
sacrifices. 


CONTENTS.  Xlll 

P«J8 

3.  Substitution  implied  in  certain  sin-ofFerintrs  in  the  law  of  Moses — Day 

of  atonement — Efficacy  of  tlie  substitution — Nature  of  the  sin- 
otTerinjTs. 

4.  Tliree  great  divisions  of  the  law  of  INloses — The  politic.il  and  ceremo- 

nial law  temporary — Ceremonial  law  emblematical  of  the  Gospel 
dispensation — Intimated  by  the  prophets — Implied  in  many  passages 
of  the  New  Testament — Epistle  to  the  Hebrews — Confirmation  of 
the  Catholic  system  from  the  views  of  the  Apostle  Paul — Reason- 
ings of  the  Socinians. 

5.  Direct  support  of  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement  from  Scripture — Value 

annexed  to  the  sufferings  of  Christ — His  sufferings  represented  as 
a  punishment  of  sin — Effects  ascribed  to  them — Reconciliation — 
Redemption — Forgiveness  of  sins — Justification. 

CHAP.  IV. 

ETERNAL    LIFE,      .       .  482 

Completeness  of  the  Catholic  system — Foundation  of  the  hope  of  eternal  life — 
Merits  of  Christ — Right  to  eternal  life  acquired  for  us  by  the  death  of  Christ, 
confirmed  by  his  life. 

CHAP.  V. 

EXTENT    OF    THE    REMEDY, 493 

Sect.  1.  First  preliminary  point — The  Gospel  designed  to  be  an  universal 
religion — Law  of  Moses  a  local  dispensation — True  character  of  the 
Gospel  opened  by  incidental  expressions — Unlimited  commission 
given  to  the  Apostles. 
2.  Second  preliminary  point — Remedy  of  the  Gospel  only  for  those  who 
repent  and  believe — Speculations  respecting  the  final  condition  of 
the  wicked — Subject,  beyond  the  limits  of  our  faculties. 


BOOK  IV. 

OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE    NATURE,    THE    EXTENT,  AND    THE    APPLI- 
CATION   OF    THE     REMEDY    BROUGHT    BY    THE    GOSPEL. 

CHAP.  VI. 

PARTICULAR    REDEMPTION, ;    505 

Arguments  for  Universal  and  Particular  Redemption  stated  and  compared. 

CHAP.  vn. 

PREDESTINATION, 513 

Sect.  1.  Socinians — Contingent  events  not  subjects  of  infallible  foreknowledge 
— No  predestination  of  individuals. 

2.  Arminians — Predestination  of  individuals  dependent  on  the  foreknow- 

ledge of  their  faith  and  good  works,  or  of  their  unbelief  and  impeni- 
tence. 

3.  Calvinists — Entire  dependence  of  the  creature  on  the  Creator — Extent 

of  the  Divine  knowledge — One  decree  embracing  all  that  is  to  be, 
means  and  end — Supralapsarians — Sublapsarians — Decree  of  Elec- 
tion absolute — Good  pleasure  of  God — Covenant  of  Redemption — 
Merits  of  Christ  a  part  of  the  Decree  of  Election — Decree  of  Repro- 
bation— Extent  of  the  Remedy  determined  by  the  Divine  decree. 

CHAP.  VIII. 

APPLICATION    OF    THE    REMEDV, 533 

Production  of  the  character  required  for  enjoying  the  blessings  of  the  Gospel — 
Opinions  of  the  Socinians,  Arminians,  and  Calvinists — Grace — Its  nature  and 
efficacy. 


XIV  -  CONTENTS. 


F«ge 


CHAP,  IX. 

ARMINIAN    AND    CALVINISTIC    SYSTEMS    COMPARED,        ....    541 

Sect.  1.  Arminian  system  satisfying  upon  a  general  view — Three  difficulties, 
under  which  it  labours,  stated. 

2.  Objections  to  the  Calvinistic  System  reducible  to  two. 

3.  Calvinistic  System  not  inconsistent  with  the  nature  of  man  as  a  free 

moral  agent — Definition  of  liberty — Efficient  and  final  causes — Both 
embraced  by  the  plan  of  Providence — Whence  the  uncertainty  in 
the  operation  of  motives  arise — How  removed — Gratia  Congrua — 
Renovation  of  the  mind — Exhibition  of  such  moral  inducements  as 
are  fitted  to  call  forth  its  powers. 

4.  Calvinistic  System  not  inconsistent  with  the  attributes  of  God — The 

ultima  ratio  of  the  inequality  in  the  dispensation  of  the  gifts,  both 
of  Nature  and  of  Grace — Decree  of  reprobation  exerts  no  influence 
upon  men  leading  them  to  sin — Objection  resolvable  into  the  ques- 
tion concerning  the  Origin  of  Evil — Philosophical  Answer — Armi- 
nians  recur  to  the  same  Answer — The  Glory  of  God — Moral  Evil 
the  obj  ect  of  his  abhorrence. 

CHAP.  X. 

SUPPORT   WHICH    SCRIPTURE    GIVES    TO    THE    CALVINISTIC    SYSTEM,     .      .    571 

Sect.  1.  All  the  actions  of  men  represented  as  comprehended  in  the  great  plan 
of  Divine  Providence. 

2.  Predestination  ascribed  in  Scripture  to  the  good  pleasure  of  God — 

System  of  those  who  consider  the  expressions  employed,  as  respect- 
ing only  the  calling  of  large  societies  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Gospel. 

3.  Representations  given  in  Scripture  of  the  change  of  character  produced 

by  Divine  Grace. 

4.  Objections  arising  from  the  commands,  the  counsels,  and  the  exhorta- 

tions of  Scripture. 

CHAP.  XI. 

HISTORY    OF    CALVINISM,        .       .  587 


BOOK  V. 


INDEX  OP  PARTICULAR  QUESTIONS,  ARISING  OUT  OF  OPINIONS  CON- 
CERNING THE  GOSPEL  REMEDY,  AND  OF  MANY  OF  THE  TECHNICAL 
TERMS    OF    THEOLOGY. 

CHAP.  I. 

REGENERATION — CONVERSION FAITH, 601 

External  and  Effectual  Call — Synergistic  System — Fanaticism — Calvinistic 
View  of  Conversion — Faith — Different  Kinds — Saving  Faith. 

CHAP.  H. 

JUSTIFICATION, GIO 

A  Forensic  act — Its  nature — Church  of  Rome — First  Reformers — Socinians  and 
Arrninians — Calvinists — First  and  second  Justification — Justification  one  act 
of  God — Saints  under  the  Old  Testament — Other  individuals  not  outwardly 
called — Perseverance  of  Saints — Assurance  of  Grace  and  Salvation — Reflex 
act  of  Faith — Witness  of  the  Spirit. 

CHAP.  III. 

CONNEXION    BETWEEN    JUSTIFICATION    AND    SANCTIFICATION,      .       .       .    618 

Good  works,  fruits  of  Faith — Apparent  contradiction  between  Paul  and  James — 
Solifidians — Antinomians — Fratres  liberi  spiritus — Practical  Preaching. 


CONTENTS.  XV 

CHAP.  IV.  ^*" 

SANCTIFICATION, 625 

Sect.  1.  FirstpartofSanctification,  Repentance — Its  nature — Popish  doctrine — 
Late  Repentance — Precise  time  of  Conversion. 

2.  Second  part  of  Sanctification,  a  new  life — Habit  of  Righteousness — 

Immutability  of  the  Moral  Law — Christian  Casuistry — Counsels  of 
Perfection — Merit  of  good  works — Works  of  Supererogation. 

3.  Imperfection  of  Sanctification — Anabaptists — Mortal  and  venial  sins — 

Distinction  unwarranted — Romans  vii. — Christian  Morality. 

CHAP.  V. 

COVENANT    OF    GRACE, 640 

Scriptural  terms — Kingdom  of  Christ — Union  of  Christ  and  his  disciples — 

Adoption — Covenant  of  Grace. 
Sect.  1.  Meaning  of  6iaen'in — Covenant  of  Works — Sinaitic  Covenant — Abra- 
hamic  Covenant — New  Covenant. 

2.  Mediator  of  the  New  Covenant — Offices  of  Christ — Mediatores  Se- 

cundarii  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 

3.  Prayer — Encouragements  to  it  in  the  Covenant  of  Grace — Nature  of 

Christ's  intercession. 

4.  Sacraments — Explanation  of  the  term — •'Signs  and  Seals  of  the  Cove- 

nant of  Grace — Seven  Sacraments  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 

CHAP.  VL 

QUESTIONS    CONCERNING    BAPTISM, 656 

Sect.  1.  Prevalence  of  Washings  in  the  religious  ceremonies  of  all  nations — 
How  Baptism  is  a  distinguishing  rite  of  Christianity — Opinions  of 
the  Socinians  and  Quakers — Immersion  and  sprinkling — Giving  a 
Name. 

2.  Baptism  more  than  an  initiatory  rite — Opinions  of  the  Church  of 

Rome,  and  of  the  Reformed  Churches. 

3.  Infant  Baptism — View  of  arguments   for  it — Godfathers  and  God- 

mothers— Confirmation — Admission  for  the  first  time  to  the  Lord's 
Supper. 

CHAP.  vn. 

QUESTIONS    CONCERNING    THE    LORd's    SUPPER, 668 

Institution — Correspondence  between  the  Passover  and  the  Lord's  Supper 

Origin  of  different  opinions  respecting  it — System  of  the  Church  of  Rome 

Transubstantiation — Of  Luther — Consubstantiation — Ubiquity — Of  Zuino-Uus 
— A  Commemoration — Of  Calvin — Spiritual  presence  of  Christ — Time  of 
observing  the  ordinance. 

CHAP.  VIIL 

CONDITION  OF  MEN  AFTER  DEATH, 680 

Happiness  of  Heaven — Intermediate  state — Purgatory — Duration  of  hell  torments. 


BOOK  VI. 

OPINIONS    CONCERNING    CHURCH    GOVERNMENT. 

CHAP.  L 

FOUNDATION    OF    CHURCH    GOVERNMENT, 683 

Ob]io"ation  to  observe  Ordinances. 

CHAP.  H. 

OPINIONS    RESPECTING    THE    PERSONS    IN    WHOM    CHURCH    GOVERNMENT    IS    VESTED,    686 

Sect.  1.  Quakers — Deny  necessity  and  lawfulness  of  a  standing  Ministry — 
Consequent  disunion  and  disorder — Their  principles  repugnant  to 
reason  and  Scripture. 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

Page 

2.  Independents,  or  Congregational  Brethren — Leading  principle — Un- 

authorized by  the  examples  of  the  New  Testament,  and  contrary  to 
the  spirit  of  its  directions — Implies  disunion  of  the  Christian 
Society. 

3.  Church  of  Rome — Papists  and  Roman  Catholics — Gallican  Church — 

Catholics  of  Great  Britain — Unity  of  the  Church — Grounds  on 
which  the  primacy  of  the  Pope  is  maintained — Matthew  xvi.  16. — 
Scriptural  and  historical  view  of  the  Church  of  Rome — 2  Thess.  ii. 
— Daniel  vii. — Rev.  xvii. 

4.  Episcopacy  and  Presbytery — Principles  of  the  Episcopal  form  of  Go- 

vernment— Of  the  Presbyterian — Points  of  agreement  and  differ- 
ence— Timothy  and  Titus — Bishop  and  Presbyter — Right  of  Ordi- 
nation— Succession  of  Bishops — Presbyterian  form  of  government 
not  a  novel  invention — Imparity  among  Bishops,  of  human  institu- 
tion— Opinions  of  ancient  writers  upon  the  equality  of  Bishops  and 
Presbyters — First  Reformers — Presbyterian  parity, 

CHAP.  III. 

NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  POWER  IMPLIED  IN  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT,    .  733 

Not  created  by  the  State — Erastianism — A  spiritual  power — Conduct  of  our 
Lord  and  his  apostles — Anabaptists — Church  of  Rome — Excommunication — 
The  Lord  Jesus  Christ  the  Head  of  the  Church — Purpose  for  which  he  gives 
power  to  his  Ministers — Its  limits. 

CHAP.  IV. 

POTESTAS   AoyiiaTlKT], 751 

Scripture  the  only  rule  of  faith — Articles  of  faith — Reasons  for  framing  them — 
History  of  Confessions  of  Faith — Subscriptions  to  them. 

CHAP.  V. 

POTESTAS    AiaraKTtKVt 76i 

Conditions  of  Salvation  declared  in  Scripture — What  enactments  the  Church  has 
power  to  make — Liberty  of  Conscience — Rule  of  Peace  and  Order — Puritans. 

CHAP.  VL 

POTESTAS    AiaKpiTtKri .    777 

Judicial  power  of  the  Church  warranted — System  of  the  Church  of  Rome — of 
Protestants. 


LECTURES    IN    DIVINITY. 


BOOK    I 


EVIDENCES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION. 


INTRODUCTORY  DISCOURSE. 


The  professed  design  of  students  in  divinity  is  to  prepare  for  a 
most  honourable  and  important  office,  for  being  workers  together 
with  God  in  that  great  and  benevolent  scheme,  by  which  he  is  restor- 
ing the  virtue  and  happiness  of  his  intelligent  offspring,  and  for  hold- 
ing, with  credit  to  themselves  and  with  advantage  to  the  public,  that 
station  in  society,  by  the  establishment  of  which  the  wisdom  of  the 
state  lends  its  aid  to  render  the  labours  of  the  servants  of  Christ  re- 
spectable and  useful.  Learning,  prudence,  and  eloquence  never  can 
be  so  worthily  employed  as  when  they  are  devoted  to  the  improve- 
ment of  mankind  ;  and  a  good  man  will  find  no  exertion  of  his  talents 
so  pleasing  as  that  by  which  he  endeavours  to  make  other  men  such 
as  they  onght  to  be.  We  expect  the  breast  of  every  student  of  di- 
vinity to  be  possessed  with  these  views.  If  any  person  is  devoid  of 
them,  if  he  despises  the  office  of  a  minister  of  the  gospel,  if  the  char- 
acter of  his  mind  is  sucli  as  to  derive  no  satisfaction  from  the  employ- 
ments of  that  office,  or  from  the  object  towards  which  they  are  directed, 
he  ought  to  turn  his  attention  to  some  other  pursuit.  He  cannot 
expect  to  attain  eminence  or  to  enjoy  comfort  in  a  station,  for  which 
lie  carries  about  with  him  an  inward  disqualification ;  and  there  is  an 
hypocrisy  most  disgraceful  and  most  hurtful  to  his  moral  character  in 
all  the  external  appearances  of  preparing  for  that  station. 

In  attempting  to  lead  you  through  that  course  of  study  which  is 
immediately  connected  with  your  profession,  I  begin  with  what  is 
called  the  Deistical  Controversy,  that  is,  with  a  view  of  the  Evidences 
of  Christianity,  and  of  the  various  questions  which  have  arisen  in 
canvassing  the  branches  of  which  they  are  composed. 

I  assinne,  as  the  ground-work  of  every  religious  system,  these  two 
great  doctrines,  that  "  God  is,  and  that  He  is  a  rewarder  of  them  that 
3  D  1 


2  INTRODUCTORY  DISCOURSE. 

seek  him."  *  When  I  say  that  I  assume  them,  I  do  not  mean  that 
human  reason  unassisted  by  revelation  was  ever  able  to  demonstrate 
these  doctrines  in  a  manner  satisfactory  to  every  understanding.  But 
I  mean  that  these  doctrines  are  agreeable  to  the  natural  impressions 
of  the  human  mind,  and  that  any  religious  system  which  purifies 
them  from  the  manifold  errors  with  which  they  have  been  incorpor- 
ated, corresponds,  in  that  respect,  to  the  clear  deductions  of  enlighten- 
ed reason. 

It  is  not  my  province  to  enter  into  any  detail  upon  the  proofs  of 
these  two  doctrines  of  natural  religion;  and  I  am  afraid  to  engage  in 
discussions  which  have  been  conducted  witli  much  erudition  and 
metaphysical  acuteness,  lest  I  should  be  enticed  to  employ  too  large 
a  portion  of  your  time  in  reviewing  them.  Leaving  you  to  avail 
yourself  of  the  copious  sources  of  information  which  writers  upon 
this  subject  afford,  I  will  not  enumerate,  far  less  attempt  to  appreci- 
ate the  different  modes  of  reasoning  which  have  been  adopted  in 
proof  of  the  being  of  God,  and  his  moral  government.  But,  having 
assumed  these  doctrines,  I  think  it  proper  to  give  by  way  of  introduc- 
tion to  my  course,  a  short  view  of  the  manner  in  which  it  appears  to 
me  that  they  may  be  estabhshed  as  the  ground-work  of  all  religion. 

When  we  say  that  there  is  a  God,  we  mean  that  the  universe  is 
the  work  of  an  intelligent  Being;  that  is, from  the  things  which  we 
.behold,  we  infer  the  existence  of  what  is  not  the  object  of  our  senses. 
To  show  that  the  inference  is  legitimate,  we  must  be  able  to  state  the 
principles  upon  which  it  proceeds,  or  the  steps  of  that  process  by 
which  the  mind  advances  from  the  contemplation  of  the  objects  with 
which  it  is  conversant,  to  the  conviction  of  the  existence  of  their 
Creator.  These  principles  are  found  in  the  constitution  of  the  human 
mind,  in  sentiments  and  perceptions  which  are  natural  and  ultimate, 
which  are  manifested  by  all  men  upon  various  occasions,  and  which 
are  only  followed  to  their  proper  conclusion  when  they  conduct  us  to 
the  knowledge  of  God.  One  of  these  sentiments  and  perceptions  ap- 
pears in  the  spirit  of  inquiry  and  investigation  which  universally  pre- 
vails ;  another  is  invariably  excited  by  the  contemplation  of  order, 
beauty  and  design. 

A  spirit  of  inquiry  and  investigation  has  larger  opportunities  of 
exertion,  it  is  better  directed,  and  is  applied  to  nobler  objects  with 
some  than  with  others.  But  to  a  certain  degree,  it  is  common  to  all 
men,  and  traces  of  it  are  found  amongst  all  ranks.  Now  you  will 
observe,  that  this  spirit  of  inquiry  is  an  effort  to  discover  the  cause  of 
what  we  behold.  And  it  proceeds  upon  this  natural  perception,  that 
every  new  event,  every  thing  which  we  see  coming  into  existence, 
every  alteration  in  any  being,  is  an  effect.  Without  hesitat'on  wd 
conclude  that  it  has  been  produced,  and  we  are  solicitous  to  discover 
the  cause  of  it.  We  begin  our  inquiries  with  eagerness;  we  pursue 
them  as  far  as  we  have  light  to  carry  us ;  and  we  do  not  rest  satisfied 
till  we  arrive  at  something  which  renders  farther  inquiries  unneces- 
sary. This  persevering  spirit  of  inquiry  which  is  daily  exerted  about 
trifles  finds  the  noblest  subject  of  exertion  in  the  continual  changes 
which  we  behold  upon  the  appearance  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  upon 

•  Hebrews  xi.  6. 


INTllODUCi'ORY  DISCOURSE.  8 

tlie  State  of  the  attnosphore,  upon  the  surface  of  the  earth,  and  in  those 
hidden  regions  whicli  tin;  prt)gress  of  art  leads  man  to  explore.  To 
every  attentive  and  intelligent  observer  these  continual  changes 
present  the  whole  universe  as  an  eti'ect ;  and,  in  contemplating  the 
succession  of  them,  ho  is  led,  as  by  the  hand  of  natm'e,  through  a  chain 
of  subordinate  and  dependent  causes  to  tiiat  great  orighial  Cause  from 
v/hom  the  universe  dinivcd  its  being,  upon  whose  operation  depend 
all  the  changes  of  which  it  is  susceptible,  and  by  whose  uncontrolled 
agency  all  events  are  directed. 

Even  without  forming  any  extensive  observations  upon  the  train 
of  natural  events,  we  are  led  by  the  same  spirit  of  inquiry  from  con- 
sidering our  own  species  to  the  knowledge  of  our  Creator.  Every 
man  knows  that  he  had  a  beginning,  and  that  he  derived  his  being 
from  a  succession  of  creatures  like  himself.  However  far  back  he 
supposes  this  succession  to  be  carried,  it  does  not  afford  a  satisfying 
account  of  the  cause  of  his  existence.  By  the  same  principle  which 
directs  him  in  every  other  research,  he  is  still  led  to  seek  for  some 
original  Being,  who  has  been  produced  by  none,  and  is  himself  the 
Father  of  all.  As  every  man  knows  that  he  came  into  existence,  so 
he  has  the  strongest  reason  to  believe  that  the  whole  race  to  which 
he  belongs  had  a  beginning.  A  tradition  has  in  all  ages  been  pre- 
served of  the  origin  of  the  human  race.  Many  nations  have  boasted 
of  antiquity.  None  have  pretended  to  eternity.  All  that  their  re- 
cords contain  beyond  a  certain  period  is  fabulous  or  doubtful.  In 
looking  back  upon  the  history  of  mankind,  we  find  them  increasing 
in  numbers,  acquiring  a  taste  for  the  ornaments  of  life,  and  improv- 
ing in  the  liberal  arts  and  sciences;  so  that  unless  we  adopt  without 
proof  and  against  all  probability  the  supposition  of  successive  deluges 
which  drown  in  oblivion  all  the  attainments  of  civilized  nations,  and 
spare  only  a  few  savage  inhabitants  to  propagate  the  race,  we  find 
in  the  state  of  mankind  all  the  marks  of  novelty  which  it  must  have 
borne,  had  it  begun  to  be  some  few  thousand  years  ago.  But  if  the 
human  race  had  a  beginning,  we  unavoidably  regard  it  as  an  effect 
of  which  we  require  some  original  cause  ;  and  to  the  same  cause 
from  which  it  derived  existence  we  must  also  trace  the  qualities  by 
which  the  race  is  distinguished.  The  Being  who  gave  it  existence 
must  be  capable  of  imparting  to  it  these  qualities,  that  is,  must  possess 
them  in  a  much  higher  degree.  "  He  that  planted  the  ear,  shall  he 
not  hear  ?  He  that  formed  the  eye,  shall  he  not  see  ?  He  that 
teacheth  man  knowledge,  shall  not  he  know  ?"*  Thus,  from  the 
intelligence  of  men,  we  necessarily  infer  that  of  their  Creator;  while 
the  number  of  intelligent  beings  with  whom  we  converse  cannot  fail 
to  give  us  the  noblest  idea  of  that  original  primary  intelligence  from 
which  theirs  is  derived. 

While  the  spirit  of  inquiry  which  is  natural  to  man  thus  leads  us 
from  the  consciousness  of  our  own  existence  to  acknowledge  the  exis- 
tence of  one  supreme  intelligent  Being,  the  Father  of  Spirits,  we  are 
conducted  to  the  same  conclusion  by  that  other  natural  perception 
which  I  said  is  invariably  excited  by  the  contemplation  of  order, 
beauty,  and  design. 

•  Psalm  xciv.  9,  10. 


4  INTRODUCTORY  DISCOURSE. 

The  grandeur  and  beauty  of  external  objects  do  not  seem  to  affect 
the  other  animals.  But  they  afford  a  certain  degree  of  pleasure  to 
ail  men  ;  and  in  many  persons  a  taste  for  tliem  is  so  far  cultivated 
that  the  pleasures  of  imagination  constitute  a  large  source  of  refined 
enjoyment.  When  the  grandeur  and  beauty  are  conjoined  as  they 
seldom  fail  to  be  with  utility,  they  do  not  merely  afford  us  pleasure. 
We  not  only  perceive  the  objects  which  we  behold,  to  be  grand  and 
beautiful  and  useful ;  but  we  perceive  them  to  be  effects  produced  by 
a  designing  cause.  In  viewing  a  complicated  machine,  it  is  the  de- 
sign wliich  strikes  us.  In  admiring  the  object,  we  admire  the  mind 
that  formed  it.  Without  hesitation  we  conclude  that  it  had  a  former; 
and  although  ignorant  of  every  other  circumstance  respecting  him, 
we  know  this  much,  that  he  is  possessed  of  intelligence,  our  idea  of 
wliich  rises  in  proportion  to  the  design  discovered  in  the  consti  notion 
of  the  machine.  By  this  principle,  which  is  prior  to  all  reasoning, 
and  of  which  we  can  give  no  other  account  than  that  it  is  part  of  the 
constitution  of  the  human  mind,  we  are  raised  from  the  admiration 
of  natural  objects  to  a  knowledge  of  the  existence,  and  a  sense  of  the 
perfections  of  Him  who  made  them. 

When  we  contemplate  the  works  of  nature,  distinguished  from 
those  of  art  by  their  superior  elegance,  splendour,  and  utility  ;  when 
we  behold  the  sun,  the  moon,  and  the  stars,  performing  their  offices 
with  the  most  perfect  regularity,  and  although  removed  at  an  immense 
distance  from  us,  contributing  in  a  high  degree  to  our  preservation 
and  comfort ;  when  we  view  this  earth  fitted  as  a  convenient  habita- 
tion for  man,  adorned  with  numberless  beauties,  and  provided  not 
only  with  a  supply  of  our  wants,  but  with  every  thing  that  can 
minister  to  our  pleasure  and  entertainment ;  when,  extending  our 
observation  to  the  various  animals  that  inhabit  tliis  globe,  we  find 
that  every  creature  has  its  proper  food,  its  proper  habitation,  its  proper 
happiness  ;  that  the  meanest  insect  as  well  as  the  noblest  animal  has 
the  several  parts  of  its  body,  the  senses  bestowed  upon  it,  and  the 
degree  of  perfection  in  which  it  possesses  them,  adapted  with  the 
nicest  proportion  to  its  preservation  and  to  the  manner  of  life  which 
by  natural  instinct  it  is  led  to  pursue ;  when  we  thus  discover  witliin 
our  own  sphere,  numberless  traces  of  kind  and  wise  design,  and  when 
we  learn  both  by  experience  and  by  observation  that  the  works  of 
nature,  the  more  they  are  investigated  and  known,  appear  the  more 
clearly  to  be  parts  of  one  great  consistent  whole,  we  are  necessarily  led 
by  the  constitution  of  our  mind  to  believe  the  being  of  a  God.  Our 
faith  does  not  stand  in  the  obscure  reasonings  of  philosophers.  We 
but  open  our  ej^es,  and  discerning,  wheresoever  we  turn  them,  the 
traces  of  a  wise  Creator,  we  see  and  acknowledge  his  hand.  Ttie 
most  sup(n"ficial  view  is  sufficient  to  impress  our  minds  with  a  stiise 
of  his  existence.  The  closest  scrutiny,  by  enlarging  our  acquaintance 
with  the  innumerable  final  causes  that  are  found  in  the  works  of  God, 
strengthens  this  impression,  and  confirms  our  first  conclusions.  The 
more  tiiat  we  know  of  these  works,  we  are  the  more  sensible  that  in 
nature  there  is  not  only  an  exertion  of  power,  but  an  adjustment  of 
means  to  an  end,  which  is  what  we  call  wisdom  ;  and  an  adjustment 
of  means  to  the  end  of  distributing  happiness  to  all  the  creatures, 
which  is  the  highest  conception  that  we  can  form  of  goodness. 


INTRODUCTORY  DISCOURSE.  5 

A  foundalion  so  deeply  laid  in  the  constitution  of  the  human  niitid 
for  the  belief  of  a  Deity  has  produced  an  acknowledgment  of  his  being, 
almost  universal.  The  idea  of  God,  found  amongst  all  nations  civi- 
lized in  the  smallest  degree,  is  such  that  by  the  slightest  use  of 
our  faculties  we  must  acquire  it.  And  accordingly  the  few  nations 
who  are  said  to  have  no  notion  of  God  are  in  a  state  so  barbarous 
that  they  seem  to  have  lost  the  perceptions  and  sentiments  of  men. 

The  Atheist  allows  it  to  be  necessary  that  something  should  have 
existedof  itself  from  eternity.  But  he  is  accustomed  to  maintain  that 
matter  in  motion  is  suliicient  to  account  for  all  those  appearances 
from  which  we  infer  the  being  of  God.  The  absurdities  of  this  hypo- 
thesis have  been  ably  exposed.  He  supposes  that  matter  is  self- 
existent,  although  it  has  marks  of  dependence  and  imperfection  in- 
consistent with  that  attribute.  He  supposes  that  matter  has  from 
eternity  been  in  motion,  that  is,  that  motion  is  an  essential  quality  of 
matter,  although  we  cannot  conceive  of  motion  as  any  other  than  an 
accidental  property  of  matter,  impressed  by  some  cause,  and  deter- 
mined in  its  direction  by  foreign  impulses.  He  supposes  that  all  the 
appearances  of  uniformity  and  design  which  surround  him  can  pro- 
ceed from  irregular  undirected  movements.  And  he  supposes  lastly, 
that  although  there  is  not  a  plant  which  does  not  spring  from  its  seed, 
nor  an  insect  which  is  not  propagated  by  its  kind,  yet  matter  in 
motion  can  produce  life  and  intelligence,  properties  repugnant  in  the 
highest  degree  to  all  the  known  properties  of  matter. 

I  do  not  say  that  it  is  possible  by  reasoning  to  demonstrate  that  these 
suppositions  are  false  ;  and  I  do  not  know  that  it  is  wise  to  make  the 
attempt.  The  belief  of  the  being  of  God  rests  upon  a  sure  foundation, 
upon  the  foundation  on  which  He  himself  has  rested  it,  if  all  the  sup- 
positions by  which  some  men  have  tried  to  set  it  aside  contradict  the 
natural  perceptions  of  the  human  mind.  These  are  the  language  in 
which  God  speaks  to  his  creatures,  a  language  which  is  heard  through 
all  the  earth  ;  and  the  words  of  which  are  understood  to  the  end  of 
the  world.  By  listening  to  that  language,  we  learn  from  the  various 
yet  uniform  phenomena  of  nature,  that  there  is  a  wise  Creator :  we 
are  taught  by  the  imperfection  and  dependence  of  the  soul,  that  it 
owes  its  being  to  some  original  cause  ;  and  in  its  extensive  faculties,  its 
liberty,  and  power  of  self-motion,  we  discern  that  cause  to  be  essen- 
tially different  from  matter.  The  voice  of  nature  thus  proclaims  to  the 
children  of  men  the  existence  of  one  supreme  intelligent  Being,  and 
calls  them  with  reverence  to  adore  the  Father  of  their  spirits. 

The  other  great  doctrine  which  I  assume  as  the  ground-work  of 
every  religious  system,  is  thus  expressed  by  the  Apostle  to  the 
Hebrews:  "God  is  a  re  warder  of  them  that  seek  Himj"  mother 
words,  the  government  of  God  is  a  moral  government. 

We  are  here  confined  to  an  inconsiderable  spot  in  the  creation,  and 
we  are  permitted  to  behold  but  a  small  part  of  the  operations  of 
Providence.  It  becomes  us  therefore  to  proceed  in  our  inquiries  con- 
cerning the  Divine  Government  with  much  humility :  but  it  docs  not 
become  us  to  desist.  The  character  and  the  laws  of  that  government 
under  which  we  acknowledge  that  we  live,  are  matters  to  us  of  the 
last  importance  ;  and  it  is  our  duty  thankfully  to  avail  ourselves  of 
the  light  which  we  enjoy.  The  constitution  of  human  nature  and 
3* 


6  INTRODUCTORY  DISCOURSE. 

the  state  of  the  world  are  the  only  two  subjects  within  the  sphere  of 
our  observations,  from  wliich  unassisted  reason  can  discover  the 
character  of  the  divine  government. 

When  we  attend  to  the  constitution  of  human  nature,  the  three 
following  particulars  occur  as  traces  of  a  moral  government. 

1.  The  distribution  of  pleasure  and  pain  in  the  mind  of  man  is  a 
moral  distribution.  Those  affections  and  that  conduct  which  we  de- 
nominate virtuous  are  attended  with  immediate  pleasure  ;  the  opposite 
affections  and  conduct  with  immediate  pain.  The  man  who  acts  under 
the  influence  of  benevolence,  gratitude,  a  regard  to  justice  and  truth, 
is  in  a  state  of  enjoyment.  The  heart  which  is  actuated  by  resent- 
ment or  malice  is  a  stranger  to  joy.  Here  is  a  striking  fact  of  a  very 
general  kind,  furnishing  very  numerous  specimens  of  a  moral  govern- 
ment. 

2.  There  is  a  faculty  in  the  human  mind  which  approves  of  virtue, 
and  condemns  vice.  It  is  not  enough  to  say  that  righteousness  is 
prudent  because  it  is  attended  with  pleasure  ;  that  wickedness  is  fool- 
ish because  it  is  attended  with  pain.  Conscience,  in  judging  of  them, 
pronounces  the  one  to  be  right,  and  the  other  to  be  wrong.  The 
righteous,  supported  by  that  most  deliglitful  of  all  sentiments,  the 
sense  that  he  is  doing  his  duty,  proceeds  with  self-approbation,  and 
reflects  upon  his  conduct  with  complacence  ;  the  wicked  not  imly  is 
distracted  by  the  conflict  of  various  wretched  passions,  but  acts  under 
the  perpetual  conviction  that  he  is  doing  what  he  ought  not  to  do. — 
The  hurry  of  business  or  the  tumult  of  passion  may,  for  a  season, 
so  far  drown  the  voice  of  conscience,  as  to  leav€  him  at  liberty  to 
accomplish  his  purpose.  But  when  his  mind  is  cool,  he  perceives 
that  in  following  blindly  the  impulse  of  appetite  he  has  acted  beneath 
the  dignity  of  his  reasonable  nature ;  the  indulgence  of  malevolent 
affections  is  punished  by  the  sentiment  of  remorse ;  and  he  despises 
himself  for  every  act  of  baseness. 

3.  Conscience,  anticipating  the  future  consequences  of  human 
actions,  forebodes,  that  it  shall  be  well  with  the  righteous,  and  ill 
with  the  wicked.  The  righteous,  although  naturally  modest  and 
unassuming,  not  only  enjoys  present  serenity,  but  looks  forward  with 
good  hope.  The  prospect  of  future  ease  lightens  every  burden,  and 
the  view  of  distant  scenes  of  happiness  and  joy  holds  up  his  head  in 
the  time  of  adversity.  But  every  crime  is  accompanied  with  a  sense 
of  deserved  punishment.  To  the  man  who  has  disregarded  the 
admonitions  of  conscience,  she  soon  begins  to  utter  her  dreadful  pre- 
sages ;  she  lays  open  to  his  view  the  dismal  scenes  which  lie  beyond 
every  unlawful  pursuit ;  and  sometimes  awaking  with  increased  fury, 
she  produces  horrors  that  constitute  a  degree  of  wretchedness,  in 
comparison  of  which  all  the  sufferings  of  life  do  not  deserve  to  be 
mentioned.  The  constitution  of  human  nature  being  the  work  of 
God,  the  three  particulars  which  have  been  mentioned  as  parts  of 
that  constitution  are  parts  of  his  government.  The  pleasure  which 
accompanies  one  set  of  affections  and  the  pain  which  accompanies 
the  opposite  afford  an  instance  in  the  goverimient  of  God  of  virtue 
being  rewarded,  and  vice  being  punished  : — the  faculty  which  passes 
sentence  upon  human  actions  is  a  declaration  from  the  Author  of  our 
nature  of  that  conduct  which  is  agreeable  to  Him,  because  it  is  a  rule 


INTRODUCTORY  DISCOURSE.  J 

directing  his  creatures  to  pursue  a  certain  conduct : — and  the  presenti- 
ment of  the  future  consequences  of  our  behaviour  is  a  declaration 
from  the  Author  of  our  nature  of  the  manner  in  which  his  govern- 
ment is  to  proceed  with  regard  to  us.  The  hopes  and  fears  natural 
to  the  human  mind  are  the  language  in  which  God  foretells  to  man 
the  events  in  which  he  is  deeply  interested.  To  suppose  tiiat  the 
Almighty  engages  his  creatures  in  a  certain  course  of  action  by  de- 
lusive hopes  and  fears,  is  at  once  absurd  and  impious ;  and  if  we 
think  worthily  of  the  Supreme  Being,  we  cannot  entertain  a  doubt 
that  He,  who  by  the  constitution  of  human  nature  has  declared  his 
love  of  virtue  and  his  hatred  of  vice,  will  at  length  appear  the  righteous 
Governor  of  the  universe. 

I  mentioned  the  state  of  the  world  as  another  subject  within  the 
sphere  of  our  observation,  from  which  unassisted  reason  may  discover 
the  character  of  the  government  of  God.  And  here  also  we  may 
mark  three  traces  of  a  moral  government. 

1.  It  occurs,  in  the  first  place,  to  consider  the  world  as  the  situation 
in  which  creatures,  having  the  constitution  which  has  been  described, 
are  placed.  Acting  in  the  presence  of  men,  that  is,  of  creatures  con- 
stituted as  we  ourselves  are,  and  feeling  a  connection  with  them  in  all 
the  occupations  of  life,  we  experience  in  the  sentiments  of  tliose 
around  us,  a  farther  reward  and  punishment  than  that  which  arises 
from  the  sense  of  our  own  minds.  The  faculty  which  passes  sentence 
upon  a  man's  own  actions,  when  carried  forth  to  the  actions  of  others 
becomes  a  principle  of  esteem  or  contempt.  The  sense  of  good  or  ill 
desert  becomes,  upon  the  review  of  the  conduct  of  others,  applause 
or  indignation.  When  it  referred  to  a  man's  own  conduct,  it  pointed 
only  at  what  was  future.  When  it  refers  to  the  conduct  of  others  it 
becomes  an  active  principle,  and  proceeds  in  some  measure  to  execute 
the  rules  which  it  pronounces  to  be  just. 

Hence  the  righteous  is  rewarded  by  the  sentiments  of  his  fellow- 
creatures.  He  experiences  the  gratitude  of  some,  the  friendship,  at 
least  the  good- will  of  all.  The  wicked,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  stranger 
to  esteem,  and  confidence,  and  love.  His  vices  expose  him  to  censure; 
his  deceit  renders  him  an  object  of  distrust ;  his  malice  creates  him 
enemies ;  according  to  the  kind  and  the  degree  of  his  demerit,  contempt 
or  hatred  or  indignation  is  felt  by  every  one  who  knows  his  character ; 
and  even  when  these  sentiments  do  not  lead  others  to  do  him  harm, 
they  weaken  or  extinguish  the  emotions  of  sympathy  ;  so  that  his 
neighbours  do  not  rejoice  m  his  prosperity,  and  hardly  weep  over  his 
misfortunes. 

Thus  does  God  employ  the  general  sense  of  mankind  to  encourage 
and  reward  the  righteous,  to  correct  and  punish  the  wicked ;  and 
thus  has  he  constituted  men  in  some  sort  the  keepers  of  their  brethren, 
the  guardians  of  one  another's  virtue.  The  natural  unperverted  senti- 
ments of  the  human  mind  with  regard  to  character  and  conduct  are 
upon  the  side  of  virtue  and  against  vice  ;  and  the  course  of  the 
world,  turning  in  a  great  measure  upon  these  sentiments,  indicates  a 
moral  government. 

2.  A  second  trace  in  the  state  of  the  world,  of  the  moral  govern- 
ment of  God,  is  the  civil  government  by  which  society  subsists. 


8  INTRODUCTORY    DISCOURSE, 

Those  wlio  are  employed  in  the  admiiiislration  of  civil  government 
are  not  supposed  to  act  immediately  from  sentiment.  It  is  expected 
that  without  regard  to  their  own  private  emotions  tliey  shall  in  every 
case  proceed  according  to  certain  known  and  established  laws.  But 
these  laws,  so  far  as  they  go,  are  in  general  consonant  to  the  senti- 
ment of  tlie  human  mind,  and,  like  them,  are  favourable  to  the  cause 
of  virtue.  The  happiness,  the  existence  of  human  government  depends 
upon  the  protection  and  encouragement  which  it  affords  to  virtue,  and 
the  punishment  which  it  inflicts  upon  vice.  The  government  of  men, 
therefore,  in  its  best,  and  happiest  form  is  a  moral  government ;  and 
being  a  part,  an  instrument  of  the  government  of  God,  it  serves  to 
intimate  to  us  the  rule  according  to  which  his  Providence  operates 
through  the  general  system. 

3.  Setting  aside  all  consideration  of  the  opinions  of  the  instrumen- 
tality of  man,  there  appear  in  the  world  evident  traces  of  the  moral 
government  of  God.  Many  of  the  consequences  of  men's  behaviour 
happen  without  the  intervention  of  any  agent.  Of  this  kind  are  the 
effects  which  their  way  of  life  has  upon  their  health,  and  much  of  its 
influence  upon  their  fortune  and  situation.  Effects  of  the  same 
nature  extend  to  communities  of  men.  They  derive  strength  and 
stability  from  the  truth,  moderation,  temperance  and  pubhc  spirit  of 
the  members;  whereas  idleness,  luxury,  and  turbulence,  while  they 
ruin  the  private  fortunes  of  many  individuals,  are  hurtful  to  the  com- 
munity ;  and  the  general  depravity  of  the  members  is  the  disease  and 
weakness  of  the  state. 

These  effects  do  not  arise  from  any  civil  institution.  They  are  not 
a  part  of  the  political  regulations  which  are  made  with  different 
degrees  of  wisdom  in  different  states ;  but  they  may  be  observed  in 
all  countries.  They  are  part  of  what  we  commonly  call  the  course 
of  nature  ;  that  is,  they  are  rewards  and  punishments  ordained  by  the 
Lord  of  nature,  not  affected  by  the  caprice  of  his  subjects,  and  flowing 
immediately  from  the  conduct  of  men.  There  arises  indeed,  from 
the  present  situation  of  human  affairs,  many  obstructions  to  the  full 
operation  of  these  rewards  and  punishments.  Yet  the  degree  in 
which  they  actually  take  place  is  sufficient  to  ascertain  the  character 
of  the  government  of  God.  In  those  cases  where  we  are  able  to  trace 
the  causes  which  prevent  the  exact  distribution  of  good  and  evil, 
we  perceive  that  the  very  hindrances  are  wisely  adapted  to  a  present 
state.  Even  where  we  do  not  discern  the  reasons  of  their  existence, 
we  clearly  perceive  that  these  hindrances  are  accidental ;  that  virtue, 
benign  and  salutary  in  its  influences,  tends  to  produce  happiness,  pure 
and  unmixed  ;  that  vice,  in  its  nature  mischievous,  tends  to  confusion 
and  misery ;  and  we  cannot  avoid  considering  these  tendencies  as  the 
voice  of  Him,  who  hath  established  the  order  of  nature,  declaring  to 
those  who  observe  and  understand  them,  the  fature  condition  of  the 
righteous  and  the  wicked. 

And  thus  in  the  world,  we  behold  upon  every  hand  of  us  openings 
of  a  kingdom  of  righteousness  corresponding  to  what  we  formerly 
traced  in  the  constitution  of  human  nature.  By  that  constitution, 
while  reward  is  provided  for  virtue  and  punishment  for  vice,  there 
arise  in  our  breast  the  forebodings  of  a  higher  reward  and  a  higher 


INTRODUCTORY  DISCOURSE,  9 

punishment.  So  in  the  world,  while  there  are  manifold  instances  of  a 
righteous  distribution  of  good  and  evil,  there  is  a  tendency  towards 
the  completion  of  a  scheme  which  is  here  but  begun. 

This  view  of  the  government  of  God,  which  we  have  collected 
from  the  constitution  of  human  nature  and  the  state  of  the  world,  is 
brought  to  light  by  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  language  of  God 
in  his  works  leads  us  to  his  word  in  the  Gospel.  All  our  disquisitions 
concerning  the  nature  of  his  government  only  prepare  us  for  receiving 
those  gracious  discoveries,  which,  confirming  every  conclusion  of 
right  reason,  resolving  every  doubt,  and  enlarging  the  imperfect  views 
which  belong  to  this  the  beginning  of  our  existence,  bring  us  perfect 
assurance,  that,  in  the  course  of  the  Divine  government,  unlimited  in 
extent,  in  duration,  and  in  power,  every  hindrance  shall  be  removed, 
the  natural  consequences  of  action  shall  be  allowed,  to  operate,  virtue 
shall  be  happy,  and  vice  shall  be  miserable. 

Abernethy  on  the  Attributes. 

Cudvvorth's  Intellectual  System;  a  magazine  of  learning,  where  all  the  different  schemes 
of  Atheism  are  combated  with  profound  erudition  and  close  argument. 

Boyle's  Lectures ;  a  collection  of  the  ablest  defences  of  the  great  truths  of  religion  that  are 
to  be  found  in  any  language.  Having  been  composed  in  a  long  succession  of  years  by 
men  of  different  talents  and  pursuits,  they  furnish  an  abundant  specimen  of  all  the  variety 
of  argument  that  has  ever  been  adduced  upon  the  subject  of  which  they  treat. 

Butler's  Analogy,  the  first  chapters  of  which  should  be  particularly  studied  in  relation  to 
the  subjects  of  this  discourse. 

Essays  on  Morality  and  Natural  Religion,  by  Henry  Home,  Lord  Kaimes. 

Paley's  Natural  Theology,  the  last  and  perhaps  the  most  elaborate  work  of  this  author. 
He  had  here  his  pioneers  as  well  as  his  forerunners.  But  his  inimitable  skill  in  arrang- 
ing and  condensing  his  matter,  his  peculiar  turn  for  what  may  be  called  "  animal  me- 
chanics," the  aptness  and  the  wit  of  his  illustrations,  and  occasionally  the  warmth  and 
the  solemnity  of  his  devotion,  which,  by  a  happy  and  becoming  process,  was  rendered 
more  animated  as  he  drew  nearer  to  the  close  of  life,  stamp  on  this  work  a  character 
more  valuable  than  originality. 


E 


10  COLLATERAL  BVIDF.XCE    OF   CHRISTIANITY 


CHAPTER  I. 


COLLATERAL    EVIDENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY    FROM    HISTORY. 

The  ground-work  which  I  suppose  to  be  laid  in  an  inquiry  into  the 
truth  of  the  Christian  rehgion,  is  a  behefof  the  two  great  doctrines  of 
natural  religion,  that  God  is,  and  that  he  is  a  re  warder  of  them  that 
seek  him.  You  consider  a  man  as  led  by  the  principles  of  his  nature 
to  believe  that  the  universe  is  the  work  of  an  intelligent  Being, 
although  wandering  very  much  in  his  apprehensions  of  that  Being : 
you  consider  him  as  feeling  that  the  government  of  the  Creator  of  the 
world  is  a  righteous  government,  although  conscious  that  he  often 
transgresses  the  law  of  his  Maker,  and  very  uncertain  as  to  the  method 
in  which  the  sanctions  of  that  law  are  to  operate  with  regard  to  him  : 
and  you  propose  to  examine  whether  to  man  in  these  circumstances, 
there  was  given  an  extraordinary  revelation  by  the  preaching  of  the 
Son  of  God,  or  whether  Jesus  Christ  and  his  apostles  were  men  who 
spoke  and  wrote  according  to  their  own  measure  of  knowledge,  and 
who,  when  they  called  themselves  the  messengers  of  God,  assumed  a 
character  which  did  not  belong  to  them.  It  is  manifest  at  first  sight, 
that  such  a  revelation  is  extremely  desirable  to  man  ;  and  a  closer 
investigation  of  the  subject  may  show  it  to  be  desirable  in  such  a  de- 
gree, so  necessary  to  the  comfort  and  improvement  of  man,  as  to 
create  a  presumption  in  favour  of  the  proofs  that  the  Father  of  the 
human  race  has  been  pleased  to  grant  it.  But  the  necessity  of  reve- 
lation is  a  subject  upon  which,  in  my  opinion,  it  is  better  not  to  enter 
at  the  outset ;  because,  if  the  proofs  of  the  truth  of  Christianity  be  de- 
fective, the  presumption  arising  from  this  necessity  will  not  be  suffi- 
cient to  help  them  out ;  and  if  they  be  clear  and  conclusive,  the  neces- 
sity of  revelation  will  be  more  manifest  after  you  proceed  to  examine 
its  nature  and  its  effects. 

The  truth  of  Christianity  turns  upon  a  question  of  fact ;  which,  like 
every  other  question  of  the  same  kind,  ought  to  be  judged  calmly  and 
impartially — not  by  the  wishes  which  it  may  be  natural  to  form  upon 
the  subject,  but  by  the  evidence  which  is  adduced  in  support  of  the 
fact.  We  allow  the  great  body  of  the  people  to  retain  all  the  early 
prejudices  which  they  happily  acquire  on  the  side  of  Christianity. — 
We  allow  its  full  weight  to  every  consideration  which  is  level  to  their 
capacity,  and  which  corresponds  to  their  habits ;  because,  what  we 
wish  to  impress  upon  them  is  a  practical  belief  of  the  truth  of  religion: 
and  this  practical  belief  may  be  sufficient  to  direct  their  conduct  and 
to  establish  their  hope,  although  it  be  not  grounded  upon  critical  in- 
quiries and  logical  deductions.  But  it  is  expected  that  the  teachers 
of  religion  should  be  able  to  defend  the  citadel  in  which  they  are 


FROM  HISTORY.  1  1 

placed,  against  the  attack  of  every  enemy,  and  that  they  should  btj 
acquainted  with  the  quarters  which  are  most  likely  to  be  attacked, 
witli  the  nature  of  the  blow  that  is  to  be  aimed,  and  the  most  success- 
ful method  of  warding  it  off.  With  them,  therefore,  belief  ought  to 
be  not  merely  the  resuh  of  early  habit,  but  a  conviction  founded  upon 
a  close  examination  of  evidence  ;  and  in  this, as  in  every  other  hiquiry, 
they  ought  to  take  the  fair  and  safe  method  of  arriving  at  the  truth, 
by  bringing  to  the  search  after  it,  a  mind  unembarrassed  with  any 
prepossession. 

A  person  who,  in  this  state  of  mind,  begins  to  examine  the  question 
of  fact  upon  which  the  deistical  controversy  turns,  will  be  struck  with 
that  support  which  the  truth  of  Christianity  receives  from  the  whole 
train  of  history  for  more  than  1700  years.  The  impartial  historians 
of  those  times,  Suetonius,  Tacitus,  and  Pliny,  in  passages*  wliich 
have  been  often  quoted  and  commented  upon,  and  the  exact  amount 
of  which  every  student  of  divinity  ought  to  know,  concur  with  Celsus, 
Porphyry,  and  Julian,  the  learned,  hiveterate,  and  inquishive  adver- 
saries of  the  Christian  faith,  in  establishing  beyond  the  possibility  of 
doubt  the  following  leading  facts ; — that  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  reign  of 
Tiberius,  was  put  to  death  ;  that  this  man  during  his  life  fomided,and 
his  followers  after  his  death  supported  a  sect,  upon  the  reputation  of 
performing  miracles  ;  and  that  this  sect  spread  qirtckly,  and  became 
very  numerous  in  different  parts  of  the  Roman  empire.  A  succession 
of  Christian  writers  is  extant,  some  of  whom  lived  near  enough  the 
event  to  be  witnesses  of  it,  and  all  of  whom  published  books,  which 
must  have  appeared  absurd  to  their  contemporaries,  if  the  facts  upon 
which  these  books  proceeded  had  then  been  known  to  be  false.  A 
chain  of  tradition  can  be  shown  by  which  the  principal  facts  were 
transmitted  in  the  Christian  Church,  The  existence  of  our  religion 
can  be  traced  back  to  the  time  and  place  to  which  the  beginning  of  it 
is  referred  ;  and  since  that  time,  by  the  institution  of  a  Gospel  ministry, 
by  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  by  the  observance  of 
the  Lord's  day,  there  have  continued,  in  many  parts  of  the  world, 
standing  memorials  of  the  preaching,  the  death  and  the  resurrection 
of  Jesus. 

I  begin  with  mentioning  these  things,  because  every  literary  man 
will  perceive  the  advantage  of  taking  possession  of  this  strong  ground. 
By  plachig  his  foot  here  he  is  furnished  with  a  kind  of  extrinsical 
evidence,  the  force  of  which  none  will  deny,  which  cannot  be  said  to 
create  any  unreasonable  prepossession,and  yet  which  prepares  the  mind 
for  the  less  remote  proofs  of  a  Divine  revelation. 

Grotius  de  Veritate  Rel.  Chris. 

Macknight  on  the  Truth  of  the  Gospel  History. 

Addison's  Evidences. 

Ijardner's  Credibility  of  the  Gospel  History. 

*   Sueton.  Claud,  cap.  25.     Sueton.  Nero.  cap.  16.     Tacit.  Ann.  1.  xv.  44.     Plin.  I.  x. 
ep.  97. 


12  AUTHENTICITY  AKD  GENUINENESS  OF 


CHAPTER  II. 


AUTHENTICITY     AND     GENUINENESS     OF     THE     BOOKS     OF      THE     NEW 

TESTAMENT. 

The  whole  of  that  revelation  which  is  peculiar  to  Christians  is  con- 
tained in  the  books  of  the  New  Testament ;  and  therefore,  it  appears 
to  me  that  before  we  begin  to  judge  of  the  divine  mission  or  inspira- 
tion of  the  persons  to  whom  these  books  are  ascribed,  we  ought  to 
satisfy  ourselves  that  the  books  themselves  are  authentic  and  genuine. 
For  even  although  the  apostles  of  Jesus  did  really  receive  a  commis- 
sion from  the  Son  of  God,  yet  if  the  books  which  bear  their  names 
were  not  written  by  them,  or  if  they  have  been  corrupted  as  to  their 
substance  and  import  since  they  were  written,  that  is,  if  the  books 
are  not  both  authentic  and  genuine,  we  may  be  very  much  misled  by 
trusting  to  them, notwithstanding  the  divine  mission  of  their  supposed 
authors.  I  oppose  the  word  authentic  to  suppositions ;  the  'word 
genuine  to  vitiated  ;  I  call  a  book  autlientic  which  was  truly  the  work 
of  the  person  whose  name  it  bears ;  I  call  a  book  genuine  which  re- 
mains in  all  material  points  the  same  as  v.iren  it  proceeded  from  the 
author.  Upon  these  two  points,  the  authenticity  and  genuineness  of 
the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  I  am  at  present  to  fix  your  attention. 
Both  the  subjects  open  a  Avide  field,  and  have  received  nmch  discus- 
sion. All  that  I  can  do,  is  to  mark  to  you  the  leading  circumstances 
which  have  been  discussed,  and  with  regard  to  which  it  becomes  you 
to  inform  and  satisfy  your  minds. 

1.  The  canon  of  the  New  Testament  is  the  collection  of  books 
written  by  apostles,  or  by  persons  under  their  direction,  and  received 
by  Christians  as  of  divine  authority.  This  canon  was  not  formed  by 
any  General  Council,  who  claimed  a  power  of  deciding  in  this  matter 
for  the  Christian  Church  ;  but  it  continued  to  grow  during  all  the  age 
of  the  apostles,  and  it  received  frequent  accessions,  as  the  different 
books  came  to  be  generally  recognised.  It  was  many  years  after  the 
ascension  of  Jesus  before  any  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament, 
were  written.  The  apostles  were  at  first  entirely  occupied  with  the 
labours  and  perils  which  they  encountered  in  executing  their  com- 
mission to  preach  the  Gospel  to  all  nations.  They  found  neither 
leisure  nor  occasion  to  write,  till  Christian  societies  were  formed  ;  and 
all  their  writings  were  suggested  by  particular  circumstances  which 
occurred  in  the  progress  of  Christianity.  Some  of  the  Epistles  to  the 
Churches  were  the  earliest  of  their  writings.  Every  Epistle  was  re- 
ceived upon  unquestionable  evidence  by  the  Church  to  which  it  was 
sent,  and  in  whose  keeping  the  original  manuscript  remained.  Copies 
were  circulated  first  among  the  neighbouring  churches,   and  went 


THE  BOOKS  OF  THE  NEW  TESTA3IENT.  13 

from  them  to  Christian  societies  at  a  greater  distance,  till,  by  degrees, 
the  whole  Christian  world,  considering  the  superscription  of  the 
Epistle,  and  the  manner  in  which  it  came  to  them,  as  a  token  of  its 
authenticity,  and  relying  upon  the  original,  which  they  knew  where 
to  find,  gave  entire  credit  to  its  being  the  work  of  him  whose  name  it 
bore.  This  is  the  history  of  the  thirteen  Epistles  which  bear  the 
name  of  the  apostle  Paul,  and  of  the  First  Epistle  of  Peter.  Some  of 
the  other  Epistles,  which  had  not  the  same  particular  superscription, 
were  not  so  easily  authenticated  to  the  whole  Church,  and  were, 
upon  that  account,  longer  of  being  admitted  into  the  canon. 

The  Gospels  were  written  by  different  persons,  for  different  pur- 
poses ;  and  those  Christian  societies  upon  whose  account  they  were 
originally  composed,  communicated  them  to  others.     The  book  of 
Acts  went  along  with  the  Gospel  of  Luke,  as  a  second  part  composed 
by  the  same  author.     The  four  Gospels,  the  book  of  Acts,  and  the 
fourteen  epistles  which  I  mentioned,  very  early  after  their  publication, 
were  known  and  received  by  the  followers  of  Jesus  in  every  part  of 
the  world.    References  are  made  to  them  by  the  first  Christian  writers  ; 
and  they  have  been  handed  down,  by  an  uninterrupted  tradition,  from 
the  days  in  which  they  appeared,  to  our  time.     Polycarp  was  the 
disciple  of  the  Apostle  John  ;  Irenaeus  was  the  disciple  of  Polycarp  ; 
and  of  the  works  of  Irenaeus  a   great  part  is  extant,  in  which  lie 
quotes  most   of  the   books  of  the   New  Testament,  and   mentions 
the  number  of  the  Gospels,  and  the  names  of  many  of  the  Epistles. 
Origen  in  the  third  century,  Eusebius  and  Jerome  in  the  fourth,  give  us, 
in  their  voluminous  works,  catalogues  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment which  coincide  with  ours,  relate  fully  the  history  of  the  authors 
of  the  several  books,  with  the  occasion  upon  which  they  wrote,  and 
make  large  quotations  from  them.     In  the  course  of  the  first  four  cen- 
turies the  greater  part  of  the  New  Testament  was  transcribed  in  the 
writings  of  the  Christians,  and  many  particular  passages  were  quoted 
and  referred  to  by  Celsus  and  Julian,  in  their  attacks  upon  Christianity. 
From  the  beginning  of  the  Church,  throughout  the  whole  Christian 
world,  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  were  publicly  read  and  ex- 
plained to  the  people  in  their  assemblies  for  divine  worship  ;  and  they 
were  continually  appealed  to  by  Christian  writers  as  the  standard  of 
faith,  and  the  supreme  judge  in  controversy.     The  Christian  world 
was  very  far  from  being  prone  to  receive  every  book  which  claimed 
inspiration.      Although    many   were   circulated   under    respectable 
names,  none  were  ever  admitted  by  the  whole  Church,  or  quoted  hy 
Christian  writers  as  of  divine  authority,  except  those  which  we  now 
receive.     And  it  was  very  long  before  some  of  them  were  universally 
acknowledged.     When  you  coma  to  examine  the  subject  particularly, 
you  will  find  that  we  stand  upon  ground  which  we  are  fully  able  to 
defend,  when  we   admit  the  Epistle  to  the   Hebrews,   the   smaller 
Epistles,  and  the  book  of  Revelation,  as  of  equal  authority  with  any 
other  part  of  the  New  Testament.     At  the  same  time,  the  hesitation 
which,  for  several   ages,   was   entertained   in   some   places   of  the 
Christian  world  with  regard  to  these  books,  is  satisfying  to  a  candid 
mind,  because  this  hesitation  isof  itself  a  strong  presumption,  that  the 
universal  and  cordial  reception  which  was  given  to  all  the  other  books 
4 


14  AUTHENTICITY  AND  GENUINENESS  OF 

of  the  New  Xestament,  proceeded  upon  clear  incontestable  evidence 
of  their  authenticity. 

If,  then,  we  readily  receive,  upon  the  authority  of  tradition,  the 
History  of  Thucydides,  the  Orations  of  Cicero,  the  Dialogues  of  Plato, 
as  really  the  composition  of  these  immortal  authors,  we  have  much 
more  reason  to  give  credit  to  the  explicit  testimony  which  the  judg- 
ment of  contemporaries,  and  the  acknowledgment  of  succeeding  ages, 
have  borne  to  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament.  There  is  not  any 
ancient  book  with  regard  to  which  the  external  evidence  of  aiUhenti- 
city  is  so  full  and  so  various  :  and  this  variety  of  external  evidence  is 
confirmed  to  every  person  who  is  capable  of  judging,  by  the  most 
striking  internal  marks  of  authenticity, — by  numberless  instances  of 
agreement  with  the  history  of  those  times,  which  are  most  satisfying 
when  they  appear  to  be  most  trivial,  because  they  form  altogether  a 
continued  coincidence  in  points  where  it  could  not  well  have  been 
studied  ;  a  coincidence  which,  the  more  that  any  one  is  versant  in  the 
manners,  the  geography,  and  the  constitution  of  ancient  times,  will 
bring  the  more  entire  conviction  to  his  mind,  that  these  books  must 
have  been  written  by  persons  living  in  the  very  country,  and  at  the 
very  period  to  which  we  refer  those  who  are  accounted  the  authors 
of  them.  Undesigned  coincidences  between  the  Acts  and  the  Epistles 
are  pointed  out  with  admirable  taste  and  judgment  in  Foley's  IIoraB 
Pauhnae,  which  is  perhaps  the  most  cogent  and  convincing  specimen 
of  moral  argumentation  in  the  world  ;  and  in  the  first  volume  of  his 
Evidences  of  Christianity, — which  are  professedly  a  compilation,  but 
so  condensed  and  compacted,  so  illuminated  and  enforced,  that  it  is 
impossible  not  to  admire  the  matchless  powers  of  the  compiler's  genius 
in  turning  the  patient  drudgery  of  Lardner  to  such  account, — the 
authenticity  of  the  Gospel  and  Acts  is  established. 

2.  Having  ascertained  to  your  own  satisfaction  the  authenticity  of 
the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  you  will  next  proceed  to  inquire 
whether  they  are  genuine,  that  is,  uncorrupted.  For  even  although 
they  proceed  at  first  from  the  apostles  or  evangelists  whose  names 
they  bear,  they  may  have  been  so  altered  since  that  time  as  to  convey 
to  us  very  false  information  with  regard  to  their  original  contents. 
It  does  not  become  you  to  rest  in  the  presumption  that  the  providence 
ofGod,if  it  gave  a  revelation,  would  certainly  guard  so  precious  a  gift, 
and  transmit  entire  through  all  ages  "  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the 
saints."*  The  analogy  of  nature  does  not  support  this  presumption  ; 
for  the  best  blessings  of  heaven  are  abused  by  the  vices  or  the  negli- 
gence of  those  upon  whom  they  are  bestowed  ;  and  succeeding  gt  neia- 
tions  often  suffer  in  their  domestic,  political,  and  religious  interests,  by  . 
abuses  of  which  their  predecessors  were  guilty.  It  becomes  a  divine 
to  know,  that  the  manuscripts  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament, 
which  were  originally  deposited  with  the  Christian  societies,  no  longer 
exist;  that  there  have  been  the  same  ignorance,  haste,  and  inaccuracy 
m  transcribing  the  Gospels  and  Epistles,  as  in  transcribing  all  other 
books;  and  that  the  various  readings  arising  from  theses  or  other 
sources  were  very  early  observed.  Origen  speaks  of  them  in  the 
third  century.     They  multiplied  exceedingly,  as  was  to  be  expected 

•  Jude  V.  3. 


THE  BOOKS  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT.  15 

from  the  nature  of  the  thing,  after  his  time,  when  the  copies  of  the 
original  MSS.  became  more  numerous  and  more  widely  diffused  ;  so 
that  Mill,  in  iiis  splendid  and  valuable  edition  of  tlic  Greek  Testament, 
has  numbered  30,000  various  readings. 

This  has  been  a  subject  of  much  declamation  and  triumph  to  the 
enemies  of  our  Christian  faith.  Shaftesbury,  Bolingbroke,  Collins, 
']'olaud,  Tindal,  and  many  other  deistical  writers  in  the  beginning  of 
the  last  century,  boasted  that  Christians  are  not  in  possession  of  a  sure 
standard;  and  they  bnilt  upon  the  supposed  corruption  of  the  Greek 
text,  an  argument  for  tiie  superiority  of  the  light  of  nature  above  that 
uncertain  instruction  which  varies  continually  as  it  passes  thronghtlie 
hands  of  men.  A  scliolar  must  be  aware  of  this  difficulty,  and  prepared 
to  meet  it. 

When  you  come  to  estimate  the  amount  of  the  30,000  various 
readings,  you  will  find  that  almost  all  of  them  are  trifling  changes 
upon  letters  and  syllables,  and  that  there  is  hardly  one  instance  in 
which  they  affect  the  great  doctrines  of  our  religion.  It  will  give 
3^ou  much  satisfaction  to  observe,  that  the  different  sects  into  which 
the  Christian  church  was  early  divided,  watched  one  another ;  that 
any  great  alteration  of  a  book  which,  soon  after  its  being  published, 
had  been  sent  over  the  whole  world,  was  impossible  ;  that  even  those 
who  corrupted  Christianity  have  preserved  the  Scriptures  so  entire,  as 
to  transmit  a  full  refutation  of  their  own  errors ;  and  that  from  the 
most  vitiated  copies  the  one  faith  and  hope  of  Christians  may  be 
learned.  Still,  however,  it  is  desirable  that  these  various  readings 
should  be  corrected,  and  it  is  proper  that  you  should  have  a  general 
acquaintance  with  the  sources  from  which  the  correction  of  them  is 
to  be  derived.  These  sources  are  four.  1.  The  MSS.  of  the  New 
Testament  which  abound  in  Germany,  France,  Italy,  England,  and 
other  countries  of  Europe.  I  mean  MSS.  written  long  before  printing 
was  in  use,  some  of  which,  particularly  Codex  Vaticanus  and  Codex 
Alexandrinus,  are  referred  to  one  or  other  of  the  first  three  centuries  of 
the  Christian  era.  2.  The  ancient  versions  of  the  New  Testament, 
which  having  been  made  in  early  times  from  copies  much  nearer  the 
original  MSS.  than  any  that  we  have,  may  be  considered  as  in  some 
degree  vouchers  of  the  contents  of  those  MSS.  The  most  respec- 
table of  the  ancient  versions  is  the  old  Italic,  which,  we  have  reason 
to  believe,  was  made  in  the  first  century  for  the  benefit  of  those 
Christians  in  the  Roman  empire  who  understood  the  Latin  better  than 
any  other  language.  It  has,  indeed,  undergone  many  alterations; 
but  so  far  as  it  can  be  recovered  in  its  most  ancient  form,  it  is  the 
surest  guide,  in  doubtful  places,  to  that  which  was  the  original  reading. 
3.  A  third  source  of  correction  is  found  in  the  numberless  quotations 
from  the  New  Testament  with  which  the  works  of  the  Christian  fathers 
and  other  early  writers  abound.  Had  they  always  copied  exactly 
from  books  lying  before  them,  the  extent  of  their  quotations  would 
have  rendered  them  as  certain  guides  to  the  genuine  reading,  as  they 
arc  UMquestionable  witnesses  of  the  authenticity.  But  it  cannot  be 
denied,  that  as  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  were  perfectly  fami- 
liar to  them,  they  have  often  quoted  from  memory,  and  that  being 
more  careful  to  give  the  sense  than  the  words,  they  differ  from  one 
another  in  some  trivial  respects,  when  quoting  the  same  passage,  so 


16  AUTHENTICITY  AND  GENUINENESS  OF 

that  their  quotations  cannot  be  applied  indiscriminately  to  ascertain 
the  original.  4.  The  last  source  of  correction  is  sound  chastised 
criticism,  which,  joining  to  the  sagacious  use  of  the  most  ancient  MSS., 
versions,  and  quotations,  cautious  but  skilful  conjecture,  determines 
which  of  the  various  readings  is  to  be  preferred,  upon  principles  so 
clearly  established,  and  so  accurately  applied  as  to  leave  no  hesitation 
in  the  mind  of  any  scholar.  The  canons  of  scripture  criticism  have 
been  investigated  and  digested  by  many  learned  men.  You  will  find 
collections  of  them  in  the  Prolegomena  to  the  larger  editions  of  the 
Greek  Testament.  They  are  frequently  applied  by  the  later  com- 
mentators, and  they  are  the  introduction  to  a  kind  of  learning  which, 
although  it  is  apt,  when  prosecuted  too  far,  to  lead  to  what  is  minute 
and  frivolous,  yet  is  in  many  respects  so  essential  that  it  does  not 
become  any  one  who  professes  to  interpret  the  Scriptures  to  others 
to  be  entirely  a  stranger  to  it. 

Superficial  reasoners  may  think  it  strange  that  so  much  discussion, 
should  be  necessary  to  ascertain  the  true  reading  of  the  oracles  of  God; 
and  in  their  haste  they  may  pronounce,  that  it  would  have  been  more 
becoming  the  great  purpose  for  which  these  oracles  were  given,  more 
kind,  and  more  useful  to  man,  that  the  originals  should  have  been 
saved  from  destruction  ;  and  that  if  the  great  extent  of  the  Christian 
society  rendered  it  impossible  for  every  one  to  have  access  to  them, 
the  all-ruling  providence  of  God  should  have  preserved  every  copy 
that  was  taken  from  every  kind  of  vitiation.  They  who  thus  judge, 
forget  that  there  is  no  part  of  the  works  of  creation,  of  the  ways  of 
Providence,  or  of  the  dispensation  of  grace,  in  which  the  Almighty 
lias  done  precisely  that  which  we  would  have  dictated  to  him,  had 
he  admitted  us  to  be  his  counsellors,  although  we  are  generally  able, 
by  considering  what  he  has  done,  to  discover  that  his  plan  is  more 
perfect,  and  more  universally  useful,  than  that  v/hich  our  nairow 
views  might  have  suggested  as  best.  They  forget  the  extent  of  the 
miracle  which  they  ask,  when  they  demand,  that  all  who  ever  were 
employed  in  copying  the  New  Testament  should  at  all  times  have  been 
effectually  guarded  by  the  Spirit  of  God  from  negligence,  and  their 
works  kept  safe  from  the  injuries  of  time.  And  they  forget,  in  the 
last  place,  that  the  very  circumstance  to  which  they  object  has,  in  tlie 
wisdom  of  God,  been  highly  favourable  to  the  cause  of  truth.  The 
infidel  has  enjoyed  his  triumph,  and  has  exposed  his  ignorance.  JNIcn 
of  erudition  have  been  encouraged  to  apply  their  talents  to  a  subjtct 
which  opens  so  large  a  field  for  the  exercise  of  them.  Their  research 
and  their  discoveries  have  demonstrated  the  futility  of  the  objection  ; 
and  have  shown  that  the  great  body  of  the  people  in  every  country,  who 
are  incapable  of  such  research,  may  safely  rest  in  the  Scriptures  a"^  they 
are  ;  and  that  the  most  scrupulous  critics,  by  the  inexhaustible  sources 
of  correction  which  lie  open  to  them,  may  attain  nearer  to  an  absolute 
certainty  with  regard  to  the  true  reading  of  the  books  of  the  New 
Testament,  than  of  any  other  ancient  book  in  any  language.  If  they 
require  more,  their  demand  is  unreasonable ;  for  the  religion  of  Jesus 
does  not  profess  to  satisfy  the  careless,  or  to  overpower  the  obstinate, 
but  rests  its  pretensions  upon  evidence  suflicient  to  bring  conviction 
to  those  who  with  honest  hearts  inquire  after  tlie  truth,  and  are 
willing  to  exercise  their  reason  in  attempting  to  discover  it. 


THE  BOOKS  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT.  17 

Griesbach,  professor  at  Jena  in  Saxony,  published  in  1796  the  first  volume  of  his  second  edi- 
tion of  the  Greek  Testament,  containing  the  four  Gospels ;  and  in  1806,  the  second  volume, 
containing  the  other  books  of  the  New  Testament.  He  availed  himself  of  the  materials 
which  sacred  criticism  had  been  collecting  from  the  time  of  the  publication  of  Mill's  edition. 
And,  adverting  to  all  the  manuscript  quotations  and  versions  which  the  research  of  a 
number  of  theological  writers,  in  diflcrcnt  parts  of  the  world,  had  brought  into  view,  he 
went  farther  than  the  former  editors  of  the  New  Testament  had  done.  They  adhered  to 
what  is  called  the  textus  receptus,  which  had  been  established  in  the  Elzevir  edition  of 
the  Greek  Testament  in  1624,  which  is  very  much  the  same  with  that  of  the  editions  of 
Besa  and  Erasmus,  and  which  is  now  in  daily  use.  They  only  collected  various  readingn 
from  manuscripts,  versions,  and  quotations,  introduced  them  into  a  preface  or  notes,  and 
explained  in  large  and  learned  prolegomena,  the  degree  of  credit  that  was  due  to  them ; 
thus  furnishing  materials  for  a  more  correct  edition  of  the  Greek  Testament,  and  unfolding 
the  principles  upon  which  these  materials  ought  to  be  applied.  But  Griesbach  proceeded 
himself  to  apply  the  materials,  by  introducing  emendations  into  the  text.  This  he  is  said, 
by  Dr.  Marsh,  late  Margaret  Professor  of  Divinity  at  Cambridge,  and  now  Bishop  of  Pe- 
terbro',  to  have  done  with  unremitted  diligence,  with  exti-eme  caution,  and  with  scrupulous 
integrity.  His  emendations  never  rest  merely  upon  conjecture,  but  always  upon  authority 
which  appeared  to  him  decisive.  They  are  printed  in  a  smaller  character  than  the  rest  of 
the  text,  or  in  some  clear  way  distinguished  from  the  received  text;  and  when  he  was  in 
any  doubt,  they  are  not  introduced,  but  remain  in  the  notes  or  margin.  I  have  great 
satisfaction  in  saying,  that  in  as  far  as  I  have  examined  Griesbach's  New  Testament,  it 
does  not  appear  to  differ  in  any  material  respect  from  the  received  text;  so  that  all  Qie 
industry  and  erudition  of  this  laborious  and  accurate  editor  serve  to  establish  this  most 
comfortable  doctrine,  that  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  are  genuine.  Dr.  Marsh  says, 
that  Griesbach's  edition  is  so  correct,  and  the  prolegomena,  or  critical  apparatus  annexed 
to  it,  so  full  and  learned,  that  there  will  be  no  occasion  for  a  diflferent  edition  of  the  Greek 
Testament  during  the  life  of  the  youngest  of  us.  I  quote  Dr.  Maish,  because  in  that  por- 
tion of  his  lectures  which  has  been  published,  he  gives  the  most  minute  and  ample  infor- 
mation concerning  all  the  editions  of  the  Greek  Testament.  He  mentions  repeatedly, 
with  due  honour,  Dr.  Gerard's  Institutes  of  Biblical  Criticism,  to  which  I  refer  you. 

Mar.-h's  Lecture-,  and  his  Translations  of  Michaelis's  Introductions. 

Macknight's  Preliminary  Discourses  in  his  Commentary  on  the  Epistles. 

Lardiior's  Credibility  of  the  Gospel  History,  and  Supplement  to  it 

L  eland. 

Jortin. 

Hartley  in  vol.  ."ith  of  Watson's  Theological  Tracts. 

Prettyman's  Institutes. 

Paley's  Horaj  Paulinas,  and  Evidences  of  Christianity. 


4*  F 


18  INTERNAL  EVIDENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


CHAPTER  III. 

INTERNAL    EVIDENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

The  leading  characteristical  assertion  in  the  books  of  the  New 
Testament  is,  that  they  contain  a  divine  revelation.  Jesus  said,  "  My 
doctrine  is  not  mine,  but  his  that  sent  me  ;"*  and  when  he  gave  his 
apostles  a  commission  to  preach  his  gospel,  he  used  these  words,  "  As 
the  Father  hath  sent  me,  even  so  send  I  you."t  "  He  that  heareth 
you,  heareth  me ;  and  he  that  despiseth  you,  despiseth  him  that 
sent  me."t  This  is  the  highest  claim  which  any  mortal  can  advance. 
It  holds  forth  the  man  who  makes  it  under  the  most  dignified  char- 
acter; and,  if  it  be  well  founded,  it  involves  consequences  the  most 
interesting  to  those  who  hear  him.  Such  a  claim  is  not  to  be  care- 
lessly admitted.  The  grounds  which  it  rests  ought  to  be  closely  scruti- 
nized ;  and  reason  cannot  have  a  more  important  or  honourable 
office  than  ni  trying  its  pretensions  by  a  fair  standard. 

As  every  circumstance  respecting  those  who  advanced  such  a  claim 
merits  attention,  the  first  thing  which  presents  itself  to  a  rational 
inquirer,  is  the  manner  in  which  the  claim  is  made,  and  the  state  of 
mind  which  those  who  make  it  discover  in  their  conduct,  in  the  general 
style  of  their  writings,  or  in  particular  expressions.  Now,  if  you  set 
yourselves  to  collect  all  the  characters  of  enthusiasm,  either  from  the 
writings  of  those  profound  moralists  who  have  analyzed  and  discrimi- 
nated the  various  features  of  the  human  mind,  or  from  the  behaviour 
of  those  who,  in  different  ages,  have  mistaken  the  fancies  of  a  distem- 
pered brain  for  the  inspiration  of  heaven,  you  will  find  the  most 
marked  opposition  between  these  characters  and  the  appearance  which 
the  books  of  the  New  Testament  present.  Instead  of  the  general, 
indistinct,  inconsistent  ravings  of  enthusiasm,  you  find  in  these 
writings  discourses  full  of  sound  sense  and  manly  eloquence,  connect- 
ed reasonings,  apposite  illustrations,  a  multitude  of  particular  facts, 
a  continual  reference  to  common  life,  and  the  same  useful  instructive 
views  preserved  throughout.  Instead  of  the  gloom  of  enthusiasm, 
you  find  a  spirit  of  clieerfulness,  a  disposition  to  associate,  an  accommo- 
dation to  prejudices  and  opinions.  Instead  of  credulity  and  vehe- 
ment passion,  you  observe  in  tlie  writers  of  these  books  a  slowness  of 
heart  to  believe,  a  hesitation  in  the  midst  of  evidence,  perfect  posses- 
sion of  tlieir  faculties,  with  calm  sedate  manners.  Instead  of  the  self- 
conceit,  the  turgid  insolent  tone  of  enthusiasm,  you  find  in  them  a 
reserve,  a  modesty,  a  simplicity  of  expression,  a  disparagement  of 
their  own  peculiar  gifts,  and  a  constant  endeavour  to  magnify,  in  the 
eyes  of  tlieir  followers,  those  virtues  in  which  they  themselves  did 

♦  J.)hn  vii.  IC,  f  John  xx.  21.  +  Luke  x.  16. 


INTEKNAL  EVIDKNCE   OF  CHUISTIANITY.  19 

not  pretend  to  have  any  pre-eminence.  The  claim  which  they  advance 
sits  so  easy  and  natnral  upon  ilieni,  that  tlie  most  critical  eye  cannot 
discern  any  trace  of  that  kind  of  delusion  which  has  often  been  exposed 
to  public  view;  and  they  are  so  unlike  any  enthusiasts  whom  the 
world  ever  saw,  that,  as  far  as  outward  appearances  are  to  be  trusted, 
they  "speak  the  words  of  truth  and  soberness."* 

But  you  will  not  trust  to  appearances.  It  becomes  you  to  examine 
the  words  which  they  speak,  and  you  are  in  possession  of  a  standard 
by  which  these  words  should  be  tried,  and  without  a  conformity  to 
which  they  cainiot  be  received  as  divine.  Reason  and  conscience  are 
the  primary  revelation  which  God  made  to  man.  We  know  assuredly 
that  they  came  from  the  author  of  nature,  and  our  appreiiensions  of 
his  perfections  must  indeed  be  very  low,  if  we  can  suppose  it  possible 
that  they  should  be  contradicted  by  a  subsequent  revelation.  If  any 
system,  therefore,  which  pretends  to  come  from  God,  contain  palpable 
absurdities,  or  if  it  enjoin  actions  repugnant  to  the  moral  feelings  of 
our  nature,  it  never  can  approve  itself  to  our  understandings.  It  is 
unnecessary  to  examine  the  evidences  of  its  being  divine,  because  no 
evidence  can  be  so  strong  as  our  perception  of  the  falsehood  of  that 
which  is  absurd,  and  of  the  inconsistency  between  the  will  of  God 
and  that  which  is  immoral.  When  I  say  that  a  divine  revelation 
caimot  contain  a  palpable  absurdity,  I  am  far  from  meaning,  that 
every  thing  contained  in  it  must  be  plain  and  familiar,  such  as  reason 
is  already  versant  with.  The  revelation,  in  that  case,  would  be  un- 
necessary. Neither  do  I  mean  that  every  thing  contained  in  it, 
although  new,  must  be  such  as  we  are  able  fully  to  comprehend ;  for 
many  insuperable  difficulties  occur  in  the  study  of  nature.  We  Iiave 
daily  experience,  that  our  ignorance  of  the  manner  in  which  a  tiling 
exists,  does  not  create  any  doubt  of  its  existence  ;  and  in  the  ordinary 
business  of  life,  we  admit  without  hesitation,  the  truth  of  facts  which, 
at  the  time  we  admit  them,  are  to  us  unaccountable.  The  presump- 
tion is,  that  if  a  revelation  be  given,  it  will  contain  more  facts  of  the 
same  kind ;  and  it  addresses  you  as  reasonable  creatures,  if  it  require 
you,  in  judging  of  the  facts  which  it  proposes  to  your  belief,  to  follow 
out  the  same  principles  upon  which  you  are  accustomed  to  proceed 
with  regard  to  the  facts  which  you  see  or  hear.  If  the  books  of  the 
New  Testament  be  tried  with  this  caution  by  the  standard  of  reason, 
they  will  not  be  found  to  contain  any  of  that  contradiction  which 
might  entitle  you  to  reject  them  before  you  examine  their  evidence. 
There  are  doctrines,  to  the  full  apprehension  of  which  our  limited 
faculties  are  inadequate  ;  and  there  has  been  much  perplexity  and 
misapprehension  in  the  presumptuous  attempts  to  explain  these  doc- 
trines. But  the  manner  in  wliich  the  books  themselves  state  the 
doctrines,  cannot  appear  to  any  philosophical  mind  to  involve  an 
absurdity.  The  system  of  religion  and  morality  which  they  deliver 
is  every  way  worthy  of  God.  It  corresponds  to  all  the  discoveries 
which  the  most  enlightened  reason  has  made  with  regard  to  the 
nature  and  the  will  of  God;  and  it  comprehends  all  the  duties  which 
are  dictated  by  conscience  or  clearly  suggested  by  the  love  of  order. 
The  {o\v  objections  which  have  been  made  to  the  morality  of  the 

•  Acte  xKvi.  25, 


20  INTERNAL  EVIDENCE   OP  CHRISTIANITY. 

gospel,  as  being  defective  in  some  points,  by  not  enjoining  patriotism 
or  friendship,  or  too  rigorous  in  others,  admit  of  so  clear  and  so  easy 
a  solution,  that  nothing  but  the  desire  of  finding  fault,  joined  to  the 
diliiculty  of  discovering  any  exceptionable  circumstance,  could  have 
drawn  remarks  so  frivolous  from  the  authors  in  whose  works  they 
appear. 

You  may,  then,  without  much  trouble,  satisfy  yourselves  that 
neither  the  manner  in  which  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament 
advance  their  claim,  nor  the  contentsof  their  books,  aftbrd  any  reason 
for  rejecting  that  claim  instantly,  without  examining  the  evidence. — 
I  do  not  say  that  this  affords  any  proof  of  a  divine  revelation  ;  for  a 
system  may  be  rational  and  moral  without  being  divine.  This  is 
only  a  pre-requisite,  which  every  person  to  whom  a  system  is  pro- 
posed under  that  character  has  a  title  to  demand.  But  we  state  the 
matter  very  imperfectly  when  we  say,  that  there  is  nothing  in  the 
manner  or  the  contents  of  these  books  which  deserves  an  immediate 
rejection.  A  closer  attention  to  the  subject  not  only  renders  it  clear 
that  they  may  come  from  God,  but  suggests  many  strong  presumptions 
that  they  cannot  be  the  work  of  men.  These  presumptions  make  up 
what  is  called  the  internal  evidence  of  Christianity. 

The  first  branch  of  this  internal  evidence  is  the  manifest  superiority 
of  that  system  of  religion  and  morality  which  is  contained  in  the  books 
of  the  New  Testament,  above  any  that  was  ever  delivered  to  the 
world  before.  Here  a  Christian  divine  derives  a  most  important 
advantage  from  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  ancient  heathen 
philosophers.  He  ought  not  to  take  upon  trust  the  accounts  of  their 
discoveries  which  succeeding  writers  have  copied  from  one  another. 
But  setting  that  which  they  taught,  over  against  the  discourses  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  the  writings  of  his  Apostles,  he  ought  to  see  with 
his  own  eyes  the  force  of  that  argument  which  arises  from  the  com- 
parison. Do  not  think  yourselves  obliged  to  disparage  the  Avritings 
of  the  heathen  moralists.  The  effort  which  they  made  to  raise  their 
minds  above  the  grovelling  superstition  in  which  they  were  born  \vas 
honourable  to  themselves  ;  it  was  useful  to  their  disciples,  and  it 
scattered  some  rays  of  light  through  the  world.  It  does  not  become 
a  scholar,  who  is  daily  reaping  instruction  and  entertainment  from 
their  works,  to  deny  them  any  part  of  that  applause  which  is  their 
due  ;  and  it  is  not  necessary  for  a  Christian.  You  may  safely  allow 
that  they  were  very  much  superior  in  the  knowledge  of  religion  and 
morality  to  their  countrymen ;  and  yet,  when  you  take  those  philoso- 
phers who  lived  before  the  Christian  era,  and  compare  their  writings 
with  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  the  disparity  appears  most 
striking.  The  views  of  God  given  in  these  books  are  not  only  more  sub- 
lime than  those  which  occasional  passages  in  the  writings  of  tiie  philo- 
sophers discover,  but  are  purified  from  the  alloy  which  abounds  in  them, 
and  are  at  once  consistent  with,  and  apposite  to  the  condition  of  man. 
Religion  is  here  uniformly  applied  to  encourage  man  in  the  discharge 
of  his  duty,  to  support  him  under  the  trials  of  life,  and  to  cherish 
every  good  affection.  To  love  God  with  all  our  heart,  and  strength, 
and  soul,  and  mind,  and  to  love  our  neighbour  as  ourselves,  the  two 
conmiandments  of  the  Gospel,  are  the  most  luminous  and  compre- 
hensive prmciples  of  morality  that  ever  were  taught.     The  particuiur 


INTERNAL  EVIDENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  21 

precepts,  which,  although  not  systematically  deduced,  are  but  the 
unfolding  of  those  principles,  form  the  heart,  regulate  the  conduct, 
descend  into  every  relation,  and  constitute  the  most  perfect  and  refined 
morality, — a  morality,  not  elevated  above  the  concerns  or  occasions 
of  ordinary  men,  but  sound  and  practical,  which  renders  the  members 
of  society  useful,  agreeable,  and  respectable,  and  at  the  same  time 
carries  them  forward  by  the  progressive  improvement  of  their  nature 
to  a  higher  state  of  being.  The  precepts  themselves  are  short,  ex- 
pressive, and  simple,  easily  retained,  and  easily  applied  ;  and  they 
are  enforced  by  all  those  motives  which  have  the  greatest  powei 
over  the  human  mind.  That  future  life,  to  which  good  men  in  every 
age  had  looked  forward  with  an  anxious  wish,  is  brought  to  light  in 
these  books.  There  is  not  in  them  the  conjecture,  the  hesitation,  the 
embarrassment  which  had  entered  into  the  language  of  the  wisest 
philosophers  upon  this  subject.  But  there  is  an  explicit  declaration, 
delivered  in  a  tone  of  authority  which  becomes  that  Being  who  can 
order  the  condition  of  his  creatures,  that  this  is  a  season  of  trial,  that 
there  will  hereafter  be  a  time  of  recompense,  and  that  the  conduct  of  men 
upon  earth  is  to  produce  everlasting  consequences  with  regard  to  their 
future  condition.  To  the  fears,  of  which  a  being  who  is  conscious  of 
repeated  transgressions  cannot  divest  himself,  no  other  system  had 
applied  any  remedy  but  the  repetition  of  unavailing  sacrifices.  These 
books  alone  disclose  a  scheme  of  Providence  adapted  to  the  condition 
of  sinners,  announced,  introduced  and  conducted  with  a  solemnity 
corresponding  to  its  importance,  admirably  fitted  in  all  its  parts,  sup- 
posing it  to  be  true,  to  revive  the  hopes  of  the  penitent,  to  restore  the 
dignity,  the  purity,  and  happiness  of  the  intelligent  creation,  and  thus 
to  repair  that  degeneracy  which  all  writers  have  lamented,  of  which 
every  man  has  experience,  and  to  the  cure  of  which  all  human  means 
had  proved  inadequate.  This  grand  idea,  which  is  characteristical  of 
the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  completes  their  superiority  above 
every  other  system,  and  gives  a  peculiar  kind  of  sublimity  to  both  the 
religion  and  the  morality  of  the  Gospel. 

The  second  branch  of  the  internal  evidence  of  Christianity  arises  from 
the  condition  of  those  men  in  whose  writings  this  superior  system 
appears.  We  can  trace  a  progress  in  ancient  philosophy ;  we  see  the 
principles  of  science  arising  out  of  the  occupation  of  men,  collected, 
improved,  abused  ;  and  we  can  mark  the  effect  which  both  the 
improvement  and  the  abuse  had  in  producing  that  degree  of  perfection 
which  they  attained.  To  every  person  versant  in  the  history  of 
ancient  philosophy,  Socrates  must  appear  an  extraordinary  man. — 
Yet  the  eminence  of  Socrates  forms  only  a  stage  in  the  progress  of  his 
countrymen.  His  disciples,  who  have  recorded  his  discourses,  were 
men  placed  in  a  most  favourable  situation  for  polishing  and  enlarging 
their  minds  ;  and  the  Roman  philosophers  trod  in  their  steps.  But, 
if  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  be  authentic,  the  writers  who 
have  delivered  to  us  this  superior  system,  were  men  born  in  a  mean 
condition,  without  any  advantages  of  education,  and  with  strong 
national  prejudices,  which  the  low  habits  formed  by  their  occupations 
could  not  fail  to  strengthen.  They  have  interwoven  in  their  works 
their  history  and  their  manner  of  thinking.  The  obscurity  of  their 
station  is  vouched  by  contemporary  writers,  and  it  was  one  of  the 


22  INTERNAL  EVIDENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITV. 

reproaches  thrown  upon  the  Gospel  by  its  earhest  adversaries.  Yet 
the  conceptions  of  these  mean  men  upon  the  most  important  subjects, 
far  transcend  the  continued  efforts  of  ancient  philosophy  ;  and  the 
sages  of  Greece  and  Rome  appear  as  children  when  compared  with 
the  fishermen  of  Gahlee.  From  men,  wliose  minds  we  cannot  suppose 
to  have  been  seasoned  with  any  other  notions  of  divine  things  than 
those  whiclithey  derived  from  the  teaching  of  the  Pharisees,  who  had 
obscured  the  law  by  their  traditions,  and  loaded  it  with  ceremonies, 
there  arose  a  pure  and  spiritual  religion.  From  men,  educated  in 
the  narrowness  and  bigotry  of  the  Jewish  spirit,  there  arose  a  religion 
which  enjoins  universal  benevolence,  a  scheme  for  diffusing  the 
knowledge  of  the  true  God  over  the  whole  earth,  and  forming  a 
church  out  of  all  the  nations  under  heaven.  The  divine  plan  of 
blessing  the  human  race,  in  turning  them  from  their  iniquity,  originat- 
ed from  a  little  district, — was  adopted,  not  by  the  whole  tribe  as  a 
method  of  retrieving  their  ancient  honours,  but  by  a  few  individuals, 
in  opposition  to  public  authority, — and  was  prosecuted  with  zeal  and 
activity  under  every  disadvantage  and  discouragement.  When  his 
contemporaries  heard  Jesus  speak,  they  said,  "Whence  hath  this  man 
wisdom?  How  knoweth  this  man  letters,  having  never  learned?"* 
When  the  Jewish  council  heard  Peter  and  John,  they  marvelled, 
because  they  knew  that  they  were  ignorant  and  unlearned  men  ;"t 
and  to  every  candid  inquirer,  the  superiority  of  that  system,  and  the 
magnificence  of  that  plan  contained  in  the  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, when  compared  with  the  natural  opportunities  of  those  from 
whom  they  proceed,  must  appear  the  most  inexplicable  phenomenon 
in  the  history  of  the  human  mind,  unless  we  admit  the  truth  of  their 
claim. 

A  third  branch  of  the  internal  evidence  of  Christianity  arises  from 
the  character  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  often  said  with  much  truth,  that 
the  gospel  has  the  peculiar  excellence  of  proposing  in  the  character  of 
its  author,  an  example  of  all  its  precepts.  That  character  may  also 
be  stated  as  one  branch  of  the  internal  evidence  of  Christianity, 
whether  you  consider  Jesus  as  a  teacher,  or  as  a  man.  His  manner 
of  teaching  was  most  dignified  and  most  winning.  "  Never  man 
spake  like  this  man."  He  taught  by  parable,  by  action,  and  by  plain 
discourse.  Out  of  familiar  scenes,  out  of  the  objects  which  surrounded 
him,  and  the  intercourse  of  social  life,  he  extracted  the  most  pleasing 
and  useful  instruction.  He  repelled  the  attacks  of  his  enemies  with 
a  gentleness  which  disarmed,  and  a  wisdom  which  confounded  their 
malice.  There  was  a  plainness,  yet  a  depth  in  all  his  sayings.  He 
was  tender,  persuasive,  or  severe,  according  to  circumstances  ;  and  the 
discourse,  which  seemed  to  have  been  dictated  to  him  merely  b/  the 
occasion,  is  found  to  convey  lasting  and  valuable  counsel  to  posterity. 
His  character  as  a  man,  is  allowed  to  be  the  most  perfect  which  the 
world  ever  saw.  All  the  virtues  of  which  we  can  form  a  conception, 
were  united  in  him  with  a  more  exact  harmony,  and  shone  with  a 
lustre  more  bright  and  more  natural,  than  in  any  of  the  sons  of  men. 
His  descending  from  the  glories  of  heaven,  assuming  the  weakness 
of  human  nature,  and  voluntarily  submitting  to  all   the  calamities 

*  Matt,  xiii,  54.    John  vii.  15.  f  Acts  iv.  13. 


INTERNAL  EVIDENCE  OP  CHRISTIANITY.  28 

which  he  endured  for  the  sake  of  men,  exhibits  a  degree  of  benevolence, 
of  magnanimity,  and  patience,  which  far  exceeds  the  conception  that 
Plato  formed  of  the  most  tried  and  perfect  virtue.  The  majesty  of  his 
divine  nature  is  blended  with  the  fellow  feehng  and  condescension 
imphed  in  his  office  ;  and  although  the  history  of  mankind  did  not 
afford  any  model  that  could  here  be  followed,  this  singular  character 
is  supported  throughout,  and  there  is  not  any  one  of  the  words  or 
actions  ascribed  to  him,  which  does  not  appear  to  the  most  correct 
taste  to  become  the  man  Christ  Jesus.  It  is  not  possible  that  a  manner 
of  teaching,  so  infinitely  superior  to  that  of  the  Scribesand  Pharisees, 
or  that  a  character  so  extraordinary,  so  godUke,  so  consistent,  could 
have  been  invented  by  the  fishermen  of  Galilee.  Admit  only  that 
the  books  of  the  New  Testament  are  authentic,  and  you  must  allow 
that  the  authors  of  them  drew  Jesus  Christ  from  the  life.  And  how 
do  they  draw  him  ?  Not  in  the  language  of  fiction,  with  swoln 
panegyric,  with  a  laborious  effort  to  number  his  deeds,  and  to  record 
all  his  sayings,  but  in  the  most  natural  artless  manner.  Four  of  his 
disciples,  not  many  years  after  his  death,  when  every  circumstance 
could  easily  be  investigated,  write  a  short  history  of  his  life.  Without 
attempting  to  exhaust  the  subject,  without  studying  to  coincide  with 
one  another,  without  directing  your  attention  to  the  shining  parts 
of  his  history,  or  marking  any  contrast  between  him  and  other 
men,  they  leave  you,  from  a  few  facts,  to  gather  the  character  of  the 
man  whom  they  had  followed.  Thus  you  learn  his  innocence  not 
from  their  protestations,  but  from  the  whole  complexion  of  his  life  ; 
from  the  declaration  of  the  judge  who  condemned  him ;  of  the  centu- 
rion wlio  attended  his  execution ;  of  a  traitor,  who  having  been  admit- 
ted into  his  family,  was  a  witness  of  his  most  retired  actions,  who  had 
no  tie  of  affection,  of  delicacy,  or  consistency,  to  restrain  him  from 
divulging  the  whole  truth,  and  who  might  have  pleaded  the  secret 
wickedness  of  his  master  as  an  apology  for  his  own  baseness,  who 
would  have  been  amply  repaid  for  his  information,  and  yet  who  died 
with  these  words  in  his  mouth,  "  I  have  sinned,  in  that  I  have  be- 
trayed the  innocent  blood."*  Had  Judas  borne  no  such  testimony, 
an  appeal  to  him  was  the  most  unsafe  method  in  which  the  writers 
of  this  history  could  attest  the  innocence  of  their  master.  But  if  the 
wisdom  of  God  had  ordained,  that  even  in  the  family  of  Jesus  the 
wrath  of  his  enemies  should  thus  praise  him,  it  was  the  most  natural 
for  one  of  the  evangelists  to  record  so  striking  a  circumstance  :  and  I 
mention  it  here,  only  as  a  specimen  of  the  manner  in  which  the  char- 
acter of  Jesus  is  drawn,  not  by  the  colouring  of  a  skilful  pencil,  but 
by  a  continual  reference  to  facts,  which  to  impostors  are  of  difficult  in- 
vention, and  of  easy  detection,  but  which,  to  those  who  exhibit  a 
real  character,  are  the  most  natural,  the  most  delightful,  and  the  most 
effectual  method  of  making  their  friend  known.  "  Shall  we  say," 
writes  Rousseau,  no  uniform  champion  for  the  cause  of  Christianity, 
"  shall  we  say  that  the  history  of  the  gospel  is  invented  at  pleasure  ? 
No.  It  is  not  thus  that  men  invent.  It  would  be  more  inconceivable 
that  a  number  of  men  had  in  concert  produced  this  book  from  their 
own  imaginations,  than  it  is  that  one  man  has  furnished  the  subject 

•  Matt,  xxvii.  4. 


24  INTERNAL  EVIDENCE  OP  CHRISTIANITY. 

of  it.  The  morality  of  the  gospel,  and  its  general  tone,  were  beyond 
the  conception  of  Jewish  authors  ;  and  the  history  of  Jesus  Christ  has 
marks  of  truth  so  palpable,  so  striking,  and  so  perfectly  inimitable, 
that  its  inventor  would  excite  our  admiration  more  than  its  hero."* 

A  fourth  branch  of  the  internal  evidence  of  Christianity  arises  from 
the  characters  of  the  apostles  of  Jesus  as  drawn  in  their  own  writings. 
Their  condition  renders  the  superiority  of  their  doctrine  inexplicable, 
without  admitting  a  divine  revelation  :  their  character  gives  the  highest 
credibility  to  their  pretensions.  We  seldom  read  the  work  of  any 
person,  without  forming  some  apprehension  of  his  character  ;  and  if 
his  work  represent  him  as  engaged  in  a  succession  of  trials,  pouring 
forth  the  sentiments  of  his  heart,  and  holding,  in  interesting  situations, 
much  intercourse  with  his  fellow  creatures,  we  contract  an  intimate 
acquaintance  with  him  before  we  are  done,  and  we  are  able  to  collect 
from  numberless  circumstances,  whether  he  be  at  pains  to  disguise 
himself  from  us,  or  whether  he  be  really  such  a  man  as  he  wishes  to 
appear.  No  scene  ever  was  more  interesting  to  the  actors,  than  that 
in  which  the  writings  of  the  apostles  of  Jesus  exhibit  them  ;  and  the 
gospels  and  epistles  taken  together,  aflbrd  to  every  attentive  reader  a 
complete  display  of  their  character.  We  said,  that  they  appear  from 
their  writings  devoid  of  enthusiasm,  cool  and  collected.  Yet  this 
coolness  is  removed  at  the  greatest  distance  from  every  mark  of  im- 
posture. They  are  at  no  pains  to  disguise  their  infirmhies  ;  all  their 
prejudices  shine  through  their  narration  ;  and  they  do  not  assume  to 
themselves  any  merit  for  having  abandoned  them.  We  see  light 
opening  slowly  upon  their  minds,  their  hopes  disappointed,  and  them- 
selves conducted  into  scenes  very  different  from  those  which  they  had 
figured.  "  We  trusted,"  said  they,  after  the  death  of  their  master, 
"  that  it  was  he  which  should  have  redeemed  Israel. "t  Yet  it  is  not 
long  before  they  become  firm,  and  cheerful,  and  resolute.  Not  over- 
awed by  the  threatenings  of  the  magistrates,  nor  shaken  by  the  per- 
secutions which  they  endured  from  their  countrymen,  they  devoted 
their  lives  to  the  generous  undertaking  of  spreading  through  the  world 
the  knowledge  of  that  religion  which  they  had  embraced.  Appearing 
as  the  servants  of  another,  they  disclaim  the  honours  which  their 
followers  were  disposed  to  pay  them  ;  they  uniformly  inculcate  quiet 
inoflensive  manners,  and  a  submission  to  civil  authority  ;  and  labour- 
ing with  their  hands  for  the  supply  of  their  necessities,  they  stand 
forth  as  patterns  of  humility  and  self-denial.  The  churches  to  which 
they  write,  are  the  witnesses  to  posterity  of  their  holy  unblameable 
conduct ;  their  sincerity  and  zeal  breathe  through  all  their  epistles ; 
and,  when  you  read  their  writings,  you  behold  the  most  illustrious 
example  of  disinterested  beneficence,  that  exalted  love  of  mankind, 
which  made  them  forego  every  private  consideration,  in  order  to  pro- 
mote the  virtue  and  happiness  of  those  to  whom  they  were  sent. 
They  had  differences  amongst  themselves,  which  they  are  at  no  pains 
to  conceal ;  yet  they  remained  united  in  the  same  cause.  They  had 
personal  enemies  in  the  churches  which  they  planted  ;  yet  they  were 
not  afraid  to  reprove,  to  censure,  to  excommunicate  ;  and,  in  the  im- 
mediate prospect  of  death,  they  continued  their  labour  of  love. 

•  Rousseau,  Emile,  ii.  98.  •}•  Luke  xxiv.  21. 


INTERNAL  EVIDENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  25 

Such  is  the  character  of  the  apostles  of  Jesus,  as  it  appears  in  their 
authentic  writings,  not  drawn  by  themselves,  but  collected  from  the 
facts  which  they  relate,  and  the  letters  which  they  address  to  those 
who  knew  them.  It  is  a  character  so  far  raised  above  the  ordinary 
exertions  of  mortals,  and  so  diametrically  opposite  to  the  Jewish 
spirit,  that  we  naturally  search  for  some  divine  cause  of  its  being 
formed.  We  are  led  to  consider  its  existence  as  a  pledge  of  the 
truth  of  that  high  claim  which  such  men  appear  not  unworthy  to 
make  ;  and  this  assurance  of  their  veracity  which  we  derive  from 
their  conduct,  disposes  our  minds  to  attend  to  that  external  evidence 
which  they  offer  to  adduce. 

I  have  thus  stated  what  appear  to  me  the  principal  parts  of  the 
internal  evidence  of  Christianity.  I  have  not  mentioned  the  style  or 
composition  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  because,  although  I 
am  of  opinion  that  there  are  in  them  instances  of  sublimity,  of  tender- 
ness, and  of  manly  eloquence,  which  are  not  to  be  equalled  by  any 
human  composition,  and  although  the  mixture  of  dignity  and  sim- 
plicity which  characterizes  these  books  is  most  worthy  of  the  author 
and  the  subject  of  them,  yet  this  is  a  matter  of  taste,  a  kind  of  senti- 
mental proof  which  will  not  reach  the  understandings  of  all,  and 
where  an  affirmation  may  be  answered  by  a  denial.  The  only  evi- 
dence which  Mahomet  adduced  for  his  divine  mission,  was  the  inimi- 
table excellence  of  his  Koran.  Produce  me,  said  he,  a  single  chapter 
equal  to  this  book,  and  I  renounce  my  claim.  We  are  not  driven  to 
this  necessity  ;  and  therefore,  although  every  person  of  true  taste  reads 
with  the  highest  admiration  many  parts  of  the  New  Testament,  al- 
though every  divine  ought  to  cultivate  a  taste  for  the  sacred  classics, 
and  has  often  occasion  to  illustrate  their  beauties,  it  is  better  to  rest 
the  evidence  of  our  religion  upon  arguments  less  controvertible. — 
Neither  have  I  mentioned  that  inward  conviction  which  the  excellence 
of  the  matter,  the  grace  of  the  promises,  and  the  awful ness  of  the 
threatenings,  produce  on  every  mind  disposed  by  the  influence  of 
heaven  to  receive  the  truth.  This  is  the  witness  of  the  S})irit,  the 
highest  and  most  satisfying  evidence  of  divine  revelation  ;  the  gift  of 
God,  for  which  we  pray,  and  which  every  one  who  asks  with  a  good 
and  honest  heart  is  encouraged  to  expect.  But  this  witness  within 
ourselves,  although  it  removes  every  shadow  of  doubt  from  our  own 
breasts,  cannot  be  stated  to  others.  They  are  to  be  convinced, 
not  by  our  feelings  but  by  their  own ;  and  the  truth  of  that  fact,  upon 
which  the  Deistical  controversy  turns,  must  be  established  by  arguments 
which  every  understanding  may  apprehend,  and  with  regard  to  which 
the  experience  of  one  man  cannot  be  opposed  to  the  experience  of 
another.  Of  this  kind  are  the  points  which  I  have  stated ;  the 
superior  excellence  of  that  system  contained  in  the  books  of  the  New 
Testament,  taken  in  conjunction  v/ith  the  condition  of  those  whom 
we  know  to  be  the  authors  of  them,  the  character  of  Jesus  Christ,  as 
drawn  by  his  disciples,  and  their  own  character  as  it  ai)pears  from 
their  writings.  1  do  not  say  that  these  arguments  will  have  erjual 
force  with  all ;  but  I  say  that  they  are  fitted  by  their  nature  to  make 
an  impression  upon  every  understanding  which  considers  them  with 
attention  and  candour.  I  allow  that  they  form  only  a  presumptive 
evidence  for  the  high  claim  advanced  in  these  books  ;  and  I  consider 
5  G 


26  INTERNAL  EVIDENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

the  external  evidence  of  Christianity  as  absohitely  necessary  to  estab- 
lish our  faith.  But  I  have  called  your  attention  particularly  to  the 
various  branches  of  this  internal  evidence,  not  only  because  the  result 
of  the  four  taken  together  appears  to  me  to  form  a  very  strong  presump- 
tion, but  also  because  they  constitute  a  principal  part  of  the  study  of 
a  divine.  By  dwelling  upon  these  branches — by  reading  with  care  the 
many  excellent  books  which  treat  of  them, — and,  above  all,  by  search- 
ing the  Scriptures  with  a  special  view  to  perceive  the  force  of  this  inter- 
nal evidence,  your  sense  of  the  excellence  of  Christianity  is  confirmed ; 
your  hearts  are  made  better,  and  you  acquire  the  most  useful  furniture 
for  those  public  ministrations  in  which  it  will  be  more  your  business  to 
confirm  them  that  believe,  than  to  convince  the  gainsayers.  The  several 
points  which  I  have  stated  perpetually  recur  in  our  discourses  to  the 
people;  our  lectures  and  our  sermons  are  full  of  them;  and  therefore,  the 
more  extensive  and  various  our  information  is  with  regard  to  these 
points,  and  the  deeper  the  impression  which  the  frequent  contemplation 
of  them  has  made  upon  our  own  minds,  we  are  the  better  able  to 
magnify,  in  the  eyes  of  those  for  whose  sakes  we  labour,  the  un- 
searchable riches  of  the  Gospel,  and  to  build  them  up  in  holiness  and 
comfort  through  faith  unto  salvation. 

Newcomb  on  the  Character  of  our  Saviour. 

Leechman's  Sermons, 

Conybeare's  Answer  to  Tindal. 

L  eland  on  the  Advantages  of  the  Christian  Revelation. 

Leland's  View  of  the  Deistical  Writers. 

Duchal's  Sermons. 

Jenyns  on  the  Internal  Evidences  of  Christianity. 

Macknight  on  the  Truth  of  the  Gospel  History. 

Paley's  Exidences  of  Christianity,  Vol.  II. 

Bishop  Porteus'  Summary  of  the  Evidences  of  Christianity. 


DIRECT  OR  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  27 


CHAPTER  IV. 


DIRECT  OR  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCE  OP  CHRISTIANITY. 

Having  satisfied  your  minds  that  the  books  of  the  New  Testament 
are  authentic  and  genuine,  that  they  contain  nothing  upon  account 
of  which  they  deserve  immediately  to  be  rejected,  and  that  their  con- 
tents afford  a  very  strong  presumption  of  their  being  what  they  profess 
to  be,  a  revelation  from  God  to  man,  it  is  natural  next  to  inquire  what 
is  the  direct  evidence  in  support  of  this  presumption  ;  for,  in  a  matter 
of  such  infinite  importance,  it  is  not  desirable  to  rest  entirely  upon  pre- 
sumptions: and  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  strongest  evidence 
which  the  nature  of  the  case  admits  will  be  Avithheld.  The  Gospel 
professes  to  offer  such  evidence ;  and  our  Lord  distinguishes  most 
accurately  between  the  amount  of  that  presumptive  evidence  which 
arises  from  the  excellence  of  Christianity,  and  the  force  of  that  direct 
proof  which  he  brought.  Of  the  presumptive  evidence  he  thus  speaks : 
"  If  any  man  will  do  the  will  of  God,  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine 
whether  it  be  of  God."*  i.  e.  Every  man  of  an  honest  mind  will  infer 
from  the  nature  of  my  doctrine,  that  it  is  of  Divine  origin.  But  of  the 
direct  proof  he  says  :  "  If  I  had  not  done  among  them  the  works  which 
none  other  man  did,  they  had  not  had  sin.  But  now  they  have  both 
seen  and  hated  both  me  and  my  Father."  "  If  I  do  not  the  works  of 
my  Father,  believe  me  not :  But  if  I  do,  though  ye  believe  not  me, 
believe  the  works."!  To  the  direct  proof  he  constantly  appeals : 
"  The  works  which  the  Father  hath  given  me  to  do,  bear  witness  of 
me,  that  the  Father  hath  sent  me."t  He  declares,  that  the  same 
works  which  he  did,  and  greater  than  them,  should  his  servants  do  :§ 
And  what  these  works  are,  we  learn  from  his  answer  to  the  disciples 
of  John  the  Baptist,  who  brought  to  him  this  question,  "  Art  thou  he 
that  should  come  ?"  "  Go,"  said  he,  "  and  show  John  again  those 
things  which  ye  do  hear  and  see.  The  blind  receive  their  sight,  and 
the  lame  walk ;  the  lepers  are  cleansed,  the  deaf  hear,  the  dead  are 
raised." II  The  Gospel  then  professes  to  be  received  as  a  divine  reve- 
lation upon  the  footing  of  miracles  ;  and,  therefore,  every  person  who 
examines  into  the  truth  of  our  religion,  ought  to  have  a  clear  appre- 
hension of  the  nature  of  that  claim. 

That  I  may  not  pass  hurriedly  over  so  important  a  subject,  I  have 
been  led  to  divide  my  discourse  upon  miracles  into  three  parts :  in  the 
first  of  which  I  shall  state  the  force  of  that  argument  for  the  truth  of 
Christianity  which  arises  from  the  miracles  of  Jesus  recorded  in  the 
New  Testament. 

•Johnvii.  17.        f  John  xv.  24 ;  x.  37,  38,  t  John  v,  36.  §Johnxiv.  12. 

I  Matt.  xi.  4,  5. 


28  DIRECT  OR  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCE 


Section  I. 

All  that  we  know  of  the  Ahiiighty  is  gathered  from  his  works. 
He  speaks  to  us  by  tlie  etfects  whicti  he  produces  ;  and  the  signatures 
of  power,  wisdom,  and  goodness,  which  appear  in  the  objects  around 
us,  are  the  language  in  wliich  God  teaches  man  the  knowledge  of 
himself.  From  these  objects  we  learn  the  providence  as  well  as  the 
existence  of  God ;  because,  while  the  objects  are  in  themselves  great 
and  stupendous,  many  of  them  appear  to  us  in  motion,  and  through 
the  whole  of  nature,  we  observe  operations  which  indicate  not  only 
the  original  exertions,  but  also  the  continued  agency  of  a  supreme  in- 
visible power.  These  operations  are  not  desultory.  By  experience 
and  information  we  are  able  to  trace  a  certain  regular  course,  accord- 
ing to  which  the  Almighty  exercises  his  power  throughout  the  uni- 
verse ;  and  all  the  business  of  life  proceeds  upon  the  supposition  of  the 
uniformity  of  his  operations.  We  are  often,  indeed,  reminded  that 
our  experience  and  information  are  very  limited.  Extraordinary  ap- 
pearances at  particular  seasons  astonish  the  nations  of  the  earth  :  new 
powers  of  nature  unfold  themselves  in  the  progress  of  our  discoveries ; 
and  the  accumulation  of  facts  collected  and  arranged  by  successive 
generations,  serves  to  enlarge  our  conceptions  of  the  greatness  and  the 
order  of  that  system  to  which  we  belong.  But  although  we  do  not 
pretend  to  be  acquainted  with  the  whole  course  of  nature,  yet  the 
more  that  we  know,  we  are  the  more  confirmed  in  the  belief  that 
there  is  an  established  course :  and  every  true  philosopher  is  encour- 
aged by  the  fruit  of  his  own  researches  to  entertain  the  hope,  that 
some  future  age  will  be  able  to  reconcile  with  that  course,  appearances 
which  his  ignorance  is  at  present  unable  to  explain. 

Although  the  business  of  life  and  the  speculations  of  philosophy 
proceed  upon  the  uniformity  of  the  course  of  nature,  yet  it  cannot  be 
understood  by  those  who  believe  in  the  existence  of  a  Supreme  In- 
telligent Being,  that  this  uniformity  excludes  his  interposition  when- 
soever he  sees  meet  to  interpose.  We  use  the  phrase,  laws  of  nature, 
to  express  the  method  in  which,  according  to  our  observation,  the 
Almighty  usually  operates.  We  call  them  laws,  because  they  are 
independent  of  us,  because  they  serve  to  account  for  the  most  dis- 
cordant phenomena,  and  because  the  knowledge  of  them  gives  us  a 
certain  command  over  nature.  But  it  would  be  an  abuse  of  language 
to  infer  from  their  being  called  laws  of  nature,  that  they  bind  him 
who  established  them.  It  would  be  recurring  to  the  principles  of 
atheism,  to  fate,  and  blind  necessity,  to  say  that  the  author  of  nature 
is  obliged  to  act  in  the  manner  in  which  he  usually  acts ;  and  that  he 
cannot,  in  any  given  circumstances,  depart  from  the  course  which  we 
observe.  The  departure,  indeed,  is  to  us  a  novelty.  We  have  no 
principles  by  which  we  can  foresee  its  approach,  or  form  any  conjec- 
ture with  regard  to  the  measure  and  the  end  of  it.  But  if  we  conceive 
worthily  of  the  Ruler  of  the  universe,  we  shall  believe  that  all  these 
departures  entered  into  the  great  plan  which  he  formed  in  the  begin- 
ning ;  that  they  were  ordained  and  arranged  by  him  ;  and  that  they 
arise  at  the  time  which  he  appointed,  and  fulfil  the  purposes  of  his 
wisdom. 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  29 

There  is  not  then  any  mutability  or  weakness  in  those  occasional 
interpositions  which  seem  to  us  to  suspend  the  laws  and  to  alter  the 
course  of  nature.     The  Almighty  Being,  who  called  the  universe  out 
of  nothing,  whose  creating  hand  gave  a  beginning  to  the  course  of 
nature,  and  whose  will  must  be  independent  of  that  which  he  himself 
produced,  acts  for  wise  ends,  and  at  particular  seasons,  not  in  that 
manner  which  he  has  enabled  us  to  trace,  but  in  another  manner  con- 
cerning which  he  has  not  furnished  us  with  the  means  of  forming  any 
expectation,  and  which  is  resolvable  merely  into  his  good  pleasure. 
The  one  manner  is  his  ordinary  administration,  under   which   his 
reasonable  offspring  enjoy  security,  advance  in  the  knowledge  of 
nature,  and  receive  much  instruction  :  the  other  manner  is  his  extra- 
ordinary administration,  which,  although  foreseen  by  him  as  a  part 
of  the  scheme   of  his  government,  appears  strange  to  his  intelligent 
creatures,  but  which,  by  this  strangeness,  may  promote  purposes,  to 
them  most  important  and  salutary.     It  may  rouse  their  attention  to 
the  natural  proofs  of  the  being  and  perfections  of  God  ;  it  may  alibrd 
a  practical  confutation  of  the  scepticism  and  materialism  to  which 
false  philosophy  often  leads;  and,  rebuking  the  pride  and  the  security 
of  man,  may  teach  the  nations  to  know  that  the  Lord  God  reignetii 
"in  heaven  and  in  earth,  in  the  seas,  and  all  deep  places."* 

To  such  moral  purposes  as  these,  any  alteration  of  the  course  of 
nature,  by  the  immediate  interposition  of  the  Almighty,  may  be  sub- 
servient ;  and  no  man  will  presume  to  say  that  our  limited  faculties  can 
assign  all  the  reasons  which  may  induce  the  Almighty  thus  to  inter- 
pose. But  we  can  clearly  discern  one  most  important  end  which  may 
be  promoted  by  those  alterations  of  the  course  of  nature,  in  which 
the  agency  of  men,  or  other  visible  ministers  of  the  divhie  power,  is 
employed. 

The  circumstances  of  the  intelligent  creation  may  render  it  highly 
expedient  that,  in  addition  to  that  original  revelation  of  the  nature 
and  the  will  of  God  which  they  enjoy  by  the  light  of  reason,  there 
should  be  superadded  an  extraordinary  revelation,  to  remove  the 
errors  which  had  obscured  their  knowledge,  to  enforce  the  practice  of 
tlieir  duty,  or  to  revive  and  extend  their  hopes.  The  wisest  ancient 
philosopliers  wished  for  a  divine  revelation :  and  to  any  one  who 
examines  the  state  of  the  old  heathen  world  in  respect  of  religion  and 
morality,  it  cannot  appear  unworthy  of  the  Father  of  his  creatures  to 
bestow  such  a  blessing.  This  revelation,  supposing  it  to  be  given, 
miy  cither  be  imparted  to  every  individual  mind,  or  be  confined  to  a 
few  chosen  persons,  vested  with  a  commission  to  communicate  the 
br-nefits  of  it  to  the  rest  of  the  world.  It  is  certainly  possible  for  the 
Fath'r  of  spirits  to  act  upon  every  individual  mind  so  as  to  give  that 
mind  the  impression  of  an  extraordinary  revelation  :  it  is  as  easy  for 
the  Father  of  spirits  to  do  this,  as  to  act  upon  a  [ew  minds.  But,  in 
this  case,  departures  from  the  established  course  of  nature  would  be 
multiplied  without  end.  In  the  illumination  of  every  individual, 
thare  would  be  an  immediate  extraordinary  interposition  of  the  Al- 
mighty. But  extraordinary  inter})ositions  so  frequent  would  lose 
their  nature,  so  as  to  be  confi)unded  with  the  ordinary  light  of  reason 

•  Psalm  cxxxv.  6. 


30  DIRECT  OR  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCE 

and  conscience :  or  if  they  were  so  striking  as  to  be,  in  every  case, 
clearly  discriminated,  they  would  subdue  the  understanding,  and 
overawe  the  whole  soul,  so  as  to  extort,  by  the  feeling  of  tlie  imme- 
diate presence  of  the  Creator,  that  submission  and  obedience  which  it 
is  the  character  of  a  rational  agent  to  yield  with  deliberation  and 
from  choice.  It  appears,  therefore,  more  consistent  with  the  simplicity 
of  nature,  and  with  the  character  of  man,  that  a  few  persons  should 
be  ordained  the  instruments  of  conveying  a  divine  revelation  to  their 
fellow-creatures ;  aud  that  the  extraordinary  circumstances  which 
must  attend  the  giving  such  a  revelation  should  be  confined  to  them. 
But  it  is  not  enough  that  these  persons  feel  the  impression  of  a  divine 
revelation  upon  their  own  minds  :  it  is  not  enough  that,  in  their  com- 
munications with  their  fellow-creatures,  they  appear  to  be  possessed 
of  superior  knowledge,  and  more  enlarged  views  :  it  is  possible  that 
their  knowledge  and  views  may  have  been  derived  from  some  natural 
source ;  and  we  require  a  clear  indisputable  mark  to  authenticate  the 
singular  and  important  commission  which  they  profess  to  bear.  It 
were  presumptuous  in  us  to  say  what  are  the  marks  of  such  a  com- 
mission which  the  Almighty  can  give  ;  for  our  knowledge  of  what  He 
can  do,  is  chiefly  derived  from  our  observation  of  what  He  has  done. 
But  we  may  say,  that,  according  to  our  experience  of  the  divine  pro- 
cedure, there  can  be  no  mark  of  a  divine  commission  more  striking 
and  more  incontrovertible,  than  that  the  persons  who  bear  it  should 
have  the  privilege  of  altering  the  course  of  nature  by  a  word  of  their 
mouths.  The  revelation  made  to  their  minds  is  invisible  ;  and  all  the 
outward  appearances  of  it  may  be  delusive.  But  extraordinary 
works,  beyond  the  power  of  man,  performed  by  them,  are  a  sensible 
outward  sign  of  a  power  which  can  be  derived  from  God  alone.  If 
he  has  invested  them  with  this  power,  it  is  not  incredible  that  he  has 
made  a  revelation  to  their  minds  ;  and  if  they  constantly  appeal  to  the 
M'-orks,  which  are  the  signs  of  the  power,  as  the  evidence  of  the  in- 
visible revelation,  and  of  the  commission  with  which  it  was  accom- 
panied, then  we  must  either  believe  that  they  have  such  a  commission, 
or  we  are  driven  to  the  horrid  supposition  that  God  is  the  author  of  a 
falsehood,  and  conspires  with  these  men  to  deceive  his  creatures. 

When  I  call  the  extraordinary  works  performed  by  these  men,  the 
sign  of  a  power  derived  from  God,  you  recollect  that  all  the  language 
which  we  interpret  consists  of  signs  ;  i.  e.  objects  and  operations  which 
fall  under  our  senses,  employed  to  indicate  that  which  is  unseen. 
What  are  the  looks,  the  words,  and  tlie  actions  of  onr  fellow  crea- 
tures, but  signs  of  that  internal  disposition  which  is  liidden  from  our 
view  ?  What  are  the  appearances  which  bodies  exhibit  to  our  senses, 
but  signs  of  the  inward  qnalities  which  produce  these  appearances? 
What  are  the  works  of  nature,  but  signs  of  that  supreme  intelligence, 
"  whom  no  man  hath  seen  at  any  time?"*  Upon  this  principle,  ail 
those  events  and  operations,  beyond  the  compass  of  human  power, 
which  happen  according  to  the  established  course  of  nature,  form  part 
of  the  foundations  of  Natural  Religion;  and  any  person  who  foretells 
or  conducts  them,  only  discovers  his  acquaintance  with  ihat  course, 
and  his  sagacity  in  applyhig  what  we  call  the  laws  of  nature.     Upon 

*  John  i.  IS. 


OF  CHRISTIANIxr.  31 

the  same  principle,  all^those  events  and  operations  which  happen  in 
opposition  to  the  estabUshed  course  of  nature,  imply  an  exertion  of 
the  same  power  which  established  that  course,  because  they  counter- 
act it;  and  any  person  who,  by  a  word,  produces  such  events  and 
operations,  discovers  that  this  power  is  committed  to  him.  To  com- 
mand the  sun  to  run  his  race  until  the  time  of  his  going  down,  and  to 
connnand  him  to  stand  still  about  a  whole  day,  as  in  the  valley  of 
Gibeon  in  the  time  of  Joshua,*  are  two  commands  which  destroy  one 
another;  and  therefore,  if  we  believe  that  the  will  of  the  Almighty 
Killer  of  the  universe  produces  an  uniform  obedience  to  the  first,  we 
must  believe  that  the  obedience  which,  upon  one  occasion,  was  yielded 
to  the  second,  was  the  etlect  of  his  will  also.  As  no  creature  can  stop 
the  working  of  his  hand,  every  interruption  in  that  course  according 
to  wiiich  he  usually  operates,  happens  by  his  permission ;  and  the 
power  of  altering  the  course  of  nature,  by  whomsoever  it  be  exerted, 
must  be  derived  from  the  Lord  of  nature. 

This  is  the  reasoning  upon  which  we  proceed,  when  we  argue  for 
the  trulh  of  a  revelation,  from  extraordinary  works  performed  by 
those  through  whom  it  is  communicated ;  and  here  we  see  the  im- 
portant purpose  which  the  Almighty  promotes  by  employing  the 
agency  of  men  to  change  the  order  of  nature.  Those  changes  which 
proceed  immediately  from  his  hand,  however  well  fitted  to  impress 
his  creatures  with  a  sense  of  his  sovereignty,  do  not  of  themselves 
prove  any  new  proposition,  because  their  connexion  with  that  propo- 
sition is  not  manifest.  But,  when  visible  agents  perform  works  be- 
yond the  power  of  man,  and  contrary  to  the  course  of  nature,  they 
give  a  sign  of  the  interposition  of  the  Almighty,  which,  being  applied 
by  their  declaration  to  the  doctrine  which  they  teach,  becomes  a 
vouclier  of  the  truth  of  what  they  say.  To  works  of  this  kind,  the 
term  miracles  is  properly  applied  ;  and  they  form  what  has  been 
called  the  seal  of  heaven,  implying  that  delegation  of  the  sovereign 
authority  of  the  Lord  of  all,  which  appears  to  be  reserved  in  the  con- 
duct of  providence  as  the  credential  of  those  to  whom  a  divine  com- 
mission is  at  any  time  granted.  This  was  the  rod  put  into  the  hand 
of  Moses,  wherewith  to  do  signs  and  wonders,  that  Pharaoh  and  the 
children  of  Israel  might  believe  that  the  Lord  God  had  sent  him. 
This  was  the  sign  given  to  Elijah,  that  it  miglit  be  known  that  he  was 
a  man  of  God ;  and  this  was  the  witness  which  the  Father  bore  to 
"  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  a  man  approved  of  God  by  miracles,  which  God 
did  by  him  in  the  midst  of  the  people,"t  and  to  the  apostles  of  Jesus 
who  went  forth  to  preach  the  Gospel,  "the  Lord  working  with  them, 
and  confirming  the  words  by  signs  following.''^ 

The  nature  of  the  revelation  contained  in  the  books  of  the  New 
Testament  afTordsa  very  strong  presumptive  proof  that  it  comes  from 
God ;  whilst  t'le  works  done  by  Jesus  and  his  Apostles  are  the  direct 
proof;  and  tlie  two  proofs  conspire  with  tlie  most  perfect  harmony. 
The  i)resuin|)tive  proof  explains  the  importance  and  the  dignity  of  that 
occasion  upon  which  the  Almiglity  was  pleased  to  make  the  inter- 
position, of  winch  these  works  are  the  sign  :  The  direct  proof  accounts 
for  that  transccndont  excellence,  in  the  doctrine  and  the  character  of 

•  Toshua  X.  12—14.  f  Acts  ii.  23.  \  Mark  xvi.  29 


32  DIRECT  OR  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCE 

the  author  of  this  system,  whicli,  upon  the  supposition  of  its  being  of 
human  origin,  appeared  to  be  inexplicable;  and  thus  the  internal  and 
external  evidence  of  Christianity,  by  the  aid  which  they  lend  to  one 
another,  make  us  "ready  to  give  an  answer  to  every  man  that  asketli 
a  reason  of  the  hope  that  is  in  us."*  ' 

We  have  found,  that  the  reasoning  involved  in  the  argument  from 
miracles,  proceeds  upon  the  same  principles  by  which  a  sound  theist 
infers  the  being  and  perfections  of  God ;  in  both  cases,  we  discover 
God  by  his  works,  which  are  to  us  the  signs  of  his  agency.  This 
analogy  between  the  proofs  of  natural  and  revealed  religion  is  very 
much  illustrated  by  considering  the  particular  miracles  recorded  in  the 
Gospel.  When  we  investigate  the  evidences  of  natural  religion,  we 
find  that  any  works  manifestly  exceeding  human  power  would  lead 
us,  in  the  course  of  fair -reasoning,  to  a  Being  antecedent  to  the  hu- 
man race,  superior  to  them  in  strength,  and  independent  of  them  in 
the  mode  of  his  existence.  But  it  is  the  transcendent  grandeur  oi 
those  works  which  we  behold,  their  inimitable  beauty,  their  endless 
variety,  their  harmony,  and  utility ;  it  is  this  infinite  superiority  of  the 
works  of  nature  above  the  works  of  art,  which  renders  the  argument 
completely  satisfying,  and  leaves  no  doubt  in  our  minds,  either  of  the 
power  or  of  the  moral  character  of  that  Being  from  whom  they  pro- 
ceed. In  like  manner,  although,  in  stating  the  argument  from  mira- 
cles in  support  of  the  Gospel,  we  have  reasoned  fairly  upon  this  sim- 
ple principle,  that  they  are  interruptions  of  the  course  of  nature,  yet, 
when  we  come  to  consider  those  particular  interruptions  upon  which 
the  Gospel  founds  its  claim,  we  perceive  that  their  nature  furnishes  a 
very  strong  confirmation  of  the  general  argument,  and  that,  like  the 
other  works  of  God,  they  proclaim  their  Author. 

In  Him  who  ruled  the  raging  of  the  sea  and  stilled  the  tempest,  we 
recognise  the  Lord  of  the  universe.  In  that  command  which  gave 
life  to  the  dead,  we  recognise  the  author  of  life.  In  the  works  of 
Him  who,  by  a  word  of  his  mouth,  cured  the  most  inveterate  diseases, 
unstopped  the  ears  which  had  never  admitted  a  sound,  opened  the 
eyes  which  had  never  seen  the  light,  conferred  upon  the  most  distract- 
ed mind  the  exercise  of  reason,  and  restored  the  withered,  maimed, 
distorted  limb,  we  recognise  the  Former  of  our  bodies  and  the  Father 
of  our  spirits.  This  is  the  very  power  by  which  all  things  consist, 
the  energy  of  Him  "  in  whom  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our 
being."f  The  miracles  of  the  Gospel  were  performed  without  pre- 
paration or  concert ;  they  were  instantaneous  in  the  manner  of  being 
produced,  yet  their  etfects  were  permanent;  and,  like  the  works  of 
nature,  although  they  came  without  effort  from  the  hands  of  the 
workman,  they  bore  to  be  examined  by  the  nicest  eye.  The;e  does 
not  ap[icar  in  them  that  poverty  which  marks  all  human  exertions; 
neither  the  strength  nor  the  skill  of  Him  who  did  them  seemed  to  be 
exhausted  ;  but  there  was  a  fulness  of  power,  a  multiplicity,  a  di- 
versity, a  readiness  in  the  exercise  of  it,  by  which  they  resemble 
the  riches  of  God  that  replenish  the  earth.  Yet  they  were  free  from 
parade  and  ostentation.  There  were  no  attempts  to  dazzle,  no  anxie- 
ty to  set  otf  every  work  to  the  best  advantage,  no  waste  of  exertion, 

•  1  Peter  iii.  15.'  f  Acts  xviii.  28. 


OP  CHRISTIANITY.  33 

no  frivolous  accompaniments  ;  but  a  sobriety,  a  decorum,  all  the  dig- 
nified simplicity  of  nature.  The  extraordinary  power  which  appear- 
ed in  the  miracles  of  the  gospel  was  employed  not  to  hurt  or  to  terrify, 
but  to  heal,  to  comfort,  and  to  bless.  The  gracious  purpose  to  which 
they  ministered  declared  their  divine  origin ;  and  they  who  beheld  a 
man  who  had  the  command  of  nature,  and  "  who  went  about  doing 
good,'"*  dispensing  with  a  bountiful  hand  the  gifts  of  heaven,  hghten- 
ing  the  burdens  of  human  life,  and  accompanying  every  exeicise  of 
his  power  with  a  display  of  tenderness,  condescension,  and  love,  were 
taught  to  venerate  the  messenger,  and  the  "express  image"  of  that  Al- 
mighty Lord  whose  kingdom  excels  at  once  in  majesty  and  in  grace. 
As  the  religion  which  these  miracles  were  wrought  to  attest,  is  in 
every  respect  worthy  of  God,  so  they  were  selected  with  divine  wisdom 
to  ilhistrate  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  that  religion  ;  and  in  the  admira- 
ble fitness  with  which  the  nature  of  the  proof  is  accommodated  to  the 
nature  of  the  thing  to  be  proved,  we  have  an  instance  of  tlie  same 
kind  with  many  which  the  creation  affords  of  the  perfection  of  the 
divine  workmanship.  Jesus  came  preaching  forgiveness  of  sins  ;  and 
he  brought  with  him  a  sensible  sign  of  his  having  received  a  commis- 
sion to  bestow  this  invisible  gift.  Disease  was  introduced  into  the 
world  by  sin.  Jesus  therefore  cured  all  manner  of  disease  that  we  might 
know  that  he  had  power  to  forgive  sins  also.  His  being  able  to  re- 
move, not  by  the  slow  uncertain  applications  of  human  art,  but  instant- 
ly by  a  word  of  his  mouth  spoken  at  any  distance,  those  temporal  mala- 
dies which  are  the  present  visible  fruits  of  sin,  was  an  assurance  to  the 
world  of  his  being  able  to  remove  the  spiritual  evils  which  flow  from 
the  same  source.  It  was  a  specimen,  a  symbolical  representation  of 
his  character  as  physician  of  souls.  Jesus  was  that  seed  of  the  woman 
who  was  to  bruise  the  head  of  the  serpent,  and  he  gave  in  his  miracles 
a  sensible  sign  of  the  fall  of  Satan,  The  influence  which  this  ad- 
versary of  mankind  in  every  age  exercises  over  the  minds  of  men, 
was  in  that  age  connected  with  a  degree  of  power  over  their  bodies. 
It  was  the  general  belief  in  Judea,  that  certain  diseases  proceeded  from 
the  possession  which  his  emissaries  took  of  the  human  body.  To  the 
Jews  therefore,  the  casting  out  devils  was  an  ocular  demonstration 
that  Jesus  was  able  to  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil.  It  was  the 
beguming  of  the  triumphs  of  this  mighty  prince,  a  trophy  which  he 
brought  from  the  land  of  the  enemy,  to  assure  his  followers  of  a 
complete  victory.  I  have  bound  the  strong  ma)i.  Do  you  ask  a 
proof?  See,  I  enter  his  house  and  spoil  his  ffoods.  I  set  free  the  mind 
and  conscience  which  he  had  enslaved.  My  people  will  feel  their 
freedom  and  will  need  no  foreign  proof.  But  does  the  world  require 
one  ?  See,  by  the  finger  of  God,  I  set  free  those  bodies  which  Satan 
torments.  His  raising  the  dead  was  a  practical  confirmation  of  that 
new  doctrine  of  his  religion,  that  the  hour  is  coming  when  they  who 
are  in  their  graves,  shall  hear  his  voice,  and  shall  come  forth  to  the 
resurrection.  You  cannot  say  that  the  thing  is  impossible  ;  for  you  see 
in  his  miracles  a  sample  of  that  almighty  power  which  siiall  quicken 
thom  that  sleep  in  the  dust,  a  sensible  sign  that  Jesus  "  hath  abolished 
death,"  and  is  able  to  "  ransom  his  people  from  the  power  of  the 
grave. "t 

•  Acts  X.  .38.  t  2  Tim.  i.  1 0  ;  Hos.  xiii.  14. 

H 


34  DIRECT  OR  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCE 

Other  miracles  of  Jesus  may  be  accommodated  to  the  doctrines  of 
religion,  and  much  spiritual  instruction  may  be  derived  from  them. 
But  these  three,  the  cure  of  diseases,  the  casting  out  devils,  and  the 
raising  the  dead,  are  applied  by  himself  in  the  manner  which  I  have 
stated.  They  are  not  only  a  confirmation  of  his  divine  mission,  by 
being  a  display  of  the  same  kind  of  power  wliich  appears  in  creation 
and  providence,  but,  from  their  nature,  they  are  a  proof  of  the  charac- 
teristical  doctrines  of  the  Gospel ;  and  we  are  led  by  considering 
works  so  great  in  themselves,  and  at  the  same  time  so  apposite  to  the 
purpose  for  which  they  were  wrought,  to  transfer  to  the  miracles  of 
Jesus  that  devout  exclamation  which  an  enlarged  view  of  the  creation 
dictated  to  the  Psalmist ;  "  How  manifold  are  thy  works,  0  Lord ;  in 
wisdom  hast  thou  made  them  all."* 

I  have  thus  stated  the  force  of  that  argument  which  arises  fromthe 
miracles  of  Jesus,  as  they  are  recorded  in  the  New  Testament.  They 
who  beheld  them  said,  "  When  Messias  cometh,  will  he  do  more 
miracles  than  those  which  this  man  doth  ?  This  is  the  prophet."t 
They  spoke  what  they  felt,  and  the  deductions  of  the  most  enlighten- 
ed reason  upon  this  subject  accord  with  the  feelings  of  every  unbiass- 
ed spectator.  But  we  are  not  the  spectators  of  the  miracles  of  Jesus  ; 
the  report  only  has  reached  our  ears  ;  and  some  further  principles  are 
necessary  in  our  situation  to  enable  us  to  apply  the  argument  from 
miracles  in  support  of  the  truth  of  Christianity. 


Section  II. 

It  appeared  more  consistent  with  the  sin)plicity  of  nature  and  the 
character  of  man,  that  one  or  more  persons  should  be  ordained  the 
instruments  of  conveying  an  extraordinary  revelation  to  the  rest  of 
the  world,  than  that  it  should  be  imparted  to  every  individual  mind. 
The  commission  of  these  messengers  of  heaven  may  be  attested  by 
changes  upon  the  order  of  nature,  which  the  Almighty  accomplishes 
through  their  agency.  But  the  works  which  they  do,  are  objects  of 
sense  only  to  their  contemporaries  with  whom  they  converse.  Without 
a  perpetual  miracle  exhibited  in  their  preservation,  those  facts  which 
are  the  proof  of  the  divine  revelation  must  be  transmitted  to  succeed- 
ing ages,  by  oral  or  written  tradition,  and,  like  all  other  facts  in  the 
history  of  former  times,  they  must  constitute  part  of  that  information 
which  is  received  upon  the  credit  of  testimony.  Accordingly  we  say, 
that  Jesus  Christ,  for  a  few  years,  did  signs  and  wonders  in  the 
presence  of  his  disciples,  and  before  all  the  people  :  the  report  of 
them  was  carried  through  the  world  after  his  departure  from  it  by 
chosen  witnesses,  to  whom  he  had  imparted  the  power  of  working 
miracles ;  and  many  of  the  miracles  done  both  by  him  and  his  apostles 
are  now  written  in'authentic  genuine  records  which  have  reached  our 
days,  that  we  also  may  believe  that  he  is  the  Son  of  God,  Supposing 
then  we  admit,  that  the  eye-witnesses  of  the  miracles  of  Jesus  reasoned 
justly  when  they  considered  them  as  proofs  of  a  divine  commission  ; 
still  it  remains  to  be  inquired,  whether  the  evidence  which  has  trans- 

•  Psalm  civ.  24.  f  John  vii.  31—40. 


OP  CHRISTIANITY.  35 

mitted  these  miracles  to  us,  is  sufficient  to  warrant  us  in  drawing  the 
same  inference  which  we  should  have  drawn  if  we  ourselves  had 
seen  them. 

There  are  three  questions  which  require  to  be  discussed  upon  this 
subject.  Whether  miracles  are  capable  of  proof?  Whether  the  testi- 
mony borne  to  the  miracles  of  Jesus  was  creditable  at  the  time  it  was 
given?  And  whether  the  distance  at  which  we  live  from  that  time 
destroys,  or  in  any  material  degree  impairs  its  original  credibility  ? 

1.  It  was  said  by  one  of  tiie  subtlest  reasoners  of  modern  times, 
that  a  miracle  is  incapable  of  being  proved  by  testimony.  His  argu- 
ment was  this  :  "  Our  belief  of  any  fact  attested  by  eye-witnesses 
rests  upon  our  experience  of  the  usual  conformity  of  facts  to  the 
reports  of  witnesses.  But  a  firm  and  unalterable  experience  hath 
established  the  laws  of  nature.  When,  therefore,  witnesses  attest  any 
fact  which  is  a  violation  of  the  laws  of  nature,  here  is  a  contest  of  two 
opposite  experiences.  The  proof  against  a  miracle,  from  the  very 
nature  of  the  fact,  is  as  entire  as  any  argument  from  experience  can 
be  imagined ;  and  if  so,  it  cannot  be  surmounted  by  a  proof  from 
testimony,  because  testimony  rests  upon  experience."  Mr.  Hume 
boasted  of  this  reasoning  as  unanswerable,  and  he  holds  it  forth  in  his 
Essay  on  Miracles  as  an  everlasting  check  to  superstition.  The  prin- 
ciples upon  which  the  reasoning  proceeds  have  been  closely  sifted 
and  their  fallacy  completely  exposed,  in  Campbell's  Dissertation  on 
Miracles;  one  of  the  best  polemical  treatises  that  ever  was  written. 
Mr.  Hume  meets  here  with  an  antagonist  who  is  not  inferior  to  him- 
self in  ncuteness,  and  who,  supported  by  the  goodness  of  his  cause, 
lins  gained  a  triumphant  victory.  I  consider  this  dissertation  as  a 
standard  book  for  sludents  of  divinity.  You  will  find  in  it  accurate 
reasoning,  and  much  information  upon  tlie  whole  subjfct  of  miracles, 
and,  in  particular,  a  thorough  investigation  of  the  question  which  I 
have  now  stated. 

It  is  not  true  that  our  belief  in  testimony  rests  wholly  upon  expe- 
rience ;  for,  as  every  man  has  a  principle  of  veracity  which  leads  him 
to  speak  truth,  unless  his  mind  be  under  some  particular  wrong  bias, 
so  we  arc  led,  by  the  consciousness  of  this  principle,  and  by  the  ana- 
logy which  we  suppose  to  exist  between  om*  own  mind  and  the  mind 
of  others,  to  believe  that  they  also  speak  the  truth,  until  we  learn  by 
experience  that  they  mean  to  deceive  us.  It  is  not  accurate  to  state 
the  firm  and  unalterable  experience  which  is  said  to  establish  the  laws 
of  nature  as  somewhat  distinct  from  testimony;  for  since  the  observa- 
tions of  any  individual  are  much  too  limited'to  enable  him  to  judge 
of  the  uniformity  of  nature,  the  word  experience,  in  the  sense  in  Avhich 
it  is  used  in  this  proposition,  presupposes  a  faith  in  testimony,  for  it 
comprehends  the  observations  of  others  communicated  to  us  through 
that  channel.  It  is  not  true  that  a  firm  and  unalterable  experience 
hath  established  the  laws  of  nature,  because  the  liistories  of  all  coun- 
tries are  filled  with  accounts  of  deviations  from  them. 

Tliese  are  objections  to  the  principles  of  Mr.  Hume's  Tirgument, 
which  his  subtle  antagonist  brings  forward,  and  presses  with  much 
f  >rce.  But,  independently  of  these  inferior  points,  he  has  shown  that 
the  argument  itself  is  a  fallacy;  and  the  sophism  lies  here.  Expe- 
rience vouches  that  which  is  past;  but,  if  the  word  has  any  meaning, 


36  DIRECT  OR  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCE 

experience  does  not  vouch  that  which  is  future.  Our  judgment  of  the 
future  is  an  inference  which  we  draw  from  the  reports  of  experience 
concerning  the  past :  the  reports  may  be  true,  and  yet  our  inference 
may  be  false.  Thus  experience  declares  that  it  is  not  agreeable  to  the 
usual  course  of  nature  for  the  dead  to  rise.  Suppose  twelve  men  to 
declare  that  the  dead  do  usually  arise,  there  would  be  proof  against 
proof;  a  particular  testimony  set  against  our  own  personal  observa- 
tions, and  against  all  the  reports  and  observations  of  others  which  we 
had  collected  upon  that  subject.  But  suppose  twelve  men  to  declare 
that  one  dead  man  did  arise,  here  is  no  opposition  between  the  reports 
of  experience  and  their  testimony;  for  it  does  not  fall  within  the  pro- 
vince of  experience  to  declare  that  it  is  impossible  for  the  dead  to  rise, 
or  that  the  usual  course  of  nature  in  this  matter  shall  never  be  depart- 
ed from.  We  may  hastily  draw  such  inference  from  the  reports  of 
experience.  But  the  inference  is  our  own  :  we  have  taken  too  wide 
a  step  in  making  it ;  and  it  is  sophism  to  say,  that  because  experience 
vouches  the  premises,  experience  vouches  also  that  conclusion  which 
is  drawn  from  them  merely  by  a  defect  in  our  mode  of  reasoning. 

When  witnesses  then  attest  miracles,  experience  and  testimony  do 
not  contradict  one  another.  Experience  declares  that  such  events  do 
not  usually  happen:  testimony  declares  that  they  have  happened  in 
that  instance.  Each  makes  its  own  report,  and  the  reports  of  both 
may  be  true.  Instances  somewhat  similar  occur  in  other  cases.  Un- 
usual events,  extraordinary  phenomena  in  nature,  strange  revolutions 
in  politics,  uncommon  efforts  of  genius  or  of  memory,  are  all  receii^ed 
upon  testimony.  Magnetism,  electricity,  and  galvanism  are  opposite 
to  the  properties  of  matter  formerly  known.  Yet  many  who  never 
saw  these  new  powers  exerted,  give  credit  to  the  reports  of  the  expe- 
riments that  have  been  made.  Experience  indeed  begets  a  presump- 
tion with  regard  to  the  future.  We  are  disposed  to  believe  that  the 
facts  which  have  been  uniformly  observed  will  recur  in  similar  cir- 
cumstances;  and  we  act  upon  this  presumption.  But  as  new  situa- 
tions may  occur,  in  which  a  ditference  of  circumstances  produces  a 
difference  in  the  event,  and  as  we  do  not  pretend  to  be  acquainted 
with  all  the  circumstances  which  discriminate  every  new  case,  t'lis 
presumption  is  overturned  by  credible  testimony  relating  facts  differ- 
ent from  those  which  have  been  observed.  Without  the  presumption 
suggested  by  experience,  we  should  live  in  perpetual  amazement; 
without  the  credit  given  to  testimony,  we  should  often  remain  igno- 
rant, and  be  exposed  to  danger.  By  the  one,  we  accommodate  our 
conduct  to  the  general  uniformity  of  events ;  by  the  other,  we  are  ap- 
prized of  new  facts  which  sometimes  arise.  The  provision  made  for 
us  by  the  Author  of  our  nature  is  in  this  way  complete,  and  ve  are 
prepared  for  our  whole  condition. 

There  does  not  appear,  then,  to  be  any  foundation  for  saying  that  a 
miracle  is,  from  its  nature,  incapable  of  being  proved  by  testimony. 
As  nothing  can  hinder  the  Author  of  nature  from  changing  the  order 
of  nature  whensoever  he  sees  meet,  and  as  one  v  My  important  pur- 
pose in  his  government  is  most  effectually  promoted  by  employing,  at 
particular  seasons,  the  ministry  of  men  to  change  this  order,  a  miracle 
is  aiwavs  a  possible  event,  and  becomes,  in  certain  circinnstances,  not 
improbable.     Like  every  other  possible  fact,  therefore,  it  may  be  com- 


or  CHRISTIANITY.  37 

municated  to  such  as  have  not  seen  it  by  the  testimony  of  such  as 
have.  It  is  natural  indeed,  to  weigh  very  scrupulously  the  testimony 
of  a  miracle,  because  testimony  has  in  this  case  to  encounter  that  pre- 
sumption against  the  fact  wiiich  is  suggested  by  experience.  The 
person  who  relates  it  may,  from  ignorance,  mistake  an  unusual  appli- 
cation of  the  laws  of  nature  for  a  suspension  of  them ;  an  exercise  of 
superior  slcill  and  dexterity  for  a  work  beyond  the  power  of  man  ;  or 
he  may  be  disposed  to  amuse  himself,  and  to  promote  some  private 
end  by  our  credulity.  Accordingly,  we  do  not  receive  any  extraor- 
dinary fact  in  common  life  upon  the  credit  of  every  man  whom  we 
chance  to  meet.  We  attend  to  the  character  and  the  manner  of  the 
reporter  ;  we  lay  together  the  several  parts  of  his  report,  and  we  call 
in  every  circumstance  which  may  assist  us  in  judging  whether  he  is 
speaking  the  truth.  The  more  extraordinary  and  important  the  fact 
be,  there  is  the  more  reason  for  this  caution  ;  and  it  is  especially  pro- 
per, in  examining  the  reports  of  those  facts  which  deserve  the  name 
of  miracles,  /.  e.  works  contrary  to  the  course  of  nature,  said  to  be 
performed  by  man,  as  tlie  evidences  of  an  extraordinary  revelation. 

2.  We  are  thus  led  to  the  second  question  which  I  stated.  Whether 
the  testimony  borne  to  the  miracles  of  Jesus  was  credible? 

The  Apostles  were  chosen  by  Jesus  to  be  witnesses  to  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth  of  all  things  which  he  did,  both  in  the  land  of  the 
Jews  and  in  Jerusalem,  and  of  his  resurrection  from  the  dead.  This 
was  the  commission  which  they  received  from  him  immediately 
before  his  ascension,  the  character  under  which  they  appeared  before 
the  Jewish  council,  and  the  office  which  they  assume  in  their  writings. 
It  is  not  my  business  to  spread  out  the  circumstances  which  render 
theirs  a  credible  testimony,andgive  to  each  its  propercolouring.  It  is 
enough  for  me  to  mention  the  sources  of  argument. 

In  judging  of  the  credibility  of  this  testimony,  you  are  led  back  to 
that  branch  of  the  internal  evidence  of  Christianity  which  arises  from 
the  character  of  the  Apostles,  as  it  appears  in  their  writings — in  their 
unblemished  conduct,  and  distinguished  virtues — in  that  soundness  of 
understanding,  and  calmness  of  temper  which  are  opposite  to  enthusi- 
asm,— and  in  those  simple  artless  manners  which  are  most  unlike  to 
imposture.  You  are  further  to  observe,  that  their  relation  of  the 
miracles  of  Jesus  consists  of  palpable  facts,  which  were  the  objects  of 
sense.  The  power  by  which  a  man  born  blind  received  his  sight  was 
invisible  ;  but  that  the  man  was  born  blind  might  be  learned  with 
certainty  from  his  parents  or  neighbours  :  and  that,  by  obeying  a 
simple  command  of  Jesus,  he  recovered  his  sight,  was  manifest  to 
every  spectator.  The  power  which  raised  a  dead  man  was  invisible  ; 
but  that  Jesus  and  his  disciples  met  a  large  company  carrying  forth 
a  young  man  to  his  burial — that  this  young  man  was  known  to  his 
friends,  and  believed  by  all  the  company  to  be  truly  dead,  and  that 
upon  Jesus'  coming  to  the  bier,  and  bidding  him  arise,  he  sat  up  and 
began  to  speak ;  all  these  are  points  which  it  did  not  require  superior 
learning  or  sagacity  to  discern,  but  concerning  which,  any  person  in 
the  exercise  of  his  senses,  who  was  present  and  who  bestowed  an 
ordinary  degree  of  attention,  could  not  be  mistaken.  The  case  is  the 
same  with  the  other  miracles.  We  are  not  required  to  rest  upon  the 
judgment  of  the  Apostles — upon  their  acquaintance  with  physical 
6 


38  DIRECT  OR  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCE 

causes,  for  the  miraculous  nature  of  the  woife  which  Jesus  did  ;  for 
they  gave  us  simply  the  facts  which  they  saw,  and  leave  us  to  make 
the  inference  for  ourselves.  There  is  no  amplification  in  the  manner 
of  recording  the  miracles,  no  attempt  to  excite  our  wonder,  no  excla- 
mation of  surprise  upon  their  part ;  they  relate  the  most  marvellous 
exertions  of  their  Master's  power  with  the  same  calmness  as  ordinary 
facts ;  they  sometimes  mention  the  feelings  of  joy  and  admiration 
which  were  uttered  by  the  other  spectators ;  they  hardly  ever  express 
their  own. 

This  temperance  with  which  the  Apostles  speak  of  all  that  Jesus 
did,  gives  every  reader  a  security  in  receiving  their  report,  which  he 
would  not  have  felt,  had  the  narration  been  turgid.  Yet  he  cannot  enter- 
tain any  doubt  of  their  being  convinced  that  the  works  of  Jesus  were 
truly  miraculous  ;  for  by  these  works  they  were  attached  to  a  stranger. 
While  they  lived  in  honest  obscurity,  an  extraordinary  personage  ap- 
peared in  their  country,  and  called  upon  them  to  follow  him.  They 
left  their  occupations  and  their  homes,  and  continued  for  some  years  the 
witnesses  of  all  that  he  did.  They  were  Jews,  and  had  those  feelings 
which  have  ever  distinguished  the  sons  of  Abraham  with  regard  to 
the  national  religion.  Their  education,  instead  of  enlarging  their 
views,  had  confirmed  their  prejudices.  Yet  they  were  converted  : 
with  every  thing  else,  they  forsook  their  religion,  and  joined  a  man 
who  was  the  author  of  a  system  which  professed  to  supersede  the  law 
of  Moses.  They  received  him  as  the  promised  Messiah.  But,  pos- 
sessed with  the  fond  hopes  of  the  Jewish  nation,  they  believed  that  he 
was  a  temporal  prince,  come  to  restore  the  kingdom  to  Israel,  and  to 
make  the  Jews  masters  of  the  world.  They  were  undeceived.  Yet 
this  disappointment  did  not  shake  their  faith.  Although  they  had 
followed  Jesus  in  the  expectation  of  being  the  ministers  and  favourites 
of  an  earthly  prince,  they  were  content  to  remain,  during  his  life,  the 
wandering  attendants  of  a  man  who  had  "  not  where  to  lay  his  head;'* 
and  they  appeared  in  public,  after  his  departure  from  the  earth,  as  his 
disciples.  The  body  of  the  Jewish  people,  attached  to  the  law  of 
Moses,  regarded  them  as  traitors  to  their  nation.  To  the  priests  and 
rulers,  whose  influence  depended  upon  the  established  faith,  they 
were  peculiarly  obnoxious.  That  civil  power  with  which  the  spirit  of 
the  Jewish  religion  had  invested  its  ministers,  was  directed  against  the 
apostles  of  Jesus  :  and  without  any  attempt  to  disprove  the  facts  which 
they  asserted,  every  eftbrt  was  made  to  silence  them  by  force.  They 
were  imprisoned  and  called  before  the  most  august  tribunal  of  the  state. 
There  the  high  priest,  armed  with  all  the  dignity  and  authority  of  his 
sacred  oflice,  commanded  them  not  to  preach  any  more  in  the  name 
of  Jesus.  Yet  these  men,  educated  in  servile  dread  of  the  higher 
powers,  with  the  prospect  of  instant  pimishment  before  their  eyes,  de- 
clared that  they  would  obey  God  rather  than  man.  Their  conduct 
corresponded  to  this  heroic  declaration.  Although  exposed  to  the 
fury  of  the  populace  and  the  vengeance  of  the  rulers,  they  continued 
in  the  words  of  truth  and  soberness  to  execute  their  commission  ;  and 
they  sealed  their  testimony  with  their  blood  ;  martyrs,  not  to  specula- 
tive opinions  in  which  they  might  be  mistaken,  but  to  facts  which 
they  declared  they  had  seen  and  heard,  which  they  said  they  were 
commanded  to  publish,  and  which  no  threatening  or  punishment 
could  make  them  either  deny  or  conceal. 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  39 

The  history  of  mankind  has  not  preserved  a  testimony  so  complete 
and  satisfying  as  that  which  I  have  now  stated.  If,  in  comformity  to 
the  exhibitions  which  the  writings  of  tliese  men  give  of  their  character, 
you  suppose  their  testimony  to  be  true,  then  you  can  give  the  most 
natural  account  of  every  part  of  their  conduct,  of  their  conversation, 
their  steadfastness,  and  their  heroism.  But  if  notwitiistanding  every 
appearance  of  truth  you  suppose  their  testimony  to  be  false,  inexpli- 
cable circumstances  and  glaring  absurdities  crowd  upon  you.  You 
must  suppose  that  twelve  men  of  mean  birth,  of  no  education,  living 
in  that  humble  station  which  placed  ambitious  views  out  of  their 
reach  and  far  from  their  thoughts,  without  any  aid  from  the  state, 
formedthenoblestscheme  that  ever  entered  into  the  mind  of  man,  adopted 
the  most  daring  means  of  executing  that  scheme,  and  conducted  it 
with  such  address  as  to  conceal  the  imposture  under  the  semblance  of 
simplicity  and  virtue.  You  must  suppose  that  men  guilty  of  blasphe- 
my and  falsehood  united  in  an  attempt  the  best  contrived,  and  which 
has  in  fact  proved  the  most  successful,  for  making  the  world  virtuous ; 
that  they  formed  this  singular  enterprise  without  seeking  any  advan- 
tage to  themselves,  with  an  avowed  contempt  of  honour  and  profit, 
and  with  the  certain  expectation  of  scorn  and  persecution  ;  that 
although  conscious  of  one  another's  villany,  none  of  them  ever  thought 
of  providing  for  his  own  security  by  disclosing  the  fraud ;  but  that, 
amidst  sufferings  the  most  grievous  to  flesh  and  blood,  they  persevered 
in  their  conspiracy  to  cheat  the  world  into  piety,  honesty,  and  bene- 
volence. 

They  who  can  swallow  such  suppositions  have  no  title  to  object  to 
miracles.  They  should  remember  that  there  is  a  moral  as  well  as 
a  physical  order ;  that  there  are  certain  general  principles  by  which 
human  actions  are  regulated,  and  upon  which  we  are  accustomed  to 
proceed  in  our  judgments  of  the  conduct  of  men;  and  that  it  is  much 
more  difficult  to  conceive  that,  in  opposition  to  those  principles  which 
analogy  and  experience  have  established,  such  a  testimony  as  the 
apostles  uttered  should  be  false,  than  that  the  laws  of  nature  in  some 
particular  instances  should  have  been  suspended.  Of  the  suspension 
of  tlie  laws  of  nature  we  can  give  a  rational  account :  the  purpose  for 
which  it  is  said  to  have  been  made  renders  it  not  incredible.  But  the 
falsehood  of  testimony  in  such  circumstances  would  be  a  phenomenon 
in  the  history  of  the  human  mind  so  strange  and  inexplicable,  that  we 
need  not  be  afraid  to  apply  to  this  case  the  words  of  Mr.  Hume,  although 
he  certainly  did  not  mean  them  to  be  so  applied  :  "No  testimony  is  suf- 
cient  to  establish  a  miracle,  unless  the  testimony  be  of  such  a  kind,  that 
its  falsehood  would  be  more  miraculous  than  the  fact  whicii  it  endea- 
vours to  establish."  The  falsehood  of  the  testimony  of  the  apostles 
would  be  more  miraculous,  i.  e.  it  is  more  improbable  than  any  fact 
which  they  attest. 

3.  But  although  the  testimony  of  the  apostles  appears,  upon  all  the 
principles  according  to  which  we  judge  of  such  matters,  to  have  been 
credible  at  the  time  Avhen  it  was  given,  it  remains  to  be  inquired, 
whether  the  distance  at  which  we  live  from  that  time  does,  in  any 
material  degree,  impair  to  us  its  original  credibility. 

It  is  allowed  that  the  testimony  of  the  apostles  received  the  strong- 
est confirmation  from  its  having  been  emitted  immediately  after  the 


40  DIRECT  OR  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCE 

ascension  of  Jesus,  in  the  very  place  where  they  said  he  had  performed 
many  of  his  mighty  works,  under  the  eye  of  that  government  which 
had  persecuted  him,  and  in  presence  of  multitudes  to  whom  they  ap- 
pealed as  witnesses  of  wliat  they  declared.  This  must  be  allowed  by 
all  who  are  qualified  to  judge  of  evidence.  Now  let  it  be  remember- 
ed that  the  benefit  of  this  confirmation  is  not  lost  to  us,  because, 
although  their  testimony  was  at  first  oral,  given  in  their  preaching  to 
those  whom  they  converted,  it  was  soon  recorded  in  books  Avhich  we 
receive  upon  satisfying  evidence  as  authentic  and  genuine.  There  is 
therefore  no  room  to  allege  in  disparagement  of  this  testimony,  the 
inaccuracy  of  verbal  reports,  or  the  natural  disposition  to  exaggerate 
in  the  repetition  of  every  extraordinary  event.  We  are  put  in  posses- 
sion of  the  facts  as  they  were  published  in  the  lifetime  of  the  apostles, 
without  the  embellishments  of  succeeding  ages ;  and  every  circum- 
stance which  moved  those  who  heard  their  testimony,  is  preserved  in 
their  books  to  establish  our  faith. 

The  early  publication  of  the  Gospels  and  Acts  is  to  us  an  unques- 
tionable voucher  of  the  following  most  important  facts, — that  the 
miracles  of  our  Lord  and  his  apostles  were  not  done  in  a  corner  before 
a  few  selected  friends,  and  by  them  artfully  spread  through  the  world, 
but  were  performed  openly,  in  the  fields,  in  the  city,  in  the  temple, 
before  enemies  who  had.  every  opportunity  of  examining  them,  who 
did  not  regard  them  with  indifference,  who  were  alarmed  with  the 
effect  which  they  produced  upon  the  minds  of  the  people,  and  were 
zealous  in  bringing  forward  every  objection.  Had  any  one  of  these 
circumstances  been  false,  the  early  publication  of  books  asserting  them 
would  have  overturned  the  schemiB,  Further,there  is  much  particu- 
larity in  the  narration  of  manj^  of  the  miracles:  reference  is  made  to 
time  and  place  ;  many  local  circumstances  are  introduced  ;  persons 
are  marked  out,  not  only  by  their  distress,  but  by  their  rank  and  their 
names  ;  the  emotions  of  the  spectators,  the  joy  of  those  who  received 
deliverance,  the  consultations  held  by  rulers,  and  the  public  orders  in 
consequence  of  certain  miracles,  all  enter  into  the  record  of  these 
books.  While  every  intelligent  reader  discerns  in  this  particular 
detail  the  most  accurate  acquaintance  with  the  prejudices  and  the 
manners  of  the  times,  and  is  from  thence  satisfied  that  the  books  are 
authentic,  he  must  also  be  satisfied  that  a  detail  which,  by  its  particu- 
larity, called  so  much  attention,  and  admitted,  at  the  time  it  was 
published,  of  so  easy  investigation,  is  itself  a  voucher  of  its  own  truth. 
Again,  the  history  of  the  miracles  is  so  closely  interwoven  with  the 
rest  of  the  narration,  that  any  man  who  reads  it  may  be  satisfied  that 
it  could  not  have  been  inserted  after  the  books  were  published. — 
There  are  numberless  allusions  to  the  miracles  even  in  those  passages 
where  none  of  them  are  recorded  ;  the  faith  of  the  first  disciples  is 
said  to  have  been  founded  upon  them,  and  the  change  upon  their 
sentiments  is  truly  inexplicable,  unless  we  suppose  the  miracles  to 
have  been  done  in  their  presence.  All,  therefore,  who  received  the 
Gospels  and  the  Acts  in  early  times,  when  they  could  easily  examine 
the  truth  of  the  facts,  may  be  considered  as  setting  their  seal  to  the 
miracles  of  Jesus  and  his  apostles  ;  and  the  number  of  the  first  converts 
out  of  Judea  and  Jerusalem  forms,  in  this  way,  a  cloud  of  wit- 
nesses. 


OF  CHRISTIANIxr.  41 

That  confirmation  of  the  testimony  of  the  apostles,  which  appears 
to  be  inipHed  in  the  faith  of  all  the  first  Christians,  is  rendered  much 
more  striking,  by  the  pecuhar  nature  of  a  large  part  of  the  New 
Testament.  I  mean  the  epistles  to  the  difterent  churches.  Paul,  in 
several  of  the  epistles  which  he  sent  by  particular  messengers  to  those 
whose  names  they  bear,  and  which  were  authenticated  to  the  whole 
Christian  world  by  his  superscription,  mentions  the  miracles  which  he 
had  performed,  the  effect  which  his  miracles  had  produced,  and  the 
extraordinary  powers  which  he  had  imparted.  A  large  portion  of 
the  first  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  is  occupied  with  a  discourse  con- 
cerning spiritual  gifts,  in  which  he  speaks  of  them  as  conmion  in  that 
church,  as  abused  by  many  who  possessed  them,  and  as  inferior  in 
excellence  to  moral  virtue.  In  his  first  Epistle  to  the  Thessulonians, 
which  is  known  to  have  been  the  earliest  of  the  apostolical  writings, 
Paul  says,  "  Our  Gospel  came  to  you  not  in  word  only,  but  in  power 
and  in  the  Holy  Ghost;  and  they,  i.  e.  your  own  citizens,  in  their 
progress  through  different  parts  of  the  world,  show  of  us  what  manner 
of  entering  in  we  had  unto  you,  and  how  ye  turned  from  idols  to  serve 
the  living  God."*  Here  is  a  letter  written  not  twenty  years  after  the 
ascension  of  Jesus,  sent,  as  soon  as  it  was  written,  to  the  church  of 
Thessalonica  to  be  read  there,  and  in  the  neighbouring  churches, 
copied  and  circulated  by  those  to  whom  it  was  addressed,  uniformly 
quoted  since  that  time  by  the  succession  of  Christian  writers,  and  come 
down  to  us  with  every  evidence  that  can  be  desired,  indeed  without 
any  dispute  of  its  being  a  genuine  letter.  In  this  letter  the  apostle 
tells  the  Thessalonians  that  they  had  been  converted  to  the  Gospel 
by  the  miracles  of  those  who  preached  it,  and  that  the  effect  which 
this  conversion  had  produced  upon  their  conduct  was  talked  of  every- 
where. If  these  facts  had  not  been  known  to  the  Thessalonians,  the 
letter  would  have  been  instantly  rejected,  and  the  character  of  him 
who  wrote  it  would  have  sank  into  contempt.  Its  being  publicly 
read,  held  in  veneration,  and  transmitted  by  them,  is  a  proof  that 
every  thing  said  in  it  concerning  themselves  is  true,  and  therefore  it  is 
a  proof  that  those  who  could  not  be  mistaken,  believed  in  the  miracles 
of  the  apostles  of  our  Lord.  This  argument  is  handled  by  Butler,  and 
all  the  ablest  defenders  of  our  religion  ;  and  I  have  been  led  to  state 
it  particularly,  because  it  has  always  appeared  to  me  an  unanswerable 
argument  arising  out  of  the  books  themselves,  a  confirmation  of  the 
testimony  of  the  apostles  that  is  independent  of  their  personal  char- 
acter, and  yet  is  demonstrative  of  the  estimation  in  which  they  were 
held  by  their  contemporaries,  and  of  the  credit  which  we  may  safely 
give  to  their  report. 

4.  It  only  remains  to  be  added  upon  this  question,  that  a  testimony 
thus  strongly  confirmed  is  not  contradicted  by  any  opposite  testimony. 
The  books  of  the  New  Testament  are  fall  of  concessions  made  by  the 
adversaries  of  Christianity;  concessions,  the  force  of  which  must  be 
admitted  by  all  who  believe  the  books  to  be  authentic :  and  it  is  very 
remarkable,  that  concessions  of  exactly  the  same  kind  with  those  made 
by  the  Jews  in  our  Saviour's  days,  were  made  by  the  zealous  and 
learned  adversaries  of  our  faith  in  the  first  four  centuries.     Celsus, 

•  1  Thess.  i.  5,  9. 

6*  I 


42  DIRECT  OR  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCE 

Porphyry,  Hierocles,  and  Julian  did  not  deny  the  facts ;  they  only  at- 
tempted to  disparage  them,  or  to  ascribe  them  to  magic.     Julian  was 
emperor  of  Rome  in  the  fourth  century.     He  had  renounced  Chris- 
tianity, and  his  zeal  to  revive  the  ancient  heathen  vvorship  made  iiim 
the  bitterest  enemy  of  a  system  M'hich  condemned  all  the  forms  of 
idolatry.     Yet  this  man,  with  every  wish  to  overturn  the  estabhsh- 
ment  which  Christianity  had  received  from  Constantine,  does  not  pre- 
tend to  say  in  his  work  against  the  Christians,  that  no  miracles  were 
performed  by  Jesus.     In  one  place  he  says,  "  Jesus,  who  rebuked  the 
winds,  and  walked  on  the  seas,  and  cast  out  da3mon?,  and  as  you  will 
have  it,  made  the  heavens  and  the  earth."     In  another  place,"  Jesus 
has  beeu  celebrated  about  three  hundred  years,  having  done  nothing 
in  his  lifetime  worthy  of  remembrance,  unless  any  one  thinks  it  a 
mighty  matter  to  heal  lame  and  blind  people,  and  exorcise  demoniacs 
in  the  villages  of  Bethsaida  and  Bethany."*     The  prejudices  of  the 
emperor  led  him  to  speak  slightingly  of  the  miracles ;  but  the  facts 
are  admitted  by  him.     It  was  reserved  for  infidels  at  the  distance  of 
seventeen  hundred  years  from  the  event,  to  dispute  a  testimony  which 
had  appeared  satisfying  to  those  who  heard  it,  and  which  had  not  re- 
ceived any  contradiction  in  the  succession  of  ages.     Because  they  did 
not  believe  in  magic,  and  saw  the  futility  of  that  account  of  the  works 
of  Jesus  which  the  prejudices  of  the  times  had  drawn  from  their  pre- 
decessors in  infidelity,  they  have  taken  a  new  ground,  and  they  affirm, 
against  the  principles  of  human  nature,  against  the  faith  of  history, 
and  the  concessions  of  the  earliest  adversaries,  that  the  works  never 
were  done.     But  Christianity  has  nothing  to  fear  from  any  change  in 
the  mode  of  attack.     Sound  philosophy  will  always  furnish  weapons 
sufficient  to  repel  the  aggressor  ;  and  the  truth  will  be  the  more  firmly 
established  by  every  display  of  the  mutability  of  error. 

It  appears'  then,  that  even  that  part  of  the  external  evidence  of 
Christianity,  which  from  its  nature  is  the  most  likely  to  be  affected  by 
length  of  time,  is  not  evanescent ;  that  various  circumstances  preserve 
it  from  diminution;  and  that  we,  in  these  latter  ages,  may  certainly 
know  the  truth  of  the  testimony  borne  by  those  who  declare  in  the 
books  of  the  New  Testament  that  which  they  saw  and  heard. 


Section  III. 

The  subject  would  now  be  exhausted  if  the  only  miracles  recorded 
in  history  were  those  to  which  Jesus  and  his  Apostles  made  their  ap- 
peal. This  singular  attestation,  given  upon  so  important  an  occasion, 
would  then  appear  a  decisive  mark  of  the  interposition  of  the  Al- 
mighty; and  every  person  who  believes  the  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment to  be  authentic,  might  be  expected  to  join  in  the  opinion  of  Nico- 
demus,  who  said  to  Jesus,  "  We  know  that  thou  art  a  teacher  come 
from  God  ;  for  no  man  can  do  these  miracles  that  thou  dost,  except 
God  be  with  him."t  But  the  subject  is  involved  in  new  difficulties, 
and  assumes  a  much  more  complicated  form,  when  we  recollect  that 

•  Lardner's  Heath.  Test.  ch.  xlvi.  f  J°^"  "'•  ^' 


OP  CHRISTIANITY.  43 

accounts  of  prodigies  and  miracles  abound  in  all  history,  that  these 
miracles  are  generally  connected  with  the  religion  of  the  country  in 
which  the  record  of  them  is  preserved,  and  that,  as  the  religions  of 
different  countries  are  widely  different,  the  miracles  of  one  country 
appear  to  contradict  the  miracles  of  another.  If  it  be  said  that  all  the 
reports  of  miracles,  excepting  those  recorded  in  the  scriptures,  are 
false,  then  it  follows  that  there  must  be  a  facility  of  imposition  in  this 
matter  against  which  the  human  mind  has  never  been  proof.  If  some 
other  reports  of  miracles,  besides  those  in  scripture,  are  admitted  to  be 
true,  then  it  seems  to  follow,  that  miracles  are  not  the  unequivocal 
mark  of  a  divine  commission. 

This  multitude  of  reports  concerning  miracles  has  afforded  m.nch 
triumph  to  the  adversaries  of  Christianity,  and,  in  the  opinion  of  JNIr. 
Hume,  the  authority  of  any  testimony  concerning  a  religious  miracle 
is  so  much  diminished  by  the  ridiculous  stories,  and  the  gross  imposi- 
tions of  the  same  kind  in  all  ages,  that  men  of  sense  should  lay  down 
a  general  resolution  to  reject  it  without  any  examination.  The  zeal 
with  which  he  writes,  has  led  him  to  recommend  a  resolution  very 
unbecoming  a  philosopher.  At  the  same  time,  it  must  be  allowed 
that,  upon  the  one  hand,  the  prejudice  arising  from  the  multitude  of 
false  miracles  which  have  been  reported  and  believed,  and,  upon  the 
other  hand,  the  suspicion  that  out  of  the  number  preserved  in  ancient 
history,  some  may  have  been  real  miracles,  furnish  a  very  plausible 
objection  against  this  branch  of  the  external  evidence  of  Christianity; 
an  objection  which  every  person  whose  business  it  is  to  defend  the 
truth  of  our  religion  must  be  prepared  to  meet ;  and  an  objection  which 
there  is  the  more  reason  for  studying  with  care,  because  the  attempts 
to  answer  it  have  not  always  been  conducted  with  sufficient  ability 
and  prudence,  and  some  zealous  champions  for  Christianity  have 
mistaken  the  ground  which  ought  to  be  maintained  in  repelling  this 
attack. 

The  four  observations  which  follow,  appear  to  me  to  embrace  the 
leading  points  in  this  controversy,  and  when  properly  extended  by 
reading  and  reflection,  will  be  found  sufficient  to  remove  the  objection 
arising  from  the  multitude  of  miracles  mentioned  in  history. 

1.  No  religion,  except  the  Jewish  and  Christian,  which,  by  every 
person  who  understands  the  Gospel,  are  accounted  one  religion, — no 
other  religion  that  we  know  of,  claimed  to  be  received  upon  the  foot- 
ing of  miracles  performed  by  its  author. 

Some  of  the  ancient  lawgivers  said,  that  they  had  private  confer- 
ences with  the  Deity,  in  which  the  system  of  religious  or  civil  polity, 
which  they  established,  was  communicated  to  them.  But  none  of 
them  pretended  to  produce,  in  the  presence  of  the  people,  changes 
upon  the  order  of  nature.  The  Pagan  mythology  was  much  more 
ancient  than  any  record  of  miracles  in  profane  history.  Many  of  the 
achievements  of  the  gods  run  back  into  those  periods  of  which  there 
is  no  history  that  is  not  accounted  fabulous  ; — some  are  known  to  the 
learned  to  be  an  allegorical  method  of  conveying  moral  or  physical 
truth ;  and  others  are  merely  the  colouring  which  fable  and  poetry 
gave  to  the  transactions  of  a  remote  antiquity  handed  down  by  oral 
tradition.  The  miracles  recorded  in  the  times  of  authentic  history  co- 
incided with  a  superstition  already  established,  the  influence  of  which 


44  DIRECT  OR  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCE 

prepared  the  minds  of  men  for  receiving  them.  They  were  performed 
by  priests,  or  men  of  rank,  to  whom  the  people  were  accustomed  to 
look  up  with  reverence  ;  generally  in  temples  consecrated  by  the  of- 
ferings of  ages,  where  it  was  impious  for  the  eye  of  the  worshippers 
to  pry  too  closely ;  under  the  protection  of  civil  government ;  and  in 
support  of  a  system  which  antiquity  had  hallowed,  and  which  the  law 
commanded  the  citizens  to  respect.  The  miracles  of  the  Gospel,  on 
the  other  hand,  were  performed  by  obscure  despised  men,  in  the  midst 
of  enemies,  as  the  vouchers  of  a  new  doctrine  which  was  accounted 
an  insult  to  the  gods,  and  which  did  not  flatter  the  passions  of  men.  It 
is  manifest  that  the  cases  are  widely  dilferent ;  and  before  proceeding 
to  any  particular  examination  &f  the  heathen  miracles,  you  are  war- 
ranted in  considering  the  whole  multitude  of  them  as  clearly  discrimi- 
nated from  the  miracles  recorded  in  Scripture,  by  this  circumstance, 
that  they  were  not  wrought  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  credit  to  a 
new  system  of  faith.  In  the  seventh  century,  Mahomet  appeared  in 
Arabia,  calling  himself  the  chief  of  the  prophets  of  God,  sent  to  extir- 
pate idolatry,  and  to  establish  a  new  and  perfect  religion.  He  ac- 
knowledged the  divine  mission  both  of  Moses  and  of  Jesus.  He  often 
mentions  the  evident  miracles  which  Jesus  wrought,  and  he  has  pre- 
served the  names  of  the  persons  whom  our  Lord  raised  from  the 
dead.  Those  who  opposed  him  demanded  a  sign  of  his  mission. 
He  gave  various  reasons  for  not  complying  with  this  demand,  and  in 
different  places  of  the  Koran  appears  solicitous  to  obviate  the  doubts 
which  his  refusal  excited.  But  although  his  reasons  were  not  satis- 
fying, and  he  was  harassed  with  importunity, — although  he  lived 
amongst  a  barbarous  unlearned  people,  and  although  he  possessed  a 
very  uncommon  share  of  ability  and  address,  he  had  the  prudence 
never  to  make  the  experiment  of  working  a  miracle,  and  he  confesses 
that  God,  in  his  sovereignty,  had  withheld  from  him  that  power.  The 
Church  of  Rome  claims  the  power  which  Mahomet  did  not  assume, 
and  the  history  of  that  Church  is  full  of  wonders  said  to  be  performed 
at  the  shrines  of  saints  and  martyrs,  by  the  divine  virtue  residing  in  a 
relic,  or  by  the  power  committed  to  a  religious  order,  to  a  particular 
sect,  or  to  the  whole  Church.  But  all  these  are  in  support  of  a  sys- 
tem already  established,  and  in  conformity  to  the  wishes  and  expec- 
tations of  the  spectators ;  and,  like  the  heathen  miracles,  they  extend 
the  prevailing  superstition  by  introducing  or  confirming  doctrines, 
rites,  and  practices,  exactly  similar  to  those  which  had  been  formerly 
received. 

It  appears,  then,  from  this  review,  that  the  history  of  the  world 
does  not  present,  out  of  that  multitude  of  miracles  which  it  has  record- 
ed, any  that  were  performed  under  the  disadvantages  which  attended 
the  Christian,  for  the  purpose  of  introducing  a  change  upon  the  religi- 
ous sentiments  of  mankind.  All  the  rest  were  aided  by  the  prevailing 
opinions ;  these  alone  were  opposed  by  them :  all  the  rest  found  men 
ready  to  believe ;  these  alone  produced  a  new  faith. 

2.  As  the  circumstance  which  I  have  mentioned  forms,  upon  a  ge- 
neral view  of  the  matter,  a  clear  discrimination  of  the  miracles  of  the 
Bible,  so,  when  we  enter  upon  a  particular  examination,  there  ap- 
pears to  be  the  most  striking  difference  between  them  and  all  other 
miracles,  in  the  evidence  with  which  they  are  transmitted.     The  tes- 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  45 

timony  for  a  miracle  requires  to  be  tried  with  caution,  because  it  con- 
tradicts the  presumption  suggested  by  experience ;  and  the  more  in- 
stances there  are  of  imposition  or  mistake  in  reports  of  this  kind, 
tliere  is  the  more  reason  for  weighing  every  report  with  the  most 
scrupulous  exactness.  When  we  proved  the  testimony  borne  by  the 
apostles  to  the  miracles  of  Jesus,  we  found  a  multitude  of  circum- 
stances which  conspire  to  render  it  credible.  But  when  we  try,  by 
the  same  standard  of  sound  criticism,  the  testimony  borne  either  to 
heathen  or  to  popish  miracles,  it  is  found  to  be  very  much  wanting. 
Many  of  the  heathen  miracles  wore  prodigies  which  had  no  con- 
nexion with  any  religious  system,  or  they  were  phenomena  which 
appeared  wonderful  to  ignorant  men,  but  which  a  more  enlarged  ac- 
quaintance with  nature  lias  enabled  us  to  explain.  Others  were  ex- 
traordinary works,  recorded  long  after  the  time  when  they  are  said  to 
have  been  performed,  and  recorded  by  historians  who,  while  they 
adorn  their  writings  with  popular  stories,  are  careful  to  distinguish 
the  narration,  which  they  consider  as  authentic,  from  the  reports 
which  they  retail,  because  they  received  tliem.  The  miracles  which 
Tacitus  reports  as  performed  by  the  Emperor  Vespasian,  the  feats  of 
Alexander  of  Pontus,  which  we  learn  from  Lucian,  who  represents 
him  as  an  impostor,  and  the  works  ascribed  to  Apollonius  of  Tyana, 
whom  some  of  the  later  Platonists  are  said  to  have  raised  up  as  a  rival 
to  our  Lord, — all  these  have  been  examined  by  men  of  learning  and 
judgment ;  and  the  most  zealous  friend  of  Christianity  could  not  wish 
for  a  more  favourable  display  of  the  unexceptionable  testimony  upon 
which  its  miracles  are  received,  than  is  obtained  by  contrasting  it  with 
the  air  of  falsehood  which  runs  through  all  these  accounts. 

Mr.  Hume  has  been  solicitous  to  place  the  evidence  of  some  popish 
miracles  in  the  most  advantageous  light,  and  he  has  collected,  with  an 
air  of  triumph,  various  circumstances  which  conspired  to  attest  the 
miracles  said  to  be  performed  about  the  beginning  of  the  last  century, 
iu  the  church-yard  of  St.  Medard,  at  the  tomb  of  Abbe  Paris.  But 
although  a  particular  purpose  induced  him  to  assume  the  appearance 
of  an  advocate  for  these  miracles,  yet  the  imposture  was  manifest  at 
tiie  time  to  many  who  lived  upon  the  spot,  and  it  has  since  that  time 
been  completely  exposed  in  several  treatises.  In  Campbell's  Disser- 
tation, in  the  Criterion  by  Dr.  Douglas,  late  bishop  of  Salisbury,  in 
Macknight's  Truth  of  the  Gospel  History,  and  in  other  books,  there  is 
an  investigation  of  many  pretended  miracles ;  and  I  believe  it  will  be 
acknowledged,  without  hesitation,  that  Dr.  Campbell  and  Dr.  Douglas 
have  clearly  shown,  with  regard  to  all  the  miracles  to  which  their 
investigation  extends,  cither  that  the  accounts  of  them,  from  the  cir- 
cumstances, appear  to  be  false,  or  that  the  facts,  from  their  nature,  are 
not  miraculous.  I  am  inclined  to  think  thnt,  as  far  as  this  investiga- 
tion can  be  carried,  it  will  be  found  uniformly  to  apply  to  the  miracles 
recorded  in  heathen  story,  or  in  popish  legends ;  and  that,  as  a  person 
who  had  been  accustomed  to  read  much  history  and  much  fable,  is  at 
no  loss  to  distinguish  the  one  from  the  other  when  they  are  presented 
to  him,  so  any  one  who  duly  considers  the  circumstances  of  the  case, 
will  most  readily  discriminate  the  precise  assured  testimony  of  miracles 
wrought  by  Jesus  as  a  divine  teaclier,  which  eye-witnesses  submitted 
at  the  very  time  and  place  to  the  examination  of  their  enemies,  from 


i 


46  DIRECT  OR  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCE 

the  hesitating  suspicious  record  of  wonders  said  to  be  performed  for 
some  insignificant  purpose,  which  the  historians  did  not  see,  or  which 
the  rank  and  characters  of  the  person  to  whom  they  are  ascribed,  pre- 
served from  the  scrutiny  even  of  those  who  saw  them.  The  evidence 
of  the  miracles  of  the  Gospel,  far  from  being  diminished  by  the  number 
of  impostures,  is  very  much  illustrated  by  this  contrast.  Men  indeed 
cannot  perceive  the  difference  with  an  exercise  of  understanding. — 
They  are  required  here,  as  upon  every  other  subject,  to  separate  truth 
from  falsehood,  to  "  prove  all  things,  and  to  hold  fast  that  which  is 
good."*  Extensive  information  and  enlightened  criticism  are  called 
in  to  be  the  handmaids  of  religion ;  and  the  continued  increase  of 
human  knowledge,  instead  of  giving  Christians  any  reasonable  ground 
of  apprehending  danger,  enables  them  to  defend  the  principles  which 
they  have  embraced,  dissipates  objections  which  might  occur  to  the 
ignorant,  and  establishes  the  faith  of  those  who  inquire. 

I  said,  I  am  inclined  to  think,  that  if  the  investigation  of  which  Dr. 
Douglas  and  Dr.  Campbell  have  given  a  specimen,  were  extended 
farther,  it  would  be  found  to  apply  uniformly  to  the  miracles  recorded 
in  heathen  story  or  in  popish  legends.  I  used  this  guarded  expres- 
sion, because  I  do  not  consider  any  man  as  warranted  to  say,  before 
he  has  examined  them,  that  all  apparent  miracles,  excepting  those 
recorded  in  the  Bible,  may  be  accounted  for  by  the  dexterity  of  an 
impostor,  or  by  the  carelessness  or  ignorance  of  the  spectators. 

3.  And,  therefore,  my  third  observation  is,  that  although  we  should 
ascribe  some  of  the  extraordinary  works  recorded  in  history  to  the 
agency  of  evil  spirits,  the  argument  from  miracles,  for  the  truth  of 
Christianity,  is  not  impaired. 

They  who  can  satisfy  their  minds  that  such  works  are  not  miracu- 
lous, or  that  the  accounts  of  them  are  false,  leave  the  argument  from 
miracles  entire  to  Judaism  and  Christianity.  They  who  cannot  satisfy 
their  minds  in  this  manner,  and  who  judge  from  the  nature  of  the 
works,  or  the  purpose  which  they  promote,  that  they  did  not  proceed 
from  God,  are  led  by  their  principles  to  ascribe  them  to  some  inter- 
mediate beings  between  God  and  man.  But  this  system,  as  we  have 
been  taught  by  our  Lord  to  reason,!  does  not  affect  the  argument 
from  miracles.  For  thus  stands  the  case  :  The  orders  of  intermediate 
beings  are  wholly  unknown  to  human  reason.  There  may  be  good, 
and  there  may  be  bad  spirits,  and  their  measure  of  power  may  be 
more,  or  it  may  be  less.  But  as  we  infer  from  all  the  appearances  of 
nature,  and  especially  from  the  constitution  of  our  own  minds,  that 
this  world  is  not  the  work  of  an  evil  being,  so  having  found  that  the 
nature  of  the  revelation  contained  in  the  New  Testament  aflbrds  a 
very  strong  presumption  of  its  coming  from  God,  we  cannot  suppose 
that  the  miracles,  which  are  the  direct  proof  of  this  presumption,  and 
which  actually  were  the  means  of  establishing  the  Gospel,  came  from 
an  evil  being.  The  conduct  of  the  adversary  of  mankind  was  indeed 
very  opposite  to  the  cunning  which  is  ascribed  to  him,  if  he  gave  his 
sanction  to  the  man  who  was  manifested  to  destroy  the  works  of  the 
devil,  and  employed  his  power  to  undermine  his  own  kingdom,  and 
put  an  end  to  his  own  malicious  joy.     As  far,  then,  as  the  argument 

♦  1  Thess.  V.  21.  f  Matt.  chap.  xii. 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  47 

from  miracles  for  the  truth  of  Christianity  is  concerned,  the  power  of 
evil  spirits  is  merely  a  speculative  point,  upon  which,  as  upon  many 
other  speculative  points  concerning  which  our  information  is  imper- 
fect, ditierent  opinions  may  be  held  without  any  injury  to  the  truth. 
Whatever  system  we  adopt  with  regard  to  the  power  of  Satan,  how- 
soever evil  spirits  may  be  supposed  to  have  acted  at  otlier  times,  we 
are  as  certain  as  the  nature  of  the  thing  can  make  us,  that  their 
power  was  not  exerted  in  the  establishment  of  our  faith,  and  we  rest 
in  the  miracles  of  Jesus  as  wrought  by  the  finger  of  God. 

But,  although  speculations  concermiig  the  power  of  evil  spirits  are 
in  no  degree  necessary  to  a  rational  belief  of  Christianity,  yet  they 
will  naturally  fall  in  your  way,  when  you  are  investigating  the  argu- 
ment from  miracles,  and  you  ought  not  to  be  strangers  to  the  grounds 
upon  which  the  different  opinions  rest.  It  has  been  said,  that  God 
alone  can  work  miracles,  because  the  sovereign  of  the  universe  never 
will  permit  any  evil  spirit  to  encroach  so  far  upon  the  prerogative  of 
his  majesty,  as  to  produce  any  work  contrary  to  the  order  of  nature. 
This  opinion  seems  to  present  the  most  honourable  view  of  the 
Almighty ;  it  professes  to  afford  security  against  many  delusions, 
which,  according  to  other  systems,  are  practicable  ;  it  leaves  the  argu- 
ment from  miracles  clear  and  unembarrassed,  and  it  has  been  support- 
ed by  much  ingenious  reasoning.  But  it  appears  to  me  presumptu- 
ous, because  it  assumes  more,  and  pronounces  with  a  more  decisive 
tone  concerning  the  conduct  of  the  divine  government,  than  is  com- 
petent to  our  ignorance.  It  contradicts  the  obvious  interpretation  of 
several  passages  of  scripture,  and  the  attempts  to  give  those  passages 
a  meaning  not  inronsistent  with  it,  have  tortured  scripture  in  a  manner 
which  is  not  justifiable.  It  has  been  said,  on  the  other  hand,  that  evil 
spirits  have  been  accustomed,  in  all  ages,  to  exercise  their  power  in 
astonishing,  deludhig,  and  misleading  the  minds  of  men  ;  that  all  false 
religions  have  been  supported  by  their  influence,  and  that  they  are 
continually  busied  in  corrupting  true  religion.  Even  the  able  and 
profound  Cud  worth  represents  it  as  unquestionable,  that  ApoUonius 
of  Tyana  was  made  choice  of  by  the  policy,  and  assisted  by  the 
powers  of  the  kingdom  of  darkness,  for  the  doing  some  things  extraor- 
dinary, in  order  to  derogate  from  the  miracles  of  our  Saviour,  and 
enable  Paganism  to  bear  up  against  the  attacks  of  Christianity.  Wiien 
the  matter  is  thus  stated,  a  most  uncomfortable  view  of  the  moral 
state  of  the  universe  is  presented  to  us;  a  view  which,  without 
some  qualification,  approaches  very  near  to  the  Manicha3an  sys- 
tem, by  subjecting  the  feeble  race  of  man,  in  their  most  important 
concerns,  alternately  to  the  dominion  of  opposite  powers.  The 
safe  opinion  upon  this  subject  appears  to  me  to  lie  in  the  middle 
between  these  two.  We  cannot  pretend  to  say  that  an  intermediate 
being  never  is  allowed  to  suspend  the  laws  of  nature.  But  we  are 
certain,  that  all  power  is  dependant  upon  the  Lord  of  nature.  We 
should  be  careful  not  to  bewilder  ourselves,  by  carrying  the  ideas  sug- 
gested by  the  weakness  of  human  government  into  our  speculations 
concerning  the  ways  of  God  ;  and  we  should  always  remember,  that, 
in  the  administration  of  Him,  whose  eyes  are  in  every  place,  there  can 
be  no  delay  or  opposition  to  his  purpose  from  the  multitude  of  his 
mniisters.     "  He  doeth  according  to  his  will  in  the  army  of  heaven." 


48 


DIRECT  OR  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCE 


l\ 


God  is  all  in  all.  The  power  of  working  miracles  may  descend  from 
the  Almigiity  through  a  gradation  of  good  spirits  ;  and  he  may  com- 
mission evil  spirits,  by  exercising  the  power  given  to  them,  to  prove 

'his  people, or  to  execute  a  judicial  sentence  upon  those  who  receive 
not  the  love  of  the  truth.  But  both  good  and  evil  spirits  are  abso- 
lutely under  his  control ;  they  fulfil  his  pleasure,  and  he  works  by 
them. 

/  This  is  the  system  which  appears  to  be  intimated  in  Scripture,  as 
far  as  the  Spirit  of  God  hath  seen  meet  to  reveal  a  speculative  point 
which  is  not  essential  to  our  improvement  or  comfort.  It  is  indeed 
very  remarkable,  that  at  the  introduction  of  both  the  Jewish  and  the 
Christian  dispensations,  there  seems,  according  to  the  most  natural 
interpretation  of  Scripture,  to  have  been  a  certain  display  of  the  power 
of  evil  spirits — I  mean  in  the  works  of  the  Egyptian  magicians,  and 
in  the  demoniacs  of  the  New  Testament.  But  in  both  cases  the 
display  appears  to  have  been  permitted  by  God,  that  it  might  be 
made  manifest  there  was  in  nature  a  superior  power.  The  magicians, 
after  they  had  imitated  some  of  the  works  of  Moses,  could  go  no 
farther,  but  said,"  This  is  the  finger  of  God  ;"  and  therefore  God  says 
to  Pharaoh, "  For  this  cause  have  I  raised  thee  up  for  to  show  in  thee 
my  power,  and  that  my  name  may  be  declared  throughout  all  the 
earth."*  The  evil  spirits  which  had  afllicted  the  bodies  of  men, 
owned,  in  like  manner,  the  power  of  Jesus,  and  retired  at  his  com- 
mand. Therefore,  he  says,  "  I  beheld  Satan  as  lightning  fall  from 
heaven;"  andagain,"  If  I  with  the  finger  of  God  cast  out  devils,  no 
doubt  the  kingdom  of  God  is  come  to  you."t  Both  dispensations 
give  warning  of  false  prophets  who  should  show  signs.  Moses  saj's, 
"  If  there  arise  among  you  a  prophet  and  giveth  thee  a  sign  or  a 
wonder,  saying,  let  us  go  after  other  gods,  thou  shalt  not  hcark;  n 
unto  the  words  of  that  prophet,  for  the  Lord  your  God  proveth  you, 
to  know  whether  you  love  him  with  all  your  soul. "J  Our  Lord 
says,  "  There  shall  arise  false  christs,  and  shall  show  great  signs  and 
wonders  ;"§.  and,  it  is  part  of  the  description  which  his  Ajiostle  gives 
of  Antichrist,  "  His  coining  is  after  the  working  of  Satan  ;  with  all 
power,  and  signs  and  lying  wonders."  ||  Even  although  you  suppose 
it  to  be  meant  by  these  warnings,  that  the  signs  and  wonders  were  to 
be  performed  with  the  assistance  of  evil  spirits,  still  the  miracles  upon 
which  the  two  dispensations  are  founded,  afford  a  clear  demonstration 
of  the  supremacy  of  their  Author ;  and  if  evil  spirits  had  permission 
given  them  to  exercise  a  certain  power  at  those  times,  it  was  only  to 
prepare  for  the  destruction  of  their  power. 

In  the  very  constitution  of  the  evidence  of  the  two  religions,  pro^ 
vision  is  made  for  preserving  the  true  disciples  from  the  dread  of  evil 
spirits.  Whatever  opinions  may  have  been  entertained  concerning 
their  power,  they  manifestly  stand  forth  in  the  Bible,  confessing  their 
inferiority,  and  furnishing  by  this  confession,  to  all  whose  understand- 
ings are  sound,  and  whose  hearts  are  upright,  a  perpetual  antidote 
against  the  fears  of  superstition. 

It  appears,  then,  that  the  system  which  ascribes  many  of  the  mira- 


•  Exod 

§  Matl.  xxiv 


viii.  19;  ix. 
24. 


16.  f  Luke  X.  18;  xi. 

B  2  Thess.  2,  9. 


20. 


^  Deut.  xiii.  1,  2,  3. 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  49 

cles  recorded  in  history  to  the  agency  of  evil  spirits,  does  not  detract /# 
from  the  evidence  of  Christianity,  because  our  faith  rests  upon  works'' 
whose  distinguishing  character,  and  whose  manifest  superiority  to  the 
power  of  evil  spirits,  are  calculated  to  remove  every  degree  of  hesita-j] 
tion  in  applying  the  argument  which  miracles  afibrd. 

One  observation  more  shuts  up  the  subject. 

4.  The  uncertainty  witli  regard  to  the  duration  of  miracles  in  the 
Christian  Church,  does  not  invalidate  the  argument  arising  from 
the  miracles  of  Jesus  and  his  apostles. 

All  Protestants,  and  many  Catholics,  believe,  that  the  claim  of 
working  miracles  which  the  Church  of  Rome  advances  as  one  mark 
of  her  being  the  true  Church,  is  without  foundation  ;  and  no  impar- 
tial discerning  person,  who  reads  the  history  of  the  wonders  which  for 
many  centuries  have  been  recorded  by  that  Church,  can  hesitate  a 
monient  in  classing  them  with  the  tricks  of  heathen  priests.  Dr.  ]\lid- 
dleton,  in  his  letter  from  Rome,  has  shown  that  many  of  the  Popish 
are  an  imitation  of  the  heathen  miracles,  and  even  those  who  do  not 
admit  that  they  have  been  borrowed,  cannot  deny  the  resemblance. 
On  the  other  hand,  every  Christian  believes,  that  real  miracles  were 
performed  in  the  days  of  the  Apostles ;  and  the  unanimous  tradition 
of  the  Christian  Church  has  preserved  the  memory  of  many  in  sncceed- 
iiig  ages.  It  is  natural  then  to  inquire  at  what  period  the  true  mira- 
cles ceased,  and  the  fictitious  commenced.  Some  mark  is  called  for, 
to  distinguish  so  important  an  era,  and  the  imprudence  of  which 
some  Christian  writers  have  been  guilty  in  their  attempts  to  fix  it, 
has  afforded  a  kind  of  triumph  to  those  who  were  willing  to  expose 
every  weak  quarter  in  the  defence  of  Christianity.  Dr.  JVliddleton,  in 
his  book,  entitled — A  free  Inquiry  into  the  miraculous  powers  which 
have  been  supposed  to  subsist  in  the  Christian  Church,  maintained 
this  position,  that  after  the  days  of  the  Apostles,  the  Chtn'ch  did  not 
possess  any  standing  power  of  working  miracles.  Those  who  were 
zealous  for  the  honour  of  the  early  fathers,  attacked,  with  much  bitter- 
ness, a  position  which  directly  impugned  their  authority.  Some  of 
them  very  unadvisedly  said,  that  if  all  the  miracles,  after  the  days  of 
the  Apostles,  which  were  attested  unanimously  by  the  primitive 
fathers,  are  no  better  than  enthusiasm  and  imposture,  then  we  are 
deprived  of  our  evidence  for  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  miracles.  Others 
undertook  to  defend  the  reahty  of  the  miracles  in  die  first  four  centu- 
ries ;  and  they  weakened  their  defence  by  extending  their  frontier. — 
The  controversy  was  keenly  agitated  about  the  middle  of  the  last 
century  ;  and  the  attention  of  tlie  world  was  lately  drawn  to  it,  by  the 
fascinating  language  of  Mr.  Gibbon,  who  mixing  truth  and  falsehood 
together,  and  colouring  both  with  his  masterly  pencil,  has  contrived  to 
reflect  from  the  claims  of  the  primitive  Church,  a  degree  of  susi)icion 
upon  the  Gospel  miracles. 

No  person  who  believes  the  Gospel  will  think  it  incredible,  that 
miracles  were  performed  during  tlie  whole  of  the  first  century,  because 
the  Apostle  Jolin  lived  about  the  end  of  it,  and  many  of  those  to 
wliom  the  Apostles  liad  conniiunicated  spiritual  gilts,  probably  surviv- 
ed it.  All  the  Christian  writers  of  the  second  and  third  centuries 
affirm,  that  miraculous  gifts  did,  in  certain  measure,  continue  in  the 
Christian  Church,  and  were,  at  times,  exerted   in    the  cure  of   dis- 


50  DIRECT  OR  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCE 

eases,  and  the  expulsion  of  demons.  But  those  who  have  exammed 
their  writings  with  critical  accuracy,  have  shown  that  there  is  much 
looseness  and  exaggeration  in  the  language  which  Mr.  Gibbon  has 
employed  with  regard  to  these  gifts.  To  satisfy  you  of  this,  I  shall 
place  a  passage  from  that  historian,  over  against  passages  from  Ire- 
na3us,  Origen,  and  Eusebius,  Mr.  Gibbon  says,  the  Christian  Church, 
from  the  times  of  the  Apostles  and  their  first  disciples,  has  claimed  an 
uninterrupted  succession  of  miraculous  powers.  Amongst  these  he 
mentions  the  power  of  raising  the  dead.  Iti  the  days  of  IrenEeus,  he 
affirms,  about  the  end  of  the  second  century,  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead  was  far  from  being  esteemed  an  uncommon  event;  the  miracle 
was  frequently  performed  on  necessary  occasions,  by  great  fasting 
and  the  joint  supplications  of  the  church  of  the  place,  and  the  persons 
thus  restored  to  their  prayers,  lived  afterwards  among  them  many 
years.*  Now  hear  Irenaeus  himself  The  true  disciples  of  Jesus,  by 
a  power  derived  from  him,  confer  blessings  upon  other  men,  as  each 
has  been  enabled.  Some  expel  demons  so  effectually,  that  they  who 
have  been  delivered  from  evil  spirits,  believe  and  become  members 
of  the  church ;  others  have  knowledge  of  futurity,  see  visions,  and 
utter  prophecies  ;  others  cure  diseases  by  the  imposition  of  hands  ;  and, 
as  we  have  said,  the  dead  too  have  been  raised,  and  remained  some 
years  with  us.t  Observe  he  changes  the  tense  in  the  last  clause  ;  it  is 
tiye^eyjnav,  rto^f^wftvai'.  He  docs  uot  spcak  of  the  power  of  raising  the 
dead  as  present,  but  as  having  been  .exerted  in  some  time  past,  so  tliat 
the  persons  who  were  the  objects  of  it  reached  to  his  own  days.  Mr. 
Gibbon  himself  has  shown  that  the  Bishop  of  Antioch  did  not  know, 
in  the  second  century,  that  the  power  of  raising  the  dead  existed  in 
the  Christian  church;  and  no  Christian  writer,  in  the  second  or  third 
century,  mentions  this  miracle  as  performed  in  his  time.  You  may 
judge  from  this  specimen  of  the  accuracy  of  Mr.  Gibbon.  Origen 
says,  in  the  third  century,  signs  of  the  Holy  Spirit  were  shov/n  where 
Jesus  began  to  teach,  more  numerous  after  his  ascension ;  and,  in 
succeeding  times,  less  numerous.  But  even  at  this  day,  there  are 
traces  of  it  in  a  few  men  who  have  had  their  souls  cleansed.J  Euse- 
bius, in  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  says,  Our  Lord  himself, 
even  at  this  day,  is  wont  to  manifest  some  small  portions  of  his  power 
in  those  whom  he  judges  proper  for  it.§  If  you  give  credit  to  these 
respectable  testimonies,  and  they  are  entitled  to  respect  both  from  the 
manner  in  which  they  are  given,  and  from  the  characters  of.  the 
authors,  you  will  believe  that  the  profusion  of  miraculous  gifts  which 
was  poured  forth  in  the  days  of  the  Apostles  was  gradually  withdrawn 
in  succeeding  ages,  and  that  the  fathers  were  sensible  of  this  gradual 
cessation,  but  boasted  that  some  gifts  did  continue,  and  were  occasion- 
ally exerted  during  the  first  three  centuries.  This  gradual  cessation 
is  agreeable  to  the  analogy  of  the  divine  procedure  in  other  matters. 
It  left  an  occasional  support  to  the  faith  of  Christians,  so  long  as  they 
were  exposed  to  persecution  under  the  heathen  emperors ;  and  it 
serves  to  account  for  what  Mr.  Gibbon  calls  the  insensibility  of  the 
Christians   with  regard  to  the  cessation  of  miraculous  powers.     If 

*  Gibbon's  Rom.  Hist.  ch.  15.  f  Iren.  lib.  ii.  cap.  33. 

4  Orig.  contra  Cels.  lib.  vii.  p.  337.  §  Eus.  Dem.  Ev.  lib.  iii.  p.  109. 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  51 

these  powers  were  withdrawn,  one  by  one,  and  the  display  of  them 
became  gradually  less  frequent,  the  insensibility  of  Christians  with 
regard  to  the  cessation  of  miracles  is  not  wonderful ;  and  the  writers 
whom  I  have  quoted,  have  spoken  of  the  subject  in  that  manner 
wliich  was  most  natural. 

Although  it  seems  probable  that  miraculous  powers  did,  in  certain 
measure,  continue  in  the  Christian  church  during  the  first  three 
centuries,  yet  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  testimony  borne  to  all  the 
miracles  of  that  period,  is  unsuspicious.  There  probably  was  much 
credulity  and  inattention  in  the  relaters,  and  their  reports  are  destitute 
of  many  of  those  circumstances  which  are  found  in  the  testimony  of 
the  Apostles.  But,  it  is  always  to  be  remembered,  that  the  two  are 
independent  of  one  another.  We  do  not  receive  the  miracles  of  the 
Gospel  upon  the  testimony  of  the  fathers ;  and,  although  all  the 
miracles  said  to  be  wrought  after  the  days  of  the  Apostles  be  rejected, 
the  evidence  of  the  works  wliich  Jesus  and  his  Apostles  did,  would 
rest  exactly  upon  that  footing  on  which  we  placed  it. 

It  was  to  be  expected,  that  miraculous  gifts, which  had  perceptibly 
decreased  till  the  days  of  Constantine,  would  cease  entirely  when 
the  protection  afforded  by  civil  government  to  the  Christians  render- 
ed them  lass  necessary.  Yet  we  find  ecclesiastical  history,  after 
Christianity  became  the  religion  of  the  state,  abounding  with  a  diver- 
sity of  the  greatest  miracles.  No  wise  champion  of  Christianity  will 
attempt  to  defend  the  reality  of  these  wonders ;  at  the  same  time,  the 
extravagance  of  the  later  fictions  will  not  discredit,  with  any  wise 
inquirer,  the  miracles  of  former  times.  It  is  obvious  to  observe,  that 
the  Christian  world  was  prepared  by  having  been  witnesses  of  real 
miracles,  for  receiving  without  suspicion  such  as  were  fictitious,  that 
the  eifect  which  true  miracles  had  produced,  might  induce  vain  or 
deceitful  men  to  employ  tins  engine  in  accomplishing  their  own 
purposes,  and  that  after  Christianity  was  the  established  religion,  the 
use  of  this  engine  became  as  easy  to  the  Christians,  as  it  was  to  the 
heathen  priests  of  old.  The  innumerable  forgeries  of  this  sort,  says 
Dr.  Middleton,  strengthen  the  credibility  of  the  Jewish  and  Christian 
miracles.  For  how  could  we  account  for  a  practice  so  universal,  of 
forging  miracles  for  the  support  of  false  religions,  if  on  some  occasions 
they  had  not  actually  been  wrought  for  the  confirmation  of  a  true  one  ? 
Or  how  is  it  possible  that  so  many  spurious  copies  should  pass  upon 
the  world,  without  some  genuine  original  from  whence  they  were 
drawn,  whose  known  existence  and  tried  success  might  give  an  ap- 
pearance of  probability  to  the  counterfeit  ?  We  may  add,  that  if 
these  counterfeits  were  at  any  time  detected,  the  strong  prejudice 
which  would  arise  from  the  detection  against  that  religion,  in  support 
of  which  they  were  adduced,  could  be  counterbalanced  only  by  the 
unquc'stionable  evidence  of  the  miracles  of  former  times. 

It  appears  then,  that  the  duration  of  miracles  in  the  Christian  clnu'ch 
is  a  question  of  curiosity  in  no  degree  essential  to  the  evidence  of  our 
religion.  If  no  miracles  were  really  performed  after  the  days  of  the 
apostles,  then  every  Christian  receives  all  that  ever  were  wronsfht 
upon  unquestionable  testimony.  If  there  were  some  real  miracles  in 
aftortimes,  they  must  stand  upon  their  own  evidence.  We  may  re- 
ceive them,  or  reject  them,  as  they  appear  to  us  well  or  ill  vouched; 


52  DIRECT  OR  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

and  we  can  draw  no  inference,  from  the  multiplicity  of  imitations  or 
forgeries,  unfavourable  to  the  truth  and  divinity  of  the  original. 

Bonnet,  in  his  philosophical  and  critical  inquiries  concerning  Christianity,  has  given, 
besides  much  other  valuable  matter,  the  most  satisfying  statement  that  I  have  met  with 
of  the  argument  from  miracles.  Bonnet's  work  was  written  in  French.  An  extract  of 
the  part  of  it  most  interesting  to  a  student  in  divinity,  was  translated  by  a  clergyman  of 
this  church,  and  published  some  years  ago. 

Bishop  Sherlock,  in  his  first  volume  of  sermons,  which  is  chiefly  occupied  in  stating  the 
superiority  of  revealed  to  natural  religion,  has  two  discourses,  the  ninth  and  tenth,  upon 
miracles  considered  as  the  proof  of  revelation.  He  treats  the  subject  in  his  usual  lumi- 
nous manner,  and  suggests  many  just  and  useful  views, 

Newcombe,  in  his  observations  on  the  conduct  of  our  Saviour,  has  written  largely  and 
delightfully  of  his  miracles. 

Jortin  also,  in  some  of  his  essays  or  discourses,  and  in  his  remarks  on  ecclesiastical  history, 
has  very  ably  illustrated  the  fitness  with  which  our  Lord's  miracles  were  adapted  both  to 
prove  the  truth  of  his  religion,  and  to  impress  upon  his  followers  the  characteristical 
doctrines  of  the  gospel.  This  view  of  the  subject  is  also  prosecuted  by  Ogden  in  his 
sermons. 

Campbell's  Dissertation  on  Miracles. 

Douglas's  Criterion. 

Butler's  Analogy. 

Macknight's  Truth  of  the  Gospel  History. 

Paley's  Evidences. 

Fainier  on  Miracle^. 

Cudworth,  translated  by  Mosheim. 

Leland's  View  of  Deistical  Writers. 

Randolph's  View  of  our  Lord's  Ministry. 

f  Clarke. 

Bullock. 

Boyle's  Lectures. 

Middieton. 

Sir  David  Dalrymple. 


ILLUSTRATION  OF  THE  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  53 


CHAPTER  V. 

ILLUSTRATION    OF    THE    EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 


Those  lectures  upon  Scripture  are  properly  called  critical,  which 
are  intended  to  elucidate  the  meaning  of  a  difiicult  passage,  and  to 
brins  out  from  the  words  of  an  author  the  sense  which  is  not  obvious 
to  an  ordinary  reader.  The  sources  of  this  elucidation  are,  such 
emendations  upon  the  reading  or  the  punctuation  as  may  warrantably 
be  made,  an  analysis  of  the  particular  words,  a  close  attention  to  the 
manner  of  the  author,  to  the  scope  of  his  reasoning,  and  to  the  circum- 
stances of  those  for  whom  he  writes ;  and,  lastly,  a  comparison  of 
the  passage,  which  is  the  subject  of  the  criticism,  with  other  passages, 
in  which  the  same  matters  are  treated.  There  is  great  room  for  criti- 
cal lectures  of  this  kind,  and  my  theological  course  abounds  with  speci- 
mens of  them.  Much  has  been  done  in  this  way  since  the  beginning 
of  the  last  century,  by  the  application  of  sound  criticism  to  the  Holy 
Scriptures ;  and  one  great  advantage  to  be  derived  from  an  intimate 
acquaintance  with  the  learned  languages,  and  from  the  habit  of  ana- 
lysing the  authors  who  wrote  in  them,  is,  that  you  are  thereby  pre- 
pared for  receiving  that  rational  exposition  of  the  word  of  God,  which 
is  the  true  foundation  of  theological  knowledge. 

There  is  another  kind  of  critical  lecture,  which  professes  by  a  gene- 
ral comprehensive  view  of  a  passage  of  scripture,  to  illustrate  some 
important  points  in  the  evidence  or  genius  of  our  religion.  This  kind 
of  lecture  is  applicable  to  those  passages  where  there  is  not  any  ob- 
scurity in  the  expression,  any  recondite  meaning,  or  any  controverted 
doctrine,  but  where  there  is  a  number  of  circimistances  scattered 
throughout,  the  force  of  which  may  be  missed  by  a  careless  or  igno- 
rant reader,  but  which  by  being  arranged  and  placed  clearly  in  view, 
may  be  made  to  bear  upon  one  point,  so  as  to  bring  conviction  to  the 
understanding,  at  the  same  time  that  they  minister  to  the  improve- 
ment of  the  heart.  The  inimitable  manner  of  Scripture,  so  natural 
and  artless,  yet  so  pregnant  with  circumstances  the  most  delicate  and 
the  most  instructive,  affords  numberless  subjects  of  this  kind  of  lec- 
ture ;  and  I  do  not  know  any  method  so  well  calculated  to  give  a  per- 
son of  taste  and  sensibility  a  deep  impression  of  the  excellency  and 
the  divinity  of  the  Scriptures.  One  is  tempted  by  the  peculiar  fitness 
of  the  passages  which  occur  to  him,  to  adopt  this  mode  of  lecturing 
occasionally  in  speaking  to  an  assembly  of  Christians,  although  it  can- 
not be  denied  that  the  ordinary  method  of  lecturing  by  suggesting  re- 
marks from  particular  verses,  is  more  adapted  to  that  measure  of 
understanding,  of  attention,  and  of  memory,  which  is  found  in  the 
generality  of  hearers. 


54  ILLUSTRATION  OF  THE  EVIDENCES 

But  such  a  mode  may  here  be  followed  with  advantage ;  and  I  am 
led  to  give  you  now  a  specimen  of  this  criticism  upon  the  sense,  rather 
than  upon  the  words  of  an  evangelist,  because  the  eleventh  chapter 
of  John's  Gospel  may  be  stated  in  such  a  light  as  to  illustrate  much 
of  what  has  been  said  with  regard  both  to  the  internal  evidence  of 
Christianity,  and  to  that  branch  of  the  external  evidence  which  arises 
from  miracles. 

The  eleventh  chapter  of  John  is  the  history  of  the  resurrection  of 
Lazarus,  the  greatest  miracle  which  Jesus  performed.  Upon  such  a 
general  view  of  the  chapter  as  a  critical  lecture  of  this  kind  is  meant 
to  give,  we  are  led  to  attend  to  that  exhibition  of  character  which  the 
chapter  contains — to  the  nature  and  circumstances  of  the  miracle — 
and  to  the  effects  which  the  miracle  produced. 

I.  The  exhibition  of  character  which  this  chapter  contains  is  vari- 
ous, and  our  attention  is  directed  to  several  very  pleasing  objects. 

It  is  natural  to  speak  first  of  the  exhibition  given  of  the  character 
of  the  historian.  The  other  evangelists  have  not  mentioned  this  mira- 
cle, perhaps  out  of  delicacy  to  Lazarus,  who  was  alive  when  they 
wrote.  They  did  not  choose  to  expose  the  friend  of  their  master  to 
the  fury  of  the  Jews,  by  holding  him  forth  in  writings  that  were  to  go 
through  the  world,  as  a  monument  of  his  power.  But  John,  who 
lived  to  see  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  probably  survived  Lazarus; 
and  there  was  every  reason  why  this  evangelist,  Avho  has  preserved 
other  miracles  and  "discourses  which  the  former  historians  had  omit- 
ted, should  record  this  event.  It  is  a  subject  suited  to  the  pen  of 
John  :  the  beloved  disciple  seems  to  delight  in  spreading  it  out ;  for  he 
has  coloured  his  narration  with  many  beautiful  circumstances,  which 
unfold  the  characters  of  the  other  persons,  and  discover  his  intimate 
acquaintance  with  his  master's  heart.  It  is  a  striking  instance  of  that 
strict  propriety  which  pervades  all  the  books  of  the  New  Testament, 
and  which  marks  them  to  every  discerning  eye  to  be  authentic  writ- 
ings, that  the  tenderest  scenes  in  our  Lord's  life,  those  in  which  the 
warmth  of  his  private  affections  is  conspicuous,  are  recorded  by  this 
evangelist.  From  the  others  we  learn  his  public  life,  the  grace,  the 
condescension,  the  benevolence  which  appeared  in  all  his  intercourse 
with  those  that  had  access  to  him.  It  was  reserved  to  "  the  disciple 
whom  Jesus  loved  "  to  present  to  succeeding  ages  this  divine  person 
in  his  family,  and  amongst  his  friends.  In  his  Gospel,  we  see  Jesus 
washing  the  feet  of  his  disciples  at  the  last  supper  that  he  ate  with 
them.  It  is  John,  the  disciple  that  leaned  on  the  bosom  of  Jesus 
while  he  sat  at  meat,  who  relates  the  long  discourse  in  which,  \  nth 
the  most  delicate  sensibility  for  their  condition,  he  soothes  the  troubled 
heart  of  his  disciples,  spares  their  feelings,  while  he  tells  them  the 
truth,  and  gives  them  his  parting  blessing.  It  is  John,  whom  Jesus 
judged  worthy  of  the  charge,  who  records  the  filial  piety  with  which, 
in  the  hour  of  his  agony,  he  provided  for  the  comfort  of  his  mother; 
and  it  is  John,  whose  soul  was  congenial  to  that  of  his  Master,  ten- 
der, affectionate,  and  feeling  like  his,  who  dwells  upon  all  the  particu- 
lars of  the  resurrection  of  Lazarus,  brings  forward  to  our  view  the 
sympathy  and  attention  with  which  Jesus  took  part  in  the  sorrows  of 
those  whom  he  loved,  and  making  us  intimately  acquainted  with 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  55 

them  and  with  him,  presents  a  picture  at  once  delightful  and  in- 
structive. 

The  next  ohject  in  this  exhibition  of  character  is  the  friendship 
which  Jesus  entertained  for  the  family  of  Lazarus.  Bethany  was  a 
small  village  upon  the  mount  of  Olives,  within  two  miles  of  Jerusa- 
lem, in  the  road  from  Galilee.  Jesus,  who  resided  in  Galilee,  and 
went  only  occasionally  to  Jerusalem,  was  accustomed  to  lodge  with 
Lazarus  in  his  way  to  the  public  festivals :  and  we  are  led  to  suppose, 
from  an  incidental  expression  in  Luke,*  that  during  the  festivals  he 
went  out  to  Bethany  in  the  evening,  and  returned  to  Jerusalem  in  the 
morning.  To  this  little  family  he  retired  from  the  fatigues  of  his  busy 
life,  from  the  disputations  of  the  Jewish  doctors,  and  the  bitterness  of 
his  enemies  ;  and  being,  like  his  brethren,  compassed  with  infirmity, 
like  his  brethren  also  he  foimd  refreshment  to  his  soul  in  the  inter- 
course of  those  whom  he  loved.  "  Now  Jesus,"  says  John,  "  loved 
Martha,  and  her  sister,  and  Lazarus."  He  loved  the  world  ;  he  loved 
the  chief  of  sinners.  That  was  a  love  of  pity,  the  compassion  which 
a  superior  being  feels  for  the  wretched.  This  was  the  love  of  kind- 
ness, the  complacency  which  kindred  spirits  take  in  the  society  of  one 
another.  Of  the  brother  he  says  to  his  apostles,  with  the  same  cor- 
diality with  which  you  would  speak  of  one  like  yourselves,  '•  Our 
friend  Lazarus."  And  although  we  shall  find  the  character  of  the 
two  sisters  widely  different,  yet  he  discerned  in  both  a  mind  worthy 
of  his  friendship. 

It  appears  strange  to  me,  that  any  person  who  ever  read  this  chap- 
ter can  blame  the  Gospel,  as  some  deistical  writers  in  the  last  century 
were  accustomed  to  do,  for  not  recommending  private  friendship. 
Can  there  be  a  stronger  recommendation  than  this  picture  of  the  Au- 
thor of  the  Gospel,  drawn  by  the  hand  of  his  beloved  disciple  ?  When 
you  follow  Jesus  to  Jerusalem,  you  may  learn  from  his  public  life, 
fortitude,  diligence,  wisdom.  When  you  retire  with  him  to  Bethany, 
you  may  learn  tenderness,  confidence,  and  fellow  feeling,  with  those 
whom  you  choose  as  your  friends.  The  servants  of  Jesus  may  not  in 
every  situation  find  persons  so  worthy  of  their  friendship  as  this  fa- 
mily ;  and  there  is  neither  duty  nor  satisfaction  in  making  an  improper 
choice.  Many  circumstances  may  appoint  for  individuals  days  of 
solitude,  and  therefore  the  universal  religion  of  Jesus  has  wisely  re- 
frained from  delivering  a  precept  which  it  may  often  be  impossible  to 
obey.  But  they  who  are  able  to  follow  the  example  of  their  master, 
by  having  a  heart  formed  for  friendship,  and  by  meeting  with  those 
who  are  worthy  of  it,  have  found  the  medicine  of  life.  Their  happi- 
ness is  independent  of  noise,  and  dissipation,  and  show  ;  amidst  the 
tumult  of  tlie  world,  their  spirits  enter  into  rest;  and  in  the  quiet, 
pleasins,  rational  intercourse  of  Bethany,  they  forget  the  strife  of 
Jerusalem. 

The  next  object  in  this  exhibition  is  the  character  of  the  two  sis- 
ters, painted  in  that  most  perfect  and  natural  manner,  which  the 
Scriptures  almost  always  adopt,  by  actions,  not  by  words.  As  soon 
as  Lazarus  is  sick,  the  two  sisters  send  a  message  to  Jesus,  with  entire 
confidence  in  his  power  to  heal,  and  his  willingness  to  come.     He  is 

*  Luke  xxi.  37,  38. 


56  ILLUSTRATION  OP  THE  EVIDENCES 

now  beyond  Jordan  ;  the  countries  of  Samaria  and  Galilee  lie  between 
Bethany  and  his  present  abode.     But  the  sisters  of  Lazarus  knew  too 
well  his  aifection  for  their  brother,  and  his  readiness  to  do  good,  to 
think  that  distance  would  prevent  his  coming.     They  say  no  more 
than,  "  He  whom  thou  lovest  is  sick,"  and  they  leave  Jesus  to  inter- 
pret their  wish.     When  Jesus  arrives  at  Bethany,  after  the  death  of 
Lazarus,  the  different  characters  of  the  two  sisters  are  supported  with 
the  most  delicate  discrimination,  even  under  that  pressure  of  grief 
which,  in  the  hand  of  a  coarse  painter,  would  have  obliterated  every 
distinguishing  feature.    Martha,  who  had  been  "  cumbered  with  much 
serving,"  when  she  had  to  entertain  our  Lord,  rises  with  the  same 
officious  zeal  from  the  ground,  where  she  was  sitting  dishevelled  and 
in  sackcloth,  amongst  the  friends  who  had  come  to  comfort  her.     She 
rises  the  moment  she  hears  by  some  chance  messenger  that  Jesus  is 
at  hand,  and  runs  to  meet  him.     Mary,  who  had  sat  at  the  feet  of 
Jesus,  so  much  engaged  with  his  discourse  as  not  to  think  of  providing 
for  his  entertainment,  is  incapable  of  so  brisk  an  exertion,  or  thinks  it 
more  respectful  to  Jesus  to  wait  his  coming.     This  difference  in  the 
conduct  of  the  two  sisters  is  in  the  style  of  nature,  according  to  which 
the  particular  temper,  and  feelings  of  particular  persons,  give  a  very 
great  variety  to  the  language  of  passion  upon  occasions  equally  inte- 
resting to  all  of  them.     A  man  may  know,  he  ought  to  know,  every 
corner  in  his  own  heart,  how  far  any  part  of  his  conduct  proceeds 
from  the  defect  of  good,  or  the  prevalence  of  wrong  principles.     But 
the  most  intimate  acquaintance  does  not  give  him  access  to  know  all 
the  notions  of  delicacy  and  propriety  which  may  restrain,  or  urge  on 
others  at  particular  seasons,  and  may  give  to  their  conduct,  in  the  eye 
of  careless  observers,  a  very  different  appearance  from  that  which 
they  would  wish  ;  and  it  argues  both  an  uncandid  spirit,  and  very  little 
knowledge  of  the  world,  to  say  or  to  think  this  man  does  not  feel  as 
he  ought,  because  he  does  not  express  his  feelings  as  1  would  express 
mine.    Martha  ran  and  met  Jesus  :  Mary  sat  still  in  the  house.    When 
Martha  comes  to  Jesus,  there  is  in  her  first  words  a  mixture  of  re- 
proach for  his  delay,  and  of  confidence  in  his  kindness,  "  J^ord,  if  thou 
hadst  been  here,  my  brother  had  not  died."     A  gleam  of  hope,  in- 
deed, shoots  athwart  the  sorrowful  mind  of  Martha  at  the  sight  of 
Jesus.     But  her  wish  was  so  great  that  she  is  afraid  to  mention  it. 
"  I  know,  that  even  now,  whatsoever  thou  wilt  ask  of  God,  God  will 
give  it  thee."     She  has  conceived  a  hope,  in  the  state  of  her  mind  it 
was  a  wild  hope,  that  her  brother  whom  she  had  lost  might  be  in- 
stantly restored.     Jesus  composes  her  spirit,  prepares  her  for  this  gift, 
by  recalling  her  thoughts  from  the  general  resurrection  to  himself,  and 
probably  gives  her  some  sign  or  some  direction,  in  consequence  of 
which  she  goes  to  the  house,  and  without  alarming  the  Jews  who 
were  assembled  there,  says  secretly  to  her  sister,  "  The  Master  is 
come,  and  calleth  for  thee."     This  message  instantly  rouses  Mary. 
Her  spirit,  bowed  down  with  grief,  revives  at  his  call,  and  without 
knowing,  probably  without  conceiving  the  purpose  for  which  he  called 
her,  she  arose  quickly  and  went  to  him.     When  she  arrives,  there  is 
more  submission  in  her  manner  than  there  had  been  in  that  of  Mar- 
tha.    The  marks  are  stronger  of  a  depressed  and  afflicted  spirit.    She 
fell  down  at  his  feet,  weeping.    But,  as  if  to  remind  us  that  we  should 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  57 

look  beyond  these  outward  expressions,  which,  being  very  much  a 
matter  ofconstitution,  vary  exceedingly  in  ditierent  persons,  the  evan- 
gehst  puts  the  same  words  into  the  mouth  of  both,  "  Lord,  if  thou 
hadst  been  here,  my  brother  had  not  died  ;"  and  whatever  interpreta- 
tion we  give  to  these  words  when  they  are  spoken  by  the  one  sister, 
we  cannot  avoid  giving  them  the  same  when  they  are  spoken  by  the 
other.  In  this  exhibition  of  the  manner  of  the  two  sisters  there  is  so 
much  of  nature,  and  of  nature  appearing  strongly  in  minute  circum- 
stances, as  to  be  far  superior  to  that  truth  of  painting  which  we  ad- 
mire in  a  fancied  p>icture,  and  to  carry  with  it  an  internal  evidence 
that  John  was  a  witness  of  what  he  describes,  and  that  his  drawing 
is  part  of  a  scene  which,  from  the  powerful,  yet  ditferent  emotions  of 
the  two  sisters,  had  made  a  deep  impression  upon  his  feehng  breast. 

Tlie  next  object  which  presents  itself  in  this  moral  exhibition,  is  the 
character  of  the  Apostles,  The  Gospels  present  us  with  the  most 
natural  picture  of  the  Apostles ;  their  doubts,  their  fears,  their  slow- 
ness of  apprehension  and  of  belief.  By  circumstances  that  seem  to 
be  incidentally  recorded,  we  see  them  feeling  and  acting,  not  indeed 
in  the  manner  which  would  have  occurred  to  a  rude,  unskilful  hand, 
had  he  attempted  to  draw  those  who  were  honoured  with  being  the 
companions  of  Jesus,  but  in  the  manner  which  any  one  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  human  heart  will  perceive  to  be  the  most  natural 
for  men  of  their  condition  and  education,  and  situated  as  they  were. 
We  see  them  differing  from  one  another  in  sentiments  and  conduct, 
with  the  same  kind  of  variety  which  is  observable  amongst  our 
neighbours  and  companions,  each  preserving  in  every  situation  his 
peculiar  character,  and  all  at  the  same  time  uniting  in  attachment  to 
their  master. 

Although  the  companions  of  Jesus  were  interested  in  the  fate  of 
his  friend  Lazarus,  yet  they  did  not  understand  the  hints  which  our 
Lord  gave  them.  Although  sleep  is  one  of  tiie  most  common  images 
of  death,  they  suppose  when  Jesus  says,  "  Our  friend  Lazarus  sleep- 
eth,"  that  he  was  enjoying  a  refreshing  sleep,  by  which  nature  was 
to  work  his  cure  ;  and  not  attending  to  tlie  impropriety  of  Jesus  going 
a  long  way  to  awake  him  out  of  such  a  sleep,  they  say,  "  Lord, 
if  he  sleep  he  shall  do  well."  When  Jesus  tells  them  plainly  "Laza- 
rus is  dead,"  Thomas  stands  forth,  and  by  one  expression  pre- 
sents to  us  the  same  character  which  is  more  fully  unfolded  in  an- 
other chapter  of  this  Gospel* 

All  the  disciples  were  filled  with  sorrow  and  despair,  when  they 
saw  their  Master  condemned,  executed,  and  laid  in  the  tomb.  "  For 
as  yet,"  says  John,  "  they  knew  not  the  Scripture  that  he  must  rise 
again  from  the  dead."  At  length,  "  Jesus  came  and  stood  in  the 
midst  of  them."  "  Then  were  the  disciples  glad  when  they  saw  the 
Lord."  It  happened  that  Thomas  was  not  present.  And  when  "  the 
other  disciples  had  said  to  him,  we  have  seen  the  Lord,"  his  answer 
was,  "Except  I  shall  see  in  his  liands  the  print  of  the  nails,  and  put 
my  finger  into  the  print  of  the  nails,  and  thrust  my  hand  into  his  side, 
I  will  not  believe."  About  eight  days  after,  Jesus  condescended  to 
give  him  this  proof.     "  Reach  "hither,"  said  he,  "thy  finger,  and 

•  John  XX.  9,  1 9,  20,  24—28. 


58  ILLUSTRATION  OF  THE  EVIDENCES 

behold  my  hands ;  and  reach  hither  thy  hand,  and  thrust  it  into  my 
side,  and  be  not  faithless  but  believing.  And  Thomas  answered  and 
said.  My  Lord  and  my  God."  He  had  felt  doubts,  but  his  heart  ap- 
pears full  of  aliectiou  and  reverence.  Now,  mark  here  the  same 
Thomas.  The  disciples  were  alarmed  at  the  danger  of  going  back 
to  Judea.  They  had  tried  to  dissuade  their  Master,  but  they  find 
him  fixed  in  his  purpose.  "  Lazarus  is  dead,  nevertheless  let  us  go 
unto  him.  Then  said  Thomas  unto  his  fellow  disciples,  let  us  also  go, 
that  we  may  die  with  him."  You  see  here  the  same  warmth  of 
temper,  the  same  firm  determined  mind  which  appeared  at  the  other 
time,  but  you  see  also  the  same  defect  of  faith.  Thomas  does  not 
think  it  possible  that  Jesus  could  shelter  himself  from  the  Jews.  He 
does  not  see  any  purpose  that  could  be  served  by  the  journey.  He 
tliinks  Jesus  is  going  to  throw  away  his  life.  Yet  he  resolves  himself, 
and  he  encourages  his  fellow  disciples  not  to  part  with  him.  Our 
INIaster  makes  a  sacrifice  of  his  life.  We  have  forsaken  all  and  follow- 
ed him.  Let  us  follow  hinr  also  in  this  journey;  "  let  us  go  that  we 
may  die  with  liim."  It  is  the  strong  effort  of  a  mind  which  loved 
and  venerated  Jesus,  yet  distrusted  and  did  not  know  his  divine 
power :  Thomas  faithless,  yet  afiectionate  and  manly. 

Such  is  the  mixture  of  character  which  we  often  meet  with  in 
common  life.  They  who  are  most  intimately  acquainted  with  the 
workings  of  the  human  heart,  and  who  have  observed  most  accurately 
the  manners  of  those  around  them,  will  best  perceive  the  truth  of  that 
picture  which  the  Evangelists  have  drawn  of  themselves,  and  they 
will  be  struck  with  the  force  of  that  internal  evidence  for  the  Gospel 
history  which  arises  from  this  simple  natural  record.  We  cannot 
attend  to  this  picture  without  recollecting  the  divine  power  which, 
out  of  these  feeble  doubting  men,  raised  the  most  successful  instru- 
ments of  spreading  the  religion  of  Jesus.  There  was  no  want  of  faith 
after  the  day  of  Pentecost.  Thomas  was  one  of  that  company  which 
was  assembled,  when  they  were  all  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and 
he  who  now  says,  "  Let  us  go  and  die  with  Jesus,"  with  power  gave 
witness  of  tlie  resurrection  of  the  Lord.* 

The  principal  object  in  this  moral  exhibition  yet  remains.  It  is 
Jesus  iiimself.  The  striking  feature  throughout  the  whole  is  tender- 
ness and  love.  But  we  discern  also  prudence,  fortitude,  and  dignity  ; 
and  this  chapter  may  thus  serve  as  a  specimen  of  that  most  perfect  and 
most  diflicult  character,  which  the  Apostles  were  incapable  of  con- 
ceiving, and  which,  had  they  conceived  it,  they  would  have  been 
unable  to  support  in  every  situation  with  such  exact  propriety,  if  they 
had  not  drawn  it  from  the  life. 

After  he  receives  the  message  from  the  sisters,  he  relieves  himself 
from  the  importunity  of  his  disciples,  by  an  assurance  which  was 
sufficient  to  remove  their  anxiety,  and  he  lingers  for  two  days  in  the 
place  where  he  was.  The  purpose  of  his  lingering  was,  that  Lazarus 
might  be  truly  dead,  that  he  might  not  merely  recover  a  man  who 
was  sick,  but  that  he  might  raise  a  man  who  had  been  in  the  grave. 
But  this  lingering  did  not  proceed  from  indifference.  Mark  how  beauti- 
fully the  fifth  verse  is  thrown  in  between  the  assurance  given  to  the  dis- 

•  Acts  iv.  31.  33. 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  59 

ciples,  and  the  resolution  to  delny.  He  loved  the  family.  He  entered 
into  their  sorrows.  His  sympathy  for  them,  indeed,  yields  to  his  prose- 
cution of  the  great  purpose  for  which  he  came,  yet  his  love  is  not  the  less 
for  delay.  How  tender  and  how  soothing  !  The  merciful  High  Priest, 
to  whom  Christians  still  send  their  requests,  is  not  forgetful,  althougli  lie 
does  not  instantly  grant  them.  He  loves  and  pities  his  own.  But  he 
does  not  think  their  time  always  the  best.  His  own  time  for  showing 
favour  is  set.  No  intervening  circumstance  can  prevent  its  coming;  and 
when  it  arrives,  they  themselves  will  acknowledge  that  it  has  been  well 
chosen,  and  all  their  sorrow  will  be  forgotten  and  overpaid  by  the  joy 
which  is  brought  to  their  souls.  One  of  the  finest  moral  lessons  is  con- 
veyed by  this  delay  of  Jesus.  It  is  pleasing  to  act  from  kindness,  com- 
passion, and  love.  But  the  excess  of  good  affections  may  sometimes 
mislead  us ;  and  there  are  considerations  of  prudence,  of  fidelity,  and 
justice,which  may  give  to  the  conduct  of  the  most  tender-hearted  man 
an  appearance  of  coldness  and  severity.  The  world  may  judge  hastily 
in  such  instances.  But  let  every  man  be  satisfied  in  his  own  mind, 
first,  that  he  has  good  affections ;  and  next,  that  the  considerations 
which  sometimes  restrain  the  exercise  of  them,  are  such  that  he  need 
not  be  ashamed  of  their  influence. 

It  is  strongly  marked  in  this  moral  picture,  that  the  delay  of  Jesus, 
although  dictated  by  prudence,  did  not  proceed  from  any  consideration 
of  his  personal  safety.  For,  when  the  disciples  represented  the 
danger  of  retiring  to  Judea,  his  answer  is,  "  Are  there  not  twelve 
hours  in  the  day  ?  If  any  man  walk  in  the  day,  he  stumbleth  not, 
because  he  seeth  the  light  of  this  world.  But  if  a  man  walk  in  the 
night,  he  stumbleth,  because  there  is  no  light  in  him."  His  meaning 
is  explained  by  other  similar  expressions.  The  Jews  divided  the  day 
both  in  summer  and  winter  into  twelve  hours,  so  that  an  hour  with 
them  marked,  not  as  with  us,  a  certain  portion  of  time,  but  the  twelfth 
part  of  a  day,  longer  in  summer,  and  shorter  in  winter.  The  time  of 
his  life  upon  earth  was  the  day  of  Jesus,  during  which  he  had  to 
finish  the  work  given  him  to  do.  While  this  day  continued,  none  of  his 
enemies  had  power  to  take  away  his  life,  and  he  had  nothing  to  fear 
in  fulfilling  the  commandment  of  God.  When  this  day  ended,  his 
work  ended  also  ;  he  fell  indeed  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies  ;  but  he 
was  ready  to  be  offered  up.  And  thus  in  the  same  picture  Jesus  is 
exhibited  as  gentle,  feeling,  compassionate  to  his  friends,  undaunted 
in  the  face  of  his  enemies,  assiduous  and  fearless  in  working  the 
work  of  Him  that  sent  him.  There  shines  throughout  the  whole  of 
this  picture  a  dignity  of  manner  ;  no  indecent  haste  ;  no  distrust  of  his 
own  power;  a  delay,  which  rendered  one  work  more  difficult,  yet 
which  is  not  employed  in  preparing  for  an  uncommon  exertion. — 
"  Lazarus  is  dead,  and  I  am  glad  for  your  sakes,  that  I  was  not  there, 
to  the  intent  ye  may  believe."  He  wishes  to  give  his  disciples  a  more 
striking  manifestation  of  his  divine  power  ;  and  the  display  is  made 
for  their  sakes,  not  for  his  own.  With  what  awful  solemnity  does  lie 
unfold  to  Martha  his  exalted  character  in  these  words:  "I  am  the 
resurrection  and  the  life;  he  that  believcth  in  me,  though  he  were 
dead,  yet  shall  he  live;  and  whosoever  liveth  and  believcth  in  me, 
shall  never  die  ;"  and  how  suitably  to  the  authority  implied  in  that 
character  does  he  require  from  Martha  a  confession  of  her  faith  in  him ! 


60  ILLUSTRATION  OF  THE  EVIDENCES 

Yet  how  easily  does  he  descend  from  this  dignity  to  mingle  his  tears 
with  those  of  his  friends.  "  When  he  saw  Mary  weeping,  and  the 
Jews  also  weeping  which  came  with  her,  he  groaned  in  the  spirit,  and 
was  troubled  :"  and  as  they  led  him  to  the  sepulchre,  "  Jesus  wept." 
How  amiable  a  picture  of  the  Saviour  of  the  world  !  He  found  upon 
earth  an  hospital  full  of  the  sound  of  lamentation,  a  dormitory  in  which 
some  are  every  day  falling  asleep,  and  they  who  remain  are  mourn- 
ing over  those  who  to  them  are  not.  He  hath  brought  a  cordial  to 
revive  our  spirits,  while  we  are  bearing  our  portion  of  this  general 
sorrow,  and  he  hath  opened  to  our  view  a  land  of  rest.  But  even 
while  he  is  executing  his  gracious  purpose,  his  heart  is  melted  with 
the  sight  of  that  distress  which  he  came  to  relieve,  and  although 
he  was  able  to  destroy  the  king  of  terrors,  he  was  troubled  when  he 
beheld  in  the  company  of  mourners  a  monument  of  his  power.  We 
do  .not  read  that  Jesus  ever  shed  tears  for  his  own  sufferings.  When 
he  was  going  to  the  cross,  he  turned  round  and  said,  "  Daughters  of 
Jerusalem,  weep  not  for  me."  But  he  wept  over  Jerusalem  when  he 
thought  of  the  destruction  that  was  coming  upon  it  :*  and  here  the 
anguish  of  his  friends  draws  from  him  groans  and  tears.  He  was 
soon  to  remove  their  anguish.  But  it  was  not  the  less  bitter  during 
its  continuance  ;  and  it  is  the  present  distress  of  his  friends  into  which 
his  heart  enters  thus  readily. 

Let  the  false  pride  of  philosophy  place  the  perfection  of  the  human 
character  in  an  equality  of  mind,  unmoved  by  the  events  that  befal 
ourselves  or  others.  But  Christians  may  learn  from  the  example  of 
him  who  was  made  like  his  brethren,  that  the  variety  in  the  events 
of  life  was  intended  by  the  author  of  nature  as  an  exercise  of  feeling ; 
that  it  is  no  part  of  our  duty  to  harden  our  hearts  against  the  impres- 
sions which  they  make,  and  that  we  need  not  be  ashamed  of  express- 
ing what  we  feel.  That  God,  who  chastens  his  children,  loves  a  heart 
which  is  tender  before  him;  and  Jesus,  who  wept  himself,  commands 
us  to  weep  with  them  that  weep.  The  tears  shed  are  both  a  tribute 
to  the  dead,  and  an  amiable  display  of  the  heart  of  the  living,  and 
they  interest  every  spectator  in  the  persons  from  whom  they  flow. 

Thus  have  we  seen  in  this  mortal  picture  of  the  character  of  Jesus, 
tenderness,  compassion,  prudence,  fortitude,  dignity,  "•  Christ,  the 
power  of  God,  and  the  wisdom  of  God,"t  the  strength  of  an  almighty 
arm  displayed  by  a  man  like  his  brethren,  "  the  glory  of  the  only 
begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth. "J  The  assemblage  of 
qualities  is  so  uncommon,  and  the  harmony  with  which  they  are 
blended  so  entire,  that  they  convey  to  every  intelligent  reader  an 
impression  of  the  divinity  of  our  religion,  and  we  cannot  contemplate, 
this  picture  without  feeling  the  sentiment  which  was  afterwards  ex- 
pressed by  the  Centurion  who  stood  over  against  the  cross  of  Jesus : 
"  Truly  this  was  the  Son  of  God."§ 

H.  Circumstances  of  the  miracle. 

Mr.  Hume  and  other  philosophers,  both  before  and  after  his  time, 
have  denied  the  conclusiveness  of  the  general  argument  from  miracles, 

•  Luke  xxiii.  28;  xix.  41.  f  I  Cor.  i.  24. 

^  John  i.  14.  §  Matt,  xxvii,  .'j4. 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  Gl 

or  they  have  endeavoured  to  destroy  that  evidence  from  testimony 
upon  which  we  give  credit  to  tiie  works  recorded  in  the  Gospel.  But 
there  is  a  set  of  minute  writers  in  the  deistical  controversy,  who  have 
adopted  a  style  of  philological  or  verbal  objections,  which  would  set 
aside  the  truth  of  the  record,  not  by  any  general  reasoning,  but  by 
supposed  instances  of  inaccuracy  or  impropriety  in  particular  narra- 
tions. This  style  of  objections  enters  into  ordinary  conversation  ;  it 
is  level  to  the  understanding  of  many,  who  are  incapable  of  apprehend- 
ing a  general  argument ;  and  it  is  the  usual  refuge  of  those  who  have 
nothing  else  to  oppose  to  the  evidences  of  the  Christian  religion. 

You  will  find  objections  of  this  kind  occasionally  thrown  out  in 
many  deistical  writers.  But  they  were  formed  into  a  sort  of  system 
in  a  treatise  published  about  sixty  years  ago,  by  Mr.  Woolston,  and 
entitled,  "  Discourses  upon  the  Miracles  of  our  Saviour,"  a  book  now 
very  little  known,  but  which  drew  great  attention  at  the  time,  and 
was  overpowered  by  a  variety  of  able  answers.  JNIr.  Woolston  at- 
tempted to  show  that  the  earliest  and  most  respectable  writers  of  the 
Christian  church  understood  the  miracles  of  our  Saviour  purely  in  an 
allegorical  sense,  as  emblems  of  the  spiritual  life  ;  and  that  there  was 
good  reason  for  doing  so,  because  the  accounts,  taken  in  a  literal  sense, 
are  absurd  and  incredible.  He  has  been  convicted  by  those  who 
have  answered  him,  of  gross  disingenuity  in  maintaining  the  first  of 
his  positions.  It  is  true  that  the  fathers,  even  of  the  first  century, 
were  led  by  their  attachment  to  that  philosophy  in  which  they  had 
been  educated,  to  seek  for  hidden  spiritual  meanings  in  the  plain 
historical  parts  of  Scripture.  And  Origen,  in  the  third  century,  went 
so  far  as  to  undervalue  the  literal  sense  in  comparison  with  the  alle- 
gorical, saying,  "  the  Scriptures  are  of  little  use  to  those  who  under- 
stand them  as  they  are  written."*  He  has  pursued  this  manner  of 
interpreting  the  miracles  of  our  Saviour  much  farther  than  became  a 
sound  reasoner.  But  although  it  appeared  to  him  more  sublime  and 
instructive  than  a  simple  exposition  of  the  facts  recorded,  yet  it  pro- 
ceeds upon  a  supposition  of  the  truth  of  the  facts ;  and  accordingly  in 
his  valuable  work  against  Celsus  the  Jew,  where  he  answers  the 
objections  to  the  truth  of  Christianity,  and  states  with  great  force  of 
reason  the  arguments  upon  which  our  faith  rests,  he  appeals  repeatedly 
to  the  miracles  which  Jesus  did,  which  he  enabled  his  apostles  to  do, 
and  some  faint  traces  of  which  remained  in  the  days  of  Origen.  He 
says  that  the  miracles  of  Christ  converted  nations,  and  that  it  would 
have  been  absurd  in  the  apostles  to  have  attempted  the  introduction 
of  anew  religion  without  the  help  of  miracles.  Mr.  Woolston,  there- 
fore, is  left  without  the  support  of  that  authority  which  he  pleads  ;  for 
Origen,  the  most  allegorical  of  the  fathers,  even  where  he  prefers  the 
allegorical,  does  not  exclude  the  literal  sense  ;  and  his  argumentative 
discourse  proceeds  upon  the  acknowledged  truth  of  the  facts  recorded. 

The  second  position  does  not  profess  to  rest  upon  the  authority  of 
any  name,  but  upon  the  nature  of  the  narration,  which,  Mr.  Woolston 
says,  is  so  filled  with  monstrous  incredibilities  and  absurdities,  that 
the  best  way  in  which  any  person  can  defend  it,  is  by  having  recourse 
to  the  allegorical  sense.     But  in  this  way,  the  argument  from  miracles 

•  Origen,  Stroniata,  lib.  z. 
,8 


62  ILLUSTRATION  OF  THE  EVIDENCES 

is  totally  lost,  because,  if  we  regard  them  not  as  facts,  but  as  a  method 
of  conveying  spiritual  instruction,  the  appeal  whicii  Jesus  continually 
made  to  the  works  that  he  did,  must  appear  to  us  chimerical  or  false. 
Although,  therefore,  Mr.  Woolston  has  the  effrontery  to  pretend  a 
zeal  for  the  honour  of  Jesus,  in  his  attempts  to  get  rid  of  tlie  diflicul- 
ties  arising  from  the  literal  sense,  that  literal  sense  must  be  defended  by 
every  Christian. 

It  is  impossible  to  lead  you  through  all  the  objections  which  have 
been  made  by  Woolston  and  other  writers.  But  I  shall  point  out  the 
sources  from  whence  satisfying  answers  may  be  drawn,  and  give 
some  specimens  of  the  application  of  these  sources. 

The  sources  of  answers  are  three  :  An  intimate  acquaintance  with 
local  manners,  customs,  and  prejudices — an  analysis  of  the  true  mean- 
ing of  the  words  in  the  original — and  a  close  attention  to  the  whole 
contexture  of  the  narration. 

1.  An  intimate  acquaintance  with  local  manners,  customs,  and  pre- 
judices. One  of  the  most  satisfying  evidences  of  the  authenticity  of 
the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  arises  from  their  reference  to  the 
peculiarities  of  that  country  in  which  we  say  the  authors  of  them 
lived,  a  reference  so  exact,  so  uniform,  and  extending  to  such  minute- 
ness, as  to  atford  conviction  to  any  person  who  considers  it  properly, 
that  these  are  not  the  production  of  a  later  age  or  another  country. — 
This  continual  reference,  while  it  is  a  proof  of  their  authenticity, 
colours  every  narration  contained  in  them,  with  circumstances  which 
appear  strange  to  a  reader  who  is  not  versant  in  Jewish  antiquities ; 
and  this  strangeness  furnishes  many  objections  to  those  who  are 
themselves  ignorant,  or  who  wish  to  impose  upon  the  ignorance  of 
others.  But  the  phantom  is  dissipated  by  that  local  knowledge 
which  may  be  easily  acquired  and  easily  applied. 

2.  An  analysis  of  the  words  in  tlie  original.  Particular  objections 
against  the  miracles  of  Jesus  are  multiplied  by  this  circumstance, 
that  we  read  a  narration  of  them,  having  a  continual  reference  to 
ancient  manners,  not  in  the  language  in  which  it  was  originally 
written,  but  in  a  translation.  For,  allowing  that  translation  all  the 
praise  that  is  due  to  it,  and  it  deserves  a  great  deal,  still  it  must  happen 
that  the  words  in  the  translation  do  not  always  convey  precisely  the 
same  meaning  with  those  to  which  they  correspond  in  the  original. — 
Difterent  combinations  of  ideas,  and  different  modes  of  phraseology 
diversify  those  words  which  answer  the  most  exactly  to  one  another 
in  different  languages  ;  and  although  translations  even  under  this  dis- 
advantage are  sufhcient  to  give  every  necessary  information  to  those 
who  are  incapable  of  reading  the  original,  yet  we  have  experience,  in 
reading  all  ancient  authors,  that  the  delicacy  of  a  sentiment  and  the 
peculiar  manner  of  an  action  may  be  so  far  lost  by  the  words  used 
in  a  translation,  that  there  is  no  way  of  answering  objections  ground- 
ed upon  the  mode  of  exhibiting  the  sentiment  or  action,  but  by  having 
recourse  to  the  original. 

3.  A  close  attention  to  the  whole  contexture  of  the  narration. — 
Those  who  are  forward  to  make  objections,  are  not  disposed  to 
compare  the  different  parts  of  the  narration,  because  it  is  not  their 
business  to  find  an  answer.  They  choose  rather  to  lay  hold  of  par- 
ticular     ^ressions,  and  to  give  them  the  most  exceptionable  form,  by 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  63 

presenting  tliem  in  a  detailed  view.  Tlie  beaiitifnl  simplicity  of 
Scrij)ture  leaves  it  very  much  exposed  to  this  land  of  objections. — 
Wlien  all  the  circumstances  of  a  story  are  artfully  arranged,  so  as  to 
have  a  visible  reference  to  one  another,  the  manifest  unfairness  of 
attempting  to  present  a  part  of  the  story  disjointed  from  the  rest, 
betrays  the  design  of  a  person  who  makes  such  an  attempt.  But 
when  the  circumstances  are  spread  carelessly  through  the  whole 
narration,  inserted  by  the  historian  as  they  occurred  to  his  observation 
or  his  recollection,  without  his  seeming  desirous  to  prepossess  the 
readers  with  an  opinion  that  the  story  is  true,  or  aware  that  any 
objection  could  be  raised  to  it  in  this  natural  manner,  which  is  the 
manner  of  truth  and  the  manner  of  Scripture,  it  is  easy  to  raise  a 
variety  of  plausible  objections;  and  a  connected  view  of  the  whole  is 
necessary  in  order  to  discern  the  futility  of  them. 

From  these  three  sources  answers  may  be  drawn  to  all  the  objec- 
tions tiiat  have  ever  been  made  to  the  literal  sense  of  the  miracles  of 
Jesus.  To  show  their  utility,  I  shall  give  a  specimen  of  the  applica- 
tion of  them  to  some  of  the  objections  which  Mr.  Woolston  has  urged 
against  three  of  the  miracles  of  our  Lord  ;  the  cure  of  the  para- 
lytic in  the  second  chapter  of  Mark,  the  turning  of  water  into 
wine  at  Cana,  in  the  second  chapter  of  John,  and  the  resurrection  of 
Lazarus  in  the  eleventh  chapter. 

"  And  again  he  entered  into  Capernaum,  after  some  days  ;  and  it 
was  noised  that  he  was  in  the  house.  And  straightway  many  were 
gathered  together,  insomuch  that  there  Avas  no  room  to  receive  them, 
no,  not  so  much  as  about  the  door  :  and  he  preached  the  word  unto 
them.  And  they  came  unto  him,  bringing  one  sick  of  the  palsy,  which 
was  borne  of  four.  And  when  they  could  not  come  nigh  unto  him 
for  the  press,  they  uncovered  the  roof  where  lie  was :  and  when  they 
liad  broken  it  up,  they  let  down  the  bed  wherein  the  sick  of  the 
palsy  lay."* 

Mr.  Woolston  says,  in  a  mode  of  expression  which  he  uses  with- 
out any  scruple,  this  is  the  most  monstrously  absurd,  improbable,  and 
incredible  of  any,according  to  the  letter.  If  the  people  thronged  so 
much  that  those  who  bore  the  paralytic  could  not  get  to  the  door, 
why  did  not  they  wait  till  the  crowd  was  dismissed,  rather  than  heave 
up  the  sick  man  to  the  top  of  the  house  with  ropes  and  ladders,  break 
up  tiles,  spars,  and  rafters,  and  make  a  hole  large  enough  for  the  man 
and  his  bed  to  be  let  through  to  the  injury  of  the  house,  and  the 
danger  and  annoyance  of  those  who  were  within  ?  A  slight  attention 
to  the  ordinary  style  of  architecture  in  Judea,  and  to  the  words  of 
the  original,  removes  every  appearance  of  absurdity  in  the  narration. 
The  houses  in  Judea  were  seldom  more  than  two  stories  high,  and 
the  roofs  were  always  flat,  with  a  battlement  or  parapet  round  the 
edges,  so  that  there  was  no  danger  in  walking  or  pitching  a  tent,  as 
was  often  done  upon  the  roof  There  was  a  stair  within  tlie  house, 
which  led  to  a  door  that  lay  flat  when  it  was  not  opened,  forming  to 
all  appearance  a  part  of  the  roof,  and  was  secured  by  a  lock  or  bolt 
on  the  inside,  to  prevent  its  being  readily  opened  by  thieves.  By  this 
door  the  inhabitants  of  the  house  could  easily  get  to  the  roof,  and 

•  Mark  u.  1—4. 


64  ILLUSTRATION  OF  THE  EVIDENCES 

there  was  often  a  fixed  stair  leading  to  it  from  the  outside,  or  where 
that  was  wanting,  a  short  ladder  was  occasionally  applied.     Suppos- 
ing then,  the  house  mentioned  hy  Mark  to  have  been  built  after  this 
common  fashion  ;  the  court  before  it  so  full,  that  it  was  not  possible 
to  get  near  the  door  of  the  house  ;   the  people  so    throng,  and  so 
earnest  in  listening,  that  it  was  vain  to  think  of  their  giving  place  to 
any  one ;  in  this  situation,  the  four   persons  who  carried  the  palsied 
man  upon  a  little  couch,  xy^wibiov,  think  of  going  round  to  another  part 
of  the  house,  at  which  by  a  stair  or  ladder  they  easily  reach  the  roof. 
They  find  the  door  laying  flat,  and  the  word  i^'^e.tiavtii  implies  that  some 
force  was  necessary  to  break  it  open.    That  force  might  have  disturbed 
the  family  had  they  been  quiet.     But  at  present  they  are  too  much 
engaged  to  attend  to  it,  or  their  knowledge  of  the  purpose  for  which 
the  force  was  used,  prevents  them  from  giving  any  interruption.     The 
door  being  made  to  allow  persons  to  come  out  upon  the  roof,  and  the 
couch  being  a  xxut5toi',*  it  would  not  be  difficult  for  four  men  to  let 
down  the  couch  by  the  stair  on  the  inside,  two  of  them  going  before 
to  receive  it  out  of  the  hands  of  the  others.     After  the  couch  is  thus 
brought  into  the  room  where  Jesus  was,  in  the  only  method  by  which 
access  could  be  found  to  him,  he  rewards  the  faith  of  the  sick  man  by 
performing,  in  presence  of  his  enemies,  several  of  whom  appear  to 
have  mingled  with  the  multitude,  an  instantaneous  and  wonderful 
cure.     The  palsy  is   a  disease  seldom  completely,  never  suddenly 
removed.     The  extreme  degree  in  which  it  affected  this  man  was 
known  to  the  four  who  carried  him,  to  the  multitude  in  the  midst  of 
whom  he  was  laid,  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  Capernaum.-    Yet  by  a 
word  from  the  mouth  of  Jesus,  he  is  enabled  to  rise  up  and  carry  his 
couch.     Judge  from  this  simple  exposition,  wh?thcr  the  narrative  of 
Mark  deserves  to  be  called  monstrously  absurd  and  incredible. 

The  turning  of  water  into  wine  is  recorded  in  the  second  chapter 
of  John.  The  only  objection  to  this  miracle  which  merits  consider- 
ation, is  the  offence  conceived  by  Mr.  Woolston  at  the  expression 
which  our  Lord  uses  to  his  mother.  And  I  doubt  not  that  it  sounds 
harsh  in  the  ears  of  every  English  reader.  "  When  they  wanted 
wine,  the  mother  of  Jesus  saith  unto  him,  they  have  no  wine ;  Jesus 
saith  unto  her,  Woman,  what  have  I  to  do  with  thee  ?  Mine  hour  is 
not  yet  come."  Here  an  analysis  of  the  words  in  the  original  appears 
to  me  to  aftbrd  a  satisfying  answer  to  the  objection.  I  need  scarcely 
remark,  that  ywr]  is  the  word  by  which  women  of  the  highest  rank 
were  addressed  in  ancient  times  by  men  of  the  most  polished  manners, 
when  they  wished  to  show  them  every  mark  of  respect.  It  is  used 
by  Jesus,  when  with  filial  atToction,  in  his  dying  moments,  he  provides 
every  soothing  attention  for  his  mother.  The  phrase  r'l  sfioi  xm  aoc  occurs 
in  some  place  of  the  Septuagint  translation  of  the  Old  Testament,  and 
also  in  the  New  Testament.  It  is  uniformly  rendered  "  What  have 
I  to  do  with  thee  ?"  and  seems  to  mark  a  check,  a  slight  reprimand,  a 
degree  of  displeasure.  It  was  not  unnatural  for  our  translators  to  give 
the  Greek  phrase  the  same  sense  here  ;  and  many  commentators  under- 
stand our  Lord  as  checking  his  mother  for  directing  him  in  the  exer- 
cise of  his  divine  power.     I  do  not  think  that  such  a  check  would  have 

•  Luke  V.  19,  24. 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  65 

been  inconsistent  with  that  tender  concern  for  his  mother  which  our 
Lord  showed  upon  the  cross.  It  became  him  who  was  endowed  with 
the  Spirit  without  measure,  to  be  led  by  that  Spirit  in  the  discharge 
of  his  pubUc  otiice,  and  not  to  commit  himself  to  the  narrow  concep- 
tions of  any  of  the  children  of  men.  I  do  not  therefore  find  fault 
with  those  who  understand  Jesus  as  saying,  the  time  of  attesting  my 
commission  by  miracles  is  not  come,  and  I  cannot  receive  directions 
from  you  when  it  should  begin.  This  may  be  the  meaning  of  the 
words.  But  as  they  will  easily  bear  another  translation,  perfectly 
consistent  with  the  meekness  and  gentleness  of  Christ,  I  am  inclined 
to  prefer  it,  "  What  is  that  to  thee  and  me  ?  The  want  of  wine  is  a 
matter  that  concerns  the  master  of  the  feast.  But  it  need  not  distress 
you ;  and  my  friends  cannot  accuse  me  of  unkindness  in  withholding 
an  exercise  of  my  power,  that  may  be  convenient  for  them,  for  I  have 
yet  done  no  miracle,  the  season  of  my  public  manifestation  not  being 
come."  We  know  that  Jesus  did  not  enter  upon  his  ministry  till  after 
John  was  cast  into  prison.  We  find  John,  in  the  next  chapter,  bap- 
tizing near  Salim,  and  this  is  called  the  beginning  of  miracles.  Ac- 
cording to  this  translation,  every  appearance  of  harshness  is  avoided, 
and  the  whole  story  hangs  perfectly  together.  You  will  observe, 
Mary  was  so  far  from  being  offended  at  the  supposed  harshness  of 
the  answer,  or  conceiving  it  to  be  a  refusal,  that  she  says  to  the 
servants,  "  Whatever  he  saith  unto  you,  do  it :"  and  our  Lord's  doing 
the  miracle  after  this  answer,  is  a  beautiful  instance  of  his  attention  to 
his  mother.  Although  his  friends  had  no  reason  to  expect  an  inter- 
position of  his  power,  because  his  hour  was  not  come,  yet,  in  com- 
pliance with  her  desire,  he  supplies  plentifully  what  is  wanting. 

To  the  resurrection  of  Lazarus,  in  the  eleventh  chapter  of  John, 
Mr.  Woolsfon  objects,  that  the  person  raised  was  not  a  man  of  emi- 
nence sufficient  to  draw  attention — that  he  gives  no  account  of  what 
he  saw  in  the  separate  state — that  it  was  absurd  in  Jesus  to  call 
with  a  loud  voice  to  a  dead  man  —that  Lazarus  having  his  head 
bound  is  suspicious — and  that  the  whole  is  a  romantic  story.  Now  the 
answer  to  all  this  is  to  be  drawn  from  the  contexture  of  the  narrative, 
in  which,  beautiful,  simple,  and  tender  as  it  is,  tliere  are  interwoven 
such  circumstances  as  can  leave  no  doubt  upon  the  mind  of  any 
person  who  admits  the  authenticity  of  this  book,  that  the  greatest  of 
miracles  was  here  really  performed.  Instead,  therefore,  of  following 
the  frivolous  objections  of  Mr.  Woolston  one  by  one,  I  shall  present 
you  with  a  connected  view  of  these  circumstances,  as  a  specimen  of 
the  manner  in  which  the  credibility  of  other  miracles  may  be  illus- 
trated. 

Jesus  lingered  in  the  place  where  he  was,  when  he  received  the 
message  from  the  sisters,  till  the  time  when,  by  the  divine  knowledge 
that  he  possessed,  he  said  to  the  apostles,  "Our  friend  Lazarus  sleepeth." 
After  this,  he  had  a  long  journey  to  Bethany ;  and  it  does  not  appear 
that  he  performed  it  hastily,  for  he  learned,  as  he  approached  the 
village,  that  Lazarus  had  lain  four  days  in  the  grave.  He  delayed 
so  long,  that  the  divine  power,  which  he  was  to  exert  in  tfie  resurrec- 
tion of  Lazarus,  might  be  magnified  in  the  eyes  of  the  spectators  ;  and, 
at  the  same  time,  he  provided  an  unquestionable  testimony  for  the 
truth  of  the  miracle,  by  arriving  before  the  days  of  mourning  were 
8*  "M 


66  ILLUSTRATION  OF  THE  EVIDENCES 

expired.  You  will  be  sensible  of  the  effect  of  this  circumstance,  if 
you  attend  for  a  moment  to  the  manners  of  the  Jews  respecting 
funerals.  One  of  the  greatest  calamities  in  human  life,  is  the  death  of 
those  persons  whose  society  had  been  our  comfort  and  joy.  It  has 
been  the  practice  of  all  countries  to  testify  the  sense  of  this  calamity 
by  honours  paid  to  the  dead,  and  by  expressions  of  grief  on  the  part  of 
the  living.  In  eastern  countries,  where  all  the  passions  are  strong, 
and  agitate  the  frame  more  than  in  our  northern  climates,  these  ex- 
pressions of  grief  were  often  exceedingly  violent ;  and  notwithstand- 
ing some  wise  prohibitions  of  the  law  of  Moses,  the  mourning  in  the 
land  of  Judea  was  more  expressive  of  anguish  than  that  which  we 
commonly  see.  The  dead  body  was  carried  out  to  burial  not  long 
after  the  death.  But  the  house  in  which  the  person  had  died,  the 
furniture  of  the  house,  and  all  who  had  been  in  it  at  that  time,  became 
in  the  eye  of  the  law  unclean  for  seven  daj^s.  During  that  time,  the 
near  relations  of  the  deceased  remained  constantly  in  the  house, 
unless  when  they  went  to  the  grave  or  sepulchre  to  mourn  over  the 
dead.  They  did  not  perform  any  of  the  ordinary  business  of  life  ; 
they  were  not  considered  as  in  a  proper  condition  for  attending  the 
service  of  the  temple,  and  their  neighbours  and  acquaintances,  for 
these  seven  days,  came  to  condole  with  them,  bringing  bread  and 
wine  and  other  victuals,  as  there  was  nothing  in  the  house  which  could 
lawfully  be  used.  Upon  this  charitable  errand,  a  number  of  Jews, 
inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  had  come  out  to  Bethany,  which  was  with- 
in two  miles  of  the  city,  upon  the  day  when  Jesus  arrived  there ;  and 
thus,  as  we  found  the  sisters  brought  out  to  the  sepulchre  one  after  an- 
other, by  the  most  natural  display  of  character,  so  here,  without  any 
appearance  of  a  divine  interposition,  but  merely  by  their  following  the 
dictates  of  good  neighbourhood  or  of  decency,  the  enemies  of  Jesus 
are  gathered  together  to  be  the  witnesses  of  this  work.  When  the 
Jews  saw  Mary  rise  hastily  and  go  out,  after  the  private  message 
which  Martha  brought  her,  knowing  that  she  could  not  go  any  where 
but  to  the  sepulchre,  they  naturally  arose  to  follow  her,  that  they  might 
restrain  the  extravagance  of  her  grief,  and  assist  in  composing  her 
spirit  and  bringing  her  home.  They  found  Jesus  in  the  highway 
where  Martha  had  first  met  him,  groaning  in  spirit  at  the  distress  of 
the  family,  and  soothing  Mary's  complaint  by  this  kindly  question, 
"Where  have  ^'■e  laid  him?"  a  question  which  showed  his  readiness 
to  take  part  in  her  sorrow  by  going  witli  her  to  the  house  of  the  dead. 
The  Jews  answered  his  question,  "  Lord,  come  and  see ;"  and  Jesus 
suffers  himself  to  be  led  by  them,  that  they  might  see  there  was  no 
preparation  for  the  work  he  was  about  to  perform,  when  he  stepped 
out  of  the  highway  along  with  them,  and  allowed  them  to  reach  the 
sepulchre  before  him.  His  tears  draw  the  attention  of  the  crowd  as 
he  approaches  the  place  ;  and  the  Evangelist  has  presented  to  us,  in 
their  different  remarks,  that  variety  of  cliaracter  which  we  discover 
in  every  multitude.  The  candid  and  feeling  admired  this  testimony 
of  his  affection  for  Lazarus,  "  Behold  how  he  loved  him  !"  Others, 
who  pretended  to  more  sagacity,  argued  from  the  grief  of  Jesus,  that, 
in  the  death  of  Lazarus,  he  had  met  with  a  disappointment  which  he 
would  have  prevented  if  he  could.  Jesus,  without  making  any  reply 
to  eitlior  remark,  arrives  at  tlie  grave.     Jolm,  who  wrote  his  Gospel 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  67 

at  a  distance  from  Jerusalem,  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  were 
strangers  to  Jewish  manners,  has  given  a  short  description  of  the 
grave,  which  we  must  carry  along  with  us.  The  Jews,  especially 
persons  of  distinction,  were  generally  laid,  not  in  such  graves  as  we 
commonly  see,  but  in  caves  hewn  in  the  rocks,  with  which  the  land 
of  Judea  abounded.  Sometimes  the  sepulchre  was  in  part  above  the 
ground,  having  a  door,  like  that  in  which  our  Lord  lay.  Sometimes 
it  was  altogether  below  ground,  having  an  aperture  from  which  a  stair 
led  down  to  the  bottom,  and  this  aperture  covered  with  a  stone, 
except  when  the  sepulchre  was  to  be  opened.  The  body,  swathed 
in  linen,  with  the  feet  and  hands  tightly  bound,  and  the  whole  face 
covered  by  a  napkin,  was  laid,  not  in  a  coffin,  but  in  a  niche  or  cell 
of  the  sepulchre.  As  the  Jews,  at  the  command  of  Jesus,  were 
attempting  to  take  away  the  stone,  Martha  seems  to  stagger  in  the 
faith  which  she  had  formerly  expressed.  "  Lord,  by  this  time  he  stink- 
eth,  for  he  hath  been  dead  four  days,"  •tnae,taioi  ya^  ta-n.  The  word 
means  that  he  has  been  four  days  in  some  particular  condition,  with- 
out expressing  what  condition  is  meant.  Now,  his  present  condition 
is,  being  in  the  cave.  It  was  mentioned  before,  that  he  had  been 
there  four  days,  and  therefore  our  translators  should  have  inserted  in 
italics  the  word  buried,  not  the  word  dead.  Jesus  revives  the  faith 
of  Martha  ;  and  as  soon  as  the  stone  is  removed,  he  lifts  up  his  eyes 
to  heaven,  and  thanks  the  Father  for  having  heard  him.  His  enemies 
said,  that  he  did  his  mighty  works  by  the  assistance  of  the  devil. 
Here,  in  the  act  of  performing  the  greatest  of  them,  he  prays  with 
perfect  assurance  of  being  heard,  ascribes  the  honour  to  God,  and 
takes  to  himself  the  name  of  the  messenger  of  heaven.  Think  of  the 
suspense  and  earnest  attention  of  the  multitude,  while,  after  the 
sepulchre  is  opened,  Jesus  is  uttering  this  solemn  prayer.  How 
would  the  suspense  be  increased,  when  Jesus,  to  show  the  whole 
multitude  that  the  resurrection  of  Lazarus  was  his  deed,  calls  with  a 
loud  voice,  "  Lazarus,  come  forth  !"  And  what  would  be  their 
astonishment  when  they  saw  this  command  instantly  obeyed ;  the 
man  who  had  lain  four  days  in  the  sepulchre,  sliding  his  limbs  down 
from  the  cell,  and  standing  before  it  upright !  The  bandages  prevent 
him  from  moving  forward.  But  Jesus,  by  ordering  the  Jews  to  loose 
him,  gives  them  a  nearer  opportunity  of  examining  this  wonderful 
sight,  and  of  deriving,  from  the  dress  of  his  body,  from  the  state  of 
the  grave  clothes,  from  the  manner  in  which  the  napkin  smothered 
his  face,  various  convincing  proofs,  that  the  man  whom  they  now  saw 
and  touched  alive,  had  been  truly  numbered  among  the  dead. 

The  contexture  of  this  narration  is  such  as  to  efface  from  our  minds 
every  objection  against  the  consistency  of  it ;  and  the  greatness  of  the 
miracle  is  obvious.  We  behold  in  this  work  the  Lord  of  Life.  None 
can  restore  a  man  who  had  seen  corruption,  but  He  who  in  the  be- 
ginning created  him.  Jesus  gives  us  here  a  sample  of  the  general 
resurrection,  and  a  sensible  sign  that  he  is  able  to  deliver  from  the 
second  death.  This  is  the  meaning  of  that  expression,  "  Whosoever 
liveth  and  believeth  in  me  shall  never  die,"o»'  ^»j  anoewY;  n^  tov  aiuju,  i.  e. 
shall  not  die  for  ever.  Natural  death  is  the  separation  of  soul  and 
body ;  eternal  death  is  the  loss,  the  degradation,  and  final  wretched- 
ness of  the  soul.     Both  are  the  wages  of  sin,  and  Jesus  delivers  from 


68  ILLUSTRATION  01'  THE  EVIDENCES 

the  first,  which  is  visible,  as  a  pledge  of  his  being  able  to  deliver,  in 
due  time,  those  who  live  and  believe  in  him,  from  the  second  also. 
The  miracle  is  in  this  way  stated  by  himself,  both  as  a  confirmation 
of  his  mission,  and  as  an  illustration  of  the  great  doctrine  of  his  reli- 
gion. 

Before  leaving  the  circumstances  of  the  miracle  I  would  observe, 
that  however  ably  such  objections  as  I  have  mentioned  may  be 
answered,  there  is  much  caution  to  be  used  in  stating  them  to  a  Chris- 
tian assembly.  It  is  very  improper  to  communicate  to  the  people  all  the 
extravagant  frivolous  conceits  that  have  been  broached  by  the  enemies 
of  Christianity.  The  objection  may  remain  with  them  after  they  have 
forgotten  the  answer;  and  their  faith  may  be  shaken  by  finding 
that  it  has  received  so  many  attacks.  It  becomes  the  ministers  of  re- 
ligion indeed,  to  possess  their  minds  with  a  profound  knowledge  of 
the  evidences  of  Christianity,  and  of  the  answers  that  may  be  made  to 
objections.  But  out  of  this  store-house  they  should  bring  forth  to  the 
people  a  clear  unembarrassed  view  of  every  subject  upon  which  they 
speak,  so  as  to  create  no  doubt  or  suspicion  in  those  who  hear  them, 
but  to  give  their  faith  that  stability  which  is  always  connected  with 
distinct  apprehension. 

III.  It  remains  to  say  a  few  words  upon  the  effects  which  this 
miracle  produced.  Some  of  the  persons  who  had  come  to  comfort 
Mary,  wlien  they  saw  "  the  things  which  Jesus  did,  believed  on  him." 
♦  It  was  the  conclusion  of  right  reason,  that  a  man  who,  in  the  sight  of 
a  multitude,  exerted,  without  preparation,  a  power  to  which  no 
human  exertion  deserves  to  be  compared,  was  a  messenger  of  heaven. 
It  was  the  conclusion  of  an  enlightened  and  unprejudiced  Jew,  that 
this  extraordinary  person,  appearing  in  the  land  of  Judea,  was  the 
Messiah,  whose  coming  was  to  be  distinguished  by  signs  and  wonders. 
The  chosen  people  of  God,  who  "  waited  for  the  consolation  of 
Israel,"  found  in  this  miracle  the  most  striking  marks  of  him  that 
should  come.  The  conclusion  seems  to  arise  naturally  out  of  the  pre- 
mises. Yet  it  was  not  drawn  by  all.  Many  believed,  "  but  some 
went  their  ways  to  the  Pharisees  and  told  them  what  things  Jesus 
had  done."  They  knew  the  enmity  v/hich  these  leading  men  enter- 
tained against  him.  They  were  afraid  of  incurring  their  anger,  by 
appearing  to  be  his  disciples ;  they  hoped  to  obtain  their  favour  by 
informing  against  him;  and,  sacrificing  their  conviction  to  this  fear 
and  this  hope,  they  go  from  the  sepulchre  of  Lazarus,  where  with 
astonishment  they  had  seen  the  power  of  Jesus,  to  inflame  the  minds 
of  his  enemies  by  a  recital  of  the  deed.  And  what  do  these  enemies 
do?  They  could  not  entertain  a  doubt  of  the  fact.  It  was  told  them 
by  witnesses  who  had  no  interest  in  forging  or  exaggerating  miracles 
ascribed  to  Jesus.  The  place  was  at  hand  ;  inquiry  was  easy  ;  and 
the  imposture,  had  there  been  any,  could  not  have  remained  hidden 
at  Jerusalem  for  a  day.  The  Pharisees,  therefore,  in  their  delibera- 
tions, proceed  upon  the  fact  as  undeniable.  "  This  man  doth  many 
miracles."  But,  from  mistaken  views  of  political  expediency,  the 
result  of  their  deliberation  is,  "  They  take  counsel  together  to  put  him 
to  death." 

There  is  thus  furnished  a  satisfactory  answer  to  a  question  that 
has  often  been  asked,  Tf  Jesus  really  dil  such  miracles,  how  is  it  pos- 


OP  CHRISTIANITY.  M. 

sible  that  any  who  saw  them  could  remain  in  unbelief?  Many,  we  are 
told,  did  believe  ;  and  here  is  a  view  of  the  motives  wliich  indisposed 
others  for  attending  to  the  evidence  which  was  exhibited  to  them,  and 
even  determined  them  to  reject  it.  You  cannot  be  surprised  at  the 
influence  which  such  motives  exerted  at  that  time,  because  the  like 
influence  of  similar  motives  is  a  matter  of  daily  observation.  The 
evidence  upon  which  we  embrace  Christianity  is  not  the  same  which 
the  Jews  had  ;  but  it  is  suflicient.  All  the  parts  of  it  have  been  fully 
ilhistrated;  every  objection  has  received  an  apposite  answer;  the 
gainsayers  have  been  driven  out  of  every  hold  which  they  have  tried 
to  occupy  ;  the  wisest  and  most  enlightened  men  in  every  age  have 
admitted  the  evidence,  and  "  set  to  their  seal  that  God  is  true."  Yet 
it  is  rejected  by  many.  Pride,  false  hopes,  or  evil  passions,  detain 
them  in  infidelity.  They  ask  for  more  evidence.  They  say  they 
suspect  collusion,  enthusiasm,  credulity.  But  the  example  of  those 
Jews,  who  went  their  ways  to  the  Pharisees,  may  satisfy  you  that 
there  is  no  defect  in  the  evidence,  and  that  there  is  the  most  literal 
truth  in  our  Lord's  declaration,  "  If  they  hear  not  Moses  and  the 
prophets,  neither  will  they  be  persuaded,  though  one  rose  from  the 
dead." 

The  difl'erent  efl'ects  which  the  same  religious  truths  and  the  same 
religious  advantages  produce  upon  difierent  persons,  aflford  one  in- 
stance of  a  state  of  trial.  God  is  now  proving  the  hearts  of  the  chil- 
dren of  men,  drawing  them  to  himself  by  persuasion,  by  that  moral 
evidence  which  is  enough  to  satisfy,  not  to  overpovt^-er.  Faith  in  this 
way  becomes  a  moral  virtue.  A  trial  is  taken  of  the  goodness  and 
honesty  of  the  heart.  "  If  thine  eye  be  single,  thy  whole  body  shall 
be  full  of  hght ;  but  if  thine  eye  be  evil,  thy  whole  body  shall  be  full 
of  darkness.  If,  therefore,  the  light  that  is  in  thee  be  darkness,  how 
great  is  that  darkness  !"  The  same  seed  of  the  word  is  scattered  by 
the  blessed  sower  in  various  soils,  and  the  equality  of  the  soil  is  left  to 
appear  by  the  produce. 

Pierce's  Commentary. 


70  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCES 


CHAPTER  VI. 


EXTERNAL    EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY — PROPHECY. 

Had  Jesus  appeared  only  as  a  messenger  of  heaven,  the  points 
already  considered  might  have  finished  the  defence  of  Christianity, 
because  we  should  have  been  entitled  to  say  that  miracles  such  as 
those  recorded  in  the  Gospel,  transmitted  upon  so  unexceptionable  a 
testimony,  and  wrought  in  support  of  a  doctrine  so  worthy  of  God, 
are  the  complete  credentials  of  a  divine  mission.  But  the  nature  of 
that  claim  which  is  made  in  the  Gospel  requires  a  further  defence  : 
for  it  is  not  barely  said  that  Jesus  was  a  messenger  from  heaven,  but 
it  is  said  that  he  was  the  Messiah  of  the  Jews,  "  the  prophet  that 
should  come  into  the  world."*  John,  his  forerunner,  marked  him 
out  as  the  Christ.t  He  himself,  in  his  discourses  with  the  Jews,  often 
referred  to  their  books,  which  he  said  wrote  of  him.J  Before  his 
ascension,  he  expounded  to  his  disciples  in  all  the  Scriptures,  the 
things  concerning  himself  §  They  went  forth  after  his  death  declaring 
that  they  said  none  other  things  than  those  which  the  prophets  and 
Moses  did  say  should  come  ;|]  and  in  all  their  discourses  and  writings 
they  held  forth  the  Gospel  as  the  end  of  the  law,  the  fulfilment  of  the 
covenant  with  Abraham,  the  performance  of  the  mercy  promised  to 
the  fathers. 

If  the  Gospel  be  a  divine  revelation,  these  allegations  must  be  true  ; 
for  it  is  impossible  that  a  messenger  from  heaven  can  advance  a  false 
claim.  Although,  therefore,  the  nature  of  the  doctrine,  and  the  con- 
firmation which  it  receives  from  miracles,  might  have  been  sufficient 
to  establish  our  faith,  had  no  such  claim  been  made ;  yet,  as  Jesus 
has  chosen  to  call  himself  the  Messiah  of  the  Jews,  it  is  incumbent 
upon  Christians  to  examine  the  correspondence  between  that  system 
contained  in  the  books  of  the  Jews,  and  that  contained  in  the  New 
Testament;  and  their  faith  does  not  rest  upon  a  solid  foundation, 
unless  they  can  satisfy  their  minds  that  the  characters  of  the  Jewish 
Messiah  belong  to  Jesus.  It  is  to  be  presumed  that  he  had  wise  rea- 
sons for  taking  to  himself  this  name,  and  that  the  faith  of  his  disciples 
will  be  very  much  strengthened  by  tracing  the  connection  between 
the  two  dispensations.  But  the  nature  and  force  of  the  argimient 
from  prophecy  will  unfold  itself  in  the  progress  of  the  investigation  ; 
and  it  is  better  to  begin  with  attending  to  the  facts  upon  which  the 

*  John  iv.  26;  vi.  14.  f  John  i.  29— 31. 

+  John  V.  39,  46.  §  Luke  xxiv.  27. 

0  Acte  xivi,  22,  , 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  71 

argument  rests,  and  the  steps  which  lead  to  the  condusion,  than  to 
form  premature  conceptions  of  the  amount  of  this  part  of  the  evidence 
for  Christianity. 


Section  I. 

In  every  point  of  investigation,  it  is  of  great  importance  to  ascer- 
tain precisely  the  point  from  which  you  set  out,  that  there  may  be  no 
danger  of  confounding  the  points  that  are  assumed,  with  those  that 
are  to  be  proven.  There  is  much  reason  for  making  this  remark  in 
entering  upon  the  subject  which  we  are  now  to  investigate,  because 
attempts  have  been  made  to  render  it  confused  and  inextricable,  by 
misstating  the  manner  in  which  the  investigation  ought  to  proceed. 
Mr.  Gibbon,  speaking  of  that  argument  from  prophecy,  which  often 
occurs  in  the  apologies  of  the  primitive  Christians,  calls  it  an  argu- 
ment beneath  the  notice  of  philosophers.  "  It  might  serve,"  he  says, 
"  to  edify  a  Christian,  or  to  convert  a  Jew,  since  both  the  one  and  the 
other  acknowledge  the  authority  of  the  prophets,  and  both  are  obliged 
with  devout  reverence  to  search  for  their  sense  and  accomplishment. 
But  this  mode  of  persuasion  loses  much  of  its  weight  and  influence, 
when  it  is  addressed  to  those  who  neither  understand  nor  respect  the 
Mosaic  dispensation,  or  the  prophetic  spirit."*  Mr.  Gibbon  learned 
to  use  this  supercilious  inaccurate  language  from  Mr.  Collins,  an 
author  of  whom  I  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  fully  before  I  finish 
the  discussion  of  this  subject,  and  who  lays  it  down  as  the  funda- 
mental position  of  his  book,  that  Christianity  is  founded  upon  Judaism, 
and  from  thence  infers  that  the  Gentiles  ought  regularly  to  be  con- 
verted to  Judaism  before  they  can  become  Christians.  The  object  of 
the  inference  is  manifest.  It  is  to  us,  in  these  later  ages,  a  much 
shorter  process  to  attain  a  conviction  of  the  truth  of  Christianity,  than 
to  attain,  without  the  assistance  of  the  Gospel,  a  conviction  of  the 
divine  origin  of  Judaism :  and,  therefore,  if  it  be  necessary  that  we 
become  converts  to  Judaism  before  we  become  Christians,  the  evi- 
dence of  our  religion  is  involved  in  numberless  difficulties,  and  the 
field  of  objection  is  so  much  extended,  that  the  adversaries  of  our  faith 
may  hope  to  persuade  the  generality  of  mankind  that  the  subject  is  too 
intricate  for  their  understanding.  The  design  is  manifest ;  but  nothing 
can  be  more  loose  or  fallacious  than  the  statement  which  is  employed 
to  accomplish  this  design.  In  order  to  perceive  this  you  need  only 
attend  to  the  difference  between  a  Jew  and  a  Gentile  in  the  conduct 
of  this  investigation.  A  Jew  who  respects  the  Mosaic  dispensation 
and  the  prophetic  spirit,  looks  for  the  fulfilment  of  those  prophecies 
which  appear  to  him  to  be  contained  in  his  sacred  books,  and  when 
any  person  declares  that  these  prophecies  are  fulfilled  in  him,  the  Jew 
is  led  by  that  respect  to  compare  the  circumstances  in  the  appearance 
of  that  person  with  what  he  accounts  the  right  interpretation  of  the 
prophecies,  and  to  form  his  judgment  whether  they  be  fulfilled.  A 
Gentile,  to  whom  the  divinity  of  the  prophecies  was  formerly  un- 

•  Gibbon's  Roman  History,  chap.  xv. 


72  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCES 

known,  but  who  hears  a  person  declaring  that  they  are  fulfilled  in 
him,  if  he  is  disposed  by  other  circumstances  to  pay  any  respect  to 
what  that  person  says,  will  be  led  by  that  respect  to  inquire  after  the 
books  in  which  these  prophecies  are  said  to  be  contained,  will  com- 
pare the  appearance  of  that  person  with  what  is  written  in  these 
books,  and  will  judge  from  this  comparison  how  far  they  correspond. 
Both  the  Jew  and  the  Gentile  may  be  led  by  this  comparison  to  a  firm 
conviction  that  the  messenger  whose  character  and  history  they 
examine,  is  the  person  foretold  in  the  prophecies.  Yet  the  Jew  set 
out  with  the  belief  that  the  prophecies  are  divine  ;  the  Gentile  only 
attained  that  belief  in  the  progress  of  the  examination.  It  is  not 
possible,  then,  that  a  previous  belief  of  the  divinity  of  the  prophecies 
is  necessary  in  order  to  judge  of  the  fulfilment  of  them  ;  for  two  men 
may  form  the  same  judgment  in  this  matter,  the  one  of  whom  from 
the  beginning  had  that  belief,  and  the  other  had  it  not. 

The  true  point  from  which  an  investigation  of  the  fulfilment  of 
prophecy  must  commence,  is  this,  that  the  books  containing  what  is 
called  the  prophecy,  existed  a  considerable  time  before  the  events 
which  are  said  to  be  the  fulfilment  of  it.  I  say,  a  considerable  time, 
because  the  nearer  that  the  first  appearance  of  these  books  was  to  the 
event,  it  is  the  more  possible  that  human  sagacity  may  account  for 
the  coincidence,  and  the  remoter  the  period  is,  to  which  their  existence 
can  be  traced,  that  account  becomes  the  more  improbable.  Let  us 
place  ourselves,  then,  in  the  situation  of  those  Gentiles  whom  the  first 
preachers  of  the  Gospel  addressed ;  let  us  suppose  that  we  know  no 
more  about  the  books  of  the  Jews  than  they  might  know,  and  let  us 
consider  how  we  may  satisfy  ourselves  as  to  the  preliminary  point 
upon  which  the  investigation  must  proceed. 

The  prophecies  to  which  Jesus  and  his  apostles  refer,  did  not  pro- 
ceed from  the  hands  of  obscure  individuals,  and  appear  in  that  sus- 
picious form  which  attends  every  prediction  of  an  unknown  date  and 
a  hidden  origin.  They  were  presented  to  the  world  in  the  public 
records  of  a  nation  ;  they  are  completely  incorporated  with  these  re- 
cords, and  they  form  part  of  a  series  of  predictions  which  cannot  be 
disjoined  from  the  constitution  and  history  of  the  state.  This  nation^ 
however  singular  in  its  religious  principles,  and  in  what  appeared  to 
the  world  to  be  its  political  revolutions,  was  not  unknown  to  its  neigh- 
bours. By  its  geographical  situation,  it  had  a  natural  connection 
with  the  greatest  empires  of  the  world.  War  and  commerce  occa- 
sionally brought  the  flourishing  kingdom  of  Judea  into  their  view ; 
and  although  repugnant  in  manners  and  in  worship,  they  were  wit- 
nesses of  the  existence  and  the  peculiarities  of  this  kingdom.  The 
captivity,  first  of  the  ten  tribes  by  Salmanazar,  afterwards  of  the  two 
tribes  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  served  still  more  to  draw  the  attention  of 
the  world,  many  centuries  before  the  birth  of  Christ,  to  the  peculiari- 
ties of  Jewish  manners.  And  there  was  a  circumstance  in  the  return 
of  the  two  tribes  from  captivity,  which  was  to  those  who  obseived  it 
in  ancient  times,  and  is  to  us  at  this  day,  a  singular  and  unquestion- 
able voucher  of  the  early  existence  of  their  books.  Nehemiah  was 
appointed  by  the  king  of  Persia  to  superintend  the  rebuilding  of  the 
walls  of  Jerusalem.  He  had  received  much  opposition  in  tliis  work 
from  Sanballat,  the  governor  of  Samaria,  that  district  of  Palestine 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  73 

which  the  ten  tribes  had  inhabited,  and  into  which  the  king  of  As- 
syria had,  at  the  time  of  their  captivity,  transplanted  his  own  subjects. 
The  work,  however,  was  finished,  and  Nehemiah  proceeded  in 
niaking  the  regulations  which  appeared  to  him  necessary  for  main- 
taining order,  and  the  observance  of  the  law  of  Moses  amongst 
the  multitude  whom  he  had  gathered  into  Jerusalem.  Some  of  these 
regulations  were  not  universally  agreeable  ;  and  Manasseh,  a  son  of 
the  high  priest,  who  had  married  a  daughter  of  Sanballat,  fled  at  the 
head  of  the  malecontent  Jews  into  Samaria.  Tiie  Law  of  Moses 
was  not  acknowledged  in  Samaria,  for  the  king  of  Assyria,  after  the 
first  captivity,  had  sent  a  priest  to  instruct  those  whom  he  planted 
there,  in  the  worship  of  the  God  of  the  country,  and  for  some  time 
they  had  offered  sacrifices  to  idols  in  conjunction  with  the  true  God. 
But  Manasseh,  emulous  of  the  Jews  whom  he  had  left,  and  consider- 
ing the  honour  of  a  descendant  of  Aaron  as  concerned  in  the  purity 
of  worship  which  he  established  in  his  new  residence,  prevailed  upon 
the  inhabitants  to  put  away  their  idols,  built  a  temple  to  the  God  of 
Israel  upon  Mount  Gerizim,  and  introduced  a  copy  of  the  law  of 
Moses,  or  the  Pentateuch.  He  did  not  introduce  any  of  the  later 
books  of  the  Old  Testament,  lest  the  Samaritans,  observing  the  pecu- 
liar honours  with  which  God  had  distinguished  Jerusalem, "  the  place 
which  he  had  chosen,  to  put  his  name  there,"  should  entertain  less 
reverence  for  the  temple  of  Gerizim.  And  as  a  farther  mark  of  dis- 
tinction, Manasseh  had  the  book  of  the  law  written  for  the  Samar- 
itans, not  in  the  Chaldee  character,  which  Ezra  had  adopted  in  the 
copies  of  the  law  which  he  made  for  the  Jews,  to  whom  that  language 
had  become  familiar  during  the  captivity,  but  in  the  old  Samaritan 
character.  During  the  successive  fortunes  of  the  Jewish  nation,  the 
Samaritans  continued  to  reside  in  their  neighbourhood,  worshipping 
the  same  God,  and  using  the  same  law.  But  between  the  two  na- 
tions there  was  that  kind  of  antipathy,  which,  in  religious  differences, 
is  often  the  more  bitter,  the  less  essential  the  disputed  points  are,  and 
which,  in  this  case,  proceeded  so  far  that  the  Jews  and  Samaritans 
not  only  held  no  communion  in  worship,  but  had  "  no  dealings 
with  one  another." 

Here  then  are  two  rival  tribes  stated  in  opposition  and  enmity  five 
hundred  years  before  Christ,  yet  acknowledging  and  preserving  the 
same  laws,  as  if  appointed  by  Providence  to  watch  over  the  corrup- 
tions which  either  might  be  disposed  to  introduce,  and  to  transmit  to 
the  nations  of  the  earth,  pure  and  free  from  suspicion,  those  books  in 
whicli  Moses  wrote  of  Jesus.  The  Samaritan  Pentateuch  is  often 
quoted  by  the  early  fathers.  After  it  had  been  unknown  for  a  thou- 
sand years,  it  was  found  by  the  industry  of  some  of  those  critics  who 
lived  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  amongst  the  rem- 
nant who  still  worship  at  Gerizim.  Copies  of  it  were  brought  into 
Europe,  and  the  learned  have  now  an  opportunity  of  comparing  the 
Samaritan  text  used  by  the  followers  of  JNIanasseh,  with  the  Hebrew 
or  Chaldee  text  used  by  the  Jews. 

While  this  ancient  schism  thus  furnished  succeeding  ages  with 
jealous  guardians  of  the  Pentateuch,  the  existence  and  integrity  of  all 
their  Scriptures  were  vouched  by  another  event  in  the  history  of  the 
Jews. 

9  N 


74  EXTERNAL      EVIDENCES 

Alexander  the  Great,  in  the  progress  of  his  conquests,  either  visited 
the  land  of  Judea,  or  received  intelligence  concerning  the  Jews.  His 
inquisitive  mind,  which  was  no  stranger  to  science,  and  which  was 
not  less  intent  upon  great  plans  of  commerce  than  of  conquest,  was 
probably  struck  with  the  peculiarities  of  this  ancient  people ;  and 
when  he  founded  his  city  Alexandria,  he  invited  many  of  the  Jews 
to  settle  there.  The  privileges  which  he  and  his  successors  conferred 
upon  them,  and  the  advantages  of  that  situation,  multiplied  the  Jewish 
inhabitants  of  Alexandria  ;  and  the  constant  intercourse  of  trade  oblig- 
ed them  to  learn  the  Greek  language,  which  the  conquerors  of  Asia 
had  introduced  through  all  the  extent  of  the  Macedonian  empire. — 
Retaining  the  religion  and  manners  of  Judea,  but  gradually  forgetting 
the  language  of  that  country,  they  became  desirous  that  their  Scrip- 
tures, the  canon  of  which  was  by  this  time  complete,  should  be  trans- 
lated into  Greek  ;  and  it  was  especially  proper  that  there  should  be  a 
translation  of  the  Pentateuch  for  the  use  of  the  synagogue,  where  a 
portion  of  it  was  read  every  Sabbath-day.  We  have  the  best  reason 
for  saying  that  the  translation  of  the  Old  Testament,  which,  from  an 
account  of  the  manner  of  its  being  made,  probably  in  many  points 
fabulous,  has  received  the  name  of  the  Septuagint,  was  begun  at 
Alexandria  about  two  hundred  and  eighty  years  before  Christ ;  and 
we  cannot  doubt  that  the  whole  of  the  Pentateuch  was  translated  at 
once.  Learned  men  have  conjectured,  indeed,  from  a  difference  of 
style,  that  the  other  parts  of  the  Old  Testament  were  translated  by 
other  hands.  But  it  is  very  improbable  that  a  work,  so  acceptable  to 
the  numerous  and  wealthy  body  of  Jews  who  resided  at  Alexandria, 
would  receive  any  long  interruption  after  it  was  begun  ;  and  a  subse- 
quent event  in  the  Jewish  history  appears  to  fix  a  time  when  a  trans- 
lation of  the  prophets  would  be  demanded.  About  the  middle  of  the 
second  century  before  Christ,  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  King  of  Syria, 
committed  the  most  outrageous  acts  of  wanton  cruelty  against  the 
whole  nation  of  the  Jews  ;  and  as  he  contended  with  the  King  of 
Egypt  for  the  conquest  of  Palestine,  we  may  believe  that  the  Jews  of 
Alexandria  shared  the  fate  of  their  brethren,  as  far  as  the  power  of  Anti- 
ochus could  reach  them.  Amongst  other  edicts  which  he  issued,  he  for- 
-bade  any  Jews  to  read  the  law  of  Moses  in  public.  As  the  prohibition 
did  not  extend  to  the  prophets,  the  Jews  began  at  this  time  to  substitute 
portions  of  the  prophets  instead  of  the  law.  After  the  heroical  exploit 
of  the  Asmonaian  family,  the  Maccabees  had  delivered  their  country 
from  the  tyraimy  of  Antiochus,  and  restored  the  reading  of  the  law,  the 
prophets  continued  to  be  read  also  ;  and  we  know  that  before  the 
days  of  our  Saviour,  reading  both  the  law  and  the  prophets  was  a 
stated  part  of  the  synagogue  service.  In  this  way  the  whole  of  the 
Septuagint  translation  came  to  be  used  in  the  churches  of  the  Hellen- 
istical  Jews  scattered  through  the  Grecian  cities ;  and  we  are  told  it 
was  used  in  some  of  the  synagogues  of  Judea. 

When  Rome,  then,  entered  into  an  alliance  with  the  princes  of 
the  Asmonrean  line,  who  were  at  tliat  time  independent  sovereigns, 
and  when  Judea,  experiencing  the  same  fate  with  the  other  allies  of 
that  ambitious  republic,  was  subdued  by  Pompey  about  sixty  years 
before  the  birth  of  our  Saviour,  the  books  of  the  Jews  were  publicly 
read  in  a  language  which  was  then  universal.     The  diffusion  of  the 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  75 

Jews  tlirough  all  parts  of  the  Roman  empire,  and  the  veneration  in 
which  they  held  their  scriptures,  conspired  to  assure  the  heathen  that 
such  books  existed,  and  to  spread  some  general  knowledge  of  their 
contents :  and  even  could  we  suppose  it  possible  for  a  nation  so  zeal- 
ous of  the  law,  and  so  widely  scattered  as  the  Jews  were,  to  enter 
into  a  concert  for  altering  their  scriptures,  we  must  be  sensible  that 
insuperable  difficulties  were  thrown  in  the  way  of  such  an  attempt, 
by  tiie  animosity  between  the  religious  sects  which  at  that  time  flour- 
ished in  Judea.  The  Sadducees  and  the  Pharisees  differed  upon 
essential  points  respecting  the  interpretation  and  extent  of  the  law  ; 
they  were  rivals  for  reputation  and  influence  ;  there  were  learned  men 
upon  both  sides,  and  both  acknowledged  the  authority  of  Moses  ;  and 
thus,  as  the  Samaritans  and  the  Jews  in  ancient  times  were  appointed 
of  God  to  watch  over  the  Pentateuch  ;  so,  in  the  ages  immediately 
before  our  Saviour,  the  Pharisees  and  the  Sadducees  were  faithful 
guardians  of  all  the  ancient  scriptures. 

Such  is  the  amount  of  that  testimony  to  the  existence  of  their  sacred 
books,  long  before  the  days  of  our  Saviour,  with  Avhich  the  Jews,  a 
nation  superstitious! y  attached  to  their  law,  widely  spread,  and 
strictly  guarded,  present  them  to  the  world ;  and  to  this  testimony 
there  are  to  be  added  the  many  internal  marks  of  authenticity  which 
these  books  exhibit  to  a  discerning  reader, — the  agreement  of  the 
natural,  the  civil,  and  the  religious  history  of  the  world,  with  those 
views  which  they  present — the  incidental  mention  that  profane  writers 
have  made  of  Jewish  customs  and  peculiarities,  which  is  always 
strictly  conformable  to  the  contents  of  these  books — the  express  refer- 
ence to  many  of  them  that  occurs  in  the  New  Testament,  a  reference 
which  must  have  destroyed  the  credit  of  the  Gospels  and  Epistles,  if 
the  books  referred  to  had  not  been  known  to  have  a  previous  existence 
— and,  lastly,  the  evidence  of  Josephus,  the  Jewish  historian,  a  man 
of  rank  and  of  science,  who  may  be  considered  as  a  contemporary  of 
Jesus,  and  who  has  given  in  his  works  a  catalogue  of  the  Jewish 
books,  not  upon  his  own  authority,  but  upon  the  authority  and  ancient 
conviction  of  liis  nation,  a  catalogue  w^hich  agrees  both  in  number 
and  in  description  with  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament  that  we  now 
receive.  Even  Daniel,  the  only  writer  of  the  Old  Testament  against  the 
authenticity  of  whose  book  any  special  objections  have  been  offer- 
ed, is  styled  by  Josephus  a  prophet,  and  is  extolled  as  the  greatest 
of  the  prophets  ;  and  his  book  is  said  by  this  respectable  Jew  to  be  a 
part  of  the  canonical  scriptures  of  his  nation.* 

It  appears,  from  laying  all  these  circumstances  together,  that  as 
our  Lord  and  his  apostles  had  a  title  to  assume  in  their  addresses  to 
the  Gentiles,  the  previous  existence  of  the  Jewish  scriptures  as  a  fact 
generally  and  clearly  known,  so  no  doubt  can  be  reasonably  entertain- 
ed of  this  fact,  even  in  the  distant  age  in  which  we  live,  I  do  not 
speak  of  these  scriptures  as  a  divine  revelation  ;  I  abstract  entirely 
from  that  sacred  authority  which  the  Christian  religion  communicates 
to  them  ;  I  speak  of  them  merely  as  an  ancient  book  ;  and  I  say,  that 
while  there  is  no  improbability  in  the  most  remote  date  which  any 
part  of  this  book  claims,  there  is  real  satisfying  evidence,  to  which  no 

*  Joseph,  lib.  x,  cap.  11,13. 


76  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCES 

degree  of  scepticism  can  justify  any  man  for  refusing  his  assent,  that 
all  the  parts  had  an  existence,  and  might  have  been  known  in  the 
world,  some  centuries  before  the  Christian  era. 

Having  thus  satisfied  our  minds  of  the  previous  existence  of  those 
scriptures,  to  which  Jesus  appeals  as  containing  characters  of  the 
Messiah  which  are  fulfilled  in  him,  it  is  natural,  before  we  examine 
his  appeal,  to  inquire  whether  the  nation  who  have  transmitted  these 
scriptures,  entertained  any  expectation  of  such  a  person.  For  although 
it  be  possible  that  they  might  be  ignorant  of  the  full  meaning  of  the 
oracles  committed  to  them,  and  that  a  great  Prophet  might  explain  to 
the  nations  of  the  earth  that  true  sense  which  the  keepers  of  these 
oracles  did  not  understand,  yet  his  appeal  would  be  received  with 
more  attention,  and  even  with  a  prejudice  in  its  favour,  if  it  accorded 
with  the  hopes  of  those  who  had  the  best  access  to  know  the  grounds 
of  it.  Now,  it  is  admitted  upon  all  hands,  that  at  the  time  of  our 
Saviour's  birth  there  was  in  the  land  of  Judea  the  most  earnest 
expectation,  and  the  most  assured  hope,  that  an  extraordinary  person- 
age, to  whom  the  Jews  gave  the  name  of  Messiah,  was  to  arise.  We 
read  in  the  New  Testament,  that  many  looked  for  redemption  in 
Jerusalem,  and  waited  for  the  consolation  of  Israel ;  that  when  John 
appeared,  all  men  mused  in  their  hearts  whether  he  was  the  Christ; 
and  the  priests  and  the  Levites  sent  messages  to  ask  him,  Art  thou 
that  prophet  ?  that  the  conclusion  which  the  people  drew  from  some 
of  the  first  of  our  Lord's  miracles  was,  "  This  is  of  a  truth  that  prophet 
that  should  come  into  the  world  ;"  and  that  the  expectation  of  this 
person  had  spread  to  other  countries ;  for  wise  men  came  from  the 
east  to  Jerusalem,  in  search  of  him  who  was  to  be  born  King  of 
the  Jews.*  You  will  not  think  it  unfair  reasoning  to  quote  these 
passages  from  the  New  Testament  in  proof  of  the  expectation  of  a 
Messiah  ;  for  it  is  impossible  that  the  books  which  refer  in  such 
marked  terms  to  a  sentiment  so  universal  and  strong,  could  have 
been  received  by  any  inhabitant  of  Judea,  if  that  sentiment  had  no 
existence ;  and  the  inference  which  we  are  thus  entitled  to  draw  from 
the  authenticity  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  is  confirmed  in 
every  way  that  the  nature  of  the  case  admits  of,  by  historians  who 
write  of  these  times,  by  the  books  of  the  ancient  Jews,  and  the  senti- 
ments of  the  inodern.  Josephus,  Suetonius,  and  Tacitus,  although 
desirous  to  flatter  the  Roman  emperor  Vespasian,  by  applying  the 
prophecies  to  him,  yet  unite  in  attesting  the  expectation  which  these 
prophecies  had  raised.  Josephus  says,  "  That  which  chiefly  excited 
the  Jews  to  war,  was  an  ambiguous  prophecy  found  in  the  sacred 
books,  that  at  that  time  some  one  within  their  country  should  arise, 
that  should  obtain  the  empire  of  the  world.  For  this  they  had  receiv- 
ed by  tradition,  that  it  was  spoken  of  one  of  their  nation,  and  many 
wise  men  were  deceived  with  the  interpretation.  But,  in  truth, 
Vespasian's  empire  was- designed  in  this  prophecy,  who  was  created 
emperor  in  Judea."t  Josephus,  although  he  affects  in  this  pLce,  (he 
speaks  otherwise  elsewhere,)  to  condemn  that  interpretation  of  the 
prophecy  which  led  the  Jews  to  expect  a  Messiah,  yet  acknowledges 
that  this  expectation  was  general,  derived  from  the  prophecies,  and 

*  Iiuke  ii.  and  iii;  John  i.  and  vi;  Matt.  ii.  f  Jos.  Hist.  vi.  31. 


OP  CHRISTIANITr.  77 

entertained  by  many  of  the  wise.  Suetonius  says,  "  Percrebuerat 
oriente  toto  vetus  et  constans  opinio,  esse  in  fatis,  ut  eo  tempore  JuduB^ 
profecti  rerum  potirentur.  Id  de  imperatore  Romano,  quantum  postea 
eventu  patuit,  preedictum,  .Tudai  ad  se  trahentes,  rebeliarunt."* — 
Tacitus  says,  "  Piuribus  persnasio  inerat,  antiquis  sacerdotum  libris 
contineri,  eo  ipso  tempore  fore,  ut  valesceret  Oriens,  profectique  Jndsea 
rerum  potirentur.  Quae  ambages  Vespasianum  ac  Titum  prsedixer- 
ant.  Sed  vulgus,  more  humanae  cupidinis,  sibi  tantam  fatorum  mag- 
nitudinem  interpretati,  ne  adversis  quidem  ad  vera  mutabantur."t 
Both  historians,  with  that  very  cupido  which  they  charge  upon  the 
Jews,  apply  the  prophecy  to  a  Roman  emperor  ;  an  appUcation  which, 
at  the  time,  was  most  unnatural,  and  which  the  event, has  clearly 
shown  to  be  false.  But  both  bear  witness  to  the  existence  and  anti- 
quity of  the  prophecy,  and  to  the  universality  and  strength  of  the 
expectation  grounded  upon  it.  The  oldest  Rabbinical  books  extant, 
are  the  Targum  of  Onkelos  on  the  Pentateuch,  and  the  Targum  of 
Jonathan  on  the  Prophets ;  Targums,  i.  e.  interpretations  or  para- 
phrases of  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  composed  for  the 
instruction  of  the  people,  and  used  in  the  synagogues.  There  are 
many  more  modern  Targums.  But  these  two,  Onkelos  and  Jonathan, 
are  said  by  the  Jews  to  have  been  written  before  or  about  the  time 
of  our  Saviour,  and  they  appear  to  be  collections  from  more  ancient 
books.  They  continued  always  in  the  hands  of  the  Jews ;  they  were 
not  known  to  the  Christians  till  a  few  cenmries  ago,  yet  they  uniform- 
ly bear  testimony  to  the  national  expectation  of  a  Messiah,  and  mark 
out  the  prophecies  which  had  produced  that  expectation.  Even  the 
Samaritans,  who  had  only  the  Pentateuch,  entertained  the  same 
expectation  with  the  Jews,  "  I  know,"  said  the  Samaritan  woman, 
in  the  Gospel  of  John,  "that  Messias  cometh.  When  he  is  come,  he 
will  tell  us  all  things."J  And  it  deserves  to  be  mentioned,  that  those 
learned  men,  who,  in  the  beginning  of  the  17th  century,  introduced 
the  Samaritan  Pentateuch  into  Europe,  obtained  also  from  the  rem- 
nant which  still  worships  upon  Mount  Gerizim,  a  declaration  of  their 
faith  concerning  the  Messiah.  "  You  would  know,"  they  say,  in  a 
letter  which  is  extant,  "  whether  the  Messias  be  come,  and  whether  it 
be  he  that  is  promised  in  our  law  as  the  Shiloh.  Know  that  the 
Messias  is  not  yet  risen.  But  he  shall  rise,  and  his  name  shall  be 
Hathab."  It  is  well  known  that  the  modern  Jews  still  retain  hopes 
that  the  Messiah  will  come.  They  have  devised  various  schemes 
to  account  for  his  delay,  and  to  elude  the  argument  which  we  draw 
from  the  application  of  the  prophecies  to  Jesus.  But  even  their  modern 
doctors  declare,  that  he  who  believes  the  law  of  Moses  should  believe 
the  coming  of  the  Messiah ;  for  the  law  commands  us  to  believe  in 
the  prophets,  and  the  prophets  foretell  his  coming. 

This  much,  then,  we  have  gained  by  attending  to  the  sentiments 
of  the  Jews — satisfying  evidence  that  it  was  not  an  invention  of  our 
Lord  and  his  apostles,  to  say,  that  Moses  wrote  of  the  Messiah  ;  that 
Abraham  rejoiced  to  see  his  day  ;  that  David,  being  a  prophet.foresaw 
him  in  spirit ;  and  that  all  the  prophets,  from  Samuel,  foretold  of  his 

•  Suet.  Vespas.  vi.  8.  f  Tacit.  Hist.  lib.  v.  9. 

i  John  iv.  25. 

9* 


78  EXTERNAL   EVIDENCES 

days.  The  Jews  said  the  same  thing,  and  looked  for  the  fulfilment 
of  the  promises  made  to  their  fathers.  How  ancient  this  expectatioa 
was,  we  camiot  say,  because,  except  the  scriptures  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, we  have  no  Jewish  books  of  unquestionable  authority  older 
than  the  days  of  our  Saviour.  But  as  it  is  clear  that  the  expectation 
was  not  at  that  time  new,  as  the  first  of  the  Jewish  books  extant 
declare,  that  all  the  prophets,  from  Moses  to  Malachi,  prophesied  only 
of  the  Messiah,  and  abound  with  explications  of  particular  predictions, 
and  as  the  most  ancient  prayers  of  the  people  in  their  synagogues 
adopt  these  explications,  speaking  of  the  Messiah  under  the  names 
and  characters  ascribed  to  him  in  the  predictions,  it  does  not  seem  to 
admit  of  a  doubt,  that  the  hope  of  the  Messiah  was,  in  all  ages  among 
the  Jews,  the  received  national  interpretation  of  those  predictions  in 
which  they  gloried. 

The  matter,  then,  is  brought  to  a  short  issue.  Certain  books  exist- 
ed some  centuries  before  the  birth  of  Jesus,  which  raised  in  the  nation 
that  kept  them  a  general  expectation  of  an  extraordinary  personage. 
Jesus  appeared  in  Judea,  claiming  to  be  that  personage.  The  people 
in  whose  possession  the  books  had  always  remained,  are  bound  by 
their  national  expectations  to  examine  his  claim.  The  curiosity  of 
the  other  nations  to  whom  this  claim  is  made  known,  or  to  whom  the 
person  advancing  it  appears  upon  other  accounts  respectable,  is 
excited  by  the  coincidence  between  the  claim,  and  the  expectations 
of  that  people  upon  whose  ancient  books  it  is  founded  :  and  thus 
both  Jews  and  Gentiles,  without  any  previous  agreement  in  religious 
opinions,  are  called  to  attend  to  the  same  object,  and  one  point  is 
submitted  to  their  examination  :  Whether  the  predictions  concerning 
the  Jewish  Messiah  apply  to  the  circumstances  in  the  appearance  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth. 


Section  II. 

The  obvious  method  of  proving  that  Jesus  is  the  Messiah  of  the 
Jews,  is  to  compare  the  predictions  in  their  scriptures  with  the  cir- 
cumstances of  his  appearance.  It  is  impossible,  in  any  other  way,  to 
attain  a  conviction  of  the  justness  of  his  claim  to  that  character;  and 
it  is  clear,  that  if  his  claim  be  well  founded,  this  method  will  be  suf- 
ficient to  ascertain  it.  This  is  the  method  which  our  Lord  prescribed 
to  the  Jews.  "  Search  the  Scriptures,  for  these  are  they  which  testify 
of  me."  It  is  the  method  which  he  employed  when.before  his  ascension, 
"he  expounded  to  his  disciples  the  things  which  were  written  con- 
cerning him  in  the  law  of  Moses,  and  in  the  Prophets,  and  in  the 
Psalms."  It  is  the  method  by  which  Philip  converted  the  minister 
of  the  Queen  of  Ethiopia,  when  he  began  at  the  53d  chapter  of  Isaiah, 
and  preached  to  him  Jesus.  And  it  is  the  method  which  is  continually 
recurring  in  the  discourses  and  writings  of  the  apostles. 

A  person  who  had  no  previous  information  upon  the  subject, 
would  be  obliged,  in  following  this  method,  to  mark,  as  he  read 
through  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament,  those  passages  which  to 
him  appeared  to  point  to  an  extraordinary  person  ;  and  then  he  would 


OF  CHRISTIANITr.  7S 

either  fipply  every  one  singly,  or  all  of  them  collectively  to  Jesus,  in 
order  to  judge  how  far  they  were  fulfilled  in  him.  But  we  are  pro- 
vided with  much  assistance  in  this  examination.  We  are  directed,  in 
our  search  of  the  Old  Testament,  by  the  passages  which  our  Lord 
and  his  apostles  have  quoted,  by  the  knowledge  which  men  versant 
in  Jewish  learning  have  ditiused  of  the  predictions  marked  in  the 
Jewish  Targums,  and  by  the  labours  of  the  ancient  apologists  for 
Christianity,  and  of  many  divines  since  the  Reformation,  and  more 
especially  since  the  beginning  of  the  last  century,  who,  with  very 
sound  critical  talents,  and  much  historical  uiformation,  have  devoted 
themselves  to  the  elucidation  of  this  subject.  There  is  no  reason  why 
we  should  not  ava  il  ourselves  of  these  helps.  They  abridge  tlie  labour 
of  investigation;  but  they  do  not  necessarily  bias  our  judgments. 
We  may  examine  a  prophecy  which  is  pointed  out  to  us,  as  strictly 
as  if  we  ourselves  had  discovered  it  to  be  a  prophecy.  We  may  even 
indulge  a  certain  degree  of  jealousy  with  regard  to  all  the  prophecies 
which  are  suggested  by  the  friends  of  Christianity,  and  may  fortify 
our  minds  with  the  resolution  that  nothing  but  the  most  marked  and 
striking  correspondence  shall  overcome  this  jealousy.  It  is  right  for 
you  to  employ  every  fair  precaution  against  being  deceived  ;  and  then 
take  into  your  hands  any  of  those  books  which  serve  as  an  index  to 
the  predictions  in  the  Old  Testament  respecting  the  Messiah.  You 
have  an  excellent  index  in  Clarke's  Evidences  of  Natural  and  Re- 
vealed Religion,  which  is,  upon  the  whole,  one  of  the  best  elementary 
books  for  a  student  in  divinity,  and  which  is  rendered  peculiarly,  use- 
ful with  regard  to  the  prophecies,  by  a  part  of  Dr.  Clarke's  character 
that  appears  in  all  his  theological  writings — an  intimate  profound 
knowledge  of  Scripture,  and  a  faculty  of  bringing  together,  and 
arranging  in  the  most  lucid  order  all  the  texts  which  relate  to  a  sub- 
ject. You  have  another  index  in  Bishop  Chandler's  Defence  of  Chris- 
tianity. Sherlock,  Newton,  Jortin,  Hurd,  Halifax,  Bagot,  Macknight, 
and  other  divines,  have  both  given  a  full  explication  of  some  particu- 
lar predictions,  and  directed  to  the  solution  of  many  others.  The  com- 
parison of  the  predictions  in  the  Old  Testament  respecting  the  Messiah, 
with  the  facts  recorded  in  the  New,  is  one  of  the  most  essential  parts 
of  the  education  of  a  student  in  divinity.  Other  Christians  may  not 
have  leisure  for  such  an  employment.  But  it  is  expected  from  your 
profession,  that  you  know  the  occasions  upon  which  the  predictions 
were  given,  and  that  you  are  able  to  defend  the  received  interpreta- 
tions of  them,  and  to  state  the  order  in  which  they  succeeded  one 
another,  and  the  manner  in  which  they  were  fulfilled.  And  if  you 
either  bring  to  this  inquiry  critical  sagacity,  and  historical  information 
of  your  own,  or  avail  yourselves  judiciously  of  the  labours  of  others, 
you  will  attain  an  enlightened  and  firm  conviction  that  Jesus  is  not 
only  a  messenger  from  heaven,  but  the  Messiah  of  the  Jews. 

It  is  impossible  forme  to  lead  you  through  all  the  particulars  of 
this  investigation.  But  I  shall  mention,  in  a  few  words,  the  result  to 
which  men  of  the  soundest  judgment  have  been  conducted,  and  which 
they  have  rendered  it  easy  for  us  to  teach ;  and  then  I  shall  give  you 
a  specimen  of  the  exact  fulfilment  of  Jewish  prophecy  in  Jesus. 

Moses,  by  whom  the  most  ancient  predictions  were  compiled,  lived 
a  thousand  years  before  ]Malachi ;  and  Malachi  lived  after  the  Jews 


80  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCES 

had  returned  from  their  captivity,  above  four  hundred  years  before 
the  birth  of  our  Saviour.  During  the  long  period  that  intervened 
between  the  earUest  and  the  latest  prophets,  there  are  scattered 
through  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament  predictions  of  a  dispensation 
of  Providence,  to  be  executed  in  a  future  time  by  an  extraordinary 
personage.  And  all  these  predictions  are  found  to  apply  to  the  history 
of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  AUhough  the  predictions  which  point  through 
such  a  length  of  time  to  one  dispensation,  differ  widely  from  one 
another  hi  clearness  and  imagery,  not  one  of  them  is  inconsistent  with 
the  facts  recorded  in  the  gospel.  By  the  help  of  that  interpretation 
which  the  event  gives  to  the  prophecy,  we  can  see  an  uniformity  and 
continuity  in  the  scheme.  The  more  general  expressions  of  the 
ancient  prophets,  and  the  more  minute  descriptions  of  the  latter,  illus- 
trate one  another.  Every  prediction  appears  to  stand  in  its  proper 
place,  and  every  clause  assumes  importance  and  significancy. 

There  are  two  circumstances  which  every  false  prophet  is  careful 
to  avoid,  or  at  least  to  express  in  ambiguous  terms,  but  which  were 
precisely  marked,  and  literally  accomplished  with  regard  to  the  Mes- 
siah. The  circumstances  are,  time  and  place.  It  was  foretold  in  a 
succession  of  limiting  prophecies,  that  that  seed  of  the  woman  which 
was  to  bruise  the  head  of  the  serpent,  should  arise  out  of  the  family 
of  Abraham,  out  of  the  children  of  Israel,  out  of  the  tribe  of  Judah, 
out  of  the  house  of  David,  and  out  of  the  town  of  Bethlehem,  where 
David  was  born.  It  is  said  in  the  book  of  Chronicles,  "Judah  pre- 
vailed above  his  brethren,  and  of  him  came  the  chief  ruler."*  And  to 
satisfy  us  that  this  prophecy  was  not  exhausted  by  the  rulers  that  had 
formerly  come  of  Judah,  we  read  in  Micah,  who  lived  in  the  reign  of 
King  Hezekiah,  "But  thou,  Bethlehem  Ephratah,  though  thou  be  little 
among  the  thousands  of  Judah,  yet  out  of  thee  shall  he  come  forth 
unto  me,  that  is  to  be  ruler  in  Israel ;  whose  goings  forth  have  been 
from  of  old,  from  everlasting."!  Here  is  the  place,  an  obscure  village 
in  Judea,  so  fixed  by  prophecy,  seven  hundred  years  before  the  event, 
that  the  ancient  Jews  expected  the  Messiah  was  to  be  born  there ; 
and  some  of  the  modern  Jews  have  said  that  he  was  born  before 
Bethlehem  was  desolated,  and  lies  hidden  in  the  ruins.  The  time  is 
also  fixed.  Daniel  numbered  seventy  weeks,  that  is  according  to  the 
prophetic  style,  in  which  a  day  stands  for  a  year,  four  hundred  and 
ninety  years,  as  the  interval  between  the  commandment  to  rebuild 
Jerusalem,  and  the  establishment  of  the  Messiah's  kingdom.^  This 
interpretation  of  the  weeks  of  Daniel,  which  learned  men  have,  I 
think,  incontrovertibly  established,  is  confirmed  by  other  predictions 
still  more  clear,  which  declare  that  the  extraordinary  personage  was 
to  arise  out  of  Judea,  while  it  remained  a  distinct  tribe,  possessing 
some  authority,  and  while  its  temple  stood  ;  and  that  he  was  to  arise 
during  the  fourth  kingdom,  after  the  Romans  became  masters  of  the 
world.  The  four  successive  kingdoms  are  described  in  the  interpre- 
tation of  the  vision  in  the  seventh  chapter  of  Daniel,  and  so  described, 
that  any  person  versant  in  history  cannot  mistake  the  Babylonian, 
Persian,  Macedonian,  and  Roman.  The  Romans  had  successively 
conquered  the  three  other  branches  of  the  Macedonian  empire.     But 

*  Chron.  v.  3.  f  MIrah  v.  2.  t  Daniel  ix.  24,  2-5. 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  81 

E2;ypt  still  existed  as  an  independent  kingdom,  till  the  unfortunate 
Cleopatra  ended  her  days  at  the  battle  of  Actiuni,  thirty  years  before 
the  birth  of  our  Saviour ;  the  next  year  Egypt  was  made  tributary 
to  Rome  ;  and  then,  first,  says  the  historian  Dion  Cassius,  did  Cassar 
alone  possess  all  power.  The  city  and  temple  of  Jerusalem  were 
destroyed,  and  the  constitution  of  the  Jewish  state  annihilated  about 
seventy  years  after  the  birth  of  our  Saviour.  Thus  the  establishment 
of  the  universal  empire  of  Rome,  and  the  desolation  of  Jerusalem,  are 
two  limits  marked  by  ancient  prophecy.  Tlie  IMessiah  was  to  be 
born  after  the  first,  and  before  the  last.  They  contain  between  them 
a  space  of  about  a  hundred  years,  within  which  space  the  Messiah 
was  to  be  born  ;  but  at  such  a  distance  from  the  last  of  the  two  limits, 
as  to  allow  time  for  his  preaching  to  the  Jews,  for  his  being  rejected 
by  them,  and  for  their  sutfering  upon  account  of  that  rejection  ;  all 
which  events  were  also  foretold.  Within  the  space  of  a  hundred 
years  the  ditferent  divisions  of  Daniel's  seventy  weeks  had  their  end  ; 
and  within  this  space  Jesus  was  born.  According  to  every  method, 
then,  in  which  the  time  of  the  Messiah's  birth  can  be  computed  from 
ancient  predictions,  it  was  fulfilled  in  Jesus  ;  and  this  fulfilment  of 
the  time  brought  about,  by  a  wonderful  concurrence  of  circumstances, 
a  fulfilment  with  regard  to  the  place  also  of  the  Messiah's  birth.  After 
the  Romans,  in  the  progress  of  their  conquests,  had  subdued  Syria, 
and  the  other  parts  of  the  Macedonian  empire  adjoining  to  Judea, 
that  state,  standing  alone,  could  not  long  remain  independent.  Its 
form  of  government  was  for  some  time  preserved  by  the  indulgence 
of  the  Romans.  But,  about  forty  years  before  the  birth  of  our 
Saviour,  an  act  of  the  senate  set  aside  the  succession  of  the  Asmonean 
princes,  and  conferred  the  crown  of  Judea  upon  Herod  the  Great. 
Although  Herod  was  king  of  Judea,  he  held  his  kingdom  as  a  prince 
dependent  upon  Rome;  and,  in  token  of  his  vassalage,  an  order  was 
issued  by  Augustus,  before  his  death,  that  there  should  be  a  general 
enrolment  of  the  inhabitants  of  Palestine  ;  that  is,  the  Roman  census, 
by  which  the  state  acquired  a  knowledge  of  the  numbers,  the  wealth, 
and  the  condition  of  its  subjects,  was  extended  to  this  appendage  of 
the  Roman  empire.  In  conformity  to  the  Jewish  method  of  classing 
the  people  by  tribes  and  families,  every  inhabitant  of  Palestine- was 
ordered  to  have  his  name  enrolled,  not  in  the  city  where  he  happened 
to  reside,  but  in  that  to  which  the  founder  of  his  house  had  belonged, 
and  which,  in  the  language  of  the  Jews,  was  the  city  of  his  people. 
By  this  order,  which  was  totally  independent  of  the  will  of  Joseph 
and  Mary,  and  which  involved  in  it  a  decree  of  the  Roman  emperor 
tlicn  for  the  first  time  issued  concerning  Judea,  and  a  resolution  of  the 
king  of  Judea  to  adopt  a  particular  mode  of  executing  that  decree, 
Joseph  and  Mary  are  brought  from  a  distant  corner  of  Palestine  to 
Bathlehem.  They  are  brought  at  a  time  when  Mary  would  not  have 
cliosen  such  a  journey  ;  and  Jesus,  to  their  great  inconvenience  and 
distress,  is  born  in  a  stable,  and  laid  in  a  manger.  .  It  is  not  easy  for 
any  pnrson  who  attends  to  these  circumstances,  to  retVain  from 
acknowledging  the  hand  of  Providence,  coimecting  the  time  and  the 
place  of  the  birth  of  Jesus,  so  as  that,  without  the  possibility  of 
human  preparation,  they  should  together  fulfil  the  words  of  ancient 
prophets. 

0 


82  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCES 

I  have  selected  these  two  necessary  accompaniments  of  every 
action,  because  it  was  possible,  within  a  short  compass,  to  give  you  a 
striking  view  of  the  coincidence  between  the  prediction  and  the  event. 
But  the  same  coincidence  extends  through  a  multitude  of  circum- 
stances, which  in  the  prophecies  appear  minute,  unrelated,  and  some- 
times contradictory,  and  which  cannot  be  applied  to  any  one  person 
who  ever  lived  upon  earth,  except  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  in  whom 
they  are  united  with  perfect  harmony,  so  that  every  one  has  a  meaning, 
and  all  together  form  a  consistent  whole. 

It  would  seem,  then,  that  we  are  fully  warranted  in  saying  that 
the  circumstances  in  the  appearance  of  Jesus  correspond  to  the  pre- 
dictions of  the  Old  Testament  respecting  the  Messiah  of  the  Jews,  and 
that  the  presumptive  and  the  direct  proof  of  his  being  a  messenger  of 
heaven,  are  entitled  to  all  the  support,  which  they  can  derive  from 
the  justness  of  his  claim  to  the  character  of  Messiah. 


Section  III. 

But  the  adversaries  of  Christianity  do  not  allow  ns  so  readily  to 
draw  this  conclusion  :  And  there  are  objections  to  the  argument  from 
prophecy,  the  proper  answer  to  which  well  deserves  your  study. 
These  objections  were  brought  forward,  and  stated  with  much  art 
and  plausibility,  in  a  book  entitled.  Grounds  and  Reasons  of  the  Chris- 
tian Religion,  written  after  the  beginning  of  the  last  century,by  Mr.  Col- 
lins. Bishop  Chandler's  Defence  of  Christianity,  from  the  prophecies 
of  the  Old  Testament,  was  an  answer  to  this  book  :  and  Mr.  Collins 
published  a  reply,  entitled,  the  Scheme  of  Literal  Prophrcy  Con- 
sidered. Bishop  Sherlock  in  his  discourses  on  Prophecy,  Warburton 
in  his  Divine  Legation  of  Moses,  and  many  modern  divines,  have 
combated  with  sound  learning  and  argument  the  positions  of  Mr. 
Collins ;  so  that  any  student  who  applies  to  this  important  subject, 
may  receive  very  able  assistance  in  forming  his  judgment. 

I  shall  state  to  you  the  objections,  with  the  answers.  The  position 
of  Mr.  Collins'  book  is  this :  Christianity  is  founded  on  Judaism. 
Our  Lord  and  his  apostles  prove  Christianity  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. If  the  proofs  which  they  draw  from  thence  are  valid,  Chris- 
tianity is  true  :  if  they  are  not  valid,  Christianity  is  false.  But  all  the 
prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament  are  applicable  to  Christ  only  in  a 
secondary,  typical,  allegorical  sense.  Such  a  sense,  being  fanatical 
and  chimerical,  cannot  be  admitted  according  to  the  scholastic  rules 
of  interpretation.  And  thus  Christianity,  deriving  no  real  support 
from  Judaism,  upon  which  it  is  professedly  grounded,  must  be  false. 

To  this  artful  mis-statement  of  the  subject,  we  have  two  answers. 

The  first  is,  that  there  are  in  the  Old  Testament  direct  prophecies 
of  the  Messiah,  which,  not  in  a  secondary,  but  in  their  primary  sense, 
apply  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  There  is  in  the  Pentateuch  a  promise 
of  a  prophet  to  be  raised  up  from  amongst  the  Jews  like  unto  Moses.* 
But  none  in  all  the  succession  of  Jewish  prophets  was  like  him  in  the 

*  Deut.  xviii.  15,  18. 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  83 

free  intercourse  which  he  had  with  the  Almighty,  the  importance  of 
the  commission  wiiich  lie  bore,  and  the  signs  which  he  did.  And, 
therefore,  that  succession  not  only  kept  alive  the  expectation,  but  was 
itself  a  pledge  of  the  great  prophet  that  should  come.  The  writings 
of  the  succession  of  prophets  are  full  of  predictions  concerning  a  new 
dispensation  more  glorious,  more  general,  more  spiritual  than  the 
Jewish  economy,  when  "  the  sons  of  the  stranger  should  join  tliem- 
selves  to  the  Lord  ;"  when  "  his  house  should  be  an  house  of  prayer 
for  all  people ;"  when  "  the  gods  of  the  earth  should  be  famished," 
no  more  otferings  being  presented  to  them,  and  "  every  one  from  his 
place,"  not  at  Jerusalem,  but  in  his  ordinary  residence,  "  should 
worship  Jehovah."  "  Behold  the  days  come,  saith  the  Lord,"  by 
Jeremiah,  who  lived  in  the  time  of  the  captivity,  "  that  I  will  make 
a  new  covenant  with  the  house  of  Israel,  and  with  the  house 
of  Judah,  not  according  to  the  covenant  which  I  made  with  their 
fathers  in  the  day  that  I  took  them  by  the  hand  to  bring  them 
out  of  the  land  of  Egypt.  But  this  shall  be  the  covenant  that 
I  will  make  with  the  house  of  Israel ;  after  those  days,  saith  the 
Lord,  I  will  put  my  law  in  their  inward  parts,  and  write  it  in 
their  hearts;  and  1  will  forgive  their  iniquity,  and  I  will  remem- 
ber their  sin  no  more."*  It  is  further  to  be  remarked,  that  the 
prophecy  of  this  new  spiritual  dispensation  is  connected  through- 
out the  Old  Testament  with  the  mention  of  a  person  by  whom 
the  dispensation  was  to  be  introduced.  If  it  is  called  a  covenant,  we 
read  of  the  Messenger  of  the  Covenant.  If  it  is  called  a  kingdom, 
set  up  by  the  God  of  heaven,  which  should  never  be  destroyed,  we 
read  of  a  chief  ruler  to  come  out  of  Judah,  of  the  Prince  of  Peace 
who  was  to  sit  on  the  throne  of  his  father  David,  to  establish  it  with 
justice  and  judgment  for  ever;  of  one  like  the  Son  of  man  coming 
with  the  clouds  of  heaven,  to  whom  is  given  an  universal  and  ever- 
lasting dominion.  If  the  new  dispensation  is  represented  as  a  more 
perfect  mode  of  instruction,  we  read  of  a  prophet  upon  whom  should 
rest  the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  understanding.  If  it  is  styled  the 
deliverance  of  captives,  there  is  also  a  redeemer ;  or  victory,  there  is 
also  a  leader;  or  a  sacrifice,  there  is  also  an  everlasting  priest.  The 
intimations  of  this  extraordinary  personage,  so  closely  connected  with 
the  new  dispensation,  became  more  clear  and  pointed  as  the  time  of 
his  coming  approached  :  and  there  are  predictions  in  Malachi  and  the 
later  prophets,  which  in  their  direct  primary  sense  can  belong  to  no 
other  but  the  Messiah.  "  Behold,"  says  God,  by  Malachi,  "  I  will 
send  my  messenger,  and  he  shall  prepare  the  way  before  me ;  and 
the  Lord  whom  ye  seek  shall  suddenly  come  to  his  temple ;  even  the 
messenger  of  the  covenant  whom  ye  delight  in."  And  again,  "  Be- 
hold I  will  send  you  Elijah  the  prophet,  before  the  great  and  dreadful 
day  of  the  Lord."t  Even  Grotius,  whose  principle  it  was,  in  his 
exposition  of  the  Old  Testament,  to  seek  for  the  primary  sense  of  the 
prophecies  in  the  Jewish  affairs  which  were  immediately  under  the 
eye  of  the  prophet,  and  to  consider  their  application  to  Jesus  as  a 
secondary  sense,  and  who  has  often  been  misled  by  this  principle  into 
very  forced  interpretations,  has  not  been  able  to  assign  any  other 

*  Jer.  xxxi.  31 — 33.  *  Malachi  iil  1,  4,  5. 


84  EXTERNAL     EVIDENCES 

meaning  to  these  prophecies,  with  which  the  old  Testament  concludes, 
and  with  a  repetition  of  which  Mark  begins  his  Gospel,  than  that 
Malachi,  with  whom  tlie  prophetical  spirit  ceased,  gave  notice  that  it 
should  be  resumed  in  John  the  forerunner  of  the  Messiah,  who  in  the 
spirit  and  the  power  of  Elias,  should  prepare  the  way  before  the  mes- 
senger of  the  covenant. 

The  first  answer  then  to  Mr,  Collins  is,  that  there  are  in  the  Old 
Testament  direct  prophecies  of  the  dispensation  of  the  Gospel,  and 
of  the  Messiah. 

The  second  answer  is,  that  prophecies  applicable  to  Jesus  only  in 
a  typical  and  secondary  sense  are  not  fanatical  or  unscholastic. 

We  are  taught  by  the  Apostle  Paul  to  consider  all  the  ceremonies 
of  the  law  as  types  of  the  more  perfect  and  spiritual  dispensation  of 
the  Gospel.  The  meats,  the  drinks,  the  washings,  the  institution  of  the 
Levitical  priesthood,  the  paschal  lamb,  and  the  other  sacrifices,  were 
figures  for  the  time  then  present,  shadows  of  good  things  to  come,  a 
rough  draught,  as  the  word  type  properly  imports,  of  the  blessings  of 
that  better  covenant  which  the  law  announced.  Many  actions  and 
incidents  in  the  lives  of  eminent  persons  under  the  law  are  held  forth 
as  types  of  the  Christ ;  and  by  the  application  which  is  made  in  the 
Gospels,  the  Acts,  and  the  Epistles,  of  various  passages  in  the  Old 
Testament,  we  are  led  to  consider  many  prophecies,  which  originally 
had,  both  in  the  intention  of  the  speaker  and  in  the  sense  of  the 
hearers,  a  reference  only  to  Jewish  aifairs,  and  were  then  interpreted 
by  that  reference,  as  receiving  their  full  accomplishment  in  the  events 
of  the  Gospel.  This  is  M^hat  we  mean  by  the  double  sense  of  pro- 
phecy. The  seventy-second  psalm  is  an  example.  It  is  the  paternal 
blessing  given  by  David  in  his  dying  moments  to  Solomon,  when 
with  the  complacency  of  an  affectionate  father  and  a  good  prince, 
he  looks  forward  to  that  happiness  which  his  people  were  to  enjoy 
under  the  peaceful  reign  of  his  son.  But  while  he  contemplates  this 
gTcat  an.d  ])leasing  object,  he  is  led  by  the  spirit  to  look  beyond  it,  to 
that  illustrious  descendant  whose  birth  he  had  been  taught  to  expect, 
— that  branch  which  in  the  latter  days  was  to  spring  out  of  the  root 
of  Jesse.  The  two  objects  blend  themselves  together  in  his  imagina- 
tion ;  at  least  the  words  in  which  he  pours  forth  his  conceptions, 
although  suggested  by  the  promise  concerning  Solomon,  are  much  too 
exalted  when  applied  to  the  occurrences  even  of  his  distingnislied 
reign,  and  were  fulfilled  only  in  the  nature  and  the  extent  of  the  bles- 
sings conveyed  by  the  Gospel.  Had  we  no  warrant  from  authority  npon 
other  accounts  respectable,  to  bring  this  secondary  sense  out  of  some 
prophecies ;  or  had  we  no  prophecies  of  the  Messiah  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment of  another  kind,  it  would  be  unfair  and  unscholastical  reasoning 
to  infer  that  Jesus  is  the  Messiah,  because  some  passages  may  be  thus 
transferred  to  him.  We  rest  the  argument  from  prophecy  upon  those 
predictions  which  expressly  point  to  the  Messiah,  and  upon  that 
authority  which  the  miracles  of  Jesus  and  his  apostles  gave  to  them 
as  interpreters  of  prophecy ;  and  we  say  that  when  their  interpreta- 
tion of  those  prophecies  which  were  originally  applicable  to  other 
events,  gives  to  every  expression  in  them  a  natural  and  complete 
sense,  and  at  the  same  time  coincides  with  tiie  spirit  of  those  predic- 
tions concerning  the  Gospel  which  are  direct,  we  have  the  best  reason 


or  CHRISTIANITY.  85 

for  receiving  this  further  meaning,  not  to  the  exclusion  of  the  other, 
but  as  the  full  exposition  of  the  words  of  the  prophet. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  nature  of  prophecy,  or  tlie  general  use  of 
language,  inconsistent  with  this  account  of  the  nmtter.  If  you  allow 
that  prophecy  is  a  thing  possible,  you  must  admit  that  "  it  came  not 
by  the  will  of  man,  but  that  holy  men  spake  as  they  were  moved  by 
the  Holy  Ghost."  Prophecy  by  its  nature  is  distinguished  from  other 
kinds  of  discourse.  At  other  times,  men  utter  sentiments  which  they 
feel ;  they  relate  facts  which  they  know ;  they  reason  according  to  the 
measure  of  their  faculties.  But  when  they  prophesy,  that  is,  when 
they  declare,  by  the  inspiration  of  God,  events  wliich  are  out  of  the 
reach  of  human  foresight,  they  speak  not  of  themselves ;  they  are  but 
the  vehicles  for  conveying  the  mind  of  another  Being ;  they  pronounce 
the  words  which  he  puts  into  their  mouth  ;  and  whether  these  words 
be  intelligible  or  not,  or  what  their  full  meaning  may  be,  depends  not 
upon  them,  but  upon  Him  from  whom  the  words  proceed.  It  is  thus 
clearly  deducible  from  the  nature  of  prophecy,  that  there  might  be  in 
the  predictions  of  the  Old  Testament,  a  further  meaning  than  that 
which  was  distinctly  presented  to  the  minds  of  those  who  spake. — 
And  we  may  conceive,  that  as  the  high  priest  Caiaphas  was  directed 
to  the  Jewish  council  to  employ  words  which,  although  in  his  eyes 
they  contained  only  a  political  advice,  were  really  a  prophecy  of  the 
benefits  resulting  from  the  death  of  Christ,*  so  the  spirit  of  God  miglit 
introduce  into  predictions,  which  to  those  who  uttered  them  seemed 
to  respect  only  the  present  fortune  of  their  country,  or  the  fate  of  some 
illustrious  personage,  expressions,  in  a  certain  sense  indeed,  applicable 
to  them,  but  pointing  to  a  more  important  event,  and  a  more  glorious 
personage,  in  whom  it  was  to  appear  at  a  future  period  that  they 
were  literally  fulfilled. 

As  there  is  nothing  in  the  nature  of  prophecy  inconsistent  with  that 
account  of  types  and  secondary  senses  which  consthutes  our  second 
answer  to  the  objection  of  Mr.  Collins,  so  this  account  is  supported  by 
the  general  use  of  language.  And  any  person  versant  in  that  use,  will 
not  be  disposed  to  call  the  application  of  types  and  secondary  pro- 
phecies unscholastic.  The  typical  nature  of  the  Jewish  ritual  accords 
with  that  most  ancient  method  of  conversing  by  actions,  that  kind  of 
symbolical  language,  which  is  adopted  in  early  times  from  the  scanti- 
ness of  words,  which  is  retained  in  advanced  periods  of  society,  in 
order  to  give  energy  and  beauty  to  speech,  which  abounds  in  the 
writings  of  the  Jewish  prophets,  and  appears  to  have  been  in  familiar 
and  universal  use  through  all  the  regions  adjoining  to  Judea.  In  like 
manner,  prophecies  which  admit  of  two  senses,  one  immediate  and 
obvious,  the  other  remote  and  hidden,  are  agreeable  to  that  allegory 
which  is  only  the  symbolical  language  appearing  in  an  extended  dis- 
course. Both  sacred  and  profane  poets  afibrd  beautiful  examples  of 
allegory.  In  the  14th  Ode  of  the  first  book  of  Horace,  the  poet,  under 
a  concern  for  the  safety  of  his  friends  at  sea  in  a  shattered  bark,  con- 
trives at  the  same  time  to  convey  his  apprehensions  concerning  the 
issue  of  the  new  civil  war.  There  is  a  finished  allegory,  in  the  SOth 
Psalm.     And  Dr.  Warburton  has  pointed  out  a  prophecy  in  the  two 

•  John,  xl  49. 
10 


86  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCES 

first  chapters  of  Joel,  where  the  prophet,  he  says,  in  his  prediction  of 
an  approaching  ravage  by  locusts,  foretells  likewise,  in  the  same  words, 
a  succeeding  desolation  by  the  Assyrian  army.  For,  as  some  of  the 
expressions  mark  death  by  insects,and  others  desolation  by  war,  both 
senses  must  be  admitted.  Allegory  abounds  in  all  the  moral  writ- 
ings of  antiquity,  and  is  employed  at  some  times  as  an  agreeable 
method  of  communicating  knowledge,  and  at  other  times  as  a  cover  for 
that  which  was  too  refined  for  vulgar  eyes.  There  is  not  any  particular 
reason  for  saying  that  it  was  unworthy  of  God  to  accommodate  the  style 
of  many  of  his  prophecies  to  tliis  universal  use  of  allegory ;  because 
whenever  the  Almighty  condescends  to  speak  to  us,  whether  he  uses 
plain  or  figurative  language,  he  must  speak  after  the  manner  of  men  ; 
and  we  are  able  to  assign  a  most  important  purpose  which  was  attained 
by  those  prophecies  of  a  double  sense,  the  interpretation  of  which, 
although  very  far  from  deserving  the  name  of  unscholastic,  may  be 
called  allegorical.  It  pleased  God,  in  the  intermediate  space  between 
the  first  predictions  of  the  Messiah  and  the  fulfilment  of  them,  to 
establish  the  Jewish  economy,  an  institution  singular  in  its  nature, 
and  limited  in  its  extent.  This  intermediate  institution  being  for  many 
ages  a  theocracy,  there  arose  a  succession  of  prophets  by  whom 
the  intercourse  between  the  Almight)'-  Sovereign  and  his  people  was 
maintained;  and  the  whole  administration  of  the  affairs  of  the  Jews 
was  long  conducted  by  the  prophets.  It  was  natural  for  this  succes- 
sion of  prophecy  to  give  some  notice  of  the  better  covenant  which  was 
to  be  made ;  and  accordingly,  we  can  trace  predictions  of  the  Messiah 
from  the  books  of  Moses,  till  the  cessation  of  the  prophetical  spirit  in 
Malachi.  The  Holy  Ghost,  by  whom  the  prophet  spoke,  could  have 
rendered  these  notices  of  the  spiritual  and  universal  nature  of  the 
future  dispensation  clear  and  intelligible  to  every  one  who  heard 
them.  But,  in  this  case,  the  intermediate  preparatory  dispensation 
would  have  been  despised.  The  Jews  comparing  their  burdensome 
ritual  with  the  simplicity  of  Gospel  worship, — their  imperfect  sacri- 
fices with  the  etficacy  of  the  great  atonement, — their  temporal  rewards 
with  the  crown  of  glory  laid  up  in  heaven,  would  have  thrown  off 
the  yoke  which  they  were  called  to  bear ;  and  those  rudiments  by 
which  the  law  was  given  to  train  their  minds  for  the  perfect  instruc- 
tion of  the  Gospel,  would  have  been  cast  away  as  "beggarly  elements." 
If  the  law  served  any  purpose,  it  was  necessary  that  it  should  be 
respected  and  observed  so  long  as  it  was  to  subsist ;  and  therefore  it 
would  have  been  inconsistent  with  the  wisdom  of  Him  from  whom  it 
proceeded,  that  it  should  impart  such  a  degree  of  light  as  might  have 
destroyed  itself  Enough  was  to  be  declared  to  raise  and  cherish  an 
expectation  of  that  which  was  to  come,  but  not  enough  to  disparage 
the  things  that  then  were.  This  end  is  most  perfectly  attained  by 
the  types,  and  the  prophecies  of  a  double  sense  which  are  contained 
in  the  Old  Testament.  Both  were  so  agreeable  to  the  manners  of 
the  times,  and  both  received  such  a  degree  of  explication  from  the 
direct  prophecies  concerning  the  Messiah,  that  there  was  an  unu'ersal 
apprehension  of  their  further  meaning.  Yet  their  immediate  impor- 
tance preserved  the  respect  which  was  due  to  the  law ;  and  when, 
in  the  end  of  the  age  of  prophecy,  predictions  of  the  Messiah  were 
given  by  different  prophets  which  could  not  apply  to  any  other  person. 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  87 

— these  direct  predictions  were  clothed  in  a  figurative  language,  all 
the  figures  of  which  were  borrowed  from  the  law.  The  law,  in  this 
way,  was  still  magnified  ;  and  as  the  child  is  kept  under  tutors  and 
governors  till  the  time  appointed  of  the  father,  so  says  the  apostle  to 
the  Galatians,  the  Jews  were  kept  under  the  law,  the  guardians  of 
the  oracles  of  God,— the  depositaries  of  the  hopes  of  mankind,  until 
the  time  came  that  the  faith  should  be  revealed.*  When  it  was 
revealed,  then  the  allegory  received  its  interpretation  ;  the  significancy 
of  the  types,  the  reddition  of  the  parables,  the  hidden  meaning  of  the 
ancient  prophecies,  and  the  propriety  of  the  figures  in  which  the  latter 
were  clothed,  all  now  stand  forth  to  the  admiration  and  conviction  of 
the  Christian  world.  What  was  a  hyperbole  in  its  application  to 
Jewish  afiairs,  becomes,  says  Dr.  Warburton,  plain  speech,  or  an 
obvious  metaphor,  when  transferred  to  the  Gospel ;  and  the  Old 
Testament  appears  to  have  been,  what  St.  Austin  calls  it,  a  continued 
prophecy  of  the  New. 


Section  IV. 

Before  I  proceed  to  state  the  amount  of  the  argument  from 
prophecy,  there  is  one  other  objection  to  that  argument  which 
requires  to  be  mentioned.  The  objection  arises  from  a  kind  of  verbal 
criticism,  but  does  not  deserve  upon  that  account  to  be  dismissed  as 
unimportant. 

It  was  long  ago  observed,  that  many  of  the  passages  quoted  from 
the  Old  Testament  in  the  New,  do  not  exactly  agree  with  the  text  of 
our  copies  of  the  Old  Testament.  The  apology  commonly  made  for 
this  difference  was,  that  our  Lord  and  his  apostles  did  not  quote  from 
the  Hebrew,  but  from  the  Septuagint  translation,  which  was  known 
and  respected  in  Judea.  But,  upon  accurate  investigation,  it  was 
found  that  the  quotations  do  not  always  correspond  with  the  Septua- 
gint ;  and  that  there  are  many  which  agree  neither  with  the  Septua- 
gint nor  with  the  Hebrew.  It  was  insinuated,  therefore,  by  the 
adversaries  of  Christianity,  that  our  Lord  and  his  apostles  had  not 
been  scrupulous  in  their  method  of  quoting  the  Old  Testament ;  but 
wishing  to  ground  Christianity  upon  Judaism,  and  finding  it  difficult 
to  lay  this  foundation  with  the  materials  that  existed,  had  accommoda- 
ted the  words  of  the  Old  Testament  to  their  argument,  and  made  the 
prophets  say  what  it  was  necessary  for  the  conclusiveness  of  that 
argument,  they  should  seem  to  say.  It  appears  at  first  sight  very 
unlikely  that  our  Lord  and  his  apostles,  who  began  the  preaching  of 
the  gospel  from  Judea,  would,  in  the  hearing  of  the  Jews,  use  such 
liberty  with  the  scriptures  which  were  publicly  read  in  those  very 
synagogues  where  they  were  thus  misquoted.  The  detection  of  the 
fraud  was  easy,  or  rather  unavoidable,  and  must  have  been  ruinous 
to  the  cause  of  Christianity.  But  however  improbable  it  may  seem 
that  our  Lord  and  liis  apostles  should  be  guilty  of  such  a  fraud,  the 
fact  is  undeniable,  that  the  quotations  in  the  New  Testament  do  not 

•  GaL  iv. 


88  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCES 

always  agree  with  the  books  from  which  they  are  taken ;  and  it  re- 
mains with  the  friends  of  Christianity  to  account  for  this  fact.  Many 
zealous  Christians  have  thought  it  essential  to  the  honour  of  that  reve- 
lation granted  to  the  Jews,  to  maintain  the  integrity  of  the  original 
Hebrew  text ;  and  even  during  the  course  of  the  last  century,  some 
men  versant  in  Jewish  learning  argued  most  strenuously,  that  the 
Providence  of  God  employed  the  vigilance  of  the  Jewish  nation,  and 
certain  precautions  of  the  Jewish  Rabbis  to  preserve  the  Hebrew  text 
through  all  ages,  from  every  degree  of  adulteration.  Were  this 
opinion  sound,  it  does  not  appear  to  me  that  any  satisfying  account 
could  be  given  of  the  ditference  between  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
New,  in  those  passages  where  the  latter  professes  to  quote  the  former. 
But  as  suspicions  had  been  long  entertained  that  there  were  variations 
in  the  Hebrew  text,  so  the  opinion  of  those  who  maintain  its  integrity, 
was  in  the  last  century  completely  refuted  by  the  labours  of  Dr.  Kenni- 
cott,  who,  from  a  collation  of  six  hundred  manuscripts  of  the  Hebrew 
Bible,  has  demonstrated  that  there  have  been  numberless  small  alter- 
ations, and  some  of  considerable  importance.  We  found  formerly 
that  the  various  readings  of  the  Greek  text  of  the  New  Testament 
arose  from  the  ignorance  or  carelessness  of  transcribers,  and  that  their 
being  permitted  could  easily  be  reconciled  with  the  wisdom  of  God, 
and  the  divine  original  of  Christianity.  We  need  not  be  surprised 
to  find  the  same  causes  producing  similar  effects  with  regard  to  the 
Hebrew  text.  It  has  been  said,  that  particular  circumstances  may 
naturally  lead  us  to  look  for  a  greater  number  of  such  varieties  in  the 
Hebrew  text  than  in  the  Greek ;  and  there  is  much  reason  to  suspect 
that  both  the  Hebrew  text  and  the  Septuagint  translation  were  wilfully 
corrupted  by  the  Jews  after  the  days  of  our  Saviour,  in  order  to  elude 
the  argument  which  the  Christians  deduced  from  the  clear  application 
of  Jewish  prophecies  to  him.  We  know  that,  in  the  second  century, 
another  Greek  translation  of  the  Old  Testament,  by  Aquila,  more 
inaccurate,  and  designedly  throwing  a  veil  over  many  prophecies  of 
the  Messiah,  was  substituted  by  the  Jews  in  place  of  the  Septuagint. 
Taking  then  the  learned  men  who  have  devoted  themselves  to  this 
study  as  our  guides,  and  resting  in  the  conclusions  which  they  have 
established  by  a  laborious  induction  of  particulars,  we  say,  that  the 
copies  both  of  the  Hebrew  text  and  of  the  Septuagint,  which  were  in 
use  in  the  days  of  our  Saviour,  were  more  correct  than  those  which 
Ave  now  have  ;  that  by  the  help  of  many  manuscripts,  and  of  the 
Samaritan  Pentateuch,  which  was  much  less  corrupted  than  the  books 
of  Moses  in  Hebrew,  the  true  reading  of  the  Hebrew  has  been  dis- 
covered in  many  places  where  it  had  been  vitiated ;  and  that  the 
honour  of  our  Lord  and  his  apostles  has  been  fully  vindicated ;  for  it 
appears  that  they  quoted  from  the  Septuagint  when  the  sense  of  the 
author  was  there  clearly  expressed  ;  that,  at  other  times,  they  trans- 
lated the  original  for  themselves,  or  used  some  translation  more  perfect 
than  the  Septuagint,  and  that  there  are  many  places  in  which  their 
quotations,  although  different  from  the  Hebrew  that  is  now  read, 
agree  exactly  with  the  Hebrew  text,  as  by  sound  criticism  it  may  be 
restored. 

Such  is  the  important  service  which  sound  criticism  has  rendered 
to  religion.     The  unbeliever  triumphed  for  a  season  in  an  objection 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  89 


Avhich  was  plausible,  because  the  answer  to  it  was  misapprehended 
or  unknown.  But  the  progress  of  investigation  has  unfolded  the 
truth,  and  has  placed,  in  the  most  conspicuous  light,  the  fidelity  and 
accuracy  of  the  quotations  made  by  those  who  grounded  Christianity 
upon  Judaism. 


Section  V. 

Having  thus  cleared  the  way,  by  settling  every  preliminary  point, 
and  removing  the  objections  which  appear  to  me  the  strongest,  I  come 
to  state  concisely  the  argument  from  prophecy,  or  the  nature  of  that 
support  which  the  truth  of  Christianity  derives  from  the  coincidence 
between  the  appearance  of  Jesus,  and  the  predictions  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament. 

In  stating  this  argument,  we  allow  that  there  are  passages  quoted 
by  our  Lord  and  his  apostles  from  the  Old  Testament,  in  which  there 
is  merely  an  accommodation  of  words  that  had  been  spoken  in  one 
sense,  to  another  sense,  in  which  they  are  equally  true.  When  it  is 
said,  in  the  second  chapter  of  Matthew,  "Joseph  took  the  young 
child  and  his  mother  by  night,  and  departed  into  Egypt,  and  was  there 
until  the  death  of  Herod  :  that  it  might  be  fulfilled,  which  was  spoken 
of  the  Lord  by  the  prophet,  saying,  out  of  Egypt  have  I  called  my  Son," 
nothing  more  is  meant  by  the  expression,  "  that  it  might  be  fulfilled," 
and  the  idiom  of  ancient  languages  does  not  require  any  thing  more  to 
be  understood,  than  that  the  words  which  in  Hosea  are  applied  to  Israel, 
whom  God  calls  his  Son,  received  another  meaning  when  he  who  is 
truly  the  Son  of  God,  was  brought  out  of  the  same  place  from  which 
Israel  came.  We  allow  that  it  does  not  follow,  from  the  possibility  of  this 
accommodation,  that  Hosea  meant  to  foretell  the  future  transference  of 
his  words,  any  more  than  that  he  who  first  enunciated  a  proverbial  say- 
ing, foresaw  all  the  particular  occasions  upon  which  it  might  be  fitly 
applied.  We  admit,  further,  that  the  secondary  sense  of  those  prophe- 
cies in  which  we  say  the  Messiah  was  included,  and  the  typical 
nature  of  those  ceremonies  or  actions  which  prefigured  him,  are  not 
always  obvious  upon  the  consideration  of  particular  prophecies  or 
types.  Nay,  we  admit  that  there  is  a  degree  of  obscurity  or  doubt 
with  regard  to  some  of  those  prophecies  in  which  the  Messiah  is 
directly  foretold  ;  and,  therefore,  the  argument  does  not  depend  upon 
the  clearness  of  any  single  prophecy,  or  upon  the  interpretation  which 
may  be  given  to  this  or  that  passage,  but  it  arises  from  a  comiected 
view  of  the  direct  predictions,  the  secondary  prophecies,  and  the  types, 
as  supporting  and  illustrating  one  another.  Allow  as  much  as  any 
rational  inquirer  can  allow  to  the  shrewdness  of  conjecture,  to  acci- 
dental coincidence,  and  to  human  preparation,  still  the  induction  of 
particulars  that  cannot  be  accounted  for  by  any  of  tliose  means,  is  so 
complete  and  so  striking,  as  to  constitute  a  plain  incontrovertible  argu- 
ment. 

From  the  exact  fulfilment  of  predictions  extending  through  many 
centuries,  uttered  by  different  prophets,  with  different  imagery,  yet 
pohiting  to  one  train  of  events,  and  marking  a  variety  of  circumstances, 
10*  P 


90  -  EXTERNAL  EVIDENCES 

in  their  nature  the  most  contingent; from  the  aptness  of  all  the  parts 
of  the  intermediate  dispensation  to  shadow  forth  the  blessings  and  the 
character  of  that  ultimate  dispensation  which  it  announced,  and  from 
the  sublime  literal  exposition  which  the  events  of  the  ultimate  dispensa- 
tion give  to  all  those  prophecies  under  the  preparatory  dispensation, 
which  are  expressed  in  language  too  exalted  for  the  objects  to  which 
they  were  then  applied ; — from  these  things  laid  together,  there  arises, 
to  any  person  who  considers  them  with  due  care,  the  most  satisfying 
conviction  that  the  whole  scheme  of  Christianity  was  foreseen  and  fore- 
told under  the  Old  Testament.  If  you  admit  this  position,  there  are  two 
consequences  which  you  will  admit  as  flowing  from  it.  The  first  is, 
that  the  prophets  under  the  Old  Testament  were  divinely  inspired. 
The  very  means,  by  which  you  attain  a  conviction  that  they  prophe- 
sied of  the  gospel,  render  it  manifest  that  the  things  foretold  were 
beyond  the  reach  of  human  sagacity  ;  and  there  is  thus  presented  to 
us,  in  the  fulfilment  of  their  predictions,  an  evidence  of  the  truth  of 
the  Mosaic  dispensation  as  clear  as  that  arising  from  the  miracles  per- 
formed by  Moses  before  the  children  of  Israel.  The  second  conse- 
quence, and  that  which  we  are  more  immediately  concerned  in  draw- 
ing, is  this,  that  the  scheme  in  which  the  predictions  of  those  prophets 
were  fulfilled  is  a  divine  revelation.  In  order  to  perceive  how  this 
consequence  flows  from  the  position  which  we  have  been  establishing, 
you  will  attend  to  the  two  uses  of  prophecy,  its  immediate  use  in  the 
ages  in  which  it  was  given,  and  that  further  use  which  extends  to  the 
latest  ages  of  the  world.  It  is  certain  that  prophecy  ministered  to  the 
comfort,  the  instruction,  and  the  hope  of  those  who  lived  in  the  days 
of  the  prophets ;  and  we  know,  that  the  predictions  respecting  the 
Messiah  were  so  far  understood,  as  to  excite  in  the  whole  nation  of 
the  Jews  an  expectation  of  the  Messiah,  and  to  cherish  in  just  and 
devout  men  that  state  of  mind,  which  is  beautifully  styled  by  Luke 
in  the  second  chapter  of  his  gospel,  "  waiting  for  the  consolation  of 
Israel,"  and  "looking  for  redemption  in  Jerusalem."  But  that  this 
was  not  the  whole  intention  of  the  prophecies  concerning  the  Messiah, 
appears  indisputably  from  hence,  that,  according  to  the  account  which 
has  been  given  of  these  prophecies,  they  contain  a  further  provision 
than  was  necessary  for  that  end.  There  were  many  parts  of  them 
which  were  not  understood  at  that  time,  but  were  left  to  be  unfolded 
to  the  age  which  was  to  behold  their  fulfilment.  As  such  parts  were 
useless  to  the  age  which  received  the  prophecy,  we  must  believe  that, 
if  they  had  any  use,  they  were  designed  for  that  future  age,  and  that 
the  prophets,  as  the  apostle  Peter  speaks,  "  ministered  not  unto  them- 
selves, but  unto  us,  the  tilings  which  are  now  reported  by  them  that 
have  preached  the  gospel."* 

Bisliop  Sherlock  wrote  his  admirable  discourses  on  the  use  and 
intent  of  prophecy  in  the  several  ages  of  the  world,  to  show  that  pro- 
phecy was  intended  chiefly  for  the  support  of  faith  and  religion  in  the 
old  world,  as  faith  and  religion  could  not  have  existed  in  any  age 
after  the  fall  without  this  extraordinary  support ;  and  he  has  been 
led,  by  an  attachment  to  his  own  system,  to  express  himself  in  some 
places  of  his  book  to  the  disparagement  of  the  further  use  of  prophecy. 

*  1  Peter  i.  13. 


OP  CHRISTIANIXr.  91 

Yet  even  Bishop  Sherlock  admits,  that  prophecy  may  be  of  great 
advantage  to  future  ages,  and  says  that  it  was  not  unworthy  of  the 
wisdom  of  God  to  enclose,  from  the  days  of  old  ui  the  words  of  pro- 
phec}'',  a  secret  evidence  which  he  intended  the  world  should  one  day 
see.  The  Bishop  has  stated  in  these  few  words,  with  his  wonted 
energ}^  and  facility  of  expression,  that  further  use  of  prophecy  of 
whicli  I  am  speaking.  It  is  merely  a  dispute  about  words,  whether 
the  laying  up  this  secret  evidence  was  the  primary  or  the  secondary 
intention  of  the  Giver  of  prophecy.  But  it  is  plain,  that  when  all  the 
notices  of  the  first  coming  of  Christ,  that  were  communicated  to 
ditferent  nations,  are  brought  together  into  our  view,  and  explained 
by  the  event,  they  illustrate,  in  the  most  striking  manner,  both  the 
truth  and  the  importance  of  Christianity.  The  gospel  appears  to  be 
not  a  solitary  unrelated  part  of  the  divine  economy,  but  the  purpose 
which  God  purposed  from  the  beginning ;  and  Jesus  comes  according 
to  the  declared  counsel  of  heaven  to  do  the  will  of  his  Father.  The 
miracles  which  he  wrought  derive  a  peculiar  confirmation,  from  being 
the  very  works  which  ancient  prophets  had  foretold  as  characteristical 
of  the  Messiah.  Prophecy  and  miracle,  in  this  way,  lend  their  aid  to 
one  another,  and  give  the  most  complete  assurance  which  can  be 
desired,  that  there  is  no  deception  :  for  as  miracles  could  not  have 
justified  the  claim  of  Jesus  to  the  character  of  Messiah,  unless  ancient 
predictions  had  been  fulfilled  in  him,  so  the  miracles  which  he 
wrought  were  an  essential  part  of  that  fulfilment;  and  hence  arises 
the  peculiar  significancy  and  force  of  that  answer  which  he  made  to 
the  disciples  of  John,  when  they  asked  him,  "  Art  thou  he  that  should 
come  ?"  "  Go,"  said  he,  "and  show  John  again  those  things  which 
ye  do  hear  and  see.  The  blind  receive  their  sight,  and  the  lame 
walk,  the  lepers  are  cleansed,  and  the  deaf  hear,  the  dead  are  raised 
up,  and  the  poor  have  the  gospel  preached  to  them."  He  refers  to 
his  miracles  ;  but  he  mentions  them  in  the  very  words  of  Isaiah,  thus 
conjoining  with  that  divine  wisdom  which  shines  in  all  his  discourses, 
the  two  great  arguments  by  which  his  disciples  in  all  succeeding  ages 
were  to  defend  their  faith.  The  internal  evidence,  too,  arising  from 
the  nature  of  his  undertaking,  is  very  much  heightened,  when  we  see 
that  that  undertaking  was  the  completion  of  the  plan  of  Providence. 
We  are  often  able  to  vindicate  and  explain  the  peculiar  doctrines  of 
Christianity,  by  referring  to  the  manner  in  which  they  were  sketched 
out  by  the  preparatory  dispensation ;  and  the  intimate  connection 
of  the  two  systems,  which  enables  us  to  give  a  satisfactory  account  of 
the  peculiarities  of  the  law,  reflects  much  dignity  upon  the  gospel. 
While  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  are  spoken  of  only  in  so  far  as 
the  kingdom  of  the  Messiali  was  to  be  afiected  by  their  fate,  we  see 
the  servants  of  the  Almighty  preparing  the  way  for  the  Prince  of 
Peace ;  the  continued  elfusion  of  the  divine  Spirit  does  honour  to 
Jesus  ;  the  prophets  arise  in  long  succession  to  bear  witness  to  him ; 
and  our  respect  for  the  sundry  intimations  of  the  will  of  heaven,  is 
concentred  in  reverence  for  that  scheme  towards  which  all  of  them 
tend.  In  the  magnificence  of  that  provision  which  ushered  in  the 
gospel,  we  recognise  the  majesty  of  God ;  in  the  continuity  and  nice 
adjustment  of  its  parts,  we  trace  his  wisdom  ;  and  its  increasing  light 


92  EXTERNAL    EVIDENCES 

is  analogous  to  that  gradual  preparation,  by  which  all  the  works  of 
God  advance  to  maturity. 

Such  is  the  support  which  the  truth  of  Christianity  derives  from  the 
predictions  of  the  Old  Testament  respecting  the  Messiah.  The  argu- 
ment from  prophecy,  therefore,  was  not,  as  Mr.  Gibbon  sarcastically 
and  incorrectly  says,  merely  addressed  to  the  Jews  as  an  argu- 
vientum  ad  hominum.  To  those  to  whom  the  books  of  the  Old 
Testament  are  known  chiefly  if  not  entirely  by  the  references  made 
to  them  in  the  gospel,  it  affords  much  confirmation  to  their  faith,  and 
much  enlargement  of  their  views  with  regard  to  Christianity. 

Prideaux — Hartley — Gray — Prettyman's  Institutes — Stillingfleet's  Orig.  Sacrse — Chandler 
— Hurd — Warburton — Newton — Law — Syke — Kennicott — Randolph's  Collation — Ged- 
des's  Prospectus — Lowth  de  Sacra  Pocsi — Home's  Preface  to  Commentary  on  the 
Psalms. 


PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED    BY    JESUS.  93 


CHAPTER  VII. 


PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED  BY    JESUS. 


The  support  of  which  we  have  hitherto  spoken  proceeds  upon 
those  prophecies  in  the  Old  Testament  concerning  the  Messiah,  which 
were  fulfilled  by  his  appearing  in  the  flesh.  Bnt  a  due  attention  to 
the  subject  leads  us  much  furtlier,  and  we  soon  perceive  that  the  birth 
of  Christ,  important  and  glorious  as  that  event  was,  far  from 
exhausting  the  significations  given  by  the  ancient  prophets,  only 
served  to  introduce  other  events  most  interesting  to  the  human  race, 
which  were  also  foretold,  which  reach  to  the  end  of  time,  and  which, 
as  they  arise  in  the  order  of  Providence,  are  fitted  to  afford  an  in- 
creasing evidence  of  the  truth  of  Christianity. 

In  entering  upon  this  wide  field  of  argument,  which  here  opens  to 
our  view,  I  think  it  of  importance  to  direct  your  attention  to  the 
admirable  economy  with  which  the  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament 
are  disposed.  They  may  be  divided  into  two  great  classes,  as  they 
respect  either  the  temporal  condition  of  the  Jews  and  their  neighbours, 
or  that  future  spiritual  dispensation  which  was  to  arise  in  the  latter 
days. 

As  the  whole  administration  of  the  affairs  of  the  Jews  was  for 
many  ages  conducted  by  prophecy,  there  are,  in  the  Old  Testament, 
numberless  predictions  concerning  the  temporal  condition  of  them- 
selves and  their  neighbours.  Some  of  these  predictions  were  to  be 
fulfilled  in  a  short  time,  so  that  the  same  persons  who  heard  the  pro- 
phecy saw  the  event.  This  near  fulfilment  of  some  predictions  pro- 
cured credit  for  others  respecting  more  distant  events.  "  Behold," 
said  the  Almighty  to  the  nation  of  the  Jews,  "  the  former  things  are 
come  to  pass,  and  new  things  do  I  declare.  Before  they  spring  up,  I 
tell  you  of  them."*  There  are  prophecies  of  the  temporal  condition 
of  nations,  which  are  at  this  day  fulfilling  in  the  world.  The  present 
state  of  Babylon,  of  Tyre,  of  Egypt,  of  the  descendants  of  Ishmael, 
and  of  the  Jewish  people  themselves,  have  been  shown  by  learned 
men,  and  particularly  by  Bishop  Newton,  to  correspond  exactly  to 
the  words  of  ancient  prophets:  and  thus,  as  the  experience  of  the 
Jewish  nation  taught  them  to  expect  every  event  which  their  pro- 
phets announced,  so  the  visible  continued  accomplishment  of  what 
these  prophets  spoke  two  or  three  thousand  years  aso  is  to  us  a 
standing  demonstration  that  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

But  this  whole  system  of  prophecy  was  merely  a  vehicle  for  pre- 

•  Isaiah  xlii.  9. 


94  PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED    BY    JESUS. 

serving  and  conveying  to  the  world  the  hopes  of  a  future  spiritual  dis- 
pensation. It  embraced  indeed  the  temporal  affairs  of  the  Jews,  and 
of  the  nations  with  whom  they  were  particularly  connected,  because 
an  intermediate  preparatory  dispensation  was  established  till  the  better 
hope  should  be  brought  in.  But  all  the  prophecies  of  temporal  good 
and  evil  were  subservient  to  the  promise  of  the  Messiah,  and  the  ful- 
filment of  those  prophecies  cherished  among  the  nation  of  the  Jews 
the  expectation  of  that  future  covenant  which  was  the  end  of  the  law. 
The  birth  of  the  Messiah  justified  this  expectation.  It  did  not  indeed 
accomplish  all  the  words  of  the  prophets,  but  it  brought  assurance 
that  there  should  be,  in  due  time,  a  complete  accomplishment. 
Several  great  events  happened  soon  after  the  birth  of  the  Messiah, 
according  to  the  ancient  Scriptures.  Other  instances  of  fulfilment  are 
at  this  day  seen  in  the  religious  state  of  the  world,  and  there  are 
parts  of  the  prophecy  yet  to  be  fulfilled.  We  are  thus  placed  in  the 
middle  of  a  great  scheme,  of  which  we  have  seen  the  beginning  and 
the  progress.  The  conclusion  remains  to  be  unfolded.  But  the  cor- 
respondence to  the  words  of  the  prophets,  both  in  the  events  which 
are  past,  and  in  the  present  state  of  things,  may  establish  our  hope 
that  the  mystery  of  God  will  be  finished  ;  and  the  succession  of 
events,  as  they  open  in  the  course  of  Providence  upon  the  generations 
of  men,  gradually  explain  those  parts  of  the  prophecy  which  were  not 
understood. 

The  prophecies  of  the  temporal  state  of  Babylon,  Tyre,  Egypt,  and 
other  nations  which  are  now  fulfilling  in  the  world,  are  so  clear,  that 
any  one  versant  in  history  may  compare  the  event  with  the  prediction 
— and  I  do  not  know  a  more  pleasing,  satisfactory  book  for  this  pur- 
pose than  Newton  on  the  Prophecies.  But  the  prophecies  of  those 
events  in  the  spiritual  state  of  the  world,  which  were  to  happen  after 
the  birlh  of  the  INIessiah,  are  in  general  short  and  obscure ;  and 
although  any  person  who  is  cnpable  of  considering  the  scheme  of 
ancient  prophecy,  may  be  satisfied  of  its  looking  forward  to  the  end 
of  all  things,  yet  without  some  assistance  it  would  be  impossible  for 
him  to  form  a  distinct  conception  of  what  was  to  follow  the  birth  of 
the  Messiah,  and  difficult  even  to  refer  events  as  they  arise,  to  Iheir 
place  in  the  prediction.  This  kind  of  obscurity  was  allowed  by  God 
to  remain  upon  the  ancient  predictions  respecting  the  future  fortunes 
of  the  Messiah's  kingdom,  because  a  remedy  was  to  arise  in  due  time 
by  the  advent  of  that  great  Prophet  who,  having  fulfilled  in  his 
appearance  one  part  of  those  predictions,  became  the  interprrter  of 
that  which  remains.  The  miracles  by  which  he  showed  that  he  was 
a  messenger  of  heaven,  and  the  exact  coincidence  between  the  history 
of  his  life,  and  the  characters  of  the  Jewish  Messiah,  were  sufficient 
to  procure  credit  for  his  interpretation.  He  was  worthy  to  take  the 
book  which  Daniel  had  said  was  sealed  till  the  time  of  the  end,  to 
open  the  seals  of  it,  and  to  explain  to  the  nations  of  the  earth  the 
words  which  were  shut  up  therein.  Thus  Jesus  stands  forth  not  only 
as  the  personage  whom  ancient  prophets  had  foretold,  but  as  himself 
a  Prophet.  The  same  spirit  which  had  moved  them,  but  whose  signi- 
fications of  future  events  had  ceased  with  Malachi,  speaks  by  that 
messenger  of  the  covenant  whom  Malachi  had  aimounced,  and  upon 
whom  Isaiah  had  said  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  should  rest :  and  there  is 


PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED    BY    JESUS.  95 

Opened  in  the  discourses  of  Jesus  and  the  writings  of  his  apostles,  a 
series  of  predictions  expHcatory  of  the  dark  parts  of  ancient  prophecy, 
and  extending  to  the  consummation  of  all  things. 

It  is  not  possible  to  conceive  a  more  perfect  unity  of  design  than 
that  which  we  have  now  traced  in  the  system  of  prophecy ;  and 
every  human  scheme  fades  and  dwindles  when  compared  with  the 
magnificence  and  extent  of  this  plan — Jesus  Christ  the  corner-stone 
which  connects  the  old  and  the  new  dispensation  ;  in  whom  one  part 
of  the  ancient  predictions  received  its  accomplishment,  and  from  whom 
the  other  received  its  interpretation.  The  spirit  of  prophecy  thus 
ministers  in  two  distinct  methods  to  the  evidence  of  Christianity.  It 
enclosed  in  the  words  and  actions  of  the  Old  Testament  a  proof  that 
Jesus  was  that  person  whom  the  Father  had  sanctified,  and  sent 
into  the  world ;  and  it  holds  forth,  in  the  words  uttered  by  Jesus 
and  his  apostles,  that  mark  of  a  divine  mission,  which  all  impostors 
have  assumed,  and  which  mankind  have  often  ascribed  to  those  who 
did  not  possess  it,  but  which,  where  it  really  exists,  may  be  easily 
distinguished  from  all  false  pretensions,  and  is  one  of  the  evidences 
which  the  Almighty  hath  taught  us  to  look  for  in  every  messenger 
of  his.  He  claims  it  as  his  prerogative  to  declare  the  end  from  the 
beginning,  and  from  ancient  times  the  things  that  shall  be ;  he  chal- 
lenges the  gods  of  the  nations  to  give  this  proof  of  their  divinity ; 
"  Produce  your  cause,  saith  the  Lord  :  bring  forth  your  strong  reasons, 
saith  the  King  of  Jacob.  Show  the  things  that  are  to  come  hereafter, 
that  we  may  know  that  ye  are  gods."*  And  he  hath  given  this  mark 
of  his  messengers :  "  When  the  word  of  the  prophet  shall  come  to 
pass,  then  shall  the  prophet  be  known,  that  the  Lord  hath  truly  sent 
him."t 

As  Jesus  assumed  this  universal  character  of  a  divine  messenger, 
so  he  was  distinguished  from  other  prophets  by  the  clearness,  the 
extent,  and  the  importance  of  his  predictions.  And  he  showed  that 
the  spirit  was  given  to  him  without  measure,  by  exercising  the  gift 
of  prophecy  upon  subjects  very  different  from  one  another,  both  in 
their  nature,  and  in  their  times.  He  foretold  events  which  seem  to 
be  regulated  by  the  caprice  of  men,  and  those  which  depend  purely 
upon  the  will  of  God.  He  foretold  some  events  so  near,  that  we  find 
in  Scripture  both  the  prophecy  and  the  fulfilment ;  others  which  took 
place  a  few  years  after  the  canon  of  Scripture  was  closed,  with  regard 
to  which  we  learn  the  complete  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  from  con- 
temporary historians ;  others  which  are  now  carrying  forward  in  the 
world,  with  regard  to  which  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  is  a  mat- 
ter of  daily  observation  ;  and  others  which  reach  to  distant  periods, 
and  to  the  consummation  of  all  things,  which  are  still  the  objects  of  a 
Christian's  hope,  but  with  regard  to  which,  hope  rises  in  perfect 
assurance  by  the  recollection  of  what  is  past. 

This  is  a  general  view  of  the  prophecies  of  Jesus  and  his  apostles ; 
and  I  recam;nend  them  to  your  particular  attention  and  study, 
because,  in  my  opinion,  the  evidence  of  Christianity  derives  two 
great  advantages  from  the  study  of  them.  The  fi7'sl  advantages 
arises  from  their  appearing  to  be  the  explication  and  enlargement  of 

•  Isaiah  xli.  21,  23 ;  xlvi.  9,  10.  -j-  Jer.  xxviii.  9. 


96  PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED    BY    JESUS. 

the  short  obscure  predictions  contained  in  the  Old  Testament  with 
regard  to  the  same  events  ;  such  an  exphcation  as  no  other  person 
was  quahfied  to  give,  and  therefore  as  clear  a  demonstration  of  the 
prophetical  spirit  of  Jesus  as  if  he  uttered  a  series  of  predictions  per- 
fectly new,  yet  such  an  explication  as  illustrates  the  intimate  connec- 
tion of  the  two  dispensations.  The  prophecies  of  Jesus  and  his 
apostles,  while  they  introduce  many  particulars  that  are  not  found  in 
the  writings  of  the  ancient  prophets,  are  always  consistent  with  the 
words  spoken  by  them,  referring  to  their  images,  and  unfolding  their 
dark  sayings.  The  highest  honour  is,  in  this  way,  reflected  upon  the 
extent  of  the  scheme  of  ancient  prophecy ;  and  Jesus,  by  honouring 
this  scheme,  and  carrying  it  forward,  confirms  his  claim  to  the  character 
of  Jewish  Messiah,  because  he  speaks  in  a  manner  most  becoming 
that  great  Prophet,  who  was  to  be  raised  up  hke  unto  Moses.  The 
second  advantage  arising  from  a  particular  study  of  the  predictions 
of  Jesus,  is  this,  that  all  the  events,  which  constitute  the  history  of  his 
rehgion,  thus  appear  to  be  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy.  Besides  the 
support  which  every  one  of  them  in  its  place  gives  to  the  truth  of 
Christianity,  all  together  united  as  parts  of  a  system,-  which  had 
entered  into  the  mind  of  the  Author  of  our  religion,  and  when  they 
happen,  they  afford  a  demonstration  that  the  God  of  knowledge  had 
put  words  into  his  mouth. 

To  perceive  distinctly  the  nature  and  the  importance  of  this 
secondary  advantage,  the  four  Gospels  should  be  read  from  beginnhig 
to  end,  with  a  special  view  to  mark  the  prophecies  of  Jesus.  In  doing 
this,  you  will  set  down  the  many  instances  in  which  he  discovers  a 
knowledge  of  the  human  heart,  of  the  intentions  and  thoughts  of 
both  his  friends  and  his  enemies,  as  of  the  same  order  with  the  gift  of 
prophecy.  You  will  find  predictions  of  common  occurrences,  and 
near  events,  which  must  have  made  a  deep  impression  upon  those 
Y/ho  lived  with  him  ;  and,  scattered  through  all  his  discourses,  you 
will  meet  with  predictions  of  remote  events,  for  wliich  the  fulfilment 
of  the  predictions  of  near  events  was  fitted  to  procure  credit.  Out  of 
the  many  particulars  which,  upon  such  a  review,  may  engage  3^our 
attention,  I  select  the  following  important  objects,  as  affording  a  speci- 
men of  the  variety  of  our  Saviour's  prophecies,  and  of  the  manner  in 
which  those  events  which  constitute  the  history  of  his  religion,  may 
be  considered  as  the  fulfilment  of  his  predictions  ;  the  prophecies  of 
his  death,  of  his  resurrection,  of  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  of  the 
situation  and  behaviour  of  his  disciples,  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
of  the  progress  of  his  religion  previous  to  that  period,  of  the  condition 
of  the  Jewish  nation  subsequent  to  it,  and  of  the  final  discrimination 
of  the  righteous  and  the  wicked. 

1.  The  death  of  Jesus,  that  great  event  which,  when  considered  in 
the  Scripture  view  of  it,  is  characteristical  of  the  Gospel  as  the  reli- 
gion of  sinners,  is  the  subject  of  many  of  our  Lord's  prophecies.  He 
marks,  without  hesitation,  the  time,  the  place,  and  the  manner  of  it ; 
the  treachery  of  one  disciple,  the  denial  of  another,  the  desertion  of 
the  rest,  the  sentence  of  condemnation  which  the  supreme  council  of 
the  Jewish  nation,  at  a  time  when  Jews  were  gathered  from  all 
corners  of  the  land,  was  to  pronounce  in  Jerusalem  upon  an  innocent 
man,  whom  many  of  the  people  held  to  be  a  prophet,  and  the  execu- 


PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED    BY    JESUS.  97 

tion  of  tliat  sentence  by  the  Gentiles,  to  whom  the  rulers  of  the  Jews, 
jealous  as  they  were  of  their  own  authority,  and  indignant  under  the 
Roman  yoke,  were  to  deliver  the  panne).  But  of  all  kinds  of  death 
Avhich  might  have  been  inflicted,  the  prophecy  of  Jesus  selects  one 
unknown  in  the  land  of  Judea,  and  reserved  by  the  Romans  for  slaves, 
who,  having  been  distinguished  from  freemen  in  their  life,  were  dis- 
tinguished also  in  the  manner  of  their  death.  It  is  not  possible  to 
conceive  any  events  more  contingent  than  those  which  this  prophecy 
embraces.  Yet  it  was  literally  fulfilled.  When  you  examine  it  atten- 
tively, there  are  several  particulars  which  you  will  be  delighted  with 
marking,  because  they  constitute  an  indirect  support  to  the  truth  of 
Christianity,  arising  out  of  the  contexture  of  the  prophecy.  Thus, 
you  will  find  that  the  prophecy  applies  to  Jesus  many  minute  circum- 
stances in  the  Jewish  types  of  the  Messiaii,  and  in  this  way  shows  us 
that  as  the  death  of  the  Messiah  had  been  shadowed  forth  by  the 
sacrifices  of  the  law,  and  foretold  by  Isaiah  and  Daniel,  so  the  manner 
of  it  had,  from  the  beginning,  been  in  the  view  of  the  spirit  of  pro- 
phecy, and  was  signified  beforehand  in  various  ways.  You  will 
admire  the  magnanimity  of  that  man  who  came  into  the  world  that 
he  might  lay  down  his  life,  and  wiio  never  courted  the  favour  of  the 
people,  or  shrunk  from  the  discharge  of  any  duty,  although  all  the 
circumstances  of  barbarity  that  marked  his  death  were  fully  before 
his  eyes.  You  will  admire  the  dignity,  and  the  regard  to  the  peace 
of  his  country,  which  restrained  Jesus  from  raising  the  pity  and  the 
indignation  of  the  multitude  by  publishing  his  future  sufferings  to 
them,  and  which  led  him  to  address  all  the  clear  minute  predictions 
of  his  death  to  his  disciples  in  private.  You  will  admire  the  tender- 
ness and  wisdom  with  which  he  delayed  any  such  communication 
even  to  them,  till  they  had  declared  a  conviction  of  his  being  the 
INIessiah,  and  then  gradually  unfolded  the  dismal  subject  as  they 
were  able  to  bear  it ;  and  you  will  perceive  the  gracious  purpose 
which  was  promoted  by  the  growing  particularity  of  his  prophecy, 
as  the  event  drew  near.  "  Now,"  says  he,  "  I  tell  you  before  it  come, 
that  when  it  come  to  pass,  ye  may  believe,  that  I  am  he."* 

2.  The  circumstances  of  his  death,  every  one  of  which  had  been 
foretold  by  himself,  thus  served  to  procure  credit  for  that  prophecy 
of  his  resurrection,  which  was  always  conjoined  with  them.  The 
ancient  prophets  had  declared  that  the  Messiah  was  to  live  for  ever: 
and  as  both  Isaiah  and  Daniel,  who  spoke  of  his  everlasting  kingdom, 
had  spoken  also  of  his  being  cut  off  out  of  the  land  of  the  living,  their 
words  implied  that  he  was  to  rise  from  the  dead.  This  implication 
of  a  resurrection  was  brought  out  by  our  Lord.  Conscious  of  the 
divine  power  whicii  dwelt  in  him,  he  said  that  on  the  third  day  he 
should  rise  again  ;  and  in  the  hearing  of  all  the  people,  he  held  forth 
Jonas  as  a  type  of  himself.  The  people  recalled  his  words  as  soon  as 
he  was  put  to  death,  for  "  the  chief  priestsand  Pharisees  came  together 
unto  Pilate,  saying,  Sir,  we  remember  that  that  deceiver  said,  while 
he  was  yet  alive,  after  three  days  I  will  rise  again  :"t  and  they  vainly 
employed  precautions  to  prevent  the  fulfihnent  of  his  prophecy.  The 
apostles  have  left  a  most  natural  picture  of  their  own  weakness  and 

•  John  xiii.  19.  f  Matt,  xxvii.  62,  63. 

11  Q 


98  PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED    BY    JESUS. 

disappointment,  by  transmitting  it  upon  record  to  posterity,  that  tht 
death  of  Jesus  effaced  from  their  minds  his  promise  of  rising  again, 
or  at  least  destroyed  in  the  interval  their  faith  of  its  being  fulfilled. 
But  j^ou  will  find  that  both  the  angels  who  appeared  to  the  women, 
and  our  Lord  in  his  discourses  with  the  disciples,  recalled  the  prophe- 
cy to  their  minds  ;  and,  by  one  expression  of  John,  you  may  judge  of 
the  confirmation  which  their  faith  was  to  receive  from  the  recollection 
of  predictions  which  had  been  addressed  to  themselves,  and  the  fulfil- 
ment of  which  they  had  seen.  When  the  Jews  asked  a  sign  of  him, 
he  said,  "  Destroy  this  temple,  and  in  three  days  I  will  raise  it  up." 
The  Jews  understood  him  to  mean  the  temple  in  which  they  were 
standing.  "But  he  spake,"  says  John,  "of  the  temple  of  his  body. 
When,  therefore,  he  was  risen  from  the  dead,  his  disciples  remembered 
that  he  had  said  this  unto  them ;  and  they  believed  the  Scripture,  and 
the  word  which  Jesus  had  said."*  There  is  no  fact  in  the  history  of 
the  Christian  religion  more  important  than  the  resurrection  of  Jesus. 
It  is  that  seal  of  his  commission,  without  which  all  the  others  are  of 
none  avail ;  the  assurance  to  us  that  the  purpose  of  his  death  is  accom- 
plished, and  the  pledge  of  our  resurrection.  "  If  Christ  be  not  risen, 
our  faith  is  vain."  As  the  evidence  of  the  fact  therefore  will  appear 
to  us,  when  we  proceed  to  examine  it,  to  be  most  particular  and 
satisfying,  so  it  was  mosi  natural  that  this  very  important  fact  should 
be  the  subject  of  prophecy. 

3.  Our  Lord  foretold  also  that  he  was  to  ascend  into  heaven  ;  and 
the  fulfilment  of  this  prophecy  was  made  an  object  of  sense  to  the 
apostles  as  far  as  their  eyes  could  reach.  But  that  they  might  be 
satisfied  there  was  no  illusion,  and  that  the  rest  of  the  world  might 
know  assuredly  that  he  was  gone  to  the  Father,  the  prophecy  of  this 
ascension  was  connected  with  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which 
he  said  he  would  send  from  his  Father  to  comfort  the  disciples  after 
his  departure,  to  qualify  them  for  preaching  his  religion,  and  to 
ensure  the  success  of  their  labours.  You  learn  from  the  book  of 
Acts  the  fulfilment  of  this  promise;  and  when  you  examine  the  subject 
the  following  circumstances  will  deserve  your  attention.  The  mi- 
raculous gifts  poured  forth  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  are  stated  by  the 
apostle  Peter  as  "  that  which  was  spoken  by  the  prophet  Joel ;  And 
it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  last  days,  saith  God,  I  will  pour  out  of 
my  Spirit  upon  all  fiesh."'t  The  last  days  is  a  prophetical  expression 
for  the  age  of  the  Messiah,  which  was  to  succeed  the  age  of  the  law. 
It  is  plain  that  the  prophecy  of  Joel  had  not  been  fulfilled  before  the 
day  of  Pentecost ;  for  during  the  greater  part  of  the  time  that  had 
elapsed  between  the  word  of  Joel  and  that  day,  the  prophetical  spirit 
had  ceased  entirely.  His  word  did  receive  a  visible  fulfilment  upon 
that  day;  and  this  fulfilment  being  an  event  which  our  Lord  had 
taught  his  apostles  to  look  for,  Peter  was  entitled  to  apply  the  word 
of  Joel  to  the  event  which  then  took  place  ;  and  our  Lord  appears  in 
his  promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  in  his  other  prophecies,  to  be  the 
true  interpreter  of  ancient  predictions.  Further,  the  promise  of  Jesus 
does  not  respect  merely  the  inward  influences  of  the  Spirit.  These, 
however  essential  to  the  comfort  and  improvement  of  man,  do  not 

•  John  ii.  18—23.  f  Acts  ii.  16,  17. 


PREDICTIONS  DELIVERED  BY  JESUS.  99 

admit  of  being  clearly  proved  to  others,  either  by  the  testimony  of 
sense,  or  by  the  deductions  of  reason,  and  cannot  always  be  distinguish- 
ed by  certain  marks  from  the  visions  of  fanatical  men.  But  the 
promise  of  Jesus  expresses  precisely  external  visible  works,  to  which 
the  power  of  imagination  does  not  reach,  and  with  regard  to  which 
every  spectator  may  attain  the  same  assurance  as  with  regard  to  any 
other  object  of  sense.  "  These  signs,"  said  Jesus  before  his  ascension, 
«  shaU  follow  them  that  believe.  In  my  name  shall  they  cast  out 
devils;  they  shall  speak  with  new  tongues;  they  shall  take  up 
serpents,  and,  if  they  drink  any  deadly  thing,  it  shall  not  Imrt  them ; 
they  shall  lay  hands  on  the  sick,  and  they  shall  recover."*  It  limits 
a  time,  within  which  the  faculty  of  performing  such  works  was  to  be 
conferred ;  and  it  chooses  the  most  public  place  as  the  scene  of  their 
being  exhibited.  For  Jesus,  just  before  he  was  taken  up  into  heaven, 
"commanded  his  apostles  that  they  should  not  depart  from  Jerusalem, 
but  wait  for  the  promise  of  the  Father,  which,"  saith  he,  "  ye  have 
heard  of  me;  ye  shall  be  baptized  with  the  Holy  Ghost  not  many 
days  hence, "t  Lastly,  You  will  be  led  by  the  examination  of  this 
subject  to  observe,  that  when  the  works  performed,  in  consequence  of 
the  gifts  conferred  upon  the  day  of  Pentecost,  became  palpable  to  the 
senses  of  men,  they  were,  like  the  miracles  of  Jesus,  the  vouchers  of 
a  divine  commission.  Being  performed  in  his  name,  and  in  fulfil- 
ment of  his  promise,  they  were  fitted  to  convince  the  world  that  he 
had  received  power  from  the  Father  after  his  ascension,  and  that  he 
had  given  this  power  to  his  apostles.  These  men  were,  in  this  way, 
recommended  to  the  world  as  sent  by  Jesus  to  carry  forward  the  great 
scheme  which  he  had  opened.  Full  credit  was  procured  for  all  that 
they  taught,  because  their  works  were  the  signs  of  those  internal 
operations  by  which  they  were  inspired  with  the  knowledge,  wisdom, 
and  fortitude  necessary  for  their  undertaking ;  and  their  works  were 
also  the  pledges  of  the  fulfilment  of  that  promise  which  extends  to 
true  Christians  in  all  ages,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  shall  be  given  to  those 
who  ask  it,  according  to  the  measure  of  their  necessities. 

4.  The  fourth  subject  of  our  Lord's  prophecies  which  I  mentioned, 
was  the  situation  and  the  behaviour  of  his  apostles  after  he  should 
leave  them.  He  never  amused  them  with  false  hopes;  he  forewarn- 
ed them  of  all  the  scorn,  and  hatred,  and  persecution  which  they  were 
to  expect  in  preaching  his  religion :  and  yet,  although  he  had  daily 
experience  of  their  timidity,  and  slowness  of  apprehension,  although 
he  foretold  that  at  his  death  they  would  forsake  him,  yet  he  foretold 
with  equal  assurance,  that  after  his  ascension  they  should  be  his  wit- 
nesses to  the  ends  of  the  earth  ;  and  he  left  in  the  hands  of  these  feeble 
men,  who  were  to  be  involved  in  calamities  upon  his  account,  that 
cause  for  which  he  had  lived  and  died,  without  expressing  any  ap- 
prehension that  it  would  suffer  by  their  weakness.  "  If  ye  were  of 
the  world,"  he  says  in  his  last  discourse  to  them  before  his  death, 
"  the  world  would  love  his  own,  but  because  ye  arc  not  of  the  world, 
but  I  have  chosen  you  out  of  the  world,  therefore  the  world  hateth 
you.  They  shall  put  you  out  of  the  synagogues;  yea,  the  time 
Cometh,  that  whosoever  killeth  you,  will  think  that  he  doth  God  service. 

•  Markxvi.  17,  18.  f  Acts  i.  4,  5. 


100  PREDICTIONS  DELIVERED  BY  JESUS. 

And  these  things  will  they  do  unto  yon,  because  tliey  have  not  known 
the  Father,  nor  me.  But  these  tilings  have  I  told  you,  that  when 
tlie  time  shall  come,  ye  may  remember  that  I  told  you  of  them."* 
There  is  in  all  this  a  dignity  of  manner,  and  a  consciousness  of  divine 
resources,  which  exalts  Jesus  above  every  other  person  that  appears 
in  history.  When  we  see  in  the  propagation  of  his  religion,  the  forti- 
tude, the  wisdom,  and  the  eloquence  of  his  servants,  their  steadfast- 
ness amidst  trials  sufficient  to  shake  the  firmest  minds,  and  the  joy 
which  they  felt  in  being  counted  worthy  to  suffer  for  his  name,  we 
remember  his  words,  and  we  discern  the  fruits  of  that  baptism,  where- 
with they  were  baptized  on  the  day  of  Pentecost.  In  a  heroism,  so 
different  from  the  former  conduct  of  these  men,  and  so  manifestly  the 
gift  of  God,  we  recognise  the  spirit  which  both  dictated  the  prophecy, 
and  brought  about  the  event ;  and  our  Lord's  prediction  of  the  situa- 
tion and  behaviour  of  his  apostles,  when  thus  compared  with  the 
event,  furnishes  the  most  striking  illustration  of  his  truth,  his  candour, 
his  knowledge,  and  his  power. 

5.  We  come  now  to  the  longest  and  most  circumstantial  of  our 
Lord's  prophecies.  It  respects  immediately  the  destruction  of  Jerusa- 
lem ;  but  we  shall  find  that  it  embraces  also  the  remaining  subjects  of 
prophecy  which  I  mentioned,  and,  in  speaking  of  them,  I  mean  to 
follow  it  as  my  guide. 

The  prophecy  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  was  uttered  at  a 
time  when  Judea  was  in  complete  subjection  to  the  Romans.  A 
Roman  governor  resided  in  Jerusalem  with  an  armed  force ;  and  this 
state,  no  longer  at  enmity  with  the  masters  of  the  world,  was  regard- 
ed as  a  part  of  the  Roman  empire.  There  was  it  is  true,  a  general 
indignation  at  the  Roman  yoke,  a  tendency  in  the  minds  of  the  people 
to  sedition  and  tumult,  and  a  fear  in  the  council  lest  these  sentiments 
should  at  some  time  be  expressed  with  such  violence,  as  to  provoke 
the  Romans  to  take  away  their  place  and  their  nation.  It  was,  in 
fact,  the  turbulent  spirit,  and  the  repeated  insurrections  of  the  Jewish 
people,  which  did  incense  the  Romans;  and  a  person  well  acquaint*  d 
witli  the  disaffection  which  generally  prevailed,  and  the  character  of 
those  who  felt  it,  might  foresee  that  the  public  tranquillity  would  not 
("■ontinue  long,  and  that  this  sullen  stift'-necked  people  were  preparing 
for  themselves,  by  their  murmurings  and  violence,  more  severe 
chastisements  than  they  had  endured,  when  they  were  reduced  into 
the  form  of  a  Roman  province.  But  although  a  sagacious  enlighten- 
ed mind,  which  rose  above  vulgar  prejudices,  and  looked  forward  to 
remote  consequences,  might  foresee  such  an  event,  yet  the  maimer  of 
the  chastisement,  the  signs  which  were  to  announce  its  approach,  the 
measure  in  which  it  was  to  be  administered,  and  the  length  of  time 
during  which  it  was  to  continue, — all  these  were  out  of  the  reach  of 
human  foresight.  There  is  a  particularity  in  this  pro|)hecy,  by  which 
it  is  clearly  distinguished  from  the  conjectures  of  wise  men.  It 
embraces  a  multitude  of  contingencies  depending  upon  the  caju'ice  of 
the  people,  upon  the  wisdom  of  military  commanders,  upon  tlie  fury 
of  soldiers.  It  describes  one  certain  method  of  doing  that  which  might 
have  been  done  in  many  other  ways,  a  method  of  subduing  a  rebel- 

*  John.  XV.  19;  xvi.  2,  3,4. 


PREDICTIONS  DELIVERED  BY  JESUS.  101 

lions  city  very  different  from  the  general  conduct  of  the  Romans,  \vho 
were  too  wise  to  destroy  the  provinces  which  they  conquered,  and 
\'ery  opposite  to  the  character  of  Titus  the  emperor,  under  whose 
command  Jerusalem  was  besieged,  one  of  the  mildest  and  gentlest 
men  that  ever  lived,  who  placed  at  the  head  of  the  empire  of  the 
world,  is  called  by  historians,  the  love  and  delight  of  mankind.  The 
author  of  a  new  religion  must  have  been  careless  of  his  reputation, 
and  of  the  success  of  his  scheme,  who  ventured  to  foretell  such  a 
number  of  improbable  events  without  knowing  certainly  that  they 
were  to  come  to  pass ;  and  it  required  not  the  wisdom  of  a  man,  but 
the  Spirit  of  the  God  of  knowledge,  to  foresee  that  all  of  them  would 
concur,  before  the  generation  that  was  then  alive  upon  the  earth 
passed  away.  Yet  this  prophecy  Jesus  uttered  about  forty  years 
before  the  event.  The  prophecy  was  not  laid  up  after  it  was  uttered, 
like  the  pretended  oracles  of  the  heathen  nations,  in  some  repository, 
where  it  might  be  corrected  by  the  event.  But,  having  been  brought 
to  the  remembrance  of  those  who  heard  it  spoken,  by  the  spirit  which 
Jesus  sent  into  the  hearts  of  his  apostles  after  his  ascension,  it  was  in- 
serted in  books  which  were  published  before  the  time  of  the  fulfilment. 
We  know  that  John  lived  to  see  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  it 
is  not  certain  whether  he  wrote  his  Gospel  before  or  after  that  event. 
But  John  has  omitted  this  prophecy  altogether.  Our  knowledge  of 
it  is  derived  from  the  Gospels  of  Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke,  which 
were  carried  by  the  Christian  converts  into  all  parts  of  the  world 
while  Jerusalem  stood,  which  were  early  translated  into  different 
languages,  which  are  quoted  by  writers  iu  the  succeeding  age,  and 
were  universally  held  by  the  first  Christians  as  books  of  authority,  as 
the  standards  of  faith.  In  these  books  thus  authenticated  to  us,  we 
find  various  intimations  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  by  parables 
and  short  hints  interwoven  in  the  thread  of  the  history ;  and  all  the 
three  contain  the  same  long  particular  prophecy,  with  a  small  variety 
of  expression,  but  without  the  least  discordance,  or  even  alteration  of 
the  sense.  The  greatest  part  of  this  long  prophecy  has  been  most 
strikingly  fulfilled,  and  there  are  parts,  the  fulfilment  of  which  is 
now  going  on  in  the  world. 

We  learn  the  fulfilment  of  the  greater  part  of  this  prophecy,  not 
from  Christian  writers  only,  but  from  one  author,  whose  witness  is 
unexceptionable,  because  it  is  not  the  witness  of  a  friend  ;  and  who 
seems  to  have  been  preserved  by  Providence,  in  order  to  transmit  to 
posterity  a  circumstantial  account  of  the  siege.  Josephus,  a  Jew,  who 
wrote  a  history  of  his  country,  has  left  also  a  relation  of  that  war  in 
which  Jerusalem  was  destroyed.  In  the  beginning  of  the  war,  he 
was  a  commander  in  Galilee.  But  being  besieged  by  Vespasian,  he 
fled  with  forty  more,  after  a  gallant  resistance,  and  hid  himself  in  a 
cave.  Vespasian  having  discovered  their  lurking  place,  offered  them 
their  life.  Josephus  was  willing  to  accept  it.  But  his  companions 
refused  to  surrender.  With  a  view  to  prolong  the  time,  and  in  hopes 
of  overcoming  their  obstinacy,  he  prevailed  upon  them  to  cast  lots 
who  should  die  first.  The  lots  were  cast  two  by  two  :  and  that  God, 
who  disposeth  of  the  lot,  so  ordered  it,  that  of  the  forty,  thirty-nine 
were  killed  by  the  hands  of  one  another,  and  one  only  was  left  whh 
Josephus.  This  man  yielded  to  his  entreaties ;  and  these  two,  instead 
11* 


102  PREDICTIONS  DELIVERED  BY  JEStJS. 

of  drawing  lots  who  should  kill  the  other,  went  together,  and  offered 
themselves  to  Vespasian.  The  miserable  fate  of  their  companions 
procured  them  a  kind  reception ;  and  from  that  time  Josephus  re- 
mained in  the  Roman  camp,  an  eye  witness  of  every  thing  that  hap- 
pened during  the  siege.  He  has  the  reputation  of  a  diligent  faithful 
historian  in  his  other  work.  And  his  very  particular  account  of  the 
siege  was  revised  by  Vespasian  and  Titus,  and  published  by  their 
order.  The  only  impeachment  that  has  ever  been  brought  against 
the  veracity  of  Josephus  is,  that  although  his  history  of  the  Jews 
comprehends  the  period  in  which  our  Lord  lived,  he  hardly  makes 
mention  of  his  name ;  and,  although  exact  and  minute  in  every  thing 
else,  enters  into  no  detail  of  the  memorable  circumstances  that  attend- 
ed his  appearance,  or  the  influence  which  it  had  upon  the  minds  of 
the  people.  He  takes  no  notice  of  this  prophecy.  A  Jewish  priest, 
whose  silence  betrays  his  enmity  to  Jesus,  certainly  did  not  wish  that 
it  should  be  fulfilled  :  and  yet  his  history  of  the  siege  is  a  comment 
upon  the  prophecy ;  every  word  which  our  Lord  utters  receiving  the 
clearest  explication,  and  most  plainly  meeting  its  event  in  the  narration 
of  this  prejudiced  Jewish  historian. 

Archbishop  Tillotson,  Newton  on  the  prophecies,  Lardner,  Jortin, 
Newcome,  and  many  other  writers,  have  made  very  full  extracts  from 
Josephus,  and,  by  setting  the  narration  of  the  historian  over  against 
the  prediction  of  our  Lord,  have  shown  the  exact  accomplishment 
of  the  words  of  the  great  Prophet,  from  the  record  of  a  man  who  did 
not  acknowledge  his  divine  mission.  These  extracts  well  deserve 
your  study.  But  it  is  not  necessary,  after  the  labour  which  so  many 
learned  men  have  bestowed  upon  this  subject,  that  I  should  lead  you 
minutely  through  the  parts  of  the  prophecy.  There  are,  however, 
some  circumstances  upon  which  I  think  it  of  importance  to  fix  your 
attention.  I  mean,  therefore,  to  give  a  distinct  account  of  the  occasion 
which  led  our  Lord  to  utter  this  prophecy  ;  and,  after  collecting  briefly 
the  chief  points  respecting  the  siege,  I  shall  dwell  upon  the  striking 
prophecy  of  the  progress  of  Christianity  before  that  period,  which 
Matthew  has  preserved  in  his  twenty-fourth  chapter. 

Our  Lord  had  uttered  in  the  temple,  in  the  hearing  of  a  mixed 
multitude,  a  pathetic  lamentation  over  the  distress  that  awaited  the 
Jewish  nation.  As  he  goes  out  of  the  temple  towards  the  mount  of 
Olives,  the  usual  place  of  his  retirement,  the  disciples,  struck  with  the 
expression  he  had  used,  "  Behold  your  house  is  left  unto  you  deso- 
late," as  if  to  move  his  compassion  and  mitigate  the  sentence,  point 
out  to  him,  while  he  passed  along,  the  buildings  of  the  temple,  and 
the  goodly  stones  and  gifts  with  which  it  was  adorned.  The  great 
temple  which  Solomon  had  built,  was  destroyed  at  the  time  of  the 
Babylonish  captivity.  Cyrus  permitted  the  two  tribes,  who  returned 
to  Judea,  to  rebuild  the  house  of  their  God.  And  this  second  temple 
was  repaired  and  adorned  by  Herod  the  Great,  who,  having  received 
the  crown  of  Judea  from  the  Romans,  thought  that  the  most  effectual 
way  of  overcoming  the  prejudices,  and  obtaining  the  favour  of  the 
Jewish  people,  was  by  beautifying  and  enlarging,  after  the  plan  of 
Solomon's  temple,  the  building  which  had  been  hastily  erected  in  the 
reigns  of  Cyrus  and  Darius.  It  was  still  accounted  the  second  temple, 
but  was  so  much  improved  by  the  preparation  which  Herod  made, 


PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED    BTC    JESUS.  103 

that  both  Josephus  and  the  Roman  historians  celebrate  the  extent, 
the  beauty,  and  tlie  splendour,  of  the  building.  And  Josephus 
mentions,  in  particular,  marble  stones  of  a  stupendous  size  in  the 
foundation,  and  in  different  parts  of  the  building.  The  disciples,  we 
may  suppose,  point  out  these  stones,  lamenting  the  destruction  of  such 
a  fabric  ;  or  periiaps  meaning  to  insinuate,  that  it  would  not  be  easy  for 
the  hand  of  man  to  destroy  it.  But  Jesus  answered,  "  Verily,  i  say 
unto  you,  there  shall  not  be  left  here  one  stone  upon  another,  that 
shall  not  be  thrown  down."  It  is  a  proverbial  saying,  marking  the 
complete  destruction  of  the  temple;  and  ihere  would  not;according  to 
the  general  analogy  of  language,  have  been  any  impropriety  in  the 
use  of  it,  if  the  temple  had  been  rendered  unfit  for  being  a  place  of 
worship,  although  piles  of  stones  had  been  left  standing  in  the  court. 
But,  by  the  providence  of  God,  even  this  proverbial  expression  was 
fulfilled,  according  to  the  literal  acceptation  of  the  words.  Titus  was 
most  soUcitous  to  preserve  so  splendid  a  monument  of  the  victories  of 
Rome ;  and  he  sent  a  message  to  the  Jews  who  had  enclosed  them- 
selves in  the  temple,  that  he  was  determined  to  save  it  from  ruin. — 
But  they  could  not  bear  that  the  house  of  their  God,  the  pride  and 
glory  of  their  nation,  should  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  heathen,  and 
they  set  fire  to  the  porticoes.  A  soldier,  observing  the  flames,  threw 
a  burning  brand  in  at  the  window  ;  and  others,  incensed  at  the  obsti- 
nate resistance  of  the  Jews,  without  regard  to  the  commands  or  threat- 
enings  of  their  General,  who  ran  to  extinguish  the  flames,  continued 
to  set  fire  to  different  parts  of  it,  and  at  length  even  to^the  doors  of  the 
holy  place.  "  And  thus,"  says  Josephus,  "  the  temple  was  burnt  to 
the  ground,  against  the  will  of  Titus."  After  it  was  in  this  way 
rendered  useless,  he  ordered  the  foundations,  probably  on  account  of 
the  unusual  size  of  the  stones,  to  be  dug  up.  And  Rufus,  who  com- 
manded the  army  after  his  departure,  executed  this  order,  by  tearing 
them  up  with  a  plough-share ;  so  truly  did  Micah  say  of  old,  "  Zion 
shall  be  ploughed  as  a  field,  and  Jerusalem  shall  become  heaps,  and 
the  mountain  of  the  house  as  the  high  places  of  the  forest."* 

The  multitude  probably  pressing  around  our  Lord  as  he  went  out 
of  the  temple,  the  disciples  forbear  to  ask  any  particular  explication 
of  his  words,  till  they  come  to  the  Mount  of  Olives.  That  mount  was 
at  no  great  distance  from  Jerusalem,  and  over  against  the  temple,  so 
that  any  person  sitting  upon  it,  had  an  excellent  view  of  the  whole 
fabric.  The  disciples,  deeply  impressed  with  what  they  had  heard, 
and  anxious  to  receive  the  fullest  information  concerning  the  fate  of  the 
city  of  their  solemnities,  now  that  they  are  retired  from  the  multitude, 
come  around  Jesus  upon  the  mount,  and  looking  down  to  the  temple, 
say,  "  Tell  us,  when  shall  these  things  be  ;  and  what  shall  be  the  sign 
of  thy  coming,  and  of  the  end  of  the  world  ?"t  It  is  of  consequence 
that  you  form  a  clear  apprehension  of  the  import  of  this  question. 
The  end  of  the  world, according  to  the  use  of  that  phrase  to  which  our 
ears  are  accustomed,  means  the  consummation  of  all  things.  And 
this  circumstance,  joined  with  some  expressions  in  the  prophecy,  has 
led  several  interpreters  to  suppose  that  the  apostles  were  asking  the 
time  of  the  judgment.     But  to  a  Jew,  r;  owrcKftatovcui^voi,  often  con- 

•  Micah  iii.  12.  f  Matt.  xxiv.  3. 


104  PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED    BY    JESTJS. 

veyed  nothing  more  than  the  end  of  the  age.     Time  was  divided  by 
the  Jews  into  two  great  periods,  the  age  of  the  law  and  the  age  of  tlie 
Messiah.     Tlie  conclusion  of  the  one  was  the  beginning  of  the  other, 
the  opening  of  that  kingdom  which  tlie  Jews  believed  the  Messiah 
was  to  establish,  which  was  to  put  an  end  to  their  sufierings,  and  to 
render  them  the  greatest  people  upon  the  earth.     The  apostles,  full  of 
this  hope,  said  to  our  Lord,  immediately  before  his  ascension,  "  Lord, 
wilt  thou  at  this  time  restore  the  kingdom  to  Israel?"     Our  Lord 
used  the  phrase  of  his  coming,  to  denote  his  taking  vengeance  upon 
the  Jews  by  destroying  their  city  and  temple.     "  There  shall  be  some 
standing  here,"  he  said,  "  that  shall  not  taste  of  death  till  they  see  the 
Son  of  Man  coming  in  his  kingdom."*     All  that  heard  him  are  long 
since  gathered  to  their  fathers,  and  Jesus  has  not  yet  come  to  judge 
the  world.     But  John  we  know,  survived  the  destruction  of  Jerusa- 
lem.    There  are  two  other  places  in  the  New  Testament  where  a 
phrase  almost  the  same  with  rj  owteXiia.  tov  aiwwj  occurs.     And  in  neither 
does  it  signify  what  we  call  the  end  of  the  world.     The  apostle  to  the 
Hebrews,  ix.  26,  says, "  But  now  once,  trci  awttUiu  tuv  aiww)/,  hath  Christ 
appeared."     At  the  conclusion  of  that  dispensation  under  which  the 
blood  of  bulls  and  goats  was  offered  upon  the  altar  of  God,  "  Christ 
appeared,  to  put  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself"     The  apostle 
to  the  Corinthians  says,     "  These  things  are  written  for  our  admoni- 
tion, upon  whom  are  come^ars/.;?  rwv  aicoi/wi',"t  our  translation  renders 
it,  "the  ends  of  the  world."     Yet  the  world  has  lasted  about  1800 
years  since  the  apostolic  days ;  the  meaning  is,  the  ends  of  the  ages, 
the  conclusion  of  the  one  age,  and  the  beginning  of  the  other,  are 
come  upon  us ;  for  we  have  seen  both. 

It  is  agreeable,  then,  to  the  phraseology  of  Scripture,  and  to  the 
expectations  of  the  apostles,  to  interpret  their  question  here,  "  What 
shall  be  the  sign  of  thy  coming,  and  of  the  end  of  the  world  ?"  as 
meaning  nothing  more  than  the  corresponding  question,  to  which  an 
answer,  in  substance  the  same,  is  given  in  the  13th  chapter  of  Mark, 
and  the  21st  of  Luke.  What  shall  be  the  sign  when  these  things, 
this  prophecy  of  the  destruction  of  the  tempfe,  shall  be  fulfilled,  or 
come  to  pass  ?  But  the  language  in  which  the  question  is  proposed 
in  Matthew,  suggests  to  us  the  sentiment  which  had  probably  arisen 
in  the  minds  of  the  apostles,  after  hearing  the  declaration  of  our  Lord, 
as  they  walked  from  the  temple  to  the  Mount  of  Olives.  They  con- 
ceived that  the  whole  frame  of  the  Jewish  polity  was  to  be  dissolved, 
that  the  glorious  kingdom  of  the  Messiah  was  to  commence,  and  that, 
as  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  were  to  be  gathered  to  this  kingdom, 
and  Jerusalem  was  to  be  the  capital  of  the  world,  the  temple  which 
now  stood,  extensive  and  magnificent  as  it  was,  would  be  too  small 
for  the  reception  of  the  worshippers,  that  on  this  account  it  was  to  be 
laid  in  ruins,  and  one  much  more  splendid,  more  suitable  to  the  dignity 
of  the  Messiah,  and  far  surpassing  every  human  work,  Avas  to  be 
erected  in  its  stead.  Possessed  with  these  exalted  imaginations,  and 
anticipating  their  own  dignity  in  being  the  ministers  of  this  temple, 
they  come  to  Jesus  and  say,  "  Tell  us  when  these  things  shall  be,  and 
what  shall  be  the  sign  of  thy  coming,  and  of  the  end  of  the  age  ?"  The 

*  Matt.  xvi.  28.  f  1  Cor.  x.  11. 


PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED  BY    JESUS.  105 

question  consists  of  two  parts.  They  ask  the  time,  and  they  ask  the 
signs.  Our  Lord  begins  with  giving  a  particular  answer  to  the 
second  question.  He  afterwards  limits  the  time  to  the  existence  of 
the  generation  then  alive  upon  the  earth.  But  he  represses  tlieir 
curiosity  as  to  tlie  day  or  tiie  hour. 

Of  the  signs  mentioned  by  our  Lord,  I  shall  give  a  short  general 
view,  deriving  the  account  of  the  fulfilment  of  his  words  from  the 
history  of  the  events  left  us  by  Josephus,  and  shall  then  fix  your 
attention  upon  that  prophecy  of  the  general  progress  of  Christianity 
before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  which  you  will  find  in  the  24lli 
chapter  of  Matthew. 

The  first  sign  is  the  number  of  false  Christs  who  were  to  arise  in 
the  interval  between  the  prophecy  and  the  event ;  impostors  who, 
finding  a  general  expectation  of  the  Messiah,  as  the  seventy  weeks  of 
Daniel  were  conceived  to  be  accomplished,  and  a  disposition  to  revolt 
from  the  Romans,  assumed  a  character  corresponding  to  the  wishes 
of  the  people.  There  is  frequent  reference  to  these  impostors  in  the 
book  of  Acts  ;  and  Josephus  says,  that  numbers  of  them  were  taken 
under  the  government  of  Felix,  They  led  out  the  deluded  people  in 
crowds,  promising  to  show  them  great  signs,  and  to  deliver  them  from 
all  their  calamities,  and  thus  exposed  them  to  be  cut  to  pieces  by  the 
Roman  soldiers,  as  disturbers  of  the  peace.  Our  Lord  graciously 
warns  the  apostles  not  to  go  after  these  men  ;  to  put  no  faith  in  any 
message  which  they  pretended  to  bring  from  him,  but  to  rest  satisfied 
with  the  directions  contained  in  this  prophecy,  or  hereafter  communi- 
cated to  themselves  by  his  Spirit.  While  he  thus  preserves  his  fol- 
lowers from  the  destruction  which  came  upon  many  of  the  Jews,  he 
enables  them,  by  reading  in  that  destruction  the  fulfilment  of  his 
words,  and  a  proof  of  his  divine  character,  to  derive  from  the  fate  of 
their  unwise  countrymen  an  early  confirmation  of  tlieir  own  faith. 

The  second  sign  consists  of  great  calamities  which  were  to  happen 
during  the  interval.  The  madness  of  Caligula,  who  succeeded 
Tiberius,  butchered  many  of  the  Jews ;  and  there  was  in  his  reign  the 
rumour  of  a  war,  which  was  likely  to  be  the  destruction  of  the  nation. 
He  ordered  his  statue  to  be  erected  in  the  temple  of  Jerusalem.  Not 
conceiving  why  an  honour,  which  was  granted  to  him  by  the  other 
provinces  of  the  empire,  should  be  refused  by  Judea ;  and  not  being 
wise  enough  to  respect  the  religious  prejudices  of  those  who  were 
subject  to  him,  he  rejected  their  remonstrances,  and  persisted  in  his 
demand.  The  Jews  had  too  high  a  veneration  for  the  house  of  the 
true  God,  to  admit  of  any  thing  like  divine  honours  being  there  paid 
to  a  mortal,  and  they  resolved  to  suffer  every  distress,  rather  than  to 
give  their  countenance  to  the  sacrilege  of  the  emperor.  Such  was  the 
consternation  which  the  rumour  of  this  war  spread  through  Judea, 
that  the  people  neglected  to  till  their  lands,  and  in  despair  waited  the 
approach  of  the  enemy.  But  the  death  of  Caligula  removed  their 
fears,  and  delayed  for  some  time  that  destruction  which  he  meditated. 
Although,  therefore,  says  Jesus,  you  will  find  the  Jews  troubled  when 
these  wars  arise,  as  if  the  end  of  their  state  was  at  hand,  be  not  ye 
afraid,  but  know  that  many  things  must  first  be  accomplished.  What 
strength  was  the  faith  of  the  apostles  to  derive  from  this  prophecy, 
but  a  few  years  after  our  Lord's  death,  when  they  heard  of  rumours 

R 


106  PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED    BY    JESUS. 

of  wars,  when  they  beheld  the  despair  of  their  countrymen,  and  yet 
saw  tlie  cloud  dispelled,  and  the  peace  of  their  country  restored  ! 
The  peace,  indeed,  was  soon  interrupted  by  frequent  engagements 
between  the  Jewish  and  heathen  inhabitants  of  many  cities  in  the  pro- 
vince of  Syria;  by  disputes  about  the  bounds  of  their  jurisdiction, 
amongst  the  governors  of  the  different  tetrarchies  or  kingdoms  into 
which  the  land  of  Palestine  was  divided ;  and  by  the  wars  arising 
from  the  quick  succession  of  emperors,  and  the  violent  competitions 
for  the  imperial  diadem.  It  was  not  the  sword  only  that  filled  with 
calamity  this  disastrous  interval.  The  human  race,  according  to  the 
words  of  this  prophecy,  suffered  under  those  judgments  which  pro- 
ceed immediately  from  heaven.  Josephus  has  mentioned  famine  and 
pestilence,  earthquakes  in  all  places  of  the  world  where  Jews  resided, 
and  one  in  Judea  attended  with  circumstances  so  dreadful  and  so 
unusual,  that  it  was  manifest,  he  says,  the  whole  power  of  nature  was 
disturbed  for  the  destruction  of  men. 

The  third  sign  is  the  persecution  of  the  Christians.  The  sufferings 
of  which  we  read  in  the  Epistles  and  the  Acts  were  early  aggravated 
by  the  famines,  and  pestilence,  and  earthquakes  with  which  God  at 
this  time  afflicted  the  earth.  The  Christians  were  regarded  as  the 
causes  of  these  calamhies ;  and  the  heathen,  without  inquiring  into 
the  nature  of  their  religion,  but  viewing  it  as  a  new  pestilential  super- 
stition, most  offensive  to  the  gods,  tried  to  appease  the  divine  anger 
which  manifested  itself  in  various  judgments,  by  bringing  every 
indignity  and  barbarity  upon  the  Christians.  The  example  was  set 
by  Nero,  who,  having  in  the  madness  of  his  wickedness  set  fire  to 
Rome  that  he  might  enjoy  the  sight  of  a  great  city  in  flames,  turned 
the  tide  of  that  indignation,  which  the  report  excited,  from  himself 
against  the  Christians,  by  accusing  them  of  this  atrocious  crime.  He 
found  the  people  not  unwilling  to  believe  any  thing  of  a  sect  whom 
they  held  in  abhorrence  :  and  both  in  this,  and  in  many  other 
instances,  the  Christians  suffered  the  most  exquisite  torments  for 
crimes  not  their  own,  and  as  the  authors  of  calamities  which  they  did 
not  occasion.  The  persecution  which  they  endured  has  been  well 
called  by  one  of  the  oldest  apologists  for  Christianity,*  a  war  against 
the  name,  proceeding  not  from  hatred  to  them  as  individuals,  but  from 
enmity  to  the  name  which  they  bore.  "  Ye  shall  be  hated  of  all 
nations  for  my  name's  sake." 

The  fourth  sign  is  the  apostacy  and  treachery  of  many  who  had 
borne  this  name.  Although  persecution  naturally  tends  to  unite  those 
who  are  persecuted,  and  although  the  religion  of  Jesus  can  boast  of 
an  innumerable  company  of  martyrs,  who  in  the  flames  witnessed  a 
good  confession,  yet  there  were  some  in  the  earliest  ages  who  made 
shipwreck  of  faith,  and  endeavoured  to  gain  the  favour  of  the  heathen 
magistrates  by  informing  against  their  brethren.  This  apostacy  is 
often  severely  reprehended  in  the  epistles  of  Paul ;  and  the  Roman 
historian  speaks  of  a  multitude  of  Christians  who  were  convicted  of 
bearing  the  name,  upon  the  evidence  of  those  who  confessed  first.t 
It  cannot  surprise  any  one  who  considers  the  weakness  of  human 
nature,  that  such  examples  did  occur.     But  it  must  appear  very  much 

*  Justin  Martyr.  f  Tac.  Ann.  xv.  44, 


PREDICTIONS    DELIVEIIED    BY    JESUS.  107 

to  the  honour  of  Jesus,  that  he  adventures  to  utter  such  a  prophecy. 
He  is  not  afraid  of  sowing  jealousy  and  distrust  amongst  his  followers. 
He  knew  tliat  many  were  able  to  endure  the  trial  of  affliction,  and  he 
leaves  the  chati'  to  be  separated  from  the  wheat. 

The  fifth  sign  is  the  multitude  of  false  teachers,  men  who,  either 
from  an  attachment  to  the  law  of  Moses,  or  from  the  pride  of  false 
philosophy,  corrupted  the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel.  This  perversion 
appeared  in  the  days  of  the  apostles.  Complaints  of  it,  and  warnings 
against  it,  are  scattered  through  all  their  epistles.  Neither  the  sword 
of  the  persecutor,  nor  the  wit  of  the  scorner  has  done  so  much  injury 
to  the  cause  of  Christianity,  as  the  strifes  and  idle  disputes  of  those 
who  bear  his  name.  Many  in  early  times,  were  shaken  by  the  errors 
of  false  prophets.  Improper  sentiments  and  passions  were  cherished  ; 
the  union  of  Christians  was  broken,  and  the  religion  of  love  and  peace 
became  an  occasion  of  discord.  But  these  corruptions,  however  dis- 
graceful to  Christians,  are  a  testimony  both  of  the  candour  and  the 
divine  knowledge  of  the  author  of  the  Gospel;  and  even  those  who 
perverted  his  religion  fulfilled  his  words. 

We  have  now  gone  through  those  signs  which  announced  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  we  are  come  to  the  circumstances, 
marked  in  the  prophecy,  which  happened  during  the  siege. 

The  first  is,  Jerusalem  being  compassed  with  armies,  or,  as  Mat- 
thew expressed  it,  the  abomination  of  desolation,  spoken  of  by  Daniel 
the  prophet,  standing  in  the  holy  place.  There  were  commonly 
engraved  upon  the  Roman  standards,  after  the  times  of  the  republic, 
the  images  of  those  emperors  whom  admiration  or  flattery  had  trans- 
lated into  the  number  of  Gods.  The  soldiers  were  accustomed  to 
swear  by  these  images,  to  worship  them,  and  to  account  them  the 
gods  of  battle.  The  Jews,  educated  in  an  abhorrence  of  idolatry, 
could  not  bear  that  images,  before  which  men  thus  bowed,  should  be 
brought  within  the  precincts  of  their  city  ;  and  soon  after  the  death  of 
our  Lord,  they  requested  a  Roman  general,  Vitellius,  who  was  leading 
troops  through  Judea  against  an  enemy  of  the  emperor,  to  take 
another  road,  because,  said  they,  it  is  not  tat^iov ^ij.w  to  behold  from  our 
city  any  images.  With  strict  propriety,  then,  the  dark  expression  of 
Daniel,  which  had  not  till  that  time  been  understood,  is  interpreted 
by  our  Lord  as  meaning  the  offensive  images  of  a  great  multi- 
tude of  standards  brought  within  that  space,  a  circumference  of 
two  miles  round  the  city  which  was  accounted  holy,  in  order  to 
render  the  city  desolate  ;  and  he  mentions  this  as  the  signal  to  his 
followers  to  fly  from  the  low  parts  of  Judea  to  the  mountains.  It 
may  appear  to  you  too  late  to  think  of  flying,  after  the  Roman  armies 
were  seen  from  Jerusalem.  But  the  manner  in  which  the  siege  was 
conducted  justified  the  wisdom  of  this  advice.  A  few  years  before 
Titus  destroyed  Jerusalem,  Cestius  Gallus  laid  siege  to  it ;  he  might 
have  taken  the  city  if  he  had  persevered ;  but  without  any  reason 
that  was  known,  says  Josephus,  he  suddenly  led  away  his  forces. 
And  after  his  departure  many  fled  from  the  city  as  from  a  sinking 
ship.  Vespasian,  too,  was  slow  in  his  approaches  to  the  city ;  and 
by  the  distractions  which  at  that  time  took  place  in  the  government 
of  Rome,  was  frequently  diverted  from  executing  his  purpose  ;  so  that 
the  Christians,  to  whom  the  first  appearance  of  Cestius's  army  brought 


108  PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED    BY    JESUS. 

an  explanation  of  the  words  of  Jesus,  by  following  his  directions, 
escaped  entirely  from  the  carnage  of  the  Jews.  Our  Lord  warns  his 
disciples  of  the  imminency  of  the  danger,  and  urges  them,  by  various 
expressions,  to  the  greatest  speed  in  their  flight.  The  reason  of  this 
urgency  is  explained  by  Josephiis.  After  Titus  sat  down  before 
Jerusalem,  he  surrounded  the  city  with  a  wall,  which  was  finished  in 
three  days,  so  that  none  could  escape  ;  and  factions  were  by  that  time 
become  so  violent,  that  none  were  allowed  to  surrender.  The  party 
called  zealots,  who  in  their  zeal  for  the  law  of  Moses,  and  in  the 
hope  of  receiving  deliverance  from  heaven,  thought  it  their  duty  to 
resist  the  Romans  to  the  last  extremity,  put  to  death  all  who  attempted 
to  desert,  and  thus  assisted  tlie  enemy  in  enclosing  an  immense  mul- 
titude within  this  devoted  city.  With  what  gracious  foresiglit  does 
the  divine  prophet  guard  his  followers  against  this  complication  of 
evils,  and  repeat  his  warning  in  the  most  striking  words,  in  order  to 
convince  all  who  paid  regard  to  what  he  said,  that  their  only  safety 
lay  in  flight ! 

A  second  circumstance  by  which  our  Lord  marks  this  siege,  is  the 
unparalleled  distress  that  was  then  to  be  endured,  "  Then  shall  be 
great  tribulation,  such  as  was  not  since  the  beginning  of  this  world  to 
this  time  ;  no,  nor  ever  shall  be."  It  is  a  very  strong  expression,  of 
itself  sufficient  to  distinguisli  this  prophecy  from  conjecture.  And 
the  expression,  strong  as  it  appears,  is  so  strictly  applicable  to  the 
subject,  that  we  find  almost  the  same  words  in  Josephus,  who  cer- 
tainly did  not  copy  them  from  Jesus.  "  In  my  opinion,"  he  says, 
"  all  the  calamities  which  ever  were  endured  since  the  beginning  of 
the  world  were  inferior  to  those  which  the  Jews  now  suftered.  Never 
was  any  city  more  wicked,  and  never  did  any  city  receive  such  pun- 
ishment. Without  was  the  Roman  army,  surrounding  their  walls, 
crucifying  thousands  before  their  eyes,  and  laying  waste  their  coun- 
try :  within  were  the  most  violent  contentions  among  the  besieged, 
frequent  bloody  battles  between  different  parties,  rapine,  fire,  and  the 
extremity  of  famine.  Many  of  the  Jews  prayed  for  the  success  of 
the  Romans,  as  the  only  method  to  deliver  them  from  a  more  dread- 
ful calamity,  the  atrocious  violence  of  their  civil  dissensions." 

A  third  circumstance  mentioned  by  our  Lord,  is  the  shortening  of 
the  siege.  Josephus  computes  that  there  fell,  during  the  siege,  by  the 
hands  of  the  Romans,  and  by  their  own  faction,  1,100,000  Jews.  Had 
the  siege  continued  long,  the  whole  nation  would  have  perished.  But 
the  Lord  shortened  the  days  for  the  elect's  sake :  the  elect,  that  is,  in 
scripture  language,  the  Christians,  both  those  Jews  within  the  city, 
whom  this  fulfilment  of  the  words  of  Jesus  was  to  convert  to  Chris- 
tianity, and  those  Christians  who,  according  to  the  directions  of  their 
Master,  had  fled  out  of  the  city  at  the  approach  of  the  Roman  army,, 
and  were  then  living  in  the  mountains.  The  manner  in  which  the 
days  were  shortened  is  most  striking.  Vespasian  committed  the  con- 
duct of  the  siege  to  Titus,  then  a  young  man,  impatient  of  resistance, 
jealous  of  the  honour  of  the  Roman  army,  and  in  huste  to  return  from 
the  conquest  of  an  obscure  province  to  the  capital  of  the  empire.  He 
prosecuted  the  siege  with  vigour ;  he  invited  the  besieged  to  yield, 
by  offering  them  peace  ;  and  he  tried  to  intimidate  them,  by  using, 
contrary  to  his  nature,  every  species  of  cruelty  against  those  who  fell 


PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED    BY    JESUS.  109 

into  bis  hands.  But  all  his  vigour,  and  all  his  arts,  would  have  been 
in  vain,  had  it  not  been  lor  the  madness  of  those  within.  They  fought 
with  one  another;  tliey  burned,  in  their  fury,  magazines  of  provi- 
sions suffieient  to  last  them  for  years;  and  they  deserted  with  a  fool- 
ish confidence  strong  holds,  out  of  which  no  enemy  could  have  dragged 
them.  After  they  had  thus  delivered  their  city  into  his  hands,  'I'itus, 
when  he  was  viewing  it,  said,  "  God  has  been  upon  our  side.  Neither 
the  hands  nor  the  machines  of  men  could  have  been  of  any  avail 
against  those  towers.  But  God  has  pulled  the  Jews  out  of  them,  that 
he  might  give  them  to  us."  It  was  impossible  for  Titus  to  restrain 
the  soldiers,  irritated  by  an  obstinate  resistance,  from  executing  their 
fury  against  the  besieged.  But  liis  native  clemency  spared  the  Jews 
in  other  places.  He  would  not  allow  the  senate  of  Antioch,  that  city 
in  \vhich  the  disciples  were  first  called  Christians,  to  expel  the  Jews; 
for  where,  said  he,  shall  these  people  go,  now  that  we  have  destroyed 
their  city  ?  Titus  was  the  servant  of  God  to  execute  his  vengeance 
on  Jerusalem.  But  when  the  measure  of  that  vengeance  was  ful- 
filled, the  compassion  of  this  amiable  prince  was  employed  to  restrain 
the  wrath  of  man.     "  The  Lord  shortened  the  days." 

A  fourth  circumstance  is,  the  number  of  false  Christs,  men,  of 
whom  we  read  in  Josephus,  who,  both  during  the  siege  and  after  it, 
kept  up  the  spirits  of  the  people,  and  rendered  them  obstinate  in  their 
resistance,  by  giving  them  hopes  that  the  Messiah  was  at  hand  to  de- 
liver them  out^f  all  their  calamities.  The  greater  the  distress  was, 
the  people  were  the  more  disposed  to  catch  at  this  hope  ;  and,  there- 
fore, it  was  necessary  for  our  Lord  to  warn  his  disciples  against  being 
deluded  bv  it. 

The  last  circumstance  is,  the  extent  of  this  distress.  Our  Lord  has 
employed  a  bold  figure.  But  the  boldest  of  his  figures  are  always 
literallV  true :  "  As  the  lightning  cometh  out  of  the  east,  and  shineth 
even  unto  the  west,  so  shall  also  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  man  be  : 
For  wheresoever  the  carcase  is,  there  shall  the  eagles  be  gathered 
together."  The  Roman  army,  who  were  at  this  time  the  servants  of 
the  Son  of  man,  entered  on  the  east  side  of  Judea,  and  carried  their 
devastation  westward;  so  that,  in  this  grand  image,  the  very  direc- 
tion of  the  ruin,  as  well  as  the  suddenness  of  it,  is  painted :  and  it 
extended  to  every  place  where  Jews  were  to  be  found.  A  gold  or 
silver  eagle,  borne  on  the  top  of  a  spear,  belonged  to  every  legion, 
and  was'always  carried  along  with  it.  Wheresoever  the  carcase — 
the  Jewish  people  who  were  judicially  condenmed  by  God — was, 
there  were  also  those  eagles.  There  was  no  part  of  Judea,  says  Jo- 
sephus, which  did  not  partake  of  the  miseries  of  the  capital ;  and  his 
history  of  the  Jewish  war  ends  with  numbering  the  thousands  who 
fell  in  other  places  of  the  world  also  by  the  Roman  sword. 

I  have  thus  led  you,  as  particularly  as  appears  to  me  to  be  neces- 
sary ,-through  the  prophecy  of  our  Lord  respecting  the  signs,  which 
announced'^the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  circumstances  which 
attended  the  siege;  and  I  wish  now  to  fix  your  attention  upon  a  par- 
ticular prediction  interwoven  in  this  prophecy,  concerning  the  pro- 
gress of  Christianity  previous  to  that  period,  both  because  the  sulject 
renders  it  interesting,  and  because  the  place  which  our  Lord  has 
12 


110  PREDICTIONS  DELIVERED  BY  JESUS. 

given  it  in  this  prophecy,  opens  a  most  instructive  and  enlarged  view 
of  the  economy  of  the  divine  dispensations. 

6.  The  prediction  is — "  And  this  gospel  of  the  kingdom  shall  be 
preached  in  all  the  world,  for  a  witness  to  all  nations,  and  then 
shall  the  end"  of  the  Jewish  state  "come." 

We  find  our  Lord  always  speaking  with  confidence  of  the  establish- 
ment of  his  religion  in  the  world.  It  is  a  confidence  which  could  not 
reasonably  be  inspired  by  any  thing  he  beheld  :  multitudes  following 
him  out  of  curiosity,  but  easily  offended,  and  at  length  demanding  his 
crucifixion — a  few  unlearned,  feeble  men,  affectionately  attached 
indeed  to  his  person,  but  with  very  imperfect  apprehensions  of  his 
religion,  and  devoid  of  the  most  likely  instruments  of  spreading  even 
their  own  apprehensions  through  the  world — a  world  which  hated 
him  while  he  lived,  and  which  he  knew  was  to  hate  his  disciples 
after  his  death — a  world,  consisting  of  Jews,  wedded  to  their  own 
religion,  and  abhorring  his  doctrine  as  an  impious  attempt  to  supersede 
the  law  of  Moses  ;  and  of  heathens,  amongst  whom  the  philosophers, 
full  of  their  own  wisdom,  despised  the  simplicity  of  the  gospel,  and 
the  vulgar,  devoted  to  childish  abominable  superstitions,  and  averse 
from  the  spiritual  worship  of  the  gospel,  were  disposed  to  execute 
the  vengeance  of  jealous  malignant  deities  upon  a  body  of  men  who 
refused  to  offer  incense  at  their  altars — a  world,  too,  in  which  every 
kind  of  vice  abounded — in  which  the  passions  of  men  demanded 
indulgence,  and  spurned  at  the  restraint  of  the  holy  commandment  of 
Jesus.  Yet  in  these  circumstances,  with  such  obstacles,  our  Lord, 
conscious  of  his  divine  character,  and  knowing  that  the  Spirit  was 
given  to  him  without  measure,  foretells,  with  perfect  assurance,  that 
his  gospel  shall  be  preached  in  all  the  world.  Had  he  fixed  no  time, 
this  prophecy,  bold  as  it  is,  might  have  been  regarded  as  one  of  the 
acts  by  which  an  impostor  tries  to  raise  the  spirits  of  his  followers ; 
and  we  should  have  heard  it  said,  that,  instead  of  a  mark  of  the  spirit 
of  prophecy,  there  was  here  only  the  sagacity  of  a  man,  who,  aware 
of  the  wonderful  revolutions  in  the  opinions  and  manners  of  men, 
trusting  that,  in  some  succeeding  age,  after  other  systems  had  in  their 
turn  been  exploded,  his  system  might  become  fashionable,  had  ven- 
tured to  say,  that  it  should  be  preached  in  all  the  world,  and  left  the 
age  which  should  see  this  publication  to  convert  an  indefinite  expres- 
sion into  an  accomplished  prophecy.  But  here  is  nothing  indefinite 
— a  pointed,  precise  declaration,  whicli  no  impostor,  who  was  anxious 
about  the  success  of  his  system,  would  have  hazarded,  and  concerning 
the  truth  of  which,  many  of  that  generation  amongst  whom  he  lived 
remained  long  enough  upon  earth  to  be  able  to  judge.  The  end,  by 
the  connection  of  the  words  with  the  context,  means  the  conclusion  of 
the  age  of  the  law  ;  and  it  is  still  more  clearly  said,  in  the  13th  chapter 
of  Mark,  in  the  middle  of  the  prophecy  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusa- 
lem, "  But  the  Gospel  must  first  be  published  to  all  nations."  Now, 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  happened  within  forty  years  after  the 
death  of  our  Saviour,  so  that  we  arc  restricted  to  this  space  of  time  in 
speaking  of  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy.  We  learn  from  the  book 
of  Acts,  that  many  thousands  were  converted  soon  after  the  day  of 
Pentecost,  and  that  devout  Jews  out  of  every  nation  under  heaven, 


PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED    BY    JESUS.  Ill 

were  witnesses  of  the  miraculous  effusion  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  These 
men,  all  of  whom  were  amazed,  and  some  of  whom  were  converted, 
by  what  they  saw,  could  not  fail  to  carry  the  report  home,  and  thus 
prepared  distant  nations  for  receiving  those  who  were  better  qualified, 
and  more  expressly  commissioned,  to  preach  the  gospel.  After  the 
death  of  StephiMi,  there  arose  a  great  persecution  against  the  ciiurch 
of  Jerusalem,  which  by  this  time  iiad  multiplied  exceedingly  ;  and  they 
"  were  scattered  abroad  tlirough  the  regions  of  Judea  and  Samaria ; 
and  they  travelled  as  far  as  Pncenice,  and  Cyprus,  and  Antioch;  and 
the  hand  of  the  Lord  was  with  them,  and  a  great  number  believed."* 
The  book  of  Acts  is  chietly  an  account  of  the  labours  of  the  Apostle 
Paul;  and  we  see  this  one  apostle,  to  adopt  the  words  of  a  fellow- 
labourer  of  his,  a  preacher  both  in  the  East,  and  to  the  utmost 
boundaries  of  the  West,  planting  churches  in  Asia  and  Greece, 
and  travelling  from  Jerusalem  to  lUyricum,  a  tract  which  has 
been  computed  to  be  not  less  than  2000  miles.  If  such  were  the 
labours  of  one,  what  must  have  been  accomplished  by  the  journey- 
ings  of  all  the  twelve,  who,  taking  different  districts,  went  forth 
to  fulfil  the  last  command  of  their  master,  by  being  his  witnesses 
to  the  uttermost  ends  of  the  earth.  The  Apostle  Paul  says,  in  his 
epistle  to  the  Romans,  "  that  their  faith  was  spoken  of  throughout  all 
the  world ;"  and  to  the  Colossians,  "  that  the  word  which  they  had 
heard  was  by  that  time  preached  to  every  creature."  We  know 
certainly  that  Paul  preached  the  gospel  in  Rome  ;  and  such  was  the 
effect  of  his  preaching  that,  seven  years  before  the  destruction  of  Jerusa- 
lem, Tacitus  says  there  was  an  immense  number  of  Christians  in  that 
city.t  From  t!ie  capital  of  the  world  the  knowledge  of  Christianity 
was  spread,  like  all  the  improvements  in  art  and  science,  over  the 
world  ;  that  is,  according  to  the  common  sense  of  the  phrase,  through- 
out the  Roman  empire.  When  the  whole  known  world  was  governed 
by  one  prince,  the  communication  was  easy.  In  every  part  of  the 
empire  garrisons  were  stationed — roads  were  opened — messengers 
were  often  passing — and  no  country  then  discovered  was  too  distant 
to  hear  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom.  It  is  generally  agreed,  that  with- 
in the  forty  years  which  I  mentioned,  Scythia  on  the  north,  India  on 
the  east,  Gaul  and  Egypt  on  the  west,  and  Ethiopia  on  the  south, 
had  received  the  doctrine  of  Christ:  and  we  know  that  the  island  of 
Britain,  which  was  then  regarded  as  the  extremity  of  the  earth,  the 
most  remote  and  savage  province,  was  frequently  visited  during  that 
time  by  Roman  emperors  and  their  generals.  It  is  even  said  that  the 
gospel  \vas  preached  publicly  in  London  ten  years  before  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem.  As  far,  then,  as  our  information  goes,  whether 
we  colltict  it  from  the  book  of  Acts,  from  the  occasional  mention 
made  by  heatlien  historians  of  a  subject  upon  which  they  bestowed 
little  attention,  or  l>om  the  concurring  testimony  of  the  oldest  Christian 
historians,  the  word  of  Christ  was  literally  fulfilled  ;  and  you  have, 
in  the  sliort  space  of  time  to  which  he  limits  the  fulfilment  of  this 
word,  a  striking  proof  of  his  prophetic  spirit. 

But  it  is  not  enough  to  attend  to  the  fulfilment  of  this  prophecy. 
The  place  which  it  holds,  and  the  manner  in  which  it  is  expressed, 

*  Acts  viii.  1 ;  xL  19,  20.  f  Tacit.  Ann.  lib.  .w.  44. 


112  PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED    BY    JESUS. 

suggest  to  us  something  further.  The  gospel,  at  whatever  time  it  be 
pubhshed,  is  a  witness  to  those  who  hear  it,  of  the  being,  the  provi- 
dence, and  the  moral  government  of  God.  But, as  it  is  said,  "it  shall 
be  preached  to  all  the  world,  for  a  witness  to  all  nations,  and  then 
shall  the  end  come,"  we  are  led  to  consider  that  particular  kind  of 
witness  which  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  before  the  end  of  the  Jew- 
ish state,  afforded  to  all  nations  ;  and  it  is  here,  I  said,  that  there  opens 
to  us  a  most  instructive  and  enlarged  view  of  the  economy  of  the 
divine  dispensations. 

Had  it  not  been  for  this  early  and  universal  preaching,  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem  by  Titus  would  have  appeared  to  the  world  an 
event  of  the  same  order  with  the  destruction  of  any  other  city.  They 
might  have  talked  of  the  obstinacy  of  the  besieged — of  the  fury  of 
the  conquerors — of  the  unexampled  distress  which  was  endured  ;  but 
it  would  not  have  appeared  to  them  that  there  was  in  all  this  any 
thing  divine,  any  other  warning  than  is  suggested  by  the  ordinary 
fortune  of  war.  But  when  the  gospel  was  first  published,  it  was  a 
witness  to  all  nations,  that  in  the  end  of  the  Jewish  state  there  was  a 
fulfilment  of  the  prophecy — a  punishment  of  infidelity — and  the  ter- 
mination of  the  law  of  Moses. 

1.  It  was  a  witness  of  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy.  Wherever 
the  first  preachers  of  Christianity  went,  they  carried  the  gospels  along 
with  them,  as  the  authentic  history  of  Him  whom  they  preached.  We 
have  reason  to  think,  that  in  many  parts  of  the  world  the  three  gos- 
pels of  Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke,  were  translated  into  the  language 
of  the  country,  or  into  the  Latin,  which  was  generally  understood, 
before  Jerusalem  was  destroyed.  The  early  Christians,  then,  in  the 
most  distant  parts  of  the  world,  had  in  their  hands  the  prophecy  be- 
fore the  event.  The  Roman  armies,  and  the  messengers  of  the  em- 
pire, would  soon  transmit  a  general  account  of  the  siege.  The  history 
of  Josephus,  written  and  published  by  the  order  of  Vespasian  and 
Titus,  would  transmit  the  particulars  to  some  at  least  of  the  most 
illustrious  commanders  in  distant  provinces  ;  and  thus,  while  all  who 
named  the  name  of  Christ  would  learn  the  fact,  that  Jerusalem  was 
destroyed,  they  who  were  inquisitive  might  learn  also  the  circum- 
stances of  the  fact,  and  by  comparing  the  narration  which  they  received, 
with  the  prophecy  of  which  they  had  been  formerly  in  possession, 
would  know  assuredly  that  he  who  had  uttered  that  prophecy  was 
more  than  man.  There  are  still  great  events  to  happen  in  the  history 
of  the  Christian  church,  which  we  trust  will  brins;  to  those  who  shall 
be  permitted  to  see  them,  a  full  conviction  of  the  divine  character  of 
Jesus.  But  it  was  wisely  ordered,  that  the  earliest  Christians  should 
receive  this  long  prophecy  before  it  came  to  pass,  that  the  faith  of 
those  who  had  not  seen  the  Lord's  Christ,  might,  at  a  time  when 
education,  authority,  and  example,  were  not  on  the  side  of  that  faith, 
be  confirmed  by  the  event;  and  that  all  the  singular  circumstances 
of  this  siege  might  afford  to  the  nations  of  the  earth,  in  the  begin- 
nings of  the  gospel,  a  demonstration  that  Jesus  spake  the  truth. 

2.  A  witness  of  the  punishment  of  infidelity.  The  destruction  of 
Jerusalem  was  foretold,  not  merely  to  give  an  example  of  the  divino 
knowledge  of  him  who  uttered  the  prophecy,  but  because  the  Jews 
deserved  that  destruction.     The  crime  which  brought  it  upon  them  is 


PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED    BY    JESUS.  113 

intimated  in  many  of  our  Lord's  parables,  and  is  declared  clearly  in 
other  passages,  so  that  those  who  were  in  possession  of  the  prophecy 
could  not  mistake  the  cause.  All  the  nations  of  the  earth  to  whom 
the  gospel  was  preached,  knew  that  the  Jews  had  killed  the  Lord 
Jesus  with  this  horrid  imprecation,  "  His  blood  be  upon  us,  and  upon 
our  children  ;"  that  they  had  rejected  all  the  evidences  of  the  truth 
of  Christianity  which  were  exhibited  in  their  own  land,  and  not  con- 
tent with  despising  the  gospel,  had  stirred  up  the  minds  of  the  heathen 
against  the  disciples  of  Jesus,  and  appeared,  so  long  as  their  city  ex- 
isted, the  most  bitter  enemies  of  the  Christian  name.  The  nations  of 
the  earth  saw  this  obstinacy  and  barbarity  recompensed  in  the  very 
manner  which  the  Author  of  the  gospel  foretold,  and  having  his  pre- 
dictions in  their  hands,  they  beheld  his  enemies  taken  in  the  snare 
which  he  had  announced.  The  mighty  works  which  he  did  upoi> 
earth  were  miracles  of  mercy,  by  which  he  meant  to  win  the  hearts 
of  mankind.  But  the  execution  of  his  threatenings  against  a  nation 
of  enemies  was  a  miracle  of  judgment.  And  the  unparalleled  cala- 
mities which  the  Jews,  according  to  his  words,  endured,  were  a  warn- 
ing from  heaven  to  all  that  heard  the  gospel,  not  to  reject  the  counsel 
of  God  against  themselves. 

3.  A  witness  that,  in  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  there  was  the 
termination  of  the  law  of  Moses.  While  many  Jews  persecuted  the 
Christians,  there  were  others  who  attempted  by  reasoning,  to  impose 
upon  them  an  observance  of  the  law  of  Moses.  They  said  that  it 
was  impious  to  forsake  an  institution  confessedly  of  divine  original, 
and  that  no  subsequent  revelation  could  diminish  the  sanctity  of  a 
temple  built  by  God,  or  abolish  the  offerings  which  he  had  required 
to  be  presented  there.  You  find  this  reasoning  most  ably  combated 
in  the  Epistles  of  Paul,  and  particularly  in  the  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews. But  the  arguments  of  the  apostle  did  not  completely  coun- 
terbalance the  evil  done  by  the  Judaizing  teachers,  to  the  cause  of 
Christ.  jNLany  were  disturbed  by  the  sophistry  of  these  men  in  the 
exercise  of  their  Christian  liberty;  and  many  were  deterred  from 
embracing  the  gospel,  by  the  fear  of  being  brought  under  the  yoke 
of  the  Jewish  ceremonies.  Some  signal  interposition  of  Providence 
was  necessary  to  disjoin  the  spiritual  universal  religion  of  Jesus  from 
the  carnal  local  ordinances  of  the  law  of  Moses,  and  to  afford  entire 
satisfaction  to  the  minds  of  those  who  wished  for  that  disjunction. 
The  destruction  of  Jerusalem  was  that  interposition  ;  and  the  general 
publication  of  the  gospel  before  that  event,  led  men  both  to  look  for 
it  as  the  solution  of  their  doubts,  and  to  rest  in  it  after  it  happened, 
as  the  declaration  from  heaven  that  the  ceremonial  law  was  finished. 
Th>e  service  of  the  temple  could  not  continue  after  one  stone  of  the 
temple  was  not  left  upon  another ;  the  tribes  could  no  longer  assemble 
at  Jerusalem  after  the  city  was  laid  in  ruins  ;  and  that  bondage,  un- 
der which  the  Jewish  Jiation  wished  to  bring  the  Christians,  ceased 
after  the  Jews  were  scattered  over  the  face  of  the  earth. 

And  thus  we  are  enabled,  by  the  place  which  this  prophecy  holds, 
to  mark  a  beautiful  consistency,  and  a  mutual  dependency  in  the  reve- 
lations with  which  God  hath  favoured  the  world, — the  manifold  wis- 
dom of  God  conspicuous  in  the  whole  economy  of  religion.  The 
Alaiightv  committed  to  Abraham  and  his  descendants  the  hope  of  the 
12*  S 


114  PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED    BY    JESUS. 

Messiah,  and  the  law  was  a  school-master  to  bring  men  to  Christ. 
When  he  who  was  the  end  of  the  law  appeared,  he  appealed  to 
Moses  and  the  prophets  as  testifying  of  him,  and  he  claimed  the  cha- 
racter of  that  prophet  whom  they  had  announced.  But  the  purpose 
of  the  law  being  fulfilled  by  his  appearance,  it  was  no  longer  neces- 
sary that  the  preparatory  dispensation  with  its  appurtenances  should 
continue.  He  gave  notice,  therefore,  of  the  conclusion  of  the  age  of 
the  law,  and  as  that  age  began  and  was  conducted  with  visible  sym- 
bols of  divine  power,  so  with  like  symbols  it  was  finished.  The  de- 
claration of  these  symbols,  published  to  the  world  in  the  gospels, 
prevented  them  from  looking  upon  the  event  with  the  astonishment 
of  ignorance,  and  taught  them  to  connect  this  awful  ending  of  the  one 
age  with  the  character  of  that  age  which  then  commenced.  Having 
seen  a  period  elapse  sufficient  for  the  faith  of  Christ  to  gain  proselytes 
in  many  countries,  they  saw  the  temple  of  Jerusalem  by  an  interpo- 
sition which  was  the  literal  fulfilment  of  the  words  of  Christ  taken 
down,  and  were  thus  assured  that  the  hour  was  indeed  come  at  which 
ancient  prophets  had  more  obscurely  hinted,  and  which  Jesus  had 
declared  iu  express  words  as  not  very  distant,  when  men  were  not  to 
worship  the  Father  at  Jerusalem,  but  when  the  true  worshippers, 
every  one  from  his  place,  should  worship  God  in  spirit  and  in  truth. 
The  eifect  of  the  event,  thus  interpreted  by  the  prophecy,  was  power- 
ful and  instantaneous.  It  furnished  the  earliest  Christian  fathers  with 
an  unanswerable  argument  against  the  Judaizing  teachers :  it  solved 
the  doubts  of  those  who  were  stumbled  by  their  reasonings:  it  re- 
moved one  great  objection  which  the  Gentiles  had  to  the  gospel :  and 
when  the  wall  of  partition  was  thus  removed,  numbers  were  "  turned 
from  idols  to  serve  the  living  God." 

7.  I  mentioned  as  the  next  subject  of  the  predictions  of  Jesus,  the 
condition  of  the  Jewish  nation  subsequent  to  the  destruction  of  their 
city. 

You  may  mark  first  the  immediate  consequences  of  the  siege. 
"  Immediately  after  the  tribulation  of  those  days,  shall  the  sun  be 
darkened,  and  the  moon  shall  not  give  her  light,  and  the  stars  shall 
fall  from  heaven,  and  the  powers  of  the  heavens  shall  be  shaken ;  and 
then  shall  appear  the  sign  of  the  Son  of  Man  in  heaven."  It  seems 
to  be  plain  that  these  expressions  point  to  the  consequences  of  the 
siege,  for  they  are  thus  introduced,  "  immediately  after  the  tribulation 
of  those  days,"  i.  e.  the  distress  endured  during  the  siege,  and  as  if 
on  purpose  to  show  us  that  the  event  pointed  at  was  not  very  distant, 
it  is  said  a  few  verses  after,  "  This  generation  shall  not  pass  till  all 
these  things  be  fulfilled."  To  perceive  the  propriety  of  using  such 
expressions  in  this  place,  you  will  recollect  that  symbolical  language 
of  which  we  spoke  formerly,— dictated  by  necessity  in  early  times, 
when  the  conceptions  and  the  words  of  men  were  few, — retained  iu 
after  times  partly  from  habit,  and  partly  to  render  speech  more  signi- 
ficant,— universally  used  in  eastern  countries, — and  abounding  in  the 
writings  of  the  prophets,  who,  speaking  under  the  influence  of  'uspira- 
tiou,  full  of  the  events  which  they  foretold,  and  elevated  above  the 
ordinary  tone  of  their  minds,  employ  a  richness  and  pomp  of  imagery 
which  exalts  our  conceptions  of  the  importance  of  what  they  say,  but 
at  the  same  time  increases  the  obscurity  natural  to  prophecies,  and 


PREDICTIONS  DELIVERED  BY  JESUS.  115 

made  the  people  whom  they  addressed  often  call  their  discourses  dark 
sayings.  This  eastern  imagery,  which  pervades  the  prophetical  style, 
is  especially  remarkable  when  the  rise  or  fall  of  kingdoms  is  foretold. 
The  images  are  then  borrowed  from  the  most  splendid  objects;  and 
as  in  the  ancient  mode  of  writing  by  hieroglyphics,  the  sun,  the  moon, 
and  stars,  being  bodies  raised  above  the  earth,  were  used  to  represent 
kingdoms  and  princes,  so  in  the  prophecies  of  their  calamhies,  or 
prosperity,  changes  upon  the  heavenly  bodies,  bright  light,  and  thick 
darkness  came  to  be  a  common  phraseology.  Of  the  punishment 
which  God  was  to  inflict  on  Judea,  he  says  by  Jeremiah,  *'  I  will 
stretch  out  my  hand  against  thee  and  destroy  thee ;  she  hath  given 
up  the  ghost ;  her  sun  is  gone  down,  while  it  is  yet  day."*  Of  Egypt, 
by  Ezekiel,  "  All  the  bright  lights  of  heaven  will  I  make  dark  over 
thee,  and  make  darkness  over  thy  land,  saith  the  Lord  God."t  So  by 
Joel,  "  The  earth  shall  quake  before  them,  the  heavens  shall  tremble  ; 
the  sun  and  the  moon  shall  be  dark,  and  the  stars  shall  withdraw 
their  shining ;  and  the  Lord  shall  utter  his  voice  before  his  army."| 
And  when  God  promises  deliverance  and  victory  to  his  people,  it  is 
in  these  beautiful  words,  "  Thy  sun  shall  no  more  go  down,  neither 
shall  thy  moon  withdraw  itself.  But  the  light  of  the  moon  shall  be 
as  the  light  of  the  sun,  and  the  light  of  the  sun  shall  be  sevenfold."§ 
It  was  most  natural  for  the  Messiah  of  the  Jews  to  introduce  this 
uniform  language  of  former  prophets  in  foretelling  the  dissolution  of 
their  state ;  and  all  that  he  says  was  fulfilled,  according  to  the  appro- 
pi'iated  use  of  that  language,  immediately  after  the  siege.  For  the 
city  was  desolated  ;  the  temple  was  burnt ;  that  ecclesiastical  consti- 
tution which  the  Romans  had  tolerated  after  Judea  became  a  province 
of  the  empire  was  dissolved ;  the  Sanhedrim  no  longer  assembled : 
the  office  of  the  High  Priest  could  no  more  be  exercised  according  to  the 
commandment  of  God  ;  every  privilege  which  had  distinguished  the 
people  of  the  Jews  ceased  ;  the  sceptre,  in  appearance  as  well  as  in 
reality,  departed  from  Judah,  and  the  very  forms  of  the  dispensation 
given  by  Moses  came  to  an  end. 

As  changes  upon  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth  are  produced  by  the 
all-ruling  providence  of  God,  so  the  ancient  prophets  often  represent 
him  in  their  figurative  language,  as  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven  to 
execute  vengeance  upon  a  guilty  nation ;  and  Daniel  applies  this 
language]!  to  the  exertion  of  the  power  of  the  Son  of  Man,  when  he 
was  to  take  away  the  domhiion  of  the  four  beasts  whom  Daniel  had 
seen  in  his  vision,  and  to  give  the  kingdom  to  the  saints  of  the  Most 
High.  You  find  our  Lord  referring  to  this  expression,  which  was 
familiar  to  every  Jew.  Immediately  after  the  distress  of  the  siege, 
you  shall  see  the  sign  of  the  Son  of  man  in  heaven.  The  sign  which 
you  have  been  taught  to  look  for,  is  not  a  comet,  or  meteor,  a  won- 
derful appearance  in  the  air  to  astonish  the  ignorant :  it  is  the  Son  of 
man  employing  the  Roman  armies  as  his  servants,  to  execute  ven- 
geance upon  those  who  crucified  him,  and  demonstratvig  to  the  world, 
by  the  complete  dissolution  of  the  Jewish  state,  that  all  power  is  com- 
mitted to  him. 

*  Jer.  XV.  6.  9.  f  Ezek.  xxxii.  8.  +  Joel  ii.  10,  11. 

^  Isaiah  h.  20  ;  xxx.  26.         I  Dan.  vii.  13,  14,  27. 


116  PREDICTIONS  DELIVERED  BY  JESUS. 

The  first  part,  then,  of  our  Lord's  prophecy  concerning  the  condition 
of  the  Jewish  people,  subsequent  to  the  siege,  although  expressed  in 
sublime  and  figurative  language,  may  be  understood,  by  the  analogy  of 
the  prophetical  style,  to  mean,  that  the  political  and  ecclesiastical  con- 
stitution of  Judea  was  to  be  annihilated  immediately  after  that  event. 

But  you  may  observe  in  Luke  another  prophecy  concerning  their 
condhion,  reaching  to  a  remote  period,  and  marking  events  in  their 
nature,  most  contingent.  "Jerusalem  shall  be  trodden  down  of  the 
Gentiles,  until  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  be  fulfilled,"*  Not  only  shall 
the  city  be  taken,  and  the  constitution  be  dissolved,  and  many  Jews 
fall  by  the  edge  of  the  sword,  and  many  be  led  captive  into  all  na- 
tions;  but  Jerusalem  shall  belong  to  the  Gentiles,  and  be  used  by 
them  in  a  contemptuous  manner  till  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  be  ful- 
filled. As  this  prediction,  when  taken  in  connexion  with  other  pas- 
sages of  Scripture,  means  a  great  deal  more  than  is  obvious  at  first 
sight,  and  as  the  present  state  of  the  Jews  is  one  of  the  strongest 
visible  arguments  for  the  truth  of  Christianity,  I  shall  lay  before  you 
the  history  of  Jerusalem  since  it  was  taken,  the  condition  of  the  Jewish 
people  during  the  desolation  of  their  city,  and  that  prospect  of  a  better 
time  which  is  intimated  in  the  concise  expression  of  our  Lord. 

The  history  of  Jerusalem  from  the  time  of  its  being  destroyed  by 
Titus  till  this  day,  is  a  literal  fulfilment  of  the  expression,  "Jerusalem 
shall  be  trodden  down  of  the  Gentiles."  The  emperor  Adrian  con- 
ceived the  design  of  rebuilding  Jerusalem  about  forty-seven  years 
after  its  destruction.  He  planted  a  Roman  colony  there,  and  in  place 
of  the  temple  of  the  God  of  the  Jews,  he  erected  a  temple  to  Jupiter. 
The  Jews,  who  inhabited  the  other  parts  of  Judea,  inflamed  by  this 
insulting  act  of  sacrilege,  engaged  in  open  rebellion  against  tlie 
Romans,  and  assembling  in  vast  multitudes,  got  possession  of  their 
city,  and  kept  it  for  a  short  time.  Bat  Adrian  soon  expelled  them, 
demolished  their  towns  and  castles,  desolated  the  land  of  Judea,  and 
scattered  those  who  survived  over  the  face  of  the  earth.  He  re-es- 
tablislied  the  Roman  colony  in  Jerusalem,  gave  it  a  new  name,  and 
forbade  any  Jew  to  enter  it.  Three  hundred  years  after  the  death 
of  our  Saviour,  Constantine,  the  first  Roman  emperor  who  embraced 
Christianity,  built  many  splendid  Christian  churches  in  this  Roman 
colony,  and  dispersed  the  Jews  who  attempted  to  disturb  the  Chris- 
tians in  their  worship.  Within  thirty  years  after  the  death  of  Con- 
stantine, the  Emperor  Julian,  who  is  known  by  the  name  of  the  Apos- 
tate, because,  although  he  had  been  bred  a  Christian,  he  became  a 
heathen,  out  of  hatred  to  the  Christians,  and  with  a  view  to  defeat  the 
prophecy,  invited  the  body  of  the  Jewish  people  scattered  through 
the  empire,  to  return  to  their  city  ;  and  professing  to  lament  the 
oppression  which  they  had  endured,  gave  orders  for  reb'ailding  their 
temple.  His  lieutenants  did  begin.  But,  says  the  Roman  historian 
Ammianus  Marcellinus,  whose  respectable  authority  there  is  no 
reason  in  this  instance  to  question,  balls  of  fire,  bursting  forth  near  the 
foundation, made  it  impossible  for  the  workmen  to  approach  th.e  place, 
and  the  enterprise  was  laid  aside. t  Julian  did  not  reign  above  two  years; 
and  as  all  the  emperors  who  succeeded  him  were  Christians,  no  at- 

•  Luke  xxi.  24.  |  Aram.  Marcel,  lib.  xxiii. 


PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED  BY    JESUS.  117 

tempt  was  ever  made  to  rebuild  the  temple,  and  the  Jews  were  prohibit- 
ed from  living  in  the  city.  It  was  only  by  stealth,  or  by  bribing  the 
guards,  that  they  obtained  a  sight  of  the  ruins  of  their  temple.  In  the 
year  637,  Jerusalem  was  taken  by  the  successors  of  tlie  great  impostor 
Mahomet.  A  mosque  was  built  upon  the  very  spot  where  the  lenjple 
of  Solomon  had  stood ;  and  this  mosque  was  afterwards  so  much 
enlarged  and  beautified,  that  it  became  the  resort  of  the  Mahometans 
in  the  adjoining  countries,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  temple  had  been 
of  the  Jews.  Since  that  time,  it  has  passed,  in  the  succession  of  con- 
quests made  by  different  nations  and  tribes,  through  the  hands  of  the 
Turks,  the  Egyptians,  and  the  Mamelukes.  It  was  for  some  time  in 
possession  of  Christians,  who,  having  marched  from  Europe  at  the 
era  of  the  Crusades,  to  deliver  their  brethren  in  the  holy  land  from 
oppression,  and  to  rescue  the  sepulchre  of  our  Lord  out  of  the  hands 
of  the  Mahometans,  took  Jerusalem,  and  established  a  kingdom  which 
lasted  about  a  century.  The  Christian  forces  were  at  length  expelled ; 
the  Mamelukes,  and  after  them  the  Ottoman  Turks  regained  the  city, 
and  till  this  day  the  Mahometan  worship  is  established  there.  Chris- 
tians who  are  drawn  thither  by  reverence  for  the  place  where  our 
Lord  lay,  are  admitted  to  reside  ;  and  their  worship  is  tolerated  upon 
their  paying  a  large  tribute.  But  hardly  any  Jews  are  to  be  seen  in 
the  city.  They  consider  it  as  so  much  defiled  by  the  Mahometans  and 
Christians,  that  they  choose  rather  to  worship  God  in  any  other  place  ; 
they  are  persecuted  by  the  reigning  power.  And  the  poverty  of  the 
city  does  not  afford  them  much  temptation  in  the  way  of  gain  to 
counterbalance  the  inconveniencies  to  which  they  would  be  obliged 
to  submit  if  they  attempted  to  live  there.  Jerusalem,  then,  is  still 
trodden  down  of  the  Gentiles.  During  the  seventeen  hundred  years 
that  have  elapsed  since  it  was  destroyed  by  Titus,  the  Jews  have 
never  been  quietly  settled  there.  It  has,  with  hardly  any  interrup- 
tion, belonged  to  Gentile  nations ;  and  it  has  received  every  thing 
which  the  Jews  account  a  pollution. 

You  will  attend  next  to  the  condition  of  the  Jewish  people  during 
this  desolation  of  their  city.  Amongst  the  many  striking  circum- 
stances in  the  history  of  the  ancient  Jews,  every  intelligent  observer 
will  reckon  the  frequent  dispersions  of  that  unhappy  people.  Most 
other  nations,  when  subdued  by  a  warlike  or  powerful  neighbour, 
have  continued  to  inhabit  some  portion  of  their  ancient  territory. 
They  have  either  adopted  the  laws  and  manners  of  their  conquerors, 
and  in  process  of  time  have  been  so  completely  incorporated  with 
them,  as  not  to  form  a  distinct  body,  or  if  the  cruel  policy  of  the  con- 
querors marked  out  for  them  a  humbler  station,  they  have  descended 
from  their  former  rank  of  freemen,  without  changing  their  climate, 
and  have  remained  as  servants  in  the  land  of  which  they  were  once 
the  masters.  But  the  conquerors  of  Judea  in  all  ages,  not  content 
with  the  subjection  of  the  inhabitants,  transplanted  them  into  other 
countries,  and  in  distant  lands  marked  out  the  cities  which  they  were 
to  possess,  and  the  fields  which  they  were  to  cultivate.  Thus  Esar- 
haddon,  king  of  Assyria,  took  away  the  ten  tribes  of  Israel,  and 
planted  them  beyond  the  river  Euphrates,  in  the  cities  of  the  Medes. 
Nebuchadnezzar,  one  hundred  and  thirty  years  after,  carried  the  two 
tribes  of  Judah  and  Benjamin  captive  to  Babylon ;  and  the  Romans 


118  PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED    BY    JESUS. 

also  at  a  later  period  led  the  Jews  captive  into  all  nations.  Whatever 
were  the  motives  which  led  the  enemies  of  the  Jews  to  adopt  this 
singular  system  of  policy,  in  following  it  out,  they  only  fulfilled  the 
appointment  of  heaven :  and  the  kings  of  Assyria  and  Babylon,  and 
the  emperors  of  Rome,  although  they  meant  it  not  so  in  their  hearts, 
yet  by  the  peculiar  sufferings  which  they  brought  upon  the  captive 
nation,  were  the  instruments  of  accomplishing  the  prophecies  con- 
tained in  its  sacred  books.  Moses,  amongst  other  curses  which  were 
to  overtake  the  children  of  Israel  in  case  of  disobedience,  mentions 
this :  "  I  will  make  thy  cities  waste,  and  I  will  bring  the  land  into 
desolation  ;  and  thine  enemies  which  dwell  therein  shall  be  astonished 
at  it.  The  Lord  shall  bring  against  thee  a  nation  from  far,  and  he 
shall  besiege  thee  in  all  thy  gates,  until  thy  high  and  fenced  walls 
come  down.  And  ye  shall  be  plucked  off  the  land  whither  thou 
goest  to  possess  it ;  and  the  Lord  shall  scatter  thee  among  all  people, 
from  the  one  end  of  the  earth  even  unto  the  other."*  The  frequent 
captivities  and  dispersions  of  the  Jews  corresponded  exactly  to  the 
words  of  the  curse ;  and  this  singular  punishment  has  been  repeated 
as  often  as  the  sins  of  the  nation  called  for  the  judgments  of  heaven. 
It  might  have  been  expected  that,  by  these  frequent  dispersions, 
the  whole  race  of  the  Jews  would  be  confounded  amongst  other  na- 
tions. But  it  is  most  remarkable,  that  although  distinguished  from 
all  other  people  by  being  scattered  over  the  face  of  the  earth,  they 
remain  distinguished  also  by  their  religion  and  customs ;  and  although 
every  where  found,  they  are  every  where  separated  from  those  around 
them.  I  speak  not  of  the  ten  tribes  carried  away  by  Esarhaddon, 
who  were  so  far  estranged  from  the  true  God  before  they  left  their 
own  land,  that  they  easily  adopted  the  idolatry  of  the  nations  to 
which  they  were  led  captive,  and  so  ceased  to  be  a  people.t  But  I 
speak  of  the  tribes  of  Judah  and  Benjamin,  composing  what  was 
properly  called  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  which  adhered  to  the  family 
of  David  after  Israel  had  rebelled  against  them,  to  which  the  promise 
of  the  Messiah  had  been  restricted  by  the  patriarch  Jacob,  and  in 
which  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecies  concerning  the  fortunes  of  the 
Jewish  nation  is  to  be  looked  for.  Now  we  know  that  when  Judah 
was  carried  captive  by  Nebuchadnezzar  to  Babylon,  the  captives  did 
not  worship  the  gods  of  the  conquerors.  Daniel  and  other  great  men 
were  raised  up  by  God  to  preserve  the  spirit  of  piety,  and  the  forti- 
tude of  the  servants  of  heaven.  And  by  a  concurrence  of  circum- 
stances which  the  providence  of  God  combined  to  fulfil  his  pleasure, 
those  who  were  for  the  God  of  Israel  received  an  invitation  to  return 
to  Jerusalem,  and  to  rebuild  the  temple.  The  edict  of  Cyrus  king  of 
Persia  contained  these  words  :X  "  The  Lord  of  heaven  hath  charged 
me  to  build  him  an  house  at  Jerusalem.  Who  is  there  among  you 
of  all  his  people  ?  His  God  be  with  him,  and  let  him  go  up  to  Jerusa- 
lem, which  is  in  Judah,  and  build  the  house  of  the  Lord  God  of 
Israel."  It  was  under  the  character  of  the  servants  of  God,  by  which 
character  they  were  distinguished  from  their  idolatrous  neighbours, 
that  the  Jews  returned ;  and  the  calamities  which  they  had  endured 

*  Levit.  xxvi.  31,  32;  Deut.  xxviii.  passim. 

■\  Buchanan's  Christian  Researches.  t  Ezra  i.  2,  3. 


PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED    BY    JESUS.  119 

during  their  captivity,  seem  to  have  cured  that  proneness  to  idolatry, 
which  the  more  ancient  prophets  so  often  reprove.  All  that  returned 
are  spoken  of  in  the  books  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  as  zealous  for  the 
worship  of  the  true  God.  Their  descendants,  who  settled  and  multi- 
plied in  the  Holy  Land,  never  sliowed  any  inclination  to  worship 
idols.  They  endured  a  severe  persecution  under  Antiochus,  because 
they  would  not  submit  to  the  worship  which  he  prescribed ;  and  one 
of  the  causes  which  incensed  the  Romans  against  them,  was  their 
abhorrence  of  the  gods  of  the  empire.  Since  their  dispersion  by  Titus 
and  by  Adrian,  they  have  never  joined  in  heathen.  Christian,  or  Ma- 
hometan worship.  Tiieir  rites,  burdensome  as  they  are,  and  con- 
temptible as  they  appear  in  the  eyes  of  strangers,  have  been  religiously 
observed  by  the  whole  nation.  A  sullen,  uncomplying  covetous  spirit 
has  conspired  with  the  singularity  of  their  rites  to  render  them  odious 
and  ridiculous.  The  character  of  a  Jew  is  marked  in  every  corner 
of  the  earth ;  and  one  can  find  no  words  which  so  literally  express 
the  condition  of  this  people,  as  the  words  uttered  more  than  three 
thousand  years  ago  by  their  own  lawgiver.  "  These  curses  shall  come 
upon  thee  for  a  sign  and  for  a  wonder,  and  upon  thy  seed  for  ever  ; 
and  thou  shalt  become  an  astonishment,  a  proverb,  and  a  by-word 
among  all  the  nations  whither  the  Lord  shall  lead  thee."*  In  this 
wonderful  manner  have  the  Jews,  whose  native  land  is  still  trodden 
down  of  the  Gentiles,  been  preserved  in  all  parts  of  the  earth  a  dis- 
tinct people. 

But  the  prediction  brings  into  our  view  the  prospect  of  a  better 
time :  "  Jerusalem  shall  be  trodden  down  of  the  Gentiles,  till  the 
times  of  the  Gentiles  be  fulfilled;"  which,  in  plain  grammatical 
construction,  implies,  that  when  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  are  ful- 
filled, Jerusalem  shall  no  longer  be  trodden  down.  Our  Lord  is 
referring  to  the  latter  part  of  Daniel's  prophecy  of  the  seventy  weeks  : 
"  The  people  of  the  prince  that  shall  come  shall  destroy  the  city  and 
the  sanctuary,  and  the  end  thereof  shall  be  with  a  flood ;  and — he 
shall  make  it  desolate,  even  until  the  consummation,  and  that  deter- 
mined shall  be  poured  upon  the  desolate  ;"  or,  as  I  am  assured  by 
the  best  authority,  it  may  be  rendered,  "  upon  the  desolator."t  Now 
this  consummation,  what  the  Septuagint  calls  ^  avyjtsxita  tov  xat^ov.is  to 
be  learned  from  other  parts  of  the  book  of  Daniel,  in  which  there 
is  a  most  circumstantial  prophecy  of  the  fate  of  the  great  empires 
of  the  world,  and  amongst  the  rest  of  the  empire  of  the  Ro- 
mans, who  were  the  desolators  of  Judea.t  A  great  part  of  that 
prophecy  has  been  fulfilled.  Learned  men  have  traced  so  striking  a 
coincidence  between  the  words  of  Daniol  and  the  history  of  the  world, 
as  is  sufficient  to  impress  every  candid  mind  with  the  divine  inspira- 
tion of  this  prophet,  highly  favoured  of  the  Lord,  and  to  beget  a  full 
conviction,  that  every  word  which  he  has  spoken  will  iii  due  time  be 
accomplished.  When  that  will  be,  or  how  it  will  be,  we  know  not. 
But  as  the  events  that  have  already  happened  have  reflected  the 
clearest  light  upon  former  parts  of  the  prophecy,  we  may  rest  assured 
that  the  end,  when  it  arrives,  will  explain  those  parts  which  are  still 
dark,  and  that  there  are  methods  in  reserve,  by  which  the  times  of  the 

»  Deut  xiviii.  37.  46.  f  Dan.  is.  26,  27.  ^  Dan.  ii.  and  vii. 


120  PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED    BY    JESUS. 

Gentiles,  that  which  is  determined  upon  the  desolator,  all  the  purposes 
of  God's  providence  respecting  the  kingdoms  which  have  arisen  out 
of  the  Roman  empire,  shall  be  fulfilled.     It  is  perfectly  agreeable  to 
our  Lord's  words,  to  consider  the  return  of  the  Jews  to  their  own 
land  as  connected  with  this  end,  the  fulfilment  of  the  timxs  of  the 
Gentiles :  and  when  we  take  into  our  view  other  parts  of  scripture, 
hardly  any  doubt  is  left  in  our  minds  that  this  was  his  meaning. 
Moses,  when  he  threatens  the  Jews  with  dispersion,  gives  notice,  that 
if,  in  their  captivity,  they  returned  to  the  Lord,  he  would  gather  them 
from  the  nations  to  which  he  had  scattered  them  :  "  And  yet  for  all 
that,  when  they  be  in  the  land  of  their  enemies,  I  will  not  cast  them 
away,  neither  will  I  abhor  them  to  destroy  them  utterly,  and  to  break 
my  covenant  with  them;  for  I  am  the  Lord  their  God."*     You  find 
this  hope  expressed  by  David,  by  Solomon,  by  Isaiah,  and  Jeremiah. 
Accordingly  the  two  tribes  who  remembered  the  God  of  their  fathers, 
in  fulfilment  of  this  promise,  as  Nehemiah  interprets  their  deliverance, 
were  gathered  from  their  captivity.     After  their  return,  the  same 
threatenings  of  dispersion  were  denounced  against  them  if  they  dis- 
obeyed, and  the  same  promises  of  being  brought  back  if  they  repented. 
Zechariah,  who  prophesied  after  the  return,  says,  "  I  will  gather  all 
nations  against  Jerusalem,  and  the  city  shall  be  taken."     But  he  says 
also,  the  day  is  coming  when  "  I  will  seek  to  destroy  all  the  nations 
that  come  against  Jerusalem.     And  I  will  pour  upon  the  house  of 
David,  and  upon  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  the  spirit  of  grace  and 
of  supplication."!     And  this  is  agreeable  to  the  words  of  more  ancient 
prophets ;  for  God  says  by  Jeremiah,  "  Though  I  make  a  full  end  of 
all  the  nations  whither  I  have  scattered  thee,  yet  will  I  not  make  a 
full  end  of  thee  ;"t  and  by  Amos,  "  I  will  plant  them  upon  their  land, 
and  they  shall  no  more  be  pulled  out  of  the  land  which  I  have  given 
them."§     These  prophecies,  and  many  others  of  the  same  import, 
open  to  our  view  a  time  when  the  Jews  are  to  be  brought  back  from 
captivity.     Their  return  from  Babylon,  which  was  a  fulfilment  of 
their  own  prophecies,  is  a  pledge  that  the  greater  promise  of  an  ever- 
lasting settlement  in  their  own  land  shall  be  fulfilled  also.     Their 
being  to  this  day  a  distinct  people,  separate  from  all  others,  renders 
the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  possible,  and  seems  intended  as  a 
standing  miracle  to  keep  alive  in  the  world  the  faith  of  this  event. 
Our  Lord,  at  the  very  time  when  he  foretells  the  destruction  of  the 
holy  city,  and  the  second  long  captivity  of  the  Jews,  intimates,  by  his 
mode  of  expression,  that  it  was  not  to  be  perpetual ;  and  his  apostle 
Paul,  to  whom  Jesus,  after  his  ascension,  revealed  the  whole  counsel 
of  God,  delights  to  dwell  upon  this  thought — "  I  would  not,  brethren," 
he  says  to  the  Romans,  "  that  ye  should  be  ignorant  of  this  mystery, 
that  blindness  in  part  has  happened  to  Israel,  till  the  fulness  of  the 
Gentiles  be  come  in  ;  and  so  all  Israel  shall  be  saved." || 

What  a  glorious  view  is  here  presented  of  the  universal  kingdom 
of  the  Messiah,  which  is  at  length  to  comprehend  even  the  children 
of  those  who  slew  him  !  What  a  consistency  and  grandeur  in  the 
conduct  of  divine  Providence  with  regard  to  the  Jews,  that  people 

*  Levit.  xxvi.  44.  |  Zech.  xiv.  2  :  xii.  9,  10.  +  Jer.  xxx.  11. 

§  Amos  ix.  1 5,  \\  Rom.  xi.  25. 


PREBICTIONS    DELIVERED    BY    JESUS.  121 

whom  God  formed  for  himself  to  show  forth  his  praise  !  Raised 
up  at  first  as  a  Hglit  in  a  dark  place — retaining  the  knowledge  and 
worship  of  tlie  true  God  amidst  the  idolatry  of  the  nations — keeping 
in  their  oracles  the  hope  of  the  Saviour  of  mankind — carrying  by  their 
dispersions  these  oracles,  this  knowledge  and  hope,  through  the  whole 
earth,  and  thus  rendering  the  INIessiah  the  desire  of  all  nations — ex- 
hibiting in  their  singular  misfortunes  the  holiness  and  the  power  of 
their  God — a  monument  to  the  world  in  their  present  state,  that  Jesus 
is  able  to  take  vengeance  of  his  enemies — and  yet  preserved,  even  in 
the  midst  of  that  punishment  which  they  endure  for  obstinacy  and 
infidelity,  to  receive  Christ  as  a  nation,  and  thus  to  be  the  future  in- 
struments of  the  conversion  of  the  whole  world  !  When  this  people, 
by  the  out-stretched  arm  of  the  Almighty,  shall  be  brought  back  in 
his  time  from  the  lands  where  they  now  sojourn,  to  that  land  which, 
iu  the  beginning,  he  chose  for  them,  and  Jerusalem,  which  is  now 
trodden  down  of  the  Gentiles,  shall  be  delivered  to  the  Jews;  when 
every  prophecy  in  their  books  shall  be  found  to  conspire  most  exactly 
with  the  words  spoken  by  Christ  and  his  apostles,  and  all  shall  receive 
a  striking  accomplishment  in  events  most  interesting  to  the  whole 
universe — what  eye  will  be  so  sealed  as  to  exclude  this  light,  what  mind 
so  hardened  as  not  to  yield  to  a  conviction  which  the  infinite  know-' 
ledge  and  power  of  God  will  then  appear  to  have  united  in  producing  ! 
Every  charge  of  partiality  in  the  Lord  of  nature,  which  the  superficial 
infidel  is  hasty  to  bring  forward,  shall  then  be  swallowed  up  in  the  full 
exposition  of  that  great  scheme  which  is  now  carrying  forward  for  the 
final  salvation  of  all  the  children  of  God,  and  every  tongue  will  join 
in  that  expression  of  exalted  devotion  with  which  the  Apostle  Paul 
shuts  up  this  subject — "  0  the  depth  of  the  riches  both  of  the  wisdom 
and  knowledge  of  God,  how  unsearchable  are  his  judgments,  and  his 
ways  past  finding  out !  For  who  hath  known  the  mind  of  the  Lord, 
or  who  hath  been  his  counsellor?"* 

8.  I  mentioned,  as  the  last  subject  of  our  Lord's  prophecies,  the 
final  discrimination  of  the  righteous  and  the  wicked  at  the  day  of 
judgment.  This  great  event  is  foretold  under  similitudes,  in  plain 
words,  without  hesitation,  with  solemnity,  with  minuteness.  The 
veil  is  in  some  measure  removed,  and  we,  whose  views  are  generally 
confined  to  the  events  of  the  little  spot  which  we  inhabit,  are  enabled 
by  the  great  Prophet  to  look  forward  to  the  end  of  the  world.  He 
has,  indeed,  hidden  the  time  from  our  eyes,  but  he  Iws  minutely  des- 
cribed every  other  circumstance.  The  clearness  of  his  predictions 
upon  such  a  subject  distinguishes  him  from  every  other  teacher  who 
had  appeared  before  his  time,  and  atibrds  a  presumption  of  his  divine 
character.  But  this  is  not  the  place  for  enlarging  upon  these  predic- 
tions, and  I  mention  them  at  present  only  to  state  the  connection  be- 
tween them  and  the  prophecy  which  we  have  been  considering.  The 
darkening  of  the  sun,  and  moon,  and  stars — the  Son  of  man  coming 
in  the  clouds  of  heaven — his  sending  forth  his  angels  with  a  trumpet, 
and  gathering  his  elect  from  the  four  winds ;  all  these  circumstances 
bring  to  our  minds  a  day  more  awful  and  important  than  the  destruc- 
tion  of  Jerusalem,  or   any   of  its   inmiediate   consequences.     And 

•  Rom.  xi.  33,  34. 
13  T 


122  PREDICTIONS    DELIVERED    BY    JESUS. 

although  it  is  possible,  and  agreeable  to  the  analogy  of  Scripture  lan- 
guage, to  find  a  meaning  for  the  various  expressions  here  used,  in  the 
dissolution  of  the  Jewish  state,  in  the  general  publication  of  the  gospel 
after  that  event,  and  the  great  accession  of  converts  which  it  contri- 
buted to  bring  to  Christianity — yet  we  know  that  these  are  the  very  ex- 
pressions by  which'our  Lord  and  his  apostles  have  described  that  day, 
when  all  who  have  lived  upon  the  face  of  the  earth  shall  stand  before 
the  judgment  seat  of  Christ.  Several  commentators  have  been  of 
opinion  that  there  is  here,  in  addition  to  the  prophecy  of  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem,  a  direct  prophecy  of  the  day  of  judgment.  But 
the  limitation  of  the  time  of  the  fulfilment  to  the  existence  of  the 
generation  then  alive,  is  an  unanswerable  objection  to  this  opinion ; 
and,  therefore,  I  consider  the  latter  part  of  this  prediction  as  a  specimen 
given  by  our  Lord  of  a  prophecy  with  a  double  sense.  We  found 
that,  in  the  Old  Testament,  the  language  of  the  prophet  is  often  so 
contrived  as  to  apply  at  once  to  two  events,  the  one  near  and  local, 
the  other  remote  and  universal.  Thus  David,  in  describing  his  own 
sufferings,  introduces  expressions  which  are  a  literal  description  of 
the  sufferings  of  the  Messiah,  and  are  applied  as  such  by  the  Evange- 
lists ;  and  the  words  in  which  he  paints  the  peaceful  reign  of  Solo- 
mon, received  a  literal  accomplishment  in  the  kingdom  of  the  Prince 
of  Peace.  So  here  the  Messiah,  who  often,  in  other  respects,  copies 
the  manner,  and  refers  to  the  words  of  ancient  prophets,  while 
he  is  immediately  foretelling  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  looks  for- 
ward to  the  day  of  judgment,  and  expresses  himself  in  a  language 
which,  although,  by  the  established  practice  of  the  prophets,  it  is 
applicable  in  a  figurative  sense  to  the  fall  of  a  city  and  the  dissolution 
of  a  state,  yet  in  its  true,  literal,  precise  meaning,  applies  to  that  day 
in  which  all  cities  and  states  are  equally  interested.  While  the  ful- 
filment then  of  the  direct  sense  of  this  prophecy  is  a  standing  proof 
of  the  divine  knowledge  of  Jesus,  it  is  also  a  pledge,  that  the  secondary 
sense  shall  in  due  time  be  accomplished ;  and  thus  the  exhortation 
with  which  our  Lord  concludes  this  prophecy,  and  which  is  manifestly 
expressed  in  such  a  manner,  as  shows  that  it  was  intended  for  his 
disciples  in  every  age,  is  enforced  upon  us  as  well  as  upon  those  that 
heard  him.  The  Christians  were  delivered  from  the  destruction  in 
which  their  countrymen  were  involved,  by  following  the  directions 
of  Jesus;  and  upon  our  watchfulness  and  obedience  to  him  depend 
our  comfort,  our  improvement,  and  the  salvation  of  our  souls,  in  the 
great  day  of  the  Lord. 

Josephus,  Hurd,  and  Commentarres  on  the  24th  chapter  of  Matthew,  in  the  works  of  Til- 
lotson,  Jortin,  Newton,  Newcome,  dec. 


RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST.  123 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST. 


Many  of  the  principal  facts  in  the  Christian  rehgion  may  be  intro- 
duced as  instances  of  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecies  of  Jesus,  and 
as  thus  serving  to  illustrate  the  abundant  measure  in  which  the  spirit 
of  prophecy"  was  given  to  that  Great  Prophet  who  had  been  an- 
nounced from  the  beginning  of  the  world.  But  two  of  these  facts 
deserve  a  more  particular  consideration  in  a  view  of  the  evidences  of 
Christianity,  because,  independently  of  their  having  been  foretold,^ 
they  bring  a  very  strong  confirmation  to  the  high  claim  advanced  in 
the  Scriptures.  The  two  facts  which  I  mean  are,  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus,  and  the  propagation  of  Christianity. 

The  first  of  these  facts  is  the  resurrection  of  Jesus.  Had  he  never 
returned  from  the  grave,  his  enemies  would  have  considered  his  death 
as  the  completion  of  their  triumph :  and  those  who  had  admired  his 
character,  and  had  been  convinced  by  his  works  that  he  was  a  teacher 
sent  from  God,  must  have  considered  his  blood  as  only  adding  to  the 
sum  of  all  the  righteous  blood  that  had  been  shed  upon  the  earth. 
His  friends  might  have  made  a  feeble  attempt  to  transmit,  with  dis- 
tuiguished  honour  to  posterity,  the  name  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  as  a 
prophet  mighty  in  word  and  in  deed.  Yet  even  they  would  have 
been  stumbled  when  they  recollected  his  pretensions  and  his  prophe- 
cies. He  had  claimed  a  character  and  an  authority  very  inconsistent 
with  the  notion  of  his  being  a  victim  to  the  malice  of  men  ;  and  he 
had  foretold  that  after  being  three  days,  that  is,  according  to  the  Jew- 
ish phraseology,  a  part  of  three  days  in  the  grave,  he  would  rise  from 
the  dead  on  the  third  day :  resting  the  truth  of  his  claim  upon  this 
fact  as  the  sign  that  was  to  be  given.  The  resurrection  of  Jesus,  then, 
is  not  merely  an  important,  it  is  an  essential  fact  in  the  history  of 
Christianity,  If  the  author  of  this  religion  did  not  return  from  the 
grave,  he  is,  according  to  his  own  confession,  an  impostor  :  if  he  did, 
all  who  are  satisfied  with  the  evidence  of  this  singular  fact,  must  ac- 
knowledge, from  the  nature  of  the  case,  that  he  was  the  Son  of  God 
with  power,  by  his  resurrection  from  the  dead. 

It  behoves  you  to  examine  with  particular  care  the  kind  of  evi- 
dence upon  which  the  wisdom  of  God  has  chosen  to  rest  a  fact  so 
essential.  To  the  apostles,  who  were  with  Jesus  when  he  was  ap- 
prehended, who  knew  certainly  that  he  was  crucified,  one  of  whom 
saw  him  on  the  cross,  and  all  of  whom  were  permitted  to  converse 
with  him  after  he  was  risen,  his  resurrection  was  as  much  an  object 
of  sense,  at  least  it  was  an  inference  as  clearly  deducible  from  what 


124  RESURRECTION    OP    CHRIST. 

they  did  see,  as  if  they  had  been  present  when  the  angel  rolled  the 
stone  from  the  door  of  the  sepulchre,  and  when  Jesus  came  forth  in 
the  same  manner  as  Lazarus  had  done  a  little  before  at  his  command. 
But  this  evidence  of  sense  could  not  extend  beyond  the  forty  days 
durhig  which  Jesus  remained  upon  earth.  And  the  first  thing  that 
meets  you,  in  an  inquiry  into  the  truth  of  the  resurrection,  is  the 
number  of  persons  to  whom  this  evidence  of  sense  was  vouchsafed. 
The  time  is  limited.  But  tliere  is  no  necessary  limitation  of  the  num- 
ber that  might  have  seen  Jesus  during  that  time,  and,  as  the  faith  of 
future  ages  must  in  a  great  measure  rest  upon  their  testimony,  it  is 
natural  to  consider  whether  there  be  any  thing  in  the  particular  num- 
ber to  whom  this  evidence  of  sense  was  confined,  that  serves  to  ren- 
der the  fact  incredible. 

Tiie  number  is  much  greater  than  will  appear  at  first  sight  to  a 
careless  reader  of  the  gospels.  The  soldiers,  the  women,  and  the  dis- 
ciples only  are  mentioned  there.  But  you  will  find  it  said,  that  Jesus 
went  before  his  disciples  into  Galilee,  where  he  had  appointed  them 
to  meet  liim;  and  one  of  the  appearances  narrated  by  John  is  said 
to  have  been  at  the  sea  of  Tiberias,  which  lay  in  Galilee.  Now 
Galilee  was  the  country  where  our  Lord  had  spent  the  greatest  part 
of  his  life,  where  his  person  was  perfectly  well  known,  where  his 
mother's  relations  and  the  families  of  the  apostles  resided.  His  going 
to  Galilee,  therefore,  after  his  resurrection,  was  giving  to  a  number 
of  persons  deeply  interested  in  the  fact,  an  opportunity  of  being  con- 
vinced by  their  own  senses  that  the  Lord  was  risen  indeed,  and  thus 
crowned  those  evidences  of  his  divine  mission  which  they  had  derived 
from  their  former  acquaintance  with  him.  Accordingly,  Paul  says,  that 
our  Lord  "  was  seen  of  above  five  hundred  brethren  at  once,"  which 
must  have  happened  in  Galilee,  for  the  number  of  disciples  in  Jeru- 
salem after  the  ascension  was  but  "  an  hundred  and  twenty."  The 
testimony  of  this  multitude  of  witnesses  in  Galilee  was  sufficient  to 
diliuse  through  their  neighbours  and  contemporaries  a  conviction  of 
the  fact  which  they  saw. 

But,  it  has  been  asked,  Why  did  Jesus  retire  to  a  remote  province, 
and  show  himself  at  Jerusalem  only  to  a  few  witnesses?  Why  did 
he  not  appear  openly  in  the  temple,  in  the  synagogue,  in  the  streets 
pf  the  holy  city,  as  he  was  accustomed  to  do  before  his  death,  and 
overpower  the  incredulity  of  the  Jews  by  an  ocular  demonstration  of 
his  divine  power  ?  It  is  admitted  that  he  did  not  show  himself  to  all 
the  people.  But  the  objection  arising  from  this  supposed  deficiency 
in  the  evidence,  has  been  completely  answered  by  some  of  the  best 
commentators  upon  the  New  Testament,  and  by  writers  in  the  deist- 
ical  controversy.  The  heads  of  the  answers  are  these.  The  Jewish 
nation,  who  had  resisted  all  the  evidences  of  our  I^ord's  divine  mis- 
sion which  were  exhibited  before  their  eyes  during  his  ministry,  were 
not  entitled  to  expect  that  any  further  means  should  be  employed  by 
heaven  for  their  conviction.  The  probability  is,  that  the  same  nar- 
row views  and  evil  passions  which  had  produced  their  unbelief  while 
he  lived,  would  have  rendered  his  appearance  in  their  city  after  his 
death  ineffectual.  Our  Lord,  who  foresaw  this  inefficacy,  seems  to 
suggest  it  as  the  reason  of  his  conduct  in  this  matter,  when  he  con- 
cludes one  of  his  parables  with  saying,  "  If  they  hear  not  Moses  and 


RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST.  125 

the  prophets,  neither  will  they  be  persuaded,  though  one  rose  from 
the  dead."  After  our  Lord  spake  these  words,  the  experiment  was 
made  in  the  case  of  Lazarus.  Many  of  the  neighbonrs  of  Mary 
might  know  certainly  that  her  brother  had  been  raised  by  the  power 
of  Jesus.  Yet  some  of  them  who  liad  seen  all  things  that  were 
done,  went  and  told  the  Pharisees;  and  the  Pharisees,  upon  the  re- 
port of  this  miracle,  took  counsel  to  put  Jesus  to  death.  It  was  not 
meet  that  his  own  resurrection  should  give  occasion  to  similar  plots 
again  to  take  away  his  life.  To  all  this  it  is  to  be  added  in  the  last 
place,  that,  whatever  reception  Jesus  had  met  with  in  Jerusalem,  the 
evidence  for  Christianity  might  have  been  injured  by  his  appearing 
there  after  his  resurrection.  Had  the  Jews  continued  to  reject  and 
persecute  him,  the  united  testimony  of  the  nation  against  the  resur- 
rection might  have  been  represented  as  sufficient  to  outweigh  the 
positive  testimony  of  the  apostles.  Had  they  received  him  as  their 
Messiah  after  he  was  risen,  the  Christian  religion  might  have  been 
represented  as  a  state-trick  devised  by  able  men  for  the  glory  of  the 
nation,  which  met  with  opposition  at  first,  but  to  the  faith  of  which, 
a  well-concerted  story  of  the  death  and  resurrection  of  its  author  did 
at  last  subdue  the  minds  of  the  people.  From  this  specimen  of  the 
answers  which  may  be  made  to  the  objection,  it  appears  that  God 
tries  the  honesty  of  our  hearts  by  the  methods  which  he  employs  to 
enlighten  our  reason,  that  the  evidence  of  religion  was  not  intended 
to  overpower  those  whose  minds  are  perverted,  but  to  satisfy  those 
who  love  the  truth,  and  that,  in  examining  any  branch  of  that  evi- 
dence, our  business  is  not  to  in(]uire  what  God  might  have  done,  but 
to  consider  what  he  has  done,  and  to  rest  on  those  facts  which  appear 
to  our  understanding  to  be  sufficiently  proven,  although  our  imagina- 
tion may  figure  other  proofs  by  which  they  are  not  supported. 

Having  seen  that  the  o])jection  suggested  by  the  limitation  of  the 
number  of  those  who  saw  Jesus  after  his  resurrection,  may  easily  be 
answered,  I  proceed  to  state  the  different  kinds  of  evidence  which  we, 
in  these  later  ages,  have  for  the  truth  of  this  fact.  They  are  three. 
The  traditionary  evidence  arising  from  the  universal  diffusion  of  the 
belief  of  this  fact  through  the  Christian  world — the  clear  testimony 
of  the  apostles  recorded  in  their  writings — and  the  extraordinary 
powers  conferred  upon  the  apostles. 

The  lowest  de2:ree  of  evidence  which  we  enjoy  for  the  resurrection 
of  Jesus,  is  that  kind  of  traditionary  evidence  which  arises  from  the 
universal  diff"usion  of  the  belief  of  this  fact  through  the  Christian 
world.  It  appears  from  the  earliest  Christian  writers,  that  it  was  the 
general  faith  of  all  who  named  the  name  of  Christ,  that  he  had  risen 
from  the  dead.  We  are  told  that  the  first  Christians,  in  that  exulta- 
tion of  mind  of  which  our  familiarity  with  the  great  truths  of  religion 
makes  it  difficult  for  us  to  form  a  just  conception,  \vere  accustomed  to 
salute  one  another  when  they  met  with  this  expression,  ^^tarog  aviarr;: 
and  the  first  day  of  the  week,  which,  from  the  beginning  of  the  Chris- 
tian church  was  called  Kvgtaao?  f;ix(^a,  and  in  all  parts  of  the  Christian 
world  has  been  observed  as  the  day  upon  which  the  followers  of 
Jesns  assemble  for  the  exercises  of  devotion,  is  a  standing  imequivocal 
memorial  of  the  truth  of  the  fact  which  upon  that  day  especially  is 
remembered.  It  is  impossible  to  conceive  how  so  extraordinary  a 
13* 


126  RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST. 

fact  should  have  been  so  universally  propagated,  if  it  had  not  been 
founded  in  the  certain  uncontradicted  knowledge  of  those  who  lived 
near  the  time.  But,  strong  as  this  presumption  may  justly  be  held, 
the  faith  of  future  ages  in  so  essential  a  fact  required  a  more  deter- 
minate support.     And  this  is  found  in 

The  clear  precise  testimony  of  the  apostles,  those  witnesses  chosen 
before  of  God,  who  did  eat  and  drink  with  Jesus  after  he  rose  from 
the  dead ;  a  testimony  transmitted  to  us  in  the  authentic  genuine  re- 
cord of  discourses  that  were  delivered  before  his  murderers  in  the 
city  where  he  sutfered,  six  weeks  after  he  rose ;  and  of  other  dis- 
courses, and  histories,  and  epistles,  in  which  eye-witnesses  declare 
what  they  had  seen,  and  heard,  and  handled  of  the  word  of  life.  To 
this  office  Jesus  separated  the  apostles,  when  he  called  them,  as  soon 
as  he  began  to  teach,  to  be  always  with  him ;  and  when  he  said  to 
them  a  little  before  his  death,  "  Ye  also  shall  bear  witness,  because 
ye  have  been  with  me  from  the  beginning ;"  and  a  little  before  his 
ascension,  "  Ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  me  to  the  uttermost  parts  of 
the  earth."  The  apostles  had  this  apprehension  of  the  nature  of  their 
office ;  for  when  the  place  of  Judas  was  to  be  supplied,  Peter  says  to 
the  disciples,  "  Of  these  men  that  have  companied  with  us,  all  the 
time  that  the  Lord  Jesus  went  in  and  out  among  us,  must  one  be  or- 
dained to  be  a  witness  with  us  of  his  resurrection."  And  to  Paul, 
who  was  an  apostle  "  born  out  of  due  time,"  Jesus  appeared  from 
heaven,  that  he  might  also  be  a  witness  of  the  things  which  he  had 
seen. 

You  may  mark  here  an  uniformity  in  the  evidence  of  Christianity. 
The  same  persons,  who  are  to  us  the  witnesses  of  the  signs  which 
Jesus  did  in  the  presence  of  his  disciples,  are  witnesses  also  of  his 
having  risen  from  the  dead.  In  both  cases  they  do  not  declare  opinions 
upon  doubtful  points,  but  they  attest  palpable  facts,  level  to  the  ap- 
prehension of  the  plainest  understanding  ;  and  their  clear  unambigu- 
ous testimony  to  the  miracles  and  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  in  which 
they  agreed  with  themselves  and  with  one  another  till  the  end,  is 
written  in  the  same  books,  that  we  may  believe  that  he  is  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God. 

We  are  thus  led  back  to  those  circumstances  which  were  formerly 
stated  as  giving  credibility  in  our  days  to  the  miracles  of  Jesus  ;  such 
as  the  character  of  the  apostles,  the  scene  of  danger  and  suffering  in 
which  their  testimony  was  given,  the  fortitude  with  which  they  ad- 
hered to  it,  and  that  simplicity,  that  air  of  truth,  which  pervades  the 
evangelical  history,  and  which  falsehood  cannot  uniformly  preserve. 
All  these  circumstances  are  common  to  the  record  of  the  miracles  and 
to  the  record  of  the  resurrection.  But  there  are  some  internal  marks 
of  truth  in  the  history  of  the  resurrection,  which  are  peculiarly  fitted 
to  impress  conviction  upon  all  who  are  capable  of  apprehending  them. 
I  shall  mention  the  three  following.  The  history  of  the  resurrection, 
published  during  the  life  of  the  witnesses  of  that  event,  relates  the 
consternation  which  it  excited  amongst  the  enemies  of  Jesus,  the  awk- 
ward attempts  which  they  made  to  affix  the  charge  of  imposture 
upon  the  disciples,  and  the  currency  of  that  report  among  the  Jews  at 
the  time  of  the  publication  of  the  history.  Again,  the  historians 
exhibit   the  prejudices  of  the  apostles,  their  slowness  of  heart  to  be- 


R.ESURBECTION    OF    CHRIST.  -        127 

lieve,  the  natural  manner  in  which  their  doubts  were  overcome,  and 
the  combination  of  circumstances  by  whicii  a  firm  beUcf  of  the  resur- 
rection was  established  in  the  minds  of  the  witnesses,  and  a  founda- 
tion was  laid  for  the  faith  of  succeeding  ages.  There  are,  lastly,  that 
apparent  imperfection  and  inaccuracy  in  the  several  accounts  of  this 
transaction,  and  those  seeming  contradictions,  which  render  it  impos- 
sible for  any  person  to  beUeve  that  there  was  a  collusion  amongst  the 
evangelists  in  framing  their  story,  and  which  yet  are  of  such  a  kind, 
that  the  ingenuity  of  learned  men,  by  attending  to  minute  and  delicate 
circumstances  which  escape  ordinary  observers,  has  formed  out  of  the 
four  narrations  a  consistent,  probable  account  of  the  whole  transac- 
tion. It  is  not  possible  for  me  to  enlarge  upon  these  points.  But 
they  are  so  essential  to  this  most  interesting  article  of  our  faith,  tliat 
they  deserve  your  closest  study.  And  for  that  purpose  I  recommend 
to  you  the  four  following  books,  which  every  student  of  divinity  ought 
to  read.  The  first  is  Ditton  on  the  Resurrection.  One  part  of  this 
book  is  a  general  view  of  the  nature  of  moral  evidence,  and  of  the 
obligation  which  lies  upon  every  reasonable  being  to  assent  to  certain 
degrees  of  moral  evidence ;  the  other  part  is  an  application  of  this 
general  view  to  the  testimony  upon  which  the  resurrection  of  Christ 
is  received ;  and  is  calculated  to  show  that  this  testimony  has  all  the 
qualifications  of  an  evidence  obligatory  to  the  human  understanding. 
The  second  book  is  known  by  the  name  of  the  Trial  of  the  Witnesses. 
There  are  a  judge,  a  jury,  and  pleaders  upon  both  sides  of  the  ques- 
tion. The  arguments  are  summed  up  by  the  judge,  and  the  jur}?"  are 
unanimous  in  their  verdict  that  the  apostles  were  not  guilty  of  bear- 
ing false  witness  in  their  testimony  of  the  resurrection.  The  form  of 
the  book,  as  well  as  the  excellence  of  the  matter,  has  rendered  it 
popular;  and  it  will  be  particularly  useful  to  you  by  making  you 
acquainted  with  the  objections  and  the  heads  of  the  answers.  The 
third  is,  Gilbert  West's  Observation  upon  the  History  of  the  Resur- 
rection of  Jesus  Christ,  which  you  will  find  both  as  a  separate  book 
and  also  inserted  in  Watson's  Tracts.  This  masterly  writer  lays 
together  the  several  narrations,  so  as  to  form  a  consistent  account  of 
the  whole  transaction.  He  gives  a  very  full  view,  first,  of  the  order 
and  the  matter  of  that  evidence  which  was  laid  before  the  apostles, 
and  then  of  the  arguments  which  induce  us,  in  this  remote  age,  to 
receive  that  evidence.  His  book,  according  to  this  plan,  not  only 
places  in  the  strongest  light  those  internal  marks  of  credibility  by 
which  the  history  of  the  resurrection  is  distinguished,  but  also  em- 
braces most  of  the  arguments  for  the  truth  of  Christianity.  The 
fourth  is  Cook's  Illustration  of  the  General  Evidence  of  the  Resur- 
rection of  Christ,  a  work  which  displays  much  acuteness,  and  a 
degree  of  novelty  in  the  manner  of  stating  that  evidence.  Even  Dr. 
Priestley,an  author  whom  I  frequently  mention  in  the  following  parts 
of  my  course,  but  whose  name  I  seldom  have  occasion  to  quote  in 
support  of  any  doctrine  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  whose  creed 
;Mr.  Gibbon  has  well  called  a  scanty  one,  has  said  in  one  of  his  latest 
publications,  "The  resurrection  of  our  Saviour,  being  the  most  extra- 
ordinary of  all  events,  the  evidence  of  it  is  remarkably  circumstantial, 
in  cx)nsequence  of  which,  there  is  not  perhaps  any  fact  in  all  ancient 


128  RESURRECTION  OF    CHRIST. 

history  so  perfectly  credible,  according  to  the  most  estabUslied  rules 
of  evidence,  as  it  is."* 

Besides  the  universal  tradition  in  the  Christian  church,  and  the 
written  testimony  of  the  apostles,  there  is  yet  a  third  ground  upon 
which  we  believe  tlie  resurrection  of  Christ. 

"  If  we  receive  the  witness  of  men,  the  witness  of  God  is  greater  ;" 
and  that  witness  was  given  in  the  extraordinary  powers  which  were 
conferred  upon  the  apostles  before  they  began  to  execute  their  com- 
mission, and  which  continued  with   them   always.     I  stated   these 
powers  formerly  as  the  fnlfilment  of  prophecy.     But  they  present 
themselves  at  this  place  as  the  vouchers  of  the    testimony   of  the 
apostles;  and  in  this  light  they  are  uniformly  stated  both  by  our  Lord 
and  by  the  witnesses  themselves.     He  said  to  them  before  his  death, 
"  But  when  the  Comforter  is  come,  whom  I  will  send  unto  you  from 
the  Father,  he  shall  testify  of  me  ;"  and  "  he  will  convince  the  world 
of  sin,  because  they  believe  not  on  me."t     Again,  a  little  before  his 
ascension,  he  said,  "  Ye  shall  receive  power  after  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
is  come  upon  you,  aud  ye  shall  be  witnesses  to  me. "J    Peter,  in  one 
of  his  first  sermons,  speaking  of  the  resurrection  aiid  exaltation  of 
Jesus,  says,  "We  are  his  witnesses  of  these  things;  and  so  is  also  the 
Holy  Ghost  whom  God  hath  given  to  them  that  obey  him."§     The 
word   translated   comforter,   in   the    first   passage   that    I  quoted,  is 
7ia^a,x%rjtoi,  which  exactly  corresponds  in  etymology  to  the  Latin  word 
advocatus,(xoxn  which  comes  our  word  advocate,  a  person  called  in 
to  stand  by  another  in  a  court  of  justice,  to  assist  him  in  pleading  his 
cause,  and   confuting  his  adversaries.      The  apostles   spake  before 
kings  and  governors,  before  the  whole  world,  bearing  witness  to  the 
resurrection  of  Clirist.     But  lest  they  should  be  confounded  by  the 
subtlety,  or  overwhelmed  by  the  power  of  their  enemies,  here  is  a 
divine  person  promised  to  confirm  what  they  said,  and  to  join  with 
them  in  convincing  the  world  of  their  sin  in  rejecting  Jesus,  and  of 
his  righteousness,  that  although  he  had  been  condemned  as  a  male- 
flictor,  he  was  accounted  righteous  in  the  sight  of  God.     His  own 
works  were  the  evidence,  to  which  he  always  appealed  in  his  lifetime, 
thit  God  was  with   him;   and  when  he  left  the  earth,  the    works 
wiiich  he  enabled  his  servants  to  perform,  t!ie  same  in  kind  with  liis 
own,  were  tlie  evidence  that  he  had  returned  to  his  Father.     "  There- 
fore," says  Peter  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  "being  by  the  right  hand 
of  God  exalted,  and  having  received  of  the  Father  the  promise  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  he  hath  shed  forth  this,  which  ye  now  see  and  hear,"|| 
Here  is  another  instance  of  that  uniformity  which  we  have  often 
occasion  to  mark  in  the  evidence  of  Christianity;  the  same  divine 
attestation  of  the  servants  of  Jesus  as  of  himself;  the  same  proof  of 
his  resurrection  from  the  dead,  as  of  the  high  claim  which  he  advanced 
when  he  was  alive.     "  The  works  which   I  do,"  he  said,  "bear  wit- 
ness that  the  Father  hath  sent  me ;  and  the  works  which  I  do,  shall 
ye  my  apostles  do  also,  because  I  go  to  my  Father."     We  are  thus 
led  back  to  the  amount  of  the  argument  from  miracles,  in  oiJer  to 
perceive  the  nature  of  that  confirmation  which  this  testunony  of  the 

•  Hist,  of  Early  Opinions,  iv.  19.  f  John  xv.  26  ;  xvi.  8,  9.  %  Acts  i.  8. 

§  Acts  V.  32.  ]  Acts  ii.  33. 


UESURUECTION    OF    CHRIST.  129 

Spirit  gives  to  the  testimony  of  the  apostles.  If  there  be  an  almighty 
Ruler  of  the  universe,  who  has  estabhshed  what  we  call  the  laws  of 
nature,  and  who  can  suspend  them  at  iiis  pleasure;  and  if  this  al- 
mighty Ruler  be  a  God  of  truth,  who  takes  an  interest  in  the  happi- 
ness of  his  reasonable  offspring,  it  is  impossible  tiiat  the  apostles  of 
Jesus  could  be  invested  with  powers,  the  exertion  of  which  was  fitted 
to  convince  evc.y  candid  observer  of  the  truth  of  an  imposture;  and, 
therefore,  since  signs  and  wonders  far  beyond  the  measure  of  human 
power  are  ascribed  to  the  apostles  in  authentic  histories  published  at 
the  time,  in  epistles  addressed  by  themselves  to  the  witnesses  of  those 
signs,  and  in  the  writings  of  authors  nearly  contemporary  ;  since  no 
attempt  was  made  to  disprove  the  facts  at  the  time  when  the  impos- 
ture inight  have  been  easily  exposed,  and  since  the  signs  were  ex- 
pressly wrought  in  confirmation  of  this  assertion  of  the  apostles,  that 
their  Master  was  risen  from  the  dead,  we  are  constrained  by  the 
strongest  moral  evidence  to  believe  that  that  assertion  was  true. 

It  is  impossible  for  words  to  make  this  argument  plainer.  But 
there  are  some  particulars  which  may  illustrate  the  economy  of  the 
divine  dispensation  in  conferring  these  extraordinary  powers,  and  the 
connection  which  they  have  with  the  other  branches  of  the  evidence 
for  Christianity. 

The  day  upon  which  our  Lord  rose  was  the  day  after  that  Sabbath 
which  was  tlie  passover,  i.  e.  it  was  the  first  day  of  the  week,  the 
Jewish  Sabbath  being  the  seventh  ;  and  it  was  called  in  the  Levitical 
law,  the  wave-offering.  Pentecost  was  the  Titfttixoarri  r;fxi^a,  the  50th 
day  from  the  wave-offering.  It  was  therefore  also  the  first  day  of 
the  week,  and  it  was  a  day  upon  which  all  the  males  of  Judea  were 
supposed  to  be  present  before  the  Lord  in  Jerusalem.  Our  Lord  re- 
mained forty  days  upon  earth  after  his  resurrection,  and  he  probably 
spent  the  greatest  part  of  that  time  in  Galilee.  But  he  was  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Jerusalem  upon  the  fortieth  day,  for  he  ascended 
from  Mount  Olivet.*  The  apostles,  who  probably  would  feel  it  to  be 
their  duty  as  Jews  to  be  present  at  the  approaching  festival,  were 
commanded  by  their  Master  not  to  depart  from  Jerusalem  till  they 
received  the  promise  of  the  Father :  for,  said  he,  "  Ye  shall  be  bap- 
tized with  the  Holy  Ghost  not  many  days  lieuce." 

Accordingly  the  eleven  returned  from  the  mount,  where  they  had 
witnessed  the  ascension,  to  Jerusalem,  and  continued  quietly  with  the 
disciples  in  prayer  and  supplication.  We  have  reason  to  think  that 
they  did  not  appear  in  public  ;  and  we  do  not  read  of  any  other  trans- 
action but  filling  up  the  Apostolical  College,  till  the  day  of  Pentecost, 
the  tenth  day  after  the  ascension,  when,  being  "all  with  one  accord 
in  one  place,  they  were  all  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost."  The  gift 
of  tongues  was  the  first  that  was  exercised,  because  it  was  suited  to 
the  occasion.  Devout  Jews  and  proselytes  were  assembled,  from  re- 
spect to  the  festival,  out  of  all  countries.  To  every  one  in  his  own 
tongue,  the  apostles,  inspired  with  fortitude,  another  gift  of  the  Spirit, 
spoke  the  wonderful  works  of  God.  And  Peter  explained  the  ap- 
pearance which  excited  their  wonder,  to  be  the  attestation  which,  in 
fulfilment  of  their  own  prophecies,  God  was  now  bearing  to  the  re- 

•  Luke  xxiv.  ."JO;  Acts  i.  12. 

U 


130  RESURRECTION    OP    CHRIST. 

surrection  of  the  Messiah,  whom,  after  all  the  works  that  he  had  done 
in  the  midst  of  them,  their  rulers  had  crucified,  but  whom  God  had 
exahed.  You  can  thus  trace,  in  the  lime  of  conferring  these  powers, 
the  wise  adjustment  of  means  to  an  end.  You  see  the  silence  and 
quietness,  which  had  been  maintained  after  the  death  of  Christ, 
abundantly  compensated  by  the  public  manner  in  which  the  gospel 
is  first  preached.  The  apostles  are  directed  to  submit  their  claim  to 
the  examination  of  the  greatest  multitude  that  could  be  assembled  at 
Jerusalem;  and  the  report,  which  this  multitude  would  carry  to  their 
own  countries  of  so  extraordinary  an  appearance,  was  employed  as 
an  instrument  of  preparing  many  different  parts  of  the  world  for  the 
preaching  of  the  apostles,  who  were  soon  to  visit  them.  The  powers 
themselves  are  delineated  in  the  Acts  and  in  the  Epistles.  You  read 
of  the  word  of  wisdom,  i.  e.  a  clear  comprehensive  view  of  the  Chris- 
tian scheme — the  word  of  knowledge,  probably  the  faculty  of  tracing 
the  connection  between  the  Jewish  and  Christian  dispensation — 
prophecy,  either  the  applying  of  the  prophecies  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, or  the  foretelling  future  events — healing  — the  gift  of  tongues 
— the  gift  of  interpreting  tongues — and  the  gift  of  discerning  spirits, 
that  is,  perceiving  the  true  character  of  men  under  the  disguise 
which  they  assumed,  so  as  to  be  able  to  detect  impostors.*  There 
is  a  variety  in  these  gifts  corresponding  to  all  the  possible  occa- 
sions of  the  teachers  of  this  new  religion.  Some  of  them,  being 
external  and  visible,  were  the  signs  and  pledges  of  those  whicii, 
although  invisible,  were  not  less  necessary.  Some  of  them  were  dis- 
seminated through  the  Christian  church,  and  the  gifts  of  healing  and 
of  tongues  were  often  conferred  by  the  hands  of  the  apostles  upon 
believers.  This  abundance  of  miraculous  gifts  was  proper  at  that 
time,  to  demonstrate  to  the  world  the  fulness  of  those  treasures  which 
were  dispensed  by  the  Lord  Jesus,  the  dignity  with  which  lie  had  in- 
vested his  apostles,  and  the  obligation  which  lay  upon  all  Christians 
to  receive  his  word  at  their  mouth.  It  was  proper  to  rouse  the  atten- 
tion of  the  world  to  a  new  religion,  to  overcome  those  considerations 
of  prudence  which  made  them  unwilling  to  forsake  the  religion  of 
their  fathers,  and  to  inspire  them  with  steadfastness  in  the  faith.  It 
was  proper  also  to  remove  the  prejudices  which  the  Jews  entertained 
against  the  heathen,  and  to  satisfy  those  who  boasted  of  the  privi- 
leges of  the  law,  that  God  had  received  the  Gentiles.  Cornelius  and  his 
kinsmen  and  his  friends  were  the  first  uncircumcised  persons  to  whom 
the  gospel  was  preached.  They  of  the  circumcision  who  believed 
were  astonished  when  they  saw  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  poured 
out  upon  them,  and  heard  them  speak  with  tongues.  Peter  considered 
this  as  his  warrant  to  baptize  them  :  and  when  he  reported  it  after- 
wards to  the  apostles  and  brethren  at  Jerusalem,  they  no  longer 
blamed  what  he  had  done,  but  "held  their  peace,  and  glorified  God, 
saying,  Then  hath  God  also  to  the  Gentiles  granted  repentance  unto 
life."' 

This  abundance  of  miraculous  gifts,  which  so  many  ''easons 
rendered  proper  at  the  first  appearance  of  Christianity,  was  gradually 
withdrawn  as  the  occasions  ceased.     We  have  no  reason  to  think 

»   1   Cor.  xii.  8—10. 


RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST.  131 

that  any  but  the  apostles  had  the  power  of  conferring  such  gifts  upon 
others.  We  are  not  indeed  warranted  to  say  that  miraculous  gifts 
were  never  visible  in  any  who  had  not  received  them  from  the  hands 
of  the  apostles.  But  we  know  that  in  the  succeeding  generations 
they  became  more  rare.  And  when  we  were  speaking  of  this  sub- 
ject formerly,  we  found  writers  in  the  third,  and  beginning  of  the 
fourth  century,  acknowledging  that  only  some  vestiges  of  such  gifts 
remained  in  their  days. 

If  you  lay  together  the  several  particulars  which  have  been  men- 
tioned respecting  the  economy  of  these  miraculous  gifts,  it  will  appear 
that  as,  from  their  nature,  they  were  the  unquenchable  witnesses  of  the 
Spirit,  confirming  the  testimony  which  the  apostles  bore  to  the  resur- 
rection of  their  Master ;  so,  in  the  manner  of  their  being  conferred, 
every  wise  observer  may  trace  the  finger  of  God.  There  is  none  of 
that  waste  which  betrays  ostentation,  none  of  that  scantiness  or  delay 
which  implies  a  defect  of  power,  no  circumstance  unworthy  of  the 
divine  author  of  them ;  but  the  wisdom  and  power  of  God  are  united 
in  the  cause  of  the  Gospel,  and  the  same  fitness  and  dignity,  which 
distinguished  the  miracles  of  Jesus,  are  transferred  to  the  works  which 
his  Spirit  enabled  his  apostles  to  perform. 


132  PROPAGATION    OF    CHRISTIANlTr. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


PROPAGATION    OF    CHRISTIANITT. 


In  our  Lord's  prophecy  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  we  meet 
with  these  words  :  "  This  Gospel  of  the  kingdom  shall  first  be  preached 
to  all  the  world  for  a  witness  to  all  nations,  and  then  shall  the  end 
come."  These  words  mark  the  space  intervening  between  the  pre- 
diction and  the  termination  of  the  Jewish  state,  that  is,  a  space  of  less 
than  forty  years,  as  the  period  within  which  the  Gospel  was  to  be  ' 
preached  to  all  nations.  When  we  attended  to  the  fnlfihnent  of  this 
prophecy,  we  found  that  the  account  given  in  the  book  of  Acts,  of  the 
multitude  of  early  converts,  of  the  dispersion  of  the  Christians,  and 
of  the  success  of  Paul's  labours,  is  confirmed  by  the  most  unexcep- 
tionable testimony.  We  learn  from  Tacitus,  that  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  63,  thirty  years  after  his  death,  there  was  an  immense  multitude 
of  Christians  in  Rome.  From  the  capital  of  the  world,  the  communi- 
cation was  easy  through  all  the  parts  of  the  Roman  empire ;  and  no 
country  then  discovered  was  too  distant  to  hear  the  gospel.  Accord- 
ingly it  is  generally  agreed,  that  before  the  destruction  of  Jernsalem, 
Scythia  on  the  north,  India  on  the  east,  Gaul  and  Egypt  on  the  west, 
and  Ethiopia  on  the  south,  had  received  the  doctrine  of  Christ.  And 
Britain,  wliich  was  then  regarded  as  the  extremity  of  the  earth,  being 
frequently  visited  during  that  period  by  Roman  emperors  or  their 
generals,  there  is  no  improbability  in  what  is  affirmed  by  Christian 
historians,  that  the  gospel  was  preached  in  the  capital  of  this  island 
thirty  years  after  the  death  of  our  Saviour.  The  last  fact  which 
Scripture  contains  respecting  the  propagation  of  Christianity,  is  found 
in  the  book  of  Revelation.  It  appears  from  the  epistles  wliich  John 
was  commanded  to  Vv'-rite  to  the  ministers  of  the  churches  of  Ephesus, 
Smyrna,  Pergamos,  Thyatira,  Sardis,  Philadelphia,  and  Laodicea, 
that  there  were,  during  the  life  of  that  apostle,  seven  regular  Chris- 
tian churches  in  Asia  Minor.  We  may  consider  the  facts  hitherto 
mentioned  as  the  fulfilment  of  that  prophecy  which  I  quoted.  As  to 
the  progress  of  our  religion,  subsequent  to  the  period  marked  in  the 
prophecy,  we  derive  no  light  from  the  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, because  there  is  none  of  them  which  we  certainly  know  to  be 
of  a  later  date  than  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem.  But  there  are 
other  authentic  monuments  from  which  I  shall  state  you  the  fact ;  and 
then  I  shall  lead  you  to  consider  the  force  of  the  argument  for  the 
truth  of  Christianity,  which  has  been  2:rounded  upon  that  fact. 

The  younger  Pliny,  proconsul  of  Bifhynia,  writes  in  the  end  of  the 
first  century  to  the  emperor  Trajan,  asking  directions  as  to  his  conduct 


PROPAGATION    OF    CHRISTIANITy.  133 

with  regard  to  the  Christians.  The  letter  of  Pliny,  the  97th  of  the 
10th  book,  ought  to  be  familar  to  every  student  in  divinity.  He  repre- 
sents that  many  of  every  age  and  rank  were  called  to  account  for 
bearing  the  Christian  name ;  that  the  contagion  of  that  superstition 
had  spread  not  only  through  the  cities,  but  through  the  villages  and. 
fields ;  that  tlie  temples  had  been  deserted,  and  the  usual  sacrifices 
neglected.  There  are  extant  two  apologies  for  Christianity,  written 
by  Justin  Martyr,  about  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  and  one 
by  TertuUian  before  the  end  of  it.  These  apologies,  which  were 
public  papers  addressed  to  the  emperor  and  the  Roman  magistrates, 
mention  with  triumph  the  multitude  of  Christians.  And  there  is  a 
work  of  Justin  Martyr,  entitled  a  dialogue  with  Trypho  the  Jew,  pub- 
lished about  the  year  146,  in  which  he  thus  speaks.  "There  is  no 
nation,  whether  of  Barbarians  or  Greeks,  whether  they  live  in  wag- 
gons or  tents,  amongst  whom  prayers  are  not  made  to  the  Father  and 
Creator  of  all,  through  the  name  of  the  crucified  Jesus."  Both  Chris- 
tian and  heathen  writers  attest  the  general  diffusion  of  Christianity 
through  the  empire  during  the  third  century ;  and  in  the  beginning 
of  the  fourth,  Constantine,  the  emperor  of  Rome,  declared  himself  a 
Christian,  If  we  consider  the  emperor  as  acting  from  conviction, 
Christianity  has  reason  to  boast  of  the  illustrious  convert.  If  we 
consider  him  as  acting  from  policy,  his  finding  it  necessary  to 
pay  such  a  compliment  to  the  inclinations  of  the  Christians  is 
the  strongest  testimony  of  their  numbers.  After  Christianity  became, 
by  the  declaration  of  Constantine,  the  established  religion  of  the  em- 
pire, it  was  diffused,  under  that  character,  through  all  the  provinces. 
It  was  embraced  by  the  barbarous  nations  who  invaded  different 
parts  of  the  empire,  and  it  received  the  sanction  of  their  authority  in 
the  independent  kingdoms  which  they  founded.  From  them  it  has 
been  handed  down  to  the  nations  of  modern  Europe.  It  is  at  present 
professed  throughout  the  most  civilized  and  enlightened  part  of  the 
world ;  and  it  has  been  carried  in  the  progress  of  modern  discoveries 
and  conquests  to  remote  quarters  of  the  globe,  where  the  arms  of 
Rome  never  penetrated. 

Upon  these  facts  there  has  been  grounded  an  argument  for  the  truth 
of  our  religion.  Gamaliel  said  in  the  sanhedrim,  when  the  gospel 
was  first  preached,  "  If  this  counsel  or  this  work  be  of  men,  it  will 
come  to  nought.  But  if  it  be  of  God,  ye  cannot  overthrow  it."* 
The  counsel  has  not  been  overthrown,  therefore  it  is  of  God.  The 
argument  is  specious  and  striking,  and,  with  proper  qualifications,  it 
is  sound.  But  much  caution  is  required  in  stating  it.  And  as  I  have 
given  you  the  facts  without  exaggeration,  so  it  is  my  duty  to  suggest 
the  difficulty  to  which  the  argument  is  exposed,  and  to  warn  you  of 
the  danger  of  hurting  the  cause  which  you  mean  to  serve,  by  arguing 
loosely  from  the  success  of  the  gospel. 

»  AcU  V.  36,  39. 
14 


134  PROPAGATION    OP    CHRISTIANITY. 


Section  I. 


We  are  not  warranted  to  consider  the  success  of  any  system  which 
calls  itself  a  religion,  as  an  infallible  proof  that  it  is  divine.  The 
prejudices,  the  ignorance,  the  vices,  and  follies  of  men,  a  particular 
conjuncture  of  circumstances,  and  the  skilful  application  of  human 
means,  may  procure  a  favourable  reception  for  an  imposture,  and 
may  give  the  belief  of  its  divinity  so  firm  possession  of  the  minds  of 
men,  as  to  render  its  reputation  permanent.  We  justly  infer  from 
the  moral  attributes  of  God  that  he  will  not  invest  a  false  prophet 
with  extraordinary  powers.  But  we  are  not  warranted  to  infer  that 
he  will  interpose  in  a  miraculous  manner  to  remove  the  delusion  of 
those  who  submit  their  understandings  to  be  misled  by  the  arts  of 
cunning  men.  He  has  given  us  reason,  by  the  right  use  of  which 
we  may  distinguish  truth  from  falsehood.  He  leaves  us  to  suffer  the 
natural  consequences  of  neglecting  to  exercise  our  reason ;  and  it  is 
presumptuous  to  say  that  there  can  be  no  fraud  in  a  scheme,  because 
the  Almighty,  for  the  wise  purposes  of  his  government,  or  in  just 
judgment  upon  those  who  had  not  the  love  of  the  truth,  permitted 
that  scheme  to  be  successful. 

As  the  reason  of  the  thing  suggests  that  success  is  not  an  unequivocal 
proof  of  the  divine  original  of  any  system,  so  the  providence  of  God 
has  afforded  Christians  a  striking  lesson  how  careful  they  ought  to  be 
in  qualifying  the  argument  deduced  from  the  propagation  of  Chris- 
tianity. For,  in  the  seventh  century  of  the  Christian  era,  there  arose 
an  individual  in  Arabia,  who,  although  he  be  regarded  by  every 
rational  inquirer  as  an  impostor,  was  able  to  introduce  a  religious  sys- 
tem, which  in  less  than  a  century  spread  through  Egypt,  Palestine, 
Syria,  and  Persia,  which  has  subsisted  in  vigour  for  more  than  eleven 
hundred  years,  and  is  at  this  day  the  established  religion  of  a  portion 
of  the  world  much  larger  than  Christendom.  The  followers  of  Ma- 
homet triumph  in  the  extended  dominion  of  the  author  of  their  faith. 
But  a  Christian,  who  understands  the  method  of  defending  his  reli- 
gion, has  no  reason  to  be  shaken  by  the  empty  boast.  For  thus  stands 
the  argument.  When  we  are  able  to  point  out  the  human  causes 
which  have  produced  any  event,  the  existence  of  that  event  is  no  de- 
cisive proof  of  a  divine  interposition.  But  when  all  the  means  that 
were  employed  appear  inadequate  to  the  end,  we  are  obliged  to  have 
recourse  to  the  finger  of  God ;  and  the  inference,  which  arises  from 
our  being  unable  to  give  any  other  account  of  the  end,  will  be  drawn 
without  hesitation,  if  there  be  positive  evidence  that,  in  the  accom- 
plishment of  the  end,  there  was  an  exertion  of  divine  power. 

When  you  apply  this  universal  rule  in  trying  the  argument  which 
appears  at  first  sight  to  be  equally  implied  in  the  success  of  the  two 
religions,  you  find  the  history  of  the  one  so  clearly  discriminated  from 
the  history  of  the  other,  that  the  inference,  which  a  proper  examina- 
tion of  circumstances  enables  a  Christian  to  draw  from  the  success  of 
the  gospel,  does  in  no  degree  belong  to  the  disciples  of  Mahomet. 
The  best  guide  whom  you  can  follow  in  making  this  discrimination 
is  Mr.  White,  who,  availing  himself  of  that  acquaintance  with  east- 
ern Uterature  to  which  his  inclination  and  his  profession  had  conspired 


PROPAGATION    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  135 

to  direct  him,  lias  published  a  vohime  of  Sermons,  entitled,  A  Com- 
parative View  of  Christianity  and  Mahometanism,  in  their  history, 
their  evidence,  and  their  effects.  There  is  in  these  sermons  much 
valuable  and  uncommon  information  combined  with  great  judgment, 
and  expressed  in  a  nervous  and  elevated  style.  They  meet  many  of 
the  objections  of  modern  times,  and  form  one  of  the  most  complete 
and  masterly  defences  of  the  truth  of  Christianity.  You  will  learn 
from  him,  better  than  from  any  other  writer,  the  favourable  circum- 
stances to  which  Mahomet  owed  his  success.  And  the  short  picture, 
which  I  am  now  to  give  you  of  these  circumstances,  is  little  more 
than  an  abridgment  of  some  of  Mr.  White's  sermons. 

Born  in  an  ignorant  uncivilized  country,  and  amidst  independent 
tribes  of  idolatrous  Arabs,  when  the  Roman  empire  was  attacked  on 
every  side  by  barbarians,  when  the  Christian  world  was  torn  with 
dissension  about  inexplicable  points  of  controversy,  when  the  simpli- 
city of  the  gospel  was  corrupted,  and  when  Christian  charity  was 
forgotten  in  the  bitterness  of  mutual  persecution,  Mahomet,  who  pos- 
sessed strong  natural  talents,  saw  the  possibility  of  rising  to  eminence 
as  the  great  reformer  of  religion.  Having  waited  till  his  own  mind 
was  matured  by  meditation,  and  till  he  had  established  in  the  minds 
of  his  neighbours  an  opinion  of  his  sanctity,  he  began  at  the  age  of 
forty  to  deliver  chapters  of  the  Koran.  During  the  long  space  of 
twenty-three  years,  he  had  an  opportunity  of  trying  the  sentiments 
of  his  countrymen.  By  successive  communications  he  corrected  what 
had  proved  disagreeable,  and  he  accommodated  his  system  so  as  to 
give  the  least  possible  ofience  to  Jews,  or  Christians,  or  idolaters.  He 
admitted  the  divine  mission  of  Moses  and  of  Jesus.  He  inculcated 
the  unity  of  God,  which  is  a  fundamental  article  of  the  Jewish  and 
Christian  religions,  and  which  was  not  denied  by  many  of  the  sur- 
rounding idolaters.  From  the  Old  and  New  Testament  he  borrowed 
many  sublime  descriptions  of  the  Deity,  and  much  excellent  morality  ; 
and  "all  this  he  mixed  with  the  childish  traditions  and  fables  of  Ara- 
bia, with  a  toleration  of  many  idolatrous  rites,  and  with  an  indul- 
gence to  the  vices  of  the  climate.  And  thus  the  Koran  is  not  a  new 
system  discovering  the  invention  of  its  author,  but  an  artful  motley 
mixture,  made  up  of  the  shreds  of  different  opinions,  without  order 
or  consistency,  full  of  repethions  and  absurdities,  yet  presentmg  to 
every  one  something  agreeable  to  his  prejudices,  expressed  in  the 
captivating  language  of  the  country,  and  often  adorned  with  the 
graces  of  poetry.  To  his  illiterate  countrymen  such  a  work  appeared 
marvellous.  The  artifice  and  elegance  with  which  its  discordant  ma- 
terials were  combined  so  far  surpassed  their  inexperience  and  rude- 
ness, that  they  gave  credit  to  the  declaration  of  Mahomet,  who  said 
it  was  delivered  to  him  by  the  angel  Gabriel.  The  Koran  became 
the  standard  of  taste  and  composition  to  the  Arabians ;  and  the  blind 
admiration  of  those  who  knew  no  rival  to  its  excellence  was  easily 
transformed  into  a  belief  of  its  divinity. 

In  the  beginning  of  his  scheme,  Mahomet  met  with  much  opposi- 
tion, and  he  was  obliged  at  one  time  to  fly  from  Mecca  to  Medina. 
His  reputation  had  prepared  for  him  a  favourable  reception  in  that 
city.  His  address,  his  superior  knowledge,  and  the  influence  of  his 
connections,  soon  gathered  round  him  a  small  party,  with  which  he 


136  PROPAGATION    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

began  to  make  those  predatory  excursions,  which  have,  in  every  age, 
been  most  agreeable  to  the  character  of  the  Arabs.  Mahomet  pre- 
tended, that  as  all  gentle  methods  of  reforming  mankind  had  proved 
ineffectual,  the  Almighty  had  armed  him  with  the  power  of  the  sword; 
and  he  went  forth  to  compel  men  to  receive  the  great  prophet  of  hea- 
ven. His  talents  as  a  leader,  the  success  of  his  first  expeditions,  and 
the  hope  of  booty,  increased  the  number  of  his  followers.  It  was  not 
long  before  he  united  into  one  body  the  tribes  of  Arabs  who  flocked 
around  his  standard :  and  at  the  time  of  his  death  he  was  meditating 
distant  conquests.  The  magnificent  project  which  he  had  conceived 
and  begun  was  executed  with  ability  and  success  by  the  caliphs,  to 
whom  he  transmitted  his  temporal  and  his  spiritual  power.  They  led 
the  Arabs  to  invade  the  neighbouring  provinces,  and  by  their  victo- 
rious arms  they  founded,  upon  the  religion  of  the  Koran,  an  empire, 
which  the  joint  influence  of  ambition  and  enthusiasm  continued  for 
ages  to  extend. 

Mahomet,  then,  is  not  to  be  classed  with  the  teachers  of  piety  and 
virtue,  whose  success  may  be  considered  as  an  example  of  the  power 
of  truth  over  the  mind.  He  ranks  with  those  conquerors  whom  the 
spirit  of  enterprise  and  a  concurrence  of  circumstances  have  conducted 
from  a  humble  station  to  renown  and  to  empire.  He  is  distinguished 
from  them  chiefly  by  calling  in  religion  to  his  aid;  and  his  sagacity 
in  employing  so  useful  an  auxiliary  is  made  manifest  by  the  progress 
and  the  permanence  of  his  scheme.  But  the  means  were  all  human; 
the  only  assistance  which  Mahomet  pretended  to  receive  from  heaven 
consisted  of  the  revelation  which  dictated  to  him  the  Koran,  and  the 
strength  which  crowned  him  with  victory.  How  far  a  revelation  was 
necessary  for  the  composition  of  the  Koran  may  be  left  to  the  decision 
of  any  person  of  taste  and  judgment  who  remembers,  when  he  reads 
it,  that  Mahomet  was  in  possession  of  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testament.  How  far  the  strength  of  heaven  was  necessary  to 
give  victory  to  Mahomet  may  be  left  to  the  judgment  of  any  one  who 
compares  the  spirit  of  the  Arabs,  influenced  and  directed  by  the 
character  and  the  views  of  their  leader,  with  the  wretched  condition 
of  those  whom  they  conquered.  Yet  these  were  the  only  pretences 
to  a  divine  mission  which  Mahomet  made.  He  declared  that  he  had 
no  commission  to  work  miracles ;  and  he  appealed  to  no  other  pro- 
phecies than  those  which  are  contained  in  our  Scriptures. 

And  thus,  as  the  introduction  of  his  scheme  did  not  imply  the  exer- 
cise of  supernatural  powers,  as  no  positive  unequivocal  evidence  of 
his  possessing  such  powers  was  ever  adduced,  so  his  success  may  be 
fully  accounted  for  by  human  means.  The  more  that  an  intelligent 
reader  is  conversant  with  the  Koran,  he  discerns  the  more  clearly  the 
internal  marks  of  imposture  ;  and  the  more  that  he  is  conversant  with 
the  manners  of  the  times  in  which  Mahomet  lived,  and  with  the  his- 
tory of  the  progress  of  his  empire,  he  is  the  less  surprised  at  the  pro- 
pagation and  the  continuance  of  that  imposture. 

When  you  turn  from  this  picture  to  view  the  history  of  the  progress 
of  Christianity,  the  striking  contrast  will  appear  to  you  to  warrant  the 
conclusion  which  the  followers  of  Jesus  are  accustomed  to  draw  from 
the  success  of  his  religion. 

In  a  province  of  the  Roman  empire,  after  it  had  reached  the  sum- 


PROPAGATION    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  137 

mit  of  its  glory,  and  in  the  Augustan  age,  the  most  enlightened  period 
of  Roman  iiistory,  there  appeared  a  Teacher  delivering  openly,  in  the 
temple  and  the  synagogue,  tlie  purest  morality,  the  most  spiritual 
institutions  of  worship,  and  the  most  exalted  theology,  not  in  a  sys- 
tematical form,  but  in  occasional  discourses,  and  in  the  simplest  lan- 
guage. He  committed  his  instructions,  not  to  writing,  but  to  a  few 
ilhterate  men  who  had  been  his  companions;  and  the  number  of  his 
disciples  after  he  was  crucified  by  the  voice  of  his  countrymen,  did  not 
exceed  one  hundred  and  twenty.  His  apostles,  in  teachhig  what  they 
received  from  their  Master,  had  to  encounter  an  opposition  which,  in  all 
human  rules  of  judging,  was  sufficient  to  create  an  insurmountable  ob- 
stacle to  the  progress  of  their  doctrine.  They  had  to  combat  the  vices 
of  an  age  which,  according  to  all  the  pictures  that  have  been  drawn  of  it, 
appears  to  have  exceeded  the  usual  measure  of  corruption.  Yet  they 
did  not  accommodate  their  precepts  to  the  manners  of  the  world,  but 
denounced  the  wrath  of  God  against  all  unrighteousness  of  men, 
against  practices  which  were  nearly  universal,  and  the  indulgence  of 
passions  which  were  esteemed  innocent  or  laudable.  They  had  to  com- 
bat what  is  generally  more  obstinate  than  vice,  the  religious  spirit  of  the 
times ;  for  they  commanded  men  "  to  turn  from  idols  to  serve  the 
living  God."  That  reverence  for  public  institutions  which  even  an 
unbeliever  may  feel,  that  attachment  to  received  opinions,  that  fond- 
ness for  ancient  practices,  and  those  prejudices  of  education  which 
always  animate  narrow  minds,  united  with  the  influence  of  the 
priests,  and  of  all  the  artists  who  lived  by  administering  to  the  mag- 
nificence of  the  temples,  against  the  teachers  of  this  new  doctrine. 
The  zeal  of  the  worshippers,  revived  by  the  return  of  those  festivals 
at  which  the  Christians  refused  to  partake,  often  broke  forth  with 
fury.  The  Christians  were  considered  as  atheists  ;  and  it  was  thought 
that  the  wrath  of  the  gods  could  not  be  better  appeased  than  by  pour- 
ing every  indignity  and  abuse  upon  men  who  presumed  to  despise 
their  worship.  The  wise  men  in  that  enlightened  age,  who  rose  above 
the  superstition  of  their  countrymen,  although  they  joined  with  the 
Christians  in  thinking  contemptuously  of  the  gods,  were  not  disposed 
to  give  any  countenance  to  the  teachers  of  this  new  system.  They 
despised  the  simplicity  of  its  form,  so  diflerent  from  the  subtleties  of 
the  schools.  When  at  any  time  they  condescended  to  listen  to  its 
doctrines,  they  found  some  of  them  inconsistent  with  tlieir  received 
opinions,  and  mortifying  to  the  pride  of  reason.  They  confounded 
with  the  popular  superstitions  a  doctrine  which  professed  to  enlighten 
the  great  body  of  the  people,  and  they  condemned  the  prohibition  of 
idolatry ;  for  it  \v^as  their  principle,  that  philosophers  might  dispute 
and  doubt  concerning  religion  as  they  pleased,  but  that  it  was  their 
duty,  as  good  citizens,  to  conform  to  the  established  modes  of  wor- 
ship. Upon  these  grounds,  Christianity  was  so  far  from  being 
favourably  received  by  the  heathen  philosophers,  that  it  was  early 
opposed  and  ridiculed  by  them ;  and  they  continued  to  write 
against  it  after  the  empire  had  become  Christian. 

The  unbelieving  Jews  were  the  bitterest  enemies  of  the  Christian 
faith.     They  beheld  with  peculiar  indignation  the  progress  of  a  doc- 
trine, which  not  only  invaded  the  prerogative  of  the  law  of  Moses, 
by  claiming  to  be  a  divine  revelation,  but  even  professed  to  supersede 
14*  X 


138  ,  PROPAGATION    OF    CHKISTIANITY. 

that  law,  to  abolish  the  distinctions  which  it  had  established,  and  to 
enlighten  those  whom  it  left  in  darkness.  National  pride,  and  the 
bigotry  of  the  Jewish  spirit,  were  alarmed.  The  rulers,  who  had 
crucified  the  Lord  Jesus,  continued  to  employ  all  the  power  left  them 
by  the  Romans  in  persecuting  his  servants ;  and  the  sufferings  of  the 
first  Christians  arose  from  the  envy,  the  jealousy,  and  a  fear  of  a  state, 
which  the  prophecies  of  their  Master  had  devoted  to  destruction. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  Christians  felt  the  indignation  of  the 
Roman  emperors  and  magistrates.  The  Roman  law  guarded  the  es- 
tablished religion  against  the  introduction  of  any  new  modes  of  wor- 
ship which  had  not  received  the  sanction  of  public  authority :  and  it 
was  a  principle  of  Roman  policy  to  repress  private  meetings,  as  the 
nurseries  of  sedition.  "  Ab  nullo  genere,"  says  M.  Porcius  Cato,  in 
a  speech  preserved  by  Livy,  "  non  asque  summum  periculum  est,  si 
coBtus,  et  concilia,  et  secretas  consultationes  esse  sinas."*  Upon  this 
principle,  the  Christians,  who  separated  themselves  from  the  estab- 
lished worship,  and  held  secret  assemblies  for  the  observance  of  their 
own  rites,  were  considered  as  rebellious  subjects ;  and  when  they 
multiplied  in  the  empire,  it  was  judged  necessary  to  restrain  them. 
Pliny,  in  the  letter  to  which  I  referred,  says  to  Trajan,  "  Secundum 
tua  mandata  ttM^i^ai  esse  vetuerara ;"  and  Trajan,  in  his  answer,  re- 
quires that  every  person  who  was  accused  of  being  a  Christian  should 
vindicate  himself  from  the  charge,  by  offering  sacrifice  to  the  gods. 
"  Conquirendi  non  sunt;  si  deferentur  et  arguentur  puniendi  sunt ; 
ita  tamen  ut  qui  negaverit  se  Christianura  esse,  idque  re  ipsa  mani- 
festum  fecerit,  id  est,  supplicando  deis  nostris,  quamvis  suspectus  in 
prasteritum  fuerit,  veniam  ex  poinitentia  impetret." 

It  was  not  always  from  the  profligacy  or  cruelty  of  the  emperors 
that  the  sufferings  of  the  Christians  flowed.  Some  of  the  best  princes 
who  ever  filled  the  Roman  throne,  men  who  were  an  ornament  to 
human  nature,  and  whose  administration  was  a  blessing  to  their  sub- 
jects, felt  themselves  bound,  by  respect  for  the  established  religion, 
and  care  of  the  public  peace,  to  execute  the  laws  against  this  new 
society,  the  principles  of  whose  union  appeared  formidable,  because 
they  were  not  understood.  Accordingly,  ecclesiastical  historians  have 
numbered  ten  persecutions  before  the  conversion  of  Constantino  ;  and 
an  innumerable  company  of  martyrs  are  said  to  have  sealed  their  tes- 
timony with  their  blood,  and  to  have  exhibited  amidst  the  most  cruel 
sufferings  a  fortitude,  resignation,  and  forgiveness,  which  not  only  de- 
monstrated their  firm  conviction  of  the  truths  which  they  attested, 
but  conveyed  to  every  impartial  spectator  an  impression  that  these 
men  were  assisted  by  a  divine  power,  which  raised  them  above  the 
weakness  of  humanity.  Voltaire,  Gibbon,  and  other  enemies  of 
Christianity,  aware  of  the  force  of  that  argument  which  arises  from 
the  multitude  of  the  Christian  martyrs,  and  from  the  spirit  with  which 
they  endured  the  severity  of  their  sufferings,  have  insinuated  that 
there  is  much  exaggeration  in  the  accounts  of  this  matter ;  that  the 
generous  spirit  of  Roman  policy  rendered  it  impossible  that  there 
should  be  an  imperial  edict  enjoining  a  general  persecution  ;  that 
although  the  people  might  be  incensed  against  the  obstinacy  and  sul- 

*  Liv.  xxxiv.  2. 


PROPAGATION    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  139 

lenness  of  the  Christians,  the  magistrates,  in  their  different  provinces, 
were  their  protectors ;  that  there  was  no  wanton  barbarity  in  the 
manner  of  their  sufferings;  and  that  none  lost  their  Hves,  but  such 
as,  by  provoking  a  death  in  which  they  gloried,  put  it  out  of  the  power 
of  the  magistrates  to  save  them. 

It  is  natural  for  a  friend  to  humanity,  and  an  admirer  of  Roman 
manners,  to  wish  that  this  apology  were  true ;  and  it  is  not  ur)likely 
that  the  vanity  of  Christian  historians,  indignation  against  their  perse- 
cutors, and  the  habits  of  rhetorical  declamation,  have  swelled,  in  their 
descriptions,  the  numbers  of  the  martyrs.  It  is  most  likely  that  the 
mob  were  more  furious  than  the  magistrates;  that  those  who  were 
entrusted  with  the  execution  of  the  Roman  laws  would  observe  the 
spirit  of  them  in  the  mode  of  trying  persons  accused  of  Christianity ; 
and  that  the  governors  of  provinces  might,  upon  several  occasions, 
restrain  the  eagerness  with  which  the  Christians  were  sought  after, 
and  the  brutality  and  iniquity  with  which  they  were  treated.  But, 
after  all  these  allowances,  any  person  who  studies  the  history  of  the 
Christian  church  will  perceive  that  there  is  much  false  colouring  in 
the  apology  which  has  been  made  for  the  Roman  magistrates ;  and 
we  can  produce  incontestible  evidence,  the  concurring  testimony  of 
Christian  and  heathen  writers,  that,  upon  the  principles  which  have 
been  explained,  Christianity  was  publicly  discouraged  in  all  parts  of 
the  Roman  empire  ;  and  that,  although  favourable  circumstances  pro- 
cured some  intervals  of  respite,  there  were  many  seasons  when  this 
religion  was  persecuted  by  order  of  the  emperors — when  the  Chris- 
tians were  liable  to  imprisonment  and  confiscation  of  their  estates — 
and  when  death,  in  some  of  its  most  terrifying  forms,  was  inflicted 
upon  those,  who,  being  brought  before  the  tribunals,  refused  to  ab- 
jure the  name  of  Christ. 

Such  was  the  complicated  opposition  Avhich  the  apostles  of  Jesus 
had  to  encounter.  Yet  the  measure  of  their  success  was  such  as  I 
have  stated.  Without  the  aid  of  power,  or  wealth,  or  popular  pre- 
judices; without  accommodation  to  reigning  vices  and  opinions; 
without  drawing  the  sword,  or  fomenting  sedition,  or  encouraging  the 
admiration  of  their  followers  to  confer  upon  them  any  earthly  honours 
— but  by  humble,  peaceable,  laborious  teaching,  they  dilTused  through 
a  great  part  of  the  Roman  empire  the  knowledge  of  a  new  doctrine ; 
they  turned  many  from  the  idols  which  they  had  v/orshipped,  and 
from  the  enormities  which  they  had  practised,  to  serve  the  living  God  ; 
and  this  spiritual  system  advanced  under  every  discouragement,  till 
the  conversion,  or  the  policy,  of  Constantino  rendered  it  the  estab- 
lished religion  of  the  Roman  empire.  All  speculations  concerning  the 
contagion  of  example,  the  zeal  that  is  kindled  by  persecution,  the 
power  of  vanity,  and  the  love  of  the  marvellous,  are  visionary,  when 
you  apply  them  to  account  for  the  change  which  Christianity  made 
during  the  three  first  centuries.  That  multitudes  in  every  country, 
and  of  every  age  and  rank,  should  forsake  the  religion  in  which  they 
had  been  eclucated,  and  embrace  one  which  was  much  stricter,  and 
which  brought  no  worldly  advantage,  but  exposed  thcin  to  the  heaviest 
afflictions  ;  that  they  should  be  thus  converted  by  the  preaching  of 
mean  men  ;  and  that  their  conversion  should  appear  in  the  reforma- 
tion of  their  lives  as  well  as  in  the  alteration  of  their  worship,  is  a 


140  PROPAGATION    OF    CHRISTIANITT. 

phenomenon  of  which  we  require  some  cause,  whose  influence  does 
not  depend  upon  refined  speculations,  but  is  real  and  permanent : 
and  not  being  able  to  find  any  such  cause  in  the  human  means  that 
were  employed,  we  are  led  by  the  principles  of  our  nature  to  acknow- 
ledge the  interposition  of  the  Almighty. 

But  this  is  the  very  conclusion  to  which  we  were  formerly  con- 
dncted.  It  is  said  in  their  books  tliat  God  bare  witness  to  the  apostles 
by  signs,  and  wonders,  and  divers  miracles  and  gifts  of  the  Holy 
Gho:3t.  And  there  is  as  clear  historical  evidence  as  the  nature  of  the 
case  admits  of,  that  this  assertion  is  true.  The  ciiange,  then,  which 
we  have  been  contemplating,  is  no  longer  unaccountable.  Miracles 
wrougiit  by  the  first  teacliers  of  Christianity  were  sufficient  to  rouse 
the  attention  of  the  world  even  in  the  most  superstitious  age,  and  the 
argument  employed  in  them  was  so  plain  as  to  be  level  to  every  un- 
derstanding, and  so  powerfnl,  that  we  are  not  surprised  at  its  over- 
coming, in  the  breasts  of  those  who  beheld  them,  all  considerations 
of  prudence  and  expediency.  The  eye-witnesses  of  the  miracles, 
yielding  to  the  demonstration  of  the  Spirit,  gave  glory  to  God  by  re- 
ceiving his  servants  ;  and  when  the  signs  done  by  the  hands  of  the 
apostles  were  transmitted  to  succeeding  ages,  attested  by  an  innume- 
rable cloud  of  witnesses,  the  certain  knowledge  that  they  had  been 
wrought  produced  in  the  minds  of  numbers  a  full  conviction  that  the 
religion  of  Jesus  was  introduced  into  the  world  by  the  mighty  power 
of  God. 

Tiius,  then,  stands  the  argument  arising  from  the  propagation  of 
Christianity.  The  human  means  appear  wholly  inadequate  to  the 
eifect.  But  there  is  positive  evidence  of  a  divine  interposition  ;  and 
if  that  be  admitted,  the  eifect  may  easily  be  explained.  The  two 
parts  of  the  argument  illustrate  one  another.  The  miracles,  which 
we  receive  upon  a  strong  concurring  testimony,  enable  us  to  assign 
the  cause  of  the  propagation  of  Christianity;  and  the  knowledge  of 
that  propagation,  which  we  derive  from  history,  reflects  additional 
light  and  credibility  upon  the  miracles.  The  discrimination  ]}etween  the 
success  of  Mahomet  and  the  establishment  of  Christianity  is  so  clear 
and  striking,  that  we  may  with  perfect  fairness  apply  the  reasoning 
of  Gamaliel  to  the  latter,  although  we  do  not  admit  that  it  has  any 
force  when  applied  to  the  former. 

These  are  the  principles  upon  which  you  may  safely  argue  from  the 
success  of  the  gospel  that  it  is  of  divine  origin.  But  although  the 
argument,  when  thus  stated,  approves  itself  to  every  candid  mind  as 
sound  and  conclusive,  there  are  still  several  difficulties  respecting  the 
propagation  of  Christianity. 


Section  II. 

I  mention,  first,  an  objection,  which  a  celebrated  part  of  the  writ- 
ings of  Mr.  Gibbon  has  suggested,  to  the  account  given  in  the  pre- 
ceding Section.  The  fifteenth  chapter  in  his  first  volume  professes  to 
be  a  candid,  but  rational  inquiry  into  the  progress  and  establishment 
of  Christianity.     "  Our  curiosity  is  naturally  prompted  to  inquire  by 


PROPAGATION    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  141 

what  means  the  Christian  faitli  obtained  so  remarkable  a  victory  over 
the  estabUshed  rehgions  of  the  earth.  To  this  inquiry,  an  obvious 
but  satisfactory  answer  may  be  returned  ;  that  it  was  owing  to  the 
convincing  evidence  of  the  doctrine  itself,  and  to  the  ruhng  Provi- 
dence of  its  great  Author.  But  as  truth  and  reason  seldom  find  so 
fovourable  a  reception  in  the  world,  and  as  tlie  wisdom  of  Providence 
frequently  condescends  to  use  the  passions  of  the  human  heart  and 
the  general  circumstances  of  mankind  as  instruments  to  execute  its 
purpose,  we  may  still  be  permitted,  though  with  becoming  submis- 
sion, to  ask,  not  indeed  what  were  the  first,  but  what  were  the  secon- 
dary causes  of  the  rapid  growth  of  the  Christian  church," 

The  soundest  divine  might  have  used  this  language.  We  acknow- 
ledge that  the  Providence  of  God  condescends  to  employ  various 
instruments  to  execute  his  purpose  ;  and  therefore,  while  we  aflirm 
that  the  manifestation  of  the  power  of  God  was  the  great  mean  of 
overcoming  those  prejudices,  which  prevented  the  easy  admission  of 
truth  and  reason  into  the  minds  of  the  first  hearers  of  the  gospel,  we 
admit  that  there  were  also  means  prepared  by  the  providence  of  God 
to  facilitate  the  progress  of  this  religion.  But  it  happens  that  Mr. 
Gibbon  is  doing  the  office  of  an  enemy,  while  be  speaks  the  language 
of  a  friend.  His  object  is  to  show,  that  the  joint  operation  of  the 
five  secondary  causes,  which  he  enumerates,  is  sufficient  to  account 
for  the  propagation  of  Christianity;  and  the  influence  which  the 
whole  chapter  tends  to  convey  to  the  mind  of  the  reader,  although  it 
be  nowhere  expressed,  is  this,  that  there  is  not  any  occasion  for  hav- 
ing recourse,  in  this  matter,  to  the  ruling  providence  of  God,  The 
five  secondary  causes  enumerated  by  Mr,  Gibbon  are  these,  1.  "The 
inflexible  and  intolerant  zeal  of  the  Christians,  derived,  it  is  true,  from 
the  Jewish  religion,  but  purified  from  the  narrow  and  unsocial  spirit 
which,  instead  of  inviting,  had  deterred  the  Gentiles  from  embracing 
the  law  of  Moses."  2,  "  The  doctrine  of  a  future  life,  improved  by 
every  additional  circumstance  which  could  give  weight  and  efficacy 
to  that  important  truth."  3.  "  The  miraculous  powers  of  the  primi- 
tive church,"  4,  "  The  virtues  of  the  primitive  Christians."  5. 
"  The  iniion  and  discipHne  of  the  Christian  republic,  which  gradually 
formed  an  independent  and  increasing  state  in  the  heart  of  the  Ro- 
man empire." 

Mr.  Gibbon's  illustration  of  these  five  causes  is  not  a  logical  dis- 
cussion of  their  influence  upon  the  propagation  of  Christianity,  such 
as  might  have  been  expected  from  his  manly  understanding.  But  it 
is  filled  with  digressions,  which,  although  they  often  detract  from  the 
influence  of  the  causes,  serve  a  purpose  more  interesting  to  the  author 
tlian  the  ilhistration  of  that  influence,  by  presenting  a  degrading  view 
of  the  religion  which  these  causes  are  said  to  promote.  It  is  filled 
with  indirect  sarcastic  insinuations,  with  partial  representations  of 
facts  and  arguments,  and  with  very  strained  uses  of  quotations  and 
authorities.  I  consider  the  fifteentli  chapter  of  Mr.  Gibbon's  history 
as  the  most  uncandid  attack  which  has  been  made  upon  Christianity 
in  modern  times.  The  emuient  abilities,  the  brilliant  style,  and  the 
high  reputation  of  the  author,  render  it  particularly  dangerous  to 
those  whose  information  is  not  extensive  :  and  therefore  I  recommend 
to  you,  not  to  abstain  from  reading  it.  Such  a  reconmiendation  would 


142  PROPAGATION    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

imply  some  distrust  of  the  cause  which  Mr.  Gibbon  has  attacked, 
and  a  compliance  with  it  would  be  very  unbecoming  an  inquirer  after 
truth.  But  I  recommend  to  you  to  read  along  with  this  chapter  some 
of  the  answers  that  have  been  made  to  it.  I  know  no  book  that  has 
been  so  completely  answered.  The  author,  indeed,  continues  to  disco- 
ver the  same  virulence  against  Christianity  in  the  subsequent  volumes 
of  his  work,  upon  subjects  of  less  importance  than  the  causes  of  its 
propagation,  and  where  the  indecent  controversies  amongst  Christians 
give  him  the  appearance  of  a  triumph  in  the  eyes  of  those  who  con- 
found true  religion  with  the  corruptions  of  it.  But  any  person  who 
has  examined  the  fifteenth  chapter  with  due  care,  and  with  a  suffi- 
cient measure  of  information,  must,  I  think,  entertain  such  an  opinion 
of  the  inveteracy  of  Mr.  Gibbon's  prejudices  against  Christianity,  and 
of  the  arts  which  those  prejudices  have  made  him  stoop  to  employ, 
as  may  fortify  his  mind  against  any  inclination  to  commit  himself  to 
a  guide  so  unsafe  in  every  thing  which  concerns  religion. 

When  you  attend  to  the  nature  of  the  five  secondary  causes, 
you  are  at  a  loss  to  conceive  how  they  come  to  be  ranked  in  the 
place  which  Mr.  Gibbon  assigns  them.  If  by  the  intolerant  and 
inflexible  zeal  of  the  first  Christians  be  meant  their  ardour  and 
activity  in  promoting  a  religion  which  they  believed  to  be  divine,  we 
readily  admit  that  the  labours  of  the  apostles  and  their  successors 
were  an  instrument  by  which  God  spread  the  knowledge  of  the  gos- 
pel. But  this  cause  is  so  far  from  accounting  for  the  conviction 
which  the  first  teachers  themselves  had  of  the  facts  which  they  attested, 
that  their  ardour  and  activity  is  incredible,  unless  it  proceeded  from 
this  conviction ;  and  the  kind  of  inflexibility  and  intolerance  of  the 
idolatry  and  the  vices  of  the  world,  which  was  necessarily  connected 
with  their  conviction  of  the  great  facts  of  Christianity,  was  more 
likely  to  deter  than  to  invite  men  to  embrace  it.  If  by  the  doctrine 
of  a  future  life  be  meant  the  hope  of  life  eternal,  which  is  held  forth 
with  assurance  in  the  gospel  to  the  penitent,  this  is  so  essential  a 
branch  of  the  excellence  of  the  doctrine,  that  it  cannot  with  any  pro- 
priety, be  called  a  secondary  cause  ;  and  those  adventitious  circum- 
stances which  Mr.  Gibbon  represents  as  connected  with  this  hope,  he 
means  the  speedy  dissolution  of  the  world,  and  the  reign  of  Christ 
with  his  saints  upon  earth  for  a  thousand  years,  commonly  called  the 
Millenium,  appear  to  every  rational  inquirer  to  have  no  foundation 
in  Scripture,  and  never  to  have  formed  any  part  of  the  teaching  of 
the  apostles.  If  by  the  miraculous  powers  of  the  primitive  church  be 
meant  the  demonstration  of  the  Spirit,  which  accompanied  the  first 
preaching  of  the  gospel  in  the  signs  and  wonders  done  by  the  hands 
of  the  apostles,  this  is  manifestly  a  part  of  the  ruling  providence  of  its 
great  Master.  It  is  not  denied  that  the  miracles,  which  rest  upon 
unexceptionable  historical  evidence,  were  succeeded  by  many  pre- 
tensions to  miraculous  powers  after  this  gift  of  the  Spirit  was  with- 
drawn. But  it  is  not  easy  to  conceive  how  these  pretensions  obtained 
any  credit  in  the  Christian  Church,  unless  it  was  certainly  known  that 
many  real  miracles  had  been  wrought ;  and  it  is  obvious  that  the 
multitude  of  delusions  which  were  practised  tended  to  discredit  the 
gospel  in  the  eye  of  every  rational  inquirer,  and,  instead  of  promoting 
the  success  of  the  new  religion,  was  most  likely  to  confound  it  with 


PROPAGATION    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  143 

those  Pa^an  fables  which  it  commanded  men  to  forsake.  The  virtues 
of  the  primitive  Christians  were  exhibited  in  circumstances  so  trying 
that  they  recommended  the  new  reUgion  most  powerfully  to  the 
world.  But  these  virtues,  which  were  the  native  expression  of  faith 
in  the  gospel,  and  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit,  must  be  resolved  into  the 
excellence  of  the  doctrine.  Mr.  Gibbon,  indeed,  has  drawn  under 
this  head  a  picture  of  the  manners  of  the  primitive  Christians,  which 
holds  them  up  to  the  ridicule  and  censure,  not  to  the  admiration  of 
the  world.  The  colouring  of  this  picture  has  been  discovered  to  be, 
in  many  places,  false  and  extravagant :  and  this  glaring  inconsistency 
strikes  every  person  who  attends  to  it,  that  an  author  who  assigns  the 
virtues  of  the  primitive  Christians  as  a  cause  of  the  propagation  of 
Christianity,  chooses  to  degrade  that  religion  by  such  a  representation 
of  these  virtues,  as,if  it  were  true,  would  satisfy  every  reader  that  they 
had  no  influence  in  producing  the  efl'ect  which  he  ascribes  to  them. 

In  stating  the  last  cause,  there  is  an  obvious  inaccuracy,  which  Mr. 
Gibbon  would  not  have  been  guilty  of  upon  another  subject.  He  is 
professing  to  account  for  the  rcipid  growth  of  the  Christian  church. 
His  fiftii  cause  is  the  union  and  discipline  of  the  Christian  republic, 
which  gradually  formed  an  independent  state ;  and  his  accoiuit  of 
the  maimer  of  its  formation  extends  through  the  three  first  centuries 
of  the  Christian  era.  It  matters  not  to  the  subject  upon  which 
it  is  introduced,  whether  the  account  be  just  or  false ;  for  it  is 
manifest  that  the  rapid  growth  of  the  Christian  church  in  the  first 
and  second  centuries  cannot  be  ascribed  to  the  union  and  discipline 
of  the  Christian  republic,  which  was  not  completed  till  after  the  third 
century. 

You  will  perceive  by  the  short  specimen  which  I  have  given,  that 
the  danger  of  Mr.  Gibbon's  book  does  not  arise  from  his  having  dis- 
covered five  secondary  causes  of  the  propagation  of  Christianity,  to 
which  the  world  had  not  formerly  attended.  It  arises  from  the  manner 
in  which  he  has  illustrated  them  :  and  the  only  way  to  obviate  the 
danger  is  to  canvass  his  illustration  very  closely.  There  is  very  com- 
plete assistance  provided  for  you  in  this  exercise. 

Mr.  White  has  touched  upon  Mr.  Gibbon's  five  causes  shortly,  but 
ably,  in  his  Comparative  View  of  Mahometanism  and  Christianity. 
Bishop  Watson,  in  his  Apology  for  Christianity,  has  given,  with  much 
animation,  and  without  any  personal  abuse,  a  concise  clear  argument 
upon  every  one  of  the  five  causes,  which  appears  to  me  to  show  in 
the  most  satisfactory  manner,  that  they  do  not  answer  the  purpose  for 
which  they  are  introduced,  and  that  it  is  still  necessary  to  have  re- 
course to  the  ruling  providence  of  the  great  Author  of  Christianity  in 
order  to  account  for  its  propagation.  After  Bishop  Watson's  Apology 
was  published,  an  answer  was  made  to  this  15fh  chapter,  by  Sir 
David  Dalrymple,  Lord  Ilailes,  entitled,  An  Inquiry  into  the  secondary 
causes  which  Mr.  Gibbon  assigns  for  the  rapid  growth  of  Christianity. 
Sir  David  was  peculiarly  fitted  for  such  an  inquiry.  He  had  an 
acute  distinguishing  mind,  enriched  with  a  very  imcommon  measure 
of  theological  reading,  and  capable  of  the  most  ixTticnt  minute  investi- 
gation. He  was  a  zealous  friend  of  Christianity.  And  he  has 
applied  his  talents  with  great  success  in  hunting  out  every  misrepre- 
sentation and  contradiction  into  which  ]Mr.  Gibbon  was  betrayed  by 


144  PROPAGATION    OP    CHRISTIANITY. 

his  fcivourite  object.  There  is  not  so  much  general  reasoning  in  the 
Inquiry  as  in  the  Apology.  But  Lord  Hailes  has  sifted  the  1 5th 
chapter  thoroughly.  He  treats  his  antagonist  with  decency,  and  yet 
he  triumphs  over  him  in  so  many  instances,  and  brings  conviction 
home  to  the  reader  in  so  pointed  a  manner,  that  he  is  warranted  to 
draw  the  conclusion  which  I  shall  give  you  in  the  moderate  terms 
that  he  has  chosen  to  employ.  "  Mr.  Gibbon's  first  proposition  is, 
that  Christianity  became  victorious  over  the  established  religions  of  the 
earth,  by  its  very  doctrine,  and  by  the  ruling  providence  of  its  great 
Author ;  and  his  last,  of  a  like  import,  is,  that  Christianity  is  the 
truth.  Between  his  first  and  his  last  propositions  there  are,  no  doubt, 
many  dissertations,  digressions,  inferences,  and  hints,  not  altogether 
consistent  with  his  avowed  principles.  But  much  allowance  ought 
to  be  made  for  that  love  of  novelty  which  seduces  men  of  genius 
to  think  and  speak  rashly  ;  and  for  that  easiness  of  belief,  which 
inclines  us  to  rely  on  the  quotations  and  commentaries  of  confident 
persons,  without  examining  the  authors  of  whom  they  speak.  From  a 
review  of  all  that  he  has  said,  it  appears  that  the  things  which  Mr.  Gib- 
bon considered  as  secondary  or  human  causes,  efficaciously  promoting 
the  Christian  religion,  either  tended  to  retard  its  progress,  or  were  the 
manifest  operations  of  the  wisdom  and  power  of  God." 


Section  III. 

As  Mr.  Gibbon  dwells  upon  secondary  causes,  it  occurs  in  this 
place  to  mention  the  rank  and  character  of  those  who  were  converted 
to  Christianity  in  early  times.  It  is  obvious  to  observe,  that  although 
the  condition  and  circumstances  of  the  first  teachers  had  been  ever  so 
mean,  if  by  any  accident  their  doctrine  had  been  instantly  adopted  by 
men  of  superior  knowledge  or  of  commanding  influence,  there  might 
liave  been,  in  this  way,  created  a  secondary  cause,  sufficient,  in  some 
measure,  to  account  for  the  propagation  of  Christianity.  But  the  fact 
long  continued  to  correspond  to  the  description  given  by  the  apostle 
Paul,  not  many  wise,  not  many  mighty,  not  many  noble  were  called. 
But  God  employed  the  foolish  to  confound  the  wise,  and  those  who 
were  despised  to  confound  those  who  were  highly  esteemed,  that  no 
flesh  might  glory  in  his  presence,  and  that  the  excellency  of  the  power 
might  appear  to  be  of  him.*  Yet  even  here  a  bound  was  set  by  the 
wisdom  of  God,  Had  Christianity  been  embraced  in  early  times  only 
by  the  ignorant  vulgar,  it  might  have  been  degraded  in  the  eyes  of 
succeeiling  ages;  and  the  universal  indifference  or  unbelief  of  those, 
whose  und.TStandings  had  received  any  degree  of  culture  and  enlarge- 
ment, might  have  conveyed  to  careless  observers  an  impression  that 
this  new  religion  was  an  irrational,  mean  superstition.  To  obviate 
this  objection,  even  the  Scriptures  mention  the  names  of  many  per- 
sons of  superior  rank  who  embraced  Christianity  at  its  first  publica- 
tion ;  and  we  know,  that  during  the  two  first  centuries,  men  com- 
pletely versed  in  all  the  learning  of  the  times  left  the  schools  of  the 

•  1  Cor.  i.  26,  27,  28  ;  2.  Cor.  iv.  7. 


PROPAGATION    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  145 

philosophers,  and  employed  their  talents  and  their  knowledge  in  ex- 
plaining and  defending  the  doctrines  of  Christ.  Qnadratus  and  Aris- 
tides  were  Athenian  philosophers,  who  flourished  in  the  very  beginnhig 
of  the  second  century,  and  who  continued  to  wear  the  dress  of  phi- 
losophers, at'ter  they  became  Christians.  Their  apologies  for  Chris- 
tianity are  quoted  by  very  ancient  historians  ;  but  the  quotations 
made  from  flicm  are  the  only  parts  of  them  now  extant.  We  still 
have  several  works  of  Justin  Martyr,  who  lived  in  the  second  cen- 
tury. In  his  Dialogue  with  Tripho  the  Jew,  he  gives  an  account  of  the 
time  and  attention  which  he  had  bestowed  upon  the  study  of  Platon- 
ism,  and  the  admiration  in  which  he  once  held  that  doctrine.  But 
now,  he  says,  having  been  acquainted  with  the  prophets  and  those 
men  who  were  the  friends  of  Jesus,  I  have  found  that  this  is  the  only 
safe  and  useful  philosophy.     And  thus  I  have  become  a  philosopher 

indeed.      "^ravtrv  novov  tu^ts^coc  ^t.^.osci^t.ai'  an^aXr]  rs  xat  avfi^o^ov. 

There  was  one  early  convert  to  Christianity,  whose  attainments 
and  whose  character  may  well  be  considered  as  constituting  a  most 
powerful  secondary  cause  in  its  propagation.  I  mean  the  apostle 
Paul,  a  learned  Pharisee,  bred  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel,  a  man  of  an 
ardent  elevated  mind,  and  of  a  strong  well-cultivated  understanding, 
who  laboured  more  abundantly  than  all  the  apostles,  with  indefatiga- 
ble zeal,  and  with  peculiar  advantages.  But  it  is  remarkable  that 
this  man,  in  preaching  the  Gospel,  did  not  avail  himself  of  all  the  arts 
which  he  had  learned  to  employ.  His  knowledge  of  the  law  was 
used  not  to  support  but  to  overturn  the  system  in  which  he  had  been 
bred.  There  is  not  in  his  writings  the  most  distant  approach  to  the 
forms  of  Grecian  or  Asiatic  eloquence ;  and  there  is  a  freedom  and  a 
severity  in  his  reproofs,  very  different  from  the  courtly  manner  which 
his  education  might  have  formed.  His  conversion  is,  in  itself,  an 
illustrious  argument  of  the  truth  of  Christianity.  You  will  find  the 
force  of  this  argument  well  stated  in  a  treatise  of  the  first  Lord  Lyttelton, 
entitled,  Observations  on  the  Conversion  and  Apostleship  of  St.  Paul ; 
one  of  those  classical  essays  which  every  student  of  divinity  should 
read.  The  elegant  and  amiable  writer,  whose  name  is  dear  to  every 
man  of  taste  and  virtue,  demonstrates  the  following  points  with  a 
beautiful  persuasive  simplicity.  1.  The  supposition,  neither  of 
enthusiasm  nor  of  imposture,  is  sufficient  to  account  for  the  conver- 
sion of  this  apostle  ;  2.  The  character  of  his  mind,  and  the  history  of 
his  life,  conspire  in  confirming  the  narration  so  often  repeated  in  the 
book  of  Acts;  3.  That  narration  involves  in  it  the  truth  of  the  resur- 
rection of  Jesus,  the  great  fact  which  the  apostles  witnessed  ;  4.  Paul 
had  had  no  opportunity  of  holding  any  previous  concert  with  the 
other  apostles,  but  was  completely  separated  from  them  :  5.  His 
situation  gave  him  the  most  perfect  access  to  know  whether  there  was 
truth  in  the  report  published  by  them,  as  witnesses  of  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Jesus  ;  and  therefore  his  concurrence  with  the  other  apostles, 
in  publisliing  that  report,  and  i)reacliing  the  doctrine  founded  upon  it, 
is  an  accession  of  new  evidence  after  the  first  promulgation  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  force  of  this  new  evidence  will  always  remain  with 
those  who  acknowledge  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  to  be 
authentic.  And,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Christians  who  lived  before 
the  books  were   published,  it  was   M'isely   contrived  that   the  new 


146  PROPAGATION    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

evidence  should  arise  out  of  the  history  of  that  man  whose  labours 
contributed  most  largely  to  the  conversion  of  the  world,  so  that  in  the 
very  person  from  whom  they  received  their  faith,  they  had  a  demon- 
stration of  its  being  divine. 

And  thus  you  observe,  that  while  the  humble  station  of  the  rest 
of  the  apostles  necessarily  leads  us  to  a  divine  interposition,  as  the 
only  mean  of  qualifying  such  men  for  being  the  instructors  of  the 
world,  the  condition  and  education  of  the  apostle  Paul,  which  fur- 
nished a  secondary  cause  that  was  useful  in  the  propagation  of 
Christianity,  do,  at  the  same  time,  render  his  conversion  such  an  argu- 
ment for  the  truth  of  that  religion,  as  is  much  more  than  sufficient  to 
counterbalance  all  the  advantages  which  it  could  possibly  derive  from 
his  knowledge  and  his  talents.  All  this  you  will  find  illustrated  in  a 
very  full  life  of  St.  Paul,  which  Dr.  Macknight  has  prefixed  to  his 
commentary  on  the  epistles. 


Sectjon  IV, 

I  HAVE  stated  the  qualifications  which  are  necessary  in  order  to 
render  the  argument  arising  from  the  propagation  of  Christianity 
sound  and  conclusive ;  I  have  suggested  the  manner  of  obviating  the 
objections  contained  in  Mr.  Gibbon's  account  of  the  secondary  causes 
which  promoted  the  rapid  growth  of  the  Christian  church ;  and  I 
have  marked  the  argument  implied  in  the  conversion  of  the  apostle 
Paul. 

All  that  I  have  hitherto  said  respects  the  means  employed  in  pro- 
pagating the  gospel.  But  there  is  another  set  of  objections  that  will 
often  meet  you  respecting  the  measure  of  the  effect  which  these  means 
have  produced.  "  If  the  gospel  was  really  introduced  by  the  mighty 
power  of  God,  why  was  it  not  published  much  earlier.^  It  is  as  easy 
for  the  Almighty  to  exert  his  power  at  one  time  as  at  another,  yet  the 
world  was  four  thousand  years  old  before  the  gospel  appeared.  Why 
is  this  beneficent  religion  diffused  through  so  small  a  portion  of  the 
globe  ?  It  has  been  said  that  if  our  earth  be  divided  into  thirty  equal 
parts.  Paganism  is  established  in  nineteen  of  those  parts,  Mahome- 
tanism  in  six,  and  Christianity  onlj^  in  five.  Why  have  the  evil  pas- 
sions of  men  been  permitted  to  mingle  themselves  with  the  work  of 
God  ?  Why  has  the  sword  of  the  persecutor  been  called  in  to  aid  the 
counsel  of  heaven  ?  Why  does  the  gospel  now  spread  so  slowly,  that 
the  triumphs  of  this  religion  seem  to  have  ceased  not  many  centuries 
after  they  began?  Why  has  a  system,  in  support  of  which  the  Ruler 
of  the  universe  condescended  to  make  bare  his  holy  arm,  degenerated, 
throughout  a  great  part  of  the  Christian  world,  iiUo  a  corrupt  form, 
very  far  removed  from  its  original  simplicity }  And  why  is  its  influ- 
ence over  the  hearts  and  lives  of  men  so  inconsiderable,  even  in  those 
countries  where  the  truth  is  taught  as  it  is  in  Christ  Jesus  ?  This  par- 
tiality, and  delay,  and  imperfection  in  the  propagation  of  the  gospel 
resembles  very  much  the  work  of  man,  whose  limited  operations  cor- 
respond to  the  scantiness  of  his  power.  But  all  this  is  very  unlike 
the   word  of  the  Almighty,  wliicli  runneth  swiftly  throughout  the 


PROPAGATION    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  147 

whole  earth,  to  execute  all  the  extent  of  the  gracious  purpose  formed 
by  the  Universal  Father  of  mankind." 

I  have  stated  these  objections  in  one  view  with  all  their  force.  You 
will  find  them  not  only  urged  seriously  in  the  works  of  deistical  wri- 
ters, but  thrown  out  lightly  and  scoffingly  in  conversation,  so  that  it 
behoves  you  very  much  to  be  well  apprized  of  the  manner  of  answer- 
ing them.  It  is  inipossible  for  me  to  enter  into  any  detail  upon  this 
subject ;  but  I  shall  suggest  to  you,  in  the  six  following  propositions, 
the  heads  of  answers  to  all  objections  of  this  kind,  leaving  them  to 
be  enlarged  and  applied  by  your  own  reading. 

1.  Observe,  that  these  questions,  were  they  much  more  pointed  and 
unanswerable  than  they  are,  could  not  have  the  effect  to  overturn 
liistorical  evidence.  If  there  be  positive  satisfying  testimony  that  the 
divine  power  was  exerted  in  support  of  Christianity  at  its  first  pro- 
mulgation, our  being  unable  to  account  for  the  particular  measure  of 
the  effect  which  that  exertion  has  produced  does  not,  by  any  clear 
connection  of  premises  with  a  conclusion,  invalidate  the  testimony, 
but  only  discovers  our  ignorance  of  the  ways  of  God;  and  this  is  an 
ignorance  which  we  feel  upon  every  other  subject,  which,  in  judging 
of  the  works  of  nature,  we  never  admit  as  an  argument  against  mat- 
ter of  fact,  and  which  any  person,  who  has  just  impressions  of  the 
limited  powers  of  man,  and  the  immense  extent  of  the  divine  coun- 
sels, will  not  consider  as  of  weight  when  applied  to  the  evidences  of 
religion. 

2.  Observe  that  all  the  questions  imply  an  expectation  that  God 
will  bestow  the  same  religious  advantages  upon  the  children  of  men 
in  every  age  and  country.  But,  as  no  person  who  understands  the 
terms  which  he  uses,  will  say  that  God  is  bound  in  justice  to  distri- 
bute his  f  ivours  equally  to  all  his  creatures,  so  no  person  who  attends 
to  the  course  of  Divine  Providence  will  be  led  to  draw  any  such  ex- 
pectation as  the  questions  imply,  from  the  conduct  of  the  Almighty 
in  other  matters.  Recollect  the  diversities  of  the  human  species,  the 
differences  amongst  individuals,  in  vigour  of  constitution,  in  bodily 
accomplishments,  in  the  powers  of  understanding,  in  temper  and  pas- 
sions, in  the  opportunities  of  improvement,  and  the  measure  of  com- 
fort and  enjoyment,  or  of  toil  and  sorrow,  which  their  situations  afford. 
Recollect  the  differences  amongst  nations  in  climate,  in  government, 
in  the  amount  of  natural  and  political  advantages,  and  in  the  whole 
sum  of  national  prosperity.  It  is  impossible  for  us  to  conceive  liow 
the  subordination  of  society  could  be  maintained,  if  all  men  had  the 
same  talents ;  or  how  the  course  of  human  affairs  could  proceed,  if 
every  part  of  the  globe  was  like  every  other.  Being  thus  accustomed 
to  behold  and  to  admire  the  varieties  in  the  natural  advantages  of 
men,  we  are  prepared,  by  the  analogy  of  the  works  of  God,  to  expect 
like  varieties  in  their  religious  advantages  ;  and  although  we  may  not 
be  able  to  trace  all  the  reasons  why  the  light  of  the  gospel  was  so 
long  of  appearing,  or  is  at  present  so  unequally  distributed,  yet  if  we 
bear  in  mind  that  this  is  but  the  beginning  of  our  existence,  and  that 
every  man  shall,  in  the  end,  be  dealt  with  according  to  that  which  had 
been  given  him,  we  shall  not  for  a  moment  annex  the  idea  of  injus- 
tice to  this  part  of  the  Divine  conduct. 

3.  Observe  that  these  questions  imply  an  expectation,  that,  while 


148  PROPAGATION    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

human  works  admit  of  preparation,  the  work  of  God  will,  in  every 
case,  he  done  instantly.  But  it  is  manifest  that  this  expectation  also 
is  contradicted  by  the  whole  course  of  nature.  For  although  God 
may,  by  a  word  of  his  mouth,  do  all  his  pleasure,  yet  he  generally 
chooses,  for  wise  reasons,  some  of  which  we  are  often  able  to  trace, 
to  employ  means,  and  to  allow  such  a  gradual  operation  of  those 
means,  as  admits  of  a  progress,  in  which  one  thing  paves  the  way 
for  another,  and  gives  notice  of  its  approach.  In  all  that  process  by 
which  food  for  man  and  beast  is  brought  out  of  tlie  ground — in  the 
opening  of  the  human  mind  from  infancy  to  manhood — and  in  those 
natural  changes  which  affect  the  bowels  or  the  surface  of  the  earth, 
we  profit  very  much  by  marking  the  slow  advances  of  nature  to  its 
end  ;  and  therefore  we  need  not  be  surprised  to  find  the  steps  of  Divine 
Providence  in  the  publication  of  the  gospel  very  different  from  the 
haste,  which,  in  our  imagination,  appears  desirable.  As  there  is  a 
time  of  maturity  in  natural  productions  to  which  all  the  preparation 
has  tended,  so  the  gospel  appeared  at  that  season  which  is  styled  in 
Scripture  tlie  fulness  of  time,  and  which  is  found,  upon  a  close  atten- 
tion to  circumstances,  to  have  been  the  fittest  for  such  a  revelation. 
There  is  an  excellent  sermon  upon  this  subject  by  Principal  Robert- 
son, which  you  will  find  in  the  "  Scots  Preacher,"  distinguished  by 
that  soundness  of  thought,  and  that  compass  of  historical  informa- 
tion, which  his  other  writings  may  lead  you  to  expect.  The  same 
subject  will  often  meet  you  in  the  books  that  you  read  upon  the  deist- 
ical  controversy ;  and  when  you  attend  to  the  complete  illustration 
which  it  has  received  from  the  writings  of  many  learned  men,  you 
will  be  satisfied  that,  as  the  need  of  an  extraordinary  revelation  was 
at  that  time  become  manifest,  so  the  improvements  of  science,  and  the 
political  state  of  the  world,  conspired  to  render  the  age  in  which  the 
gospel  appeared  better  qualified  than  any  preceding  age  for  examin- 
ing the  evidences  of  a  revelation,  for  affording  many  striking  confirm- 
ations of  its  divine  original,  and  for  conveying  it  with  ease  and  ad- 
vantage to  future  ages.^  The  preparation  which  produced  this  fulness 
of  time  had  been  carrying  forward  during  four  thousand  years  ;  and 
nearly  two  thousand  have  elapsed,  while  Christianity  has  been  spread- 
ing through  a  fifth  part  of  the  globe.  But  this  slowness,  so  agreeable 
to  the  general  course  of  nature,  will  not  appear  to  you  inconsistent 
with  the  wisdom  or  goodness  of  the  Almighty,  when  you, 

4.  Observe  tliat  in  all  this  there  was  a  preparation  for  the  universal 
diff'usion  of  the  gospel.  A  considerable  measure  of  religious  know- 
ledge was  diffused  through  the  world  before  the  appearance  of  the 
gospel ;  and  the  delay  of  its  universal  publication  has  perhaps  already 
contributed,  and  may  be  so  disposed  in  future  as  to  contribute  still 
more,  to  prepare  the  world  for  receiving  it.  The  few  simple  doc- 
trines of  that  traditional  religion  which  existed  before  the  deluge, 
were  transmitted,  by  the  longevity  of  the  patriarchs,  through  very 
few  hands  for  the  first  fourteen  hundred  years  of  the  world.  Methu- 
selah lived  many  years  with  Adam ;  Shem  lived  many  yea^s  with 
Methuselah ;  and  Abraham  lived  with  Shem  till  he  was  seventy-five. 
Between  Adam  and  Abraham  there  were  only  two  intermediate  links ; 
yet  a  chain  of  tradition,  extending  through  nearly  seventeen  hundred 
years,  and  embracing  the  creation,  the  fall,  and  the  promise  of  a  Sa- 


PROPAGATION    OF    CHRISTIANITV.  149 

vionr,  was  preserved.  The  calling  of  Abraham,  although  it  conferred 
peculiar  advantages  upon  his  family,  was  fitted,  by  his  character  and 
situation,  to  enlighten  his  neighbours ;  and  the  whole  history  of  tlie 
Jewish  people — their  sojourning  in  Egypt,  the  place  which  they  were 
destined  to  inhabit,  their  conquests,  and  the  captivities  by  whicli  they 
were  afterwards  scattered  over  the  face  of  the  earth,  rendered  them, 
in  an  eminent  degree,  the  lights  of  the  world.  Bryant,  in  his  "  My- 
thology," and  men  who  have  applied  to  such  investigations,  have 
traced,  with  much  probability,  a  resemblance  to  the  Mosaic  system  in 
the  religions  of  many  of  the  neighbouring  nations ;  and  if  we  pay 
any  attention  to  the  force  of  the  instances  in  which  this  resemblance 
has  been  illustrated,  even  although  we  should  not  give  credit  to  all 
the  conjectures  that  have  been  advanced,  we  can  hardly  entertain  a 
doubt  that  the  revelation  with  which  the  Jews  were  favoured  was  a 
source  of  instruction  to  other  people.  During  the  existence  of  this 
peculiar  religion  wise  men  were  raised,  by  the  providence  of  God,  in 
many  countries,  who  did  not,  indeed,  pretend  to  be  the  messengers  of 
heaven,  but  whose  discoveries  exposed  the  growing  corruptions  of 
the  established  systems,  or  whose  laws  imposed  some  restraint  upon 
the  excesses  of  superstition ;  while  the  progress  of  society,  and  the 
advancement  of  reason,  opened  the  minds  of  men  to  a  more  perfect 
instruction  than  they  had  formerly  been  qualified  to  receive. 

These  hints  suggest  this  enlarged  view  of  the  economy  of  Divine 
Providence,  that  God  in  no  age  left  himself  without  a  witness,  and 
that  the  several  dispensations  of  religion,  in  ancient  times,  both  to 
Jews  and  heathens,  were  adapted  to  the  circumstances  of  the  human 
race,  so  as  to  lead  them  forward  by  a  gradual  education  from  times 
of  infancy  and  childhood  to  the  rational  sublime  system  unfolded  in 
the  gospel. 

It  is  following  out  the  same  view,  to  consider  the  partial  propaga- 
tion of  the  gospel  as  intended  to  prepare  the  world  for  receiving  it. 
Many  of  the  heathen  moralists,  who  lived  after  the  days  of  our  Sa- 
viour, discover  more  refined  notions  of  God,  and  more  enlarged  con- 
ceptions of  the  duties  of  man,  than  any  of  their  predecessors.  They 
profited  by  the  gospel,  although  they  did  not  acknowledge  the  obliga- 
tion ;  and  they  disseminated  some  part  of  its  instruction,  although 
they  disdained  to  appear  as  its  ministers.  The  Koran  inculcates  the 
miity  of  God,  and  retains  a  part  of  the  Christian  morality ;  and  thus 
the  successful  accommodating  religion  of  Mahomet  may  be  considered 
as  a  step,  by  which  the  providence  of  God  is  to  lead  the  nations  that 
have  embraced  it  from  the  absurdities  of  Paganism  to  the  true  faith. 
When  Christianity  became  the  established  religion  of  the  Roman  em- 
pire, the  other  parts  of  the  world  were  very  far  behind  in  civilization, 
and  many  of  the  countries  that  have  been  lately  discovered,  are  in 
the  rudest  state  of  society.  But  the  conversion  of  savage  trilDcs  to  a 
spiritual  rational  system  is  impracticable.  Much  time  is  necessary  to 
open  their  understandings,  to  give  them  habits  of  industry  and  order, 
and  to  render  them,  in  some  measure,  acquainted  with  ideas  and  man- 
ners more  polished  than  their  own.  A  long  intercourse  with  the 
nations  of  Europe,  who  appear  fitted  by  their  character  to  be  the  in- 
structors of  the  rest  of  the  world,  may  be  the  mean  appointed  by  God 
for  removing  the  prejudices  of  idolatry  and  ignorance ;  and  as  the 
•  15* 


150  PROPAGATION    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

enlightened  discoveries  of  modern  times  make  us  acquainted  with  the 
manners,  the  views,  and  the  interests,  as  well  as  with  the  geograph- 
ical situation  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  globe,  we  may,  not  indeed 
with  the  precipitancy  of  visionary  reformers,  but  in  that  gradual  pro- 
gress which  the  nature  of  the  case  requires,  be  the  instrument  of  pre- 
paring them  for  embracing  our  religion  :  and  by  the  measure  in  which 
they  adopt  our  improvements  in  art  and  science,  they  may  become 
qualified  to  receive,  through  our  communication,  the  knowledge  of 
the  true  God,  and  of  his  Son  Christ  Jesus. 

5.  Observe,  that  the  objection,  implied  in  some  of  the  questions  that 
I  stated,  necessarily  arises  from  the  employment  of  human  means  in 
that  partial  propagation  of  the  Gospel  which  lias  already  taken  place. 
Any  such  objection  might  have  been  effectually  obviated  by  a  con- 
tinued miracle  ;  but  it  remains  to  be  inquired  whether  the  nature  of 
the  case,  or  the  general  analogy  of  Divine  Providence,  gives  any 
reason  to  expect  this  method  of  obviating  the  objection.  Had  the 
outstretched  arm  of  the  Almighty,  which  first  introduced  the  Gospel, 
continued  to  be  exerted  through  all  succeeding  ages  in  the  propaga- 
tion of  it,  the  course  of  human  affairs  would  have  been  unhinged, 
and  the  argument  from  miracles  would  have  been  weakened,  because 
the  extraordinary  interposition  of  the  Almighty  would,  by  reason  of 
its  frequent  returns,  have  been  confounded  with  the  ordinary  course 
of  nature.  The  divine  original  of  the  gift,  therefore,  being  ascertained, 
the  hand  of  him  from  whom  it  had  proceeded  was  wisely  withdrawn, 
and  human  passions  and  interests  were  combined,  by  his  all-ruling 
Providence,  to  diffuse  it  in  the  measures  which  he  had  ordained. 
The  pious  zeal  of  many  Christians  in  early  and  later  times,  the  vanity, 
ambition,  or  avarice,  which  led  others  to  promote  their  private  ends 
by  spreading  the  faith  of  Christ,  the  wide  extent  of  the  Roman  empire 
at  the  time  when  Christianity  became  the  established  religion  of  the 
state,  the  subsequent  dismemberment  of  the  empire  by  the  invasions 
and  settlements  of  the  barbarous  nations,  and  the  spirit  of  commerce 
which  has  carried  the  descendants  of  these  nations  to  resfions  never 
visited  by  the  Roman  arms,  are  some  of  the  instruments  employed  by 
the  providence  of  God  in  the  propagation  of  Christianity.  It  was  not 
to  be  expected,  that  in  a  propagation  thus  committed  to  human  means, 
the  heavenly  gift  would  escape  all  contamination  from  the  imperfect 
and  impure  channels  through  which  it  was  conveyed  ;  and  it  cannot 
be  denied  that  there  have  been  many  corruptions,  many  improper 
methods  of  converting  men  to  Christianity,  and  many  gross  adultera- 
tions and  perversions  of"  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints."  But 
you  will  observe  in  general,  that  although  the  gifts  of  God  are  liable 
to  abuse  through  the  imperfections  and  vices  of  men,  such  abuse  is 
never  considered  as  any  argument  that  the  gifts  did  not  proceed  from 
him  :  and  with  regard  to  the  corruptions  of  Christianity  in  particular, 
you  will  observe,  that  so  far  from  their  creating  any  presumption  against 
the  evidence  of  our  religion,  there  are  circumstances  which  render  them 
an  argument  for  its  divine  original.  They  are  foretold  in  the  Scrip- 
tures. They  arose  by  the  neglect  of  the  Scriptures,  and  they  were 
in  a  great  measure  remedied  at  the  Reformation,  by  the  return  of  a 
considerable  part  of  the  Christian  world  to  that  truth  which  the  Scrip- 
tures declare.     The  case  stands  thus.     The  Gospel  contains  a  system 


PROPAGATION    OF    CHRISTIAMTY.  151 

of  faith  and  practice,  wliich  is  safely  deposited  in  those  autlientic 
records  that  are  received  by  the  whole  Christian  world.  That  system 
was  indeed  deformed  in  its  progress  by  the  errors  and  passions  of  men. 
hut  it  breaks  through  this  cloud  by  its  own  intrinsic  light.  The 
striking  manner  in  which  the  prophecy  of  the  corruptions  of  Chris- 
tianity has  been  fulfilled  forms  an  important  branch  of  the  evidence 
of  our  religion.  The  discussions  which  they  occasion  have  contri- 
buted very  much  to  render  the  nature  of  the  Gospel  more  perfectly 
imderstood ;  and  the  further  that  the  Christian  world  departs  either 
from  those  corruptions  to  which  the  Reformation  applied  a  remedy, 
or  from  any  others  which  the  Scriptures  condemn,  the  divinity  of  their 
religion  will  become  the  more  manifest.  Hence  you  may  perceive  an 
advantage  arising  from  the  slowness  with  which  the  Gospel  was  pro- 
pagated for  many  centuries.  In  its  rapid  progress  before  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem,  the  pure  doctrine  of  the  apostles  was  carried  by 
themselves,  or  their  immediate  successors,  through  all  the  parts  of  the 
then  known  world.  But  had  it  spread  with  equal  rapidity  in  the 
dark  ages,  all  the  absurdities  which  at  that  time  adhered  to  it  would 
have  spread  also ;  and  so  universal  a  disease  could  hardly  have 
admitted  of  any  remedy.  It  is  now  purified  from  a  great  part  of  the 
dross.  The  influence  of  the  Reformation  has  extended  even  to  Roman 
Catholic  countries ;  and  in  those  which  are  reformed,  the  progress  of 
knowledge,  and  the  application  of  sound  criticism,  are  continuing  to 
illustrate  the  genuine  doctrines  of  Christ.  The  Gospel  will  thus  be 
communicated  with  less  adulteration  to  those  parts  of  the  world 
which  are  yet  to  receive  the  first  notice  of  it :  and  that  free  inter- 
course, which  the  spirit  of  modern  commerce  is  now  opening  between 
countries  which  formerly  regarded  each  other  with  jealousy,  may  be 
the  means  of  extirpating  the  errors  of  Popery  which  were  sown  in 
remote  regions  by  the  zeal  of  Roman  Catholic  missionaries.  These 
are  pleasing  views,  sufficient  to  overpower  the  peevish  objection  sug- 
gested by  the  corruptions  of  Christianity  ;  they  lead  us  to  consider  the 
Almighty  as  making  all  things  work  together  for  the  establishment  of 
truth  and  righteousness  upon  earth ;  and  they  teach  us  to  rest  with 
assurance  in  the  declaration  of  Scripture,  that  "  all  the  kingdoms  of 
the  world  shall  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord." 

6.  One  part  of  the  objection  only  remains.  It  cannot  be  denied 
that  there  is  much  wickedness  in  Christian  countries,  even  those  which 
hold  the  truth  in  its  primitive  simplicity.  It  is  not  unnatural  for  a 
benevolent  mind,  which  wishes  the  virtue  of  mankind  as  the  only 
sure  foundation  of  their  happiness,  to  regret  that  the  Gospel  does  not 
produce  a  more  complete  reformation  of  the  vices  of  the  world  ;  and 
if  the  most  important  blessing  which  a  revelation  can  confer  is  to  turn 
men  from  their  iniquities,  a  doubt  may  sometimes  obtrude  itself  even 
upon  a  candid  and  devout  mind,  how  far  the  effect  really  produced 
is  proportioned  to  the  long  preparation,  and  the  mighty  works  which 
ushered  in  the  Gospel.  The  following  observations  serve  to  remove 
this  doubt.  It  is  extremely  difficult  to  attain  to  any  precise  notion  of 
the  sum  of  wickedness  in  ancient  times ;  and  there  are  no  data  upon 
which  we  can  form  any  estimate  of  what  would  have  been  the  mea- 
sure of  wickedness  in  the  present  circumstances  of  society,  if  the 
Gospel  had  not  appeared.     The  religion  of  Jesus  has  extirpated  some 


152  PROPAGATION    OF    CHRISTIANITTT. 

horrid  practices  of  ancient  times :  it  has  refined  the  manners  of  men 
in  war,  and  in  several  important  articles  of  domestic  intercourse  ;  and 
it  has  produced  an  extension  and  activity  of  beneficence  unknown  in 
the  heathen  world.  It  imposes  restraints  upon  tliose  evil  passions 
and  inordinate  desires,  which,  were  it  not  for  its  influence,  would  be 
indulged  by  many  without  control ;  and  it  cherishes  in  the  breasts  of 
individuals  those  private  virtues  of  humiUty,  patience,  and  resignation, 
which  do  not  receive  all  the  honour  which  is  due  to  them,  because 
their  excellence  withdraws  them  from  public  observation.  It  ad- 
dresses itself  to  every  principle  of  action  in  the  human  breast  with 
greater  energy  than  any  other  system  ever  did :  the  tendency  of  all 
its  parts  is  to  render  men  virtuous;  and  if  it  fails  in  reforming  the 
world,  we  cannot  conceive  any  method  of  reformation  consistent  with 
the  character  of  free  agents,  that  is  likely  to  prove  effectual.  It  is 
according  to  this  character  that  God  always  deals  with  the  children 
of  men.  Religion  joins  its  influence  to  reason.  But  it  is  an  incon- 
sistency in  terms  to  say  that  religion  should  compel  men^  to  be 
virtuous,  because  compulsion  destroys  the  essence  of  virtue. 

These  observations  appear  to  me  to  be  a  sufficient  answer  to  the 
objection  against  the  truth  of  Christianity,  which  has  been  drawn 
from  its  appearing  to  have  little  influence  upon  the  lives  of  Christians. 
But  I  am  sensible  that  they  are  not  sufficient  to  counteract  the  influ- 
ence of  this  objection  upon  the  minds  of  men.  The  wickedness  of 
those  who  call  themselves  Christians  is  undoubtedly  a  reproach  to  our 
religion.  It  is  a  grief  to  the  friends  of  Christianity,  and  the  most 
ready  sarcasm  in  the  mouths  of  its  enemies.  It  is  your  business,  the 
office  for  which  all  your  studies  are  meant  to  prepare  you,  to  diminish 
the  influence  of  this  objection.  If  you  convert  a  sinner  from  the 
error  of  his  ways,  or  brighten,  by  your  example  and  your  discourse, 
the  graces  of  the  disciples  of  Christ,  you  confirm  the  argument  arising 
from  the  propagation  of  our  religion.  And  the  best  service  that  you 
can  render  to  that  honourable  cause,  in  support  of  which  you  profess 
to  exert  your  talents,  is  to  exhibit  in  your  own  character  the  genuine 
spirit  of  Christianity,  and  to  illustrate  the  principles  of  that  doctrine 
which  is  according  to  godliness,  in  such  a  manner  as  may  render 
them,  through  the  blessing  of  God,  the  means  of  improving  the  cha- 
racter of  your  neighbours. 

The  amount  of  the  answers  which  I  have  suggested  may  be  sum- 
med up  in  a  few  words.  Any  objection,  arising  from  the  measure 
of  effect  produced  by  the  gospel,  cannot  overturn  direct  historical 
evidence  of  a  divine  interposition.  We  are  not  warranted,  by  the 
course  of  nature,  and  the  conduct  of  Divine  Providence  in  other  mat- 
ters, to  expect  either  that  the  Almighty  will  confer  the  same  religious 
advantages  upon  all  his  creatures,  or  that  he  will  accomplish,  in  a 
short  space  of  time,  that  publication  of  the  gospel  which  formed  part 
of  his  original  purpose.  A  considerable  measure  of  religious  know- 
ledge was  diffused  through  the  world  during  the  preparation  for  the 
appearance  of  the  gospel,  and  the  delay  of  its  universal  publication 
may  contribute  to  prepare  the  world  for  receiving  it.  The  corrup- 
tions of  Christianity,  which  arose  unavoidably  from  the  human  means 
employed  in  its  propagation,  could  not  have  been  obviated  without  a 
continued  miracle ;  and  the  imperfect  degree  in  which  the  gospel  has 


PROPAGATION    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  153 

actaally  reformed  the  world,  however  much  it  may  be  a  matter  of 
regret  to  Christians,  yet,  when  compared  with  the  excellence  and  en- 
ergy of  the  doctrine,  is  only  a  proof  that  religion  was  given  to  improve, 
but  not  to  destroy,  the  character  of  reasonable  agents. 

Besides  the  books  mentioned  in  the  course  of  this  chapter,  you  rnay  read  two  excellent 
sermons  of  Bishop  Atterbury,  on  the  Miraculous  Propagation  of  the  Gospel. 

You  will  derive  the  most  enlarged  views  upon  this,  as  upon  every  other  subject  connected 
with  Christianity,  from  Butler's  Analogy,  particularly  from  Part  ii.  chap.  \i.  at  the  be- 
ginning. 

Consult  also  Jortin. 

Law's  Considerations  on  the  Theory  of  Religion. 

Paley's  Evidences,  vol.  ii. 

Hill's  Sermons. 

Shuvv  and  Dick  upon  the  Counsel  of  Gamaliel. 

Macknight's  Truth  of  the  Gospel  History  ;  a  book  that  deserves  to  be  better  known,  and 
more  generally  read  than  it  is.  All  the  authorities  and  arguments,  which  are  concisely 
stated  by  other  writers,  are  spread  out  in  that  large  work  with  a  fulness  and  clearness  of 
illustration  that  is  very  useful,  and,  in  many  places,  with  a  degree  of  acuteness  and  in- 
genuity that  is  not  commonly  met  with.  He  has  dealt  very  largely  upon  the  argument 
for  the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion,  which  arises  from  the  conversion  of  the  world  to 
Christianity.  You  will  find,  in  this  part  of  his  work,  a  most  complete  elucidation  of  the 
whole  argument — the  history  of  the  ten  persecutions  before  Constantino — and  a  great 
deal  of  information  with  which  it  is  highly  proper  your  minds  should  be  furnished,  and 
which  you  will  not  easily  gather  from  any  other  single  treatise. 


BOOK  II. 

GENERAL  VIEW  OF  THE  SCRIPTURE  SYSTEM. 


CHAPTER  I. 


INSPIRATION    OF    SCRIPTURE. 


I  HAVE  Stated  the  evidence  upon  Avhich  we  receive  the  books 
of  the  New  Testament  as  authentic  genuine  records ;  and  I  have 
long  been  employed  in  examining  this  high  claim  which  they  ad- 
vance, that  they  contain  a  divine  revelation.  It  appeared  that  this 
claim  was  not  contradicted  by  the  general  contents  of  the  books,  but 
rather  that  there  was  a  presumption  arising  from  thence  in  its  favour. 
We  found  the  claim  directly  supported  by  miracles  received  upon  clear 
historical  evidence,  by  the  agreement  of  the  new  dispensation  with  a 
train  of  prophecies  contained  in  books  that  are  certainly  known  to 
have  existed  many  ages  before  our  Saviour  was  born,  by  the  striking 
fulfilment  of  his  prophecies,  by  his  resurrection  from  the  dead,  by  the 
miraculous  powers  conferred  upon  his  apostles  after  his  ascension, 
and  by  the  propagation  of  his  religion. 

But,  even  after  this  review  of  the  principal  evidences  of  the  truth 
of  Christianity,  there  remains  a  very  interesting  question,  before  we 
are  prepared  to  enter  upon  a  particular  examination  of  the  system  of 
truth  revealed  in  the  books  of  the  New  Testament.  The  question  is, 
whether  we  are  to  regard  these  books  as  inspired  writings  ?  It  is  pos- 
sible, you  will  observe,  that  Christ  was  a  divine  messenger,  that  the 
persons  whom  he  chose  as  his  companions  during  his  abode  upon 
earth  were  endowed  by  him  with  the  power  of  working  miracles ; 
and  yet  that,  in  recording  the  history  of  his  life,  and  publishing  the 
doctrines  of  his  religion,  they  were  left  merely  to  the  exercise  of  their 
own  recollection  and  understanding.  Upon  this  supposition,  the  mira- 
cles of  our  Lord  and  his  apostles  may  be  received  as  facts  established 
by  satisfying  historical  evidence  ;  and  an  inference  may  be  dmwn 
from  them,  that  the  person  who  performed  such  works,  and  who  com- 
mitted to  his  disciples  powers  similar  to  his  own,  was  a  teacher  sent 
from  God ;  and  yet  the  writings  of  the  apostles  will  be  considered  as 
human  compositions,  distinguished  from  the  works  of  other  men 
1.51 


INSPIRATION    OF    SCRIPTURE.  155 

merely  by  the  superior  advantages  which  the  authors  had  derived 
from  the  conversation  of  such  a  person  as  Jesus,  but  in  no  respect 
dictated  by  the  Spirit  of  God. 

This  is  the  system  of  the  modern  Socinians,  which  their  eagerness 
to  get  rid  of  some  of  the  doctrines,  that  other  Christians  consider  as 
clearly  revealed  in  Scripture,  has  led  them  of  late  openly  to  avow.  I 
quote  the  sentiments  of  Dr.  Priestley  from  one  of  his  latest  publica- 
tions, the  very  srane  in  which  he  bears  a  strong  testimony  to  the  cre- 
dibility of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus.  "  I  think  that  the  Scriptures 
were  written  without  any  particular  inspiration,  by  men  who  wrote 
according  to  the  best  of  their  knowledge,  and  who,  from  their  circum- 
stances, could  not  be  mistaken  with  respect  to  the  greater  facts  of 
which  they  were  proper  witnesses,  but  (like  other  men  subject  to  pre- 
jndice)  might  be  liable  to  adopt  a  hasty  and  ill-grounded  opinion 
concerning  things  which  did  not  fall  within  the  compass  of  their  own 
knowledge,  and  which  had  no  connection  with  any  thing  that  was 
so."  "  Setting  aside  all  idea  of  the  inspiration  of  the  writers,  I  con- 
sider Matthew  and  Luke  as  simply  historians,  whose  credit  must  be 
determined  by  the  circumstances  in  which  they  wrote,  and  the  nature 
of  the  facts  which  they  relate."  And  again,  when  he  is  speaking  of 
a  particular  doctrine,  in  proof  of  which  some  passages  in  the  Epistles 
are  generally  adduced,  Dr.  Priestley  says,  "  It  is  not  from  a  few  casual 
expressions  in  epistolary  writings,  which  are  seldom  composed  wnth 
so  much  care  as  books  intended  for  the  use  of  posterity,  that  we  can 
be  authorised  to  infer  that  such  was  the  serious  opinion  of  the  apos- 
tles. But  if  it  had  been  their  real  opinion,  it  would  not  follow  that 
it  was  true,  unless  the  teaching  of  it  should  appear  to  be  included  in 
their  general  commission."* 

And  thus,  according  to  Dr.  Priestley,  there  is  no  kind  of  inspiration 
either  in  the  gospels  or  the  epistles.  He  admits  them  to  be  writings 
of  the  apostles.  But  he  maintains  that  the  measure  of  regard  due  to 
any  narration  or  assertion  contained  in  these  writings  is  left  to  be  de- 
termined by  the  rules  of  criticism,  by  human  reason  judging  how  far 
that  assertion  or  narration  was  included  in  the  commission  of  the 
apostles,  i.  e.  how  far  it  is  essential  to  the  Christian  religion.  Difterent 
persons  entertain  different  apprehensions  concerning  that  which  is 
essential  to  revelation.  And,  according  to  Dr.  Priestley's  system, 
every  person  being  at  liberty  to  deny  any  part  of  Scripture  that  ap- 
pears to  him  unessential,  there  is  no  invariable  standard  of  our  reli- 
gion ;  but  the  gorpel  is  to  every  one  just  what  he  pleases  to  make  it. 
Accordingly  Dr.  Priestley,  who  sometimes  argues  very  ably  for  the 
divine  mission  of  Jesus,  by  availing  himself  of  that  liberty  which  he 
derives  from  denying  the  inspiration  of  Scripture,  has  successively 
struck  out  of  his  creed  many  of  those  articles  which  appear  to  us 
fundamental.  And  you  may  judge  of  the  length  to  which  his  prin- 
ciples lead,  when  one  of  his  followers,  in  a  publication  avowedly  un- 
der his  protection,  has  written  an  essay  to  show  that  our  Lord  was 
not  free  from  sin.  Many  years  before  Dr.  Priestley's  writings  ap- 
peared, the  received  notions  of  the  inspiration  of  the  apostles,  which 
had  been  held  by  Christians  without  much  examination,  were  acutely 

•  History  of  Early  Opinions,  vol.  iv.  p.  .5,  58 — voL  i.  p.  70. 


156  INSPIRATION    OF    SCRIPTURE. 

canvassed.  Dr.  Conyers  Middleton,  author  of  the  Life  of  Cicero,  has 
done  eminent  service  to  the  Protestant  cause,  by  exposing  the  impos- 
ture of  the  Popish  miracles,  and  by  tracing,  in  liis  Letter  from  Rome, 
the  Ijeathen  original  of  many  ceremonies  of  the  church  of  Rome. 
But  his  attachment  to  Christianity  itself  is  very  suspicious,  and  he  is 
far  from  being  a  safe  guide  in  any  questions  respecting  the  truth  of 
our  holy  faith.  In  some  of  his  misceUaneous  tracts,  he  infers  from 
the  dispute  between  Peter  and  Paul  at  Antioch,*  from  the  variations 
in  the  four  evangelists,  and  from  other  circumstances,  that  the  inspi- 
ration of  the  apostles  was  only  an  occasional  illapse,  communicated 
to  their  minds  at  particular  seasons,  as  the  power  of  working  mira- 
cles was  given  them  only  at  those  times  when  they  had  occasion  to 
exert  it;  that  they  were  not  under  the  continual  direction  of  aw  un- 
erring spirit ;  and  that,  on  ordinary  occasions,  they  were  in  the  con- 
dition of  ordinary  men.  Nearly  the  same  opinion  was  held  by  the 
late  Gilbert  Wakefield,  who  was  a  disciple  of  Priestley,  but  who 
does  not  appear  to  advance  so  far  as  his  master.  He  contends,  that 
a  plenary  infallible  inspiration,  attending  and  controlling  the  evangel- 
ists in  every  conjuncture,  is  a  doctrine  not  warranted  by  Scripture, 
unnecessary,  and  injurious  to  Christianity;  although  he  admits  that 
the  illuminating  Spirit  of  God  had  purified  their  minds,  and  enlarged 
their  ideas.  The  system  of  Bishop  Benson,  in  his  essay  concerning 
inspiration,  prefixed  to  his  paraphrase  of  St.  Paul's  epistles,  is,  that 
the  whole  scheme  of  the  gospel  was  communicated  from  heaven  to 
the  minds  of  the  apostles,  was  faithfully  retained  in  their  memories, 
and  is  expounded  in  their  writings  by  the  use  of  their  natural  facul- 
ties. The  loose  notions  concerning  inspiration,  entertained  by  the 
vulgar  and  by  those  who  never  thought  deeply  of  the  subject,  go  a 
great  deal  farther.  But  it  is  proper  that  you  should  know  distinctly 
what  is  the  measure  and  kind  of  inspiration  which  we  are  warranted 
to  hold. 

In  order  to  establish  your  minds  in  the  belief  that  the  Scriptures  are 
given  by  inspiration  of  God,  it  is  necessary  to  begin  with  observing, 
that  inspiration  is  not  impossible.  The  Father  of  Spirits  may  act 
upon  the  minds  of  his  creatures,  and  this  action  may  extend  to  any 
degree  which  the  purposes  of  divine  wisdom  require.  He  may 
superintend  the  minds  of  those  who  write,  so  as  to  prevent  the  possi- 
bility of  error  in  their  writings.  This  is  the  lowest  degree  of  inspira- 
tion. He  may  enlarge  their  understandings,  and  elevate  their  con- 
ceptions beyond  the  measure  of  ordinary  men.  This  is  a  second 
degree.  Or  he  may  suggest  to  them  the  thoughts  which  they  shall 
express,  and  the  words  which  they  shall  employ,  so  as  to  render  them 
merely  the  ..vehicles  of  conveying  his  will  to  others.  This  is  the 
highest  degree  of  inspiration.  No  sound  theist  will  deny  that  all 
three  degrees  are  possible  ;  and  it  remains  to  be  inquired,  what  reason 
we  have  for  thinking  that  the  Almighty  did  act  in  any  such  manner 
upon  the  minds  of  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament.  If  they  were 
really  inspired,  the  evidence  of  the  fact  will  probably  ascertain  the 
measure  of  inspiration  which  was  vouchsafed  to  them.  The  evidence 
consists  of  the  following  parts:  The  inspiration  of  the  apostles  was 

•  Gal.  ii. 


INSPIRATION    OF    SCRIPTURE.  157 

necessary  for  the  purposes  of  their  mission — It  was  promised  by  our 
Lord — It  is  claimed  by  themselves — The  claim  was  admitted  by  their 
disciples— And  it  is  not  contradicted  by  any  circumstance  in  their 
writings. 

I.  Inspiration  of  the  apostles  appears  to  have  been  necessary  for  the 
purposes  of  their  mission  ;  and,  therefore,  if  we  admit  that  Jesus 
came  from  God,  and  that  he  sent  them  forth  to  make  disciples  of  all 
nations,  we  shall  acknowledge  that  some  degree  of  inspiration  is 
highly  probable. 

The  first  light  in  which  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  lead  us 
to  consider  the  apostles  is,  as  the  historians  of  Jesus.  After  having 
been  his  companions  during  his  ministry,  they  came  forth  to  bear 
witness  of  him  ;  and  as  the  benefit  of  his  religion  was  not  to  be  con- 
fined to  the  age  in  which  he  or  they  lived,  they  left  in  the  four  Gos- 
pels a  record  of  v/hat  he  did  and  taught.  Two  of  the  four  were 
written  by  the  apostles  Matthew  and  John.  Mark  and  Luke,  whose 
names  are  prefixed  to  the  other  two,  were  probably  of  the  seventy 
whom  our  Lord  sent  out  in  his  lifetime ;  and  we  learn  from  the  most 
ancient  Christian  historians,  that  the  gospel  of  Mark  was  revised  by 
Peter,  and  the  gospel  of  Luke  by  Paul  ;  and  that  both  were  after- 
wards approved  by  John,  so  that  all  the  four  may  be  considered  as 
transmitted  to  the  church  with  the  sanction  of  apostolical  authority. 
Now,  if  you  recollect  the  condition  of  the  apostles,  and  the  nature  of 
their  history,  you  will  perceive  that,  even  as  historians,  they  stood  in 
need  of  some  measure  of  inspiration.  Plato  might  feel  himself  at 
liberty  to  feign  many  things  of  his  master  Socrates,  because  it  mat- 
tered little  to  the  world  whether  the  instruction  that  was  conveyed  to 
them  proceeded  from  the  one  philosopher  or  from  the  other.  But  the 
servants  of  a  divine  teacher,  who  appeared  as  his  witnesses,  and  pro- 
fessed to  be  the  historians  of  his  life,  were  bound  by  their  office  to 
give  a  true  record.  And  their  history  was  an  imposition  upon  the 
world,  if  they  did  not  declare  exactly  and  literally  what  they  had 
seen  and  heard.  This  was  an  office  which  required  not  only  a  love 
of  the  truth,  but  a  memory  more  retentive  and  more  accurate  than  it 
was  possible  for  persons  of  the  character  and  education  of  the  apostles 
to  possess.  To  relate,  at  the  distance  of  twenty  years,  long  moral 
discourses,  which  were  not  originally  written,  and  which  were  not 
attended  with  any  striking  circumstances  that  might  imprint  them 
upon  the  mind ;  to  preserve  a  variety  of  parables,  the  beauty  and 
significancy  of  which  depended  upon  particular  expressions ;  to  re- 
cord long  and  minute  prophecies,  where  the  alteration  of  a  single 
plirase  might  have  produced  an  inconsistency  between  the  event  and 
the  prediction  ;  and  to  give  a  particular  detail  of  the  intercourse 
which  Jesus  had  with  his  friends  and  with  his  enemies ;  all  this  is  a 
work  so  very  nmch  above  the  capacity  of  unlearned  men,  that,  had 
they  attempted  to  execute  it  by  their  own  natural  powers,  they  must 
have  fallen  into  such  absurdities  and  contradictions  as  would  have 
betrayed  them  to  every  discerning  eye.  It  was  therefore  highly 
expedient,  and  even  necessary  for  the  faith  of  future  ages,  that  besides 
those  opportunities  of  information  which  the  apostles  enjoyed,  and 
that  tried  integrity  which  they  possessed,  their  understanding  and 
their  memory  should  be  assisted  by  a  supernatural  influence,  which 
16 


158  INSPIRATION    OF    SCRIPTURE. 

might  prevent  them  from  mistaking  the  meaning  of  what  they  had 
heard,  which  might  restrain  them  from  putting  into  the  mouth  of 
Jesus  any  words  which  he  did  not  utter,  or  from  omitting  what  was 
important,  and  which  might  thus  give  us  perfect  security,  that  the 
Gospels  are  as  faithful  a  copy,  as  if  Jesus  himself  had  left  in  writing 
those  sayings  and  those  actions  wliich  he  wished  posterity  to  remem- 
ber. 

But  we  consider  the  apostles  in  the  lowest  view,  when  we  speak - 
of  them  as  barely  the  historians  of  their  Master.  In  their  epistles 
they  assume  a  higher  character,  which  renders  inspiration  still  more 
necessary.  All  the  benefit,  which  they  derived  from  the  public  and 
the  private  instructions  of  Jesus  before  his  death,  had  not  so  far  opened 
their  minds  as  to  qualify  them  for  receiving  the  whole  counsel  of  God. 
And  he,  who  knows  what  is  in  man,  declares  to  them  the  night  on 
which  he  was  betrayed,  "  I  have  yet  many  things  to  say  unto  you, 
but  you  cannot  bear  them  now."*  The  purpose  of  many  of  his 
parables,  the  full  meaning  even  of  some  of  his  plain  discourses,  had 
not  been  attained  by  them.  They  had  marvelled  when  he  spake  to 
them  of  earthly  things.  But  many  heavenly  things  of  his  kingdom 
had  not  been  told  them :  and  they,  who  were  destined  to  carry  his 
religion  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  themselves  needed,  at  the  time  of 
their  receiving  this  commission,  that  some  one  should  instruct  them 
in  the  doctrine  of  Christ.  It  is  true  that,  after  his  resurrection,  Jesus 
opened  their  understandings,  and  explained  to  them  the  Scriptures,, 
and  he  continued  upon  earth  forty  days,  speaking  to  them  of  the 
things  pertaining  to  the  kingdom  of  God.  It  appears,  however,  from 
the  history  which  they  have  recorded  in  the  book  of  Acts,  that  some 
further  teaching  was  necessary  for  them.t  Immediately  before  our 
Lord  ascended,  their  minds  being  still  full  of  the  expectation  of  a 
temporal  kingdom,  they  say  unto  him.  Lord,  wilt  thou  at  this  time 
restore  the  kingdom  to  Israel  ?  It  was  not  till  some  time  after  they 
received  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  they  understood  that  the 
gospel  had  taken  away  the  obligation  to  observe  the  ceremonies  of 
the  Mosaic  law :  and  the  action  of  Peter  in  baptizing  Cornelius,  a 
devout  heathen,  gave  offence  to  some  of  the  apostles  and  brethren  in 
Judea  when  they  first  heard  it.J  Yet  in  their  epistles,  we  find  just 
notions  of  the  spiritual  nature  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  as  a  kingdom 
of  righteousness,  the  faithful  subjects  of  which  are  to  receive  remis- 
sion of  sins,  and  sanctification  through  his  blood,  and  just  notions  of 
the  extent  of  this  religion  as  a  dispensation,  the  spiritual  blessings  of 
which  are  to  be  communicated  to  all  in  every  land  who  receive  it  in 
faith  and  love.  These  notions  appear  to  us  to  be  the  explication 
both  of  the  ancient  predictions,  and  of  many  particular  expressions 
that  occur  in  the  discourses  of  our  Lord.  But  it  is  manifest  that  they 
had  not  been  acquired  by  the  apostles  during  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 
They  are  so  adverse  to  every  thing  which  men  educated  in  Jewish 
prejudices  had  learned,  and  had  hoped,  that  they  could  not  be  the 
fruit  of  their  own  reflections  ;  and,  therefore,  they  imply  the  teachnig 
of  that  Spirit  who  gradually  impressed  them  upon  the  mind,  guiding 
the  apostles  gently,  as  they  were  able  to  follow  him,  into  all  the  truth 

•  John  XV.  12.  -j-  Acts  ch.  i.  t  Acts  ch.  xi. 


INSPIRATION    OF    SCRIPTURE.  159 

connected  with  the  salvation  of  mankind.  As  inspiration  was  neces- 
sary to  give  the  minds  of  the  apostles  possession  of  the  system  that 
is  unfolded  in  their  epistles,  so  many  parts  of  that  system  are  removed 
at  such  a  distance  from  human  discoveries,  and  are  liable  to  such 
misapprehension,  that  unless  we  suppose  a  continued  superintendence 
of  the  Spirit  by  whom  it  was  taught,  succeeding  ages  would  not  have 
a  sufficient  security  that  those,  who  were  employed  to  deliver  it,  had 
not  been  guilty  of  gross  mistakes  in  some  most  important  doctrines. 

Inspiration  will  appear  still  further  necessary,  when  you  recollect 
that  the  writings  of  the  apostles  contain  several  predictions  of  things 
to  come.  Paul  foretells,  in  his  epistles,  the  corruptions  of  the  church 
of  Rome,  and  many  other  circumstances  which  have  taken  place  in 
the  history  of  the  Christian  church :  and  the  Revelation  is  a  book  of 
prophecy,  of  which  part  has  been  already  fulfilled,  while  the  rest,  we 
trust,  will  be  explained  by  the  events  which  are  to  arise  in  the  course 
of  Providence.  But  prophecy  is  a  kind  of  writing  which  implies  the 
highest  degree  of  inspiration.  When  predictions,  like  those  in  Scrip- 
ture, are  particular  and  complicated,  and  the  events  are  so  remote  and 
so  contingent  as  to  be  out  of  the  reach  of  human  sagacity,  it  is  plain 
that  the  writers  of  the  predictions  do  not  speak  according  to  the  mea- 
sure of  information  which  they  had  acquired  by  natural  means,  but 
are  merely  the  instruments  through  which  the  Almighty  communi- 
cates, in  such  measure  and  such  language  as  he  thinks  fit,  that  know- 
ledge of  futurity  which  is  denied  to  man.  And  although  the  full 
meaning  of  their  own  predictions  was  not  understood  by  themselves, 
they  will  be  acknowledged  to  be  true  prophets,  when  the  fulfilment 
comes  to  reflect  light  upon  that  language,  which,  for  wise  purposes, 
WHS  made  dark  at  the  time  of  its  being  put  into  their  mouth. 

Thus  the  nature  of  the  writings  of  the  apostles  suggests  the  neces- 
sity of  their  having  been  inspired.  They  could  not  be  accurate  his- 
torians of  the  life  of  Jesus  without  one  degree  of  inspiration ;  nor 
safe  expounders  of  his  doctrine  without  a  higher;  nor  prophets  of 
distant  events  without  the  highest.  As  all  the  three  degrees  are  equally 
possible  to  God,  it  is  natural  to  presume,  from  the  end  for  which  the 
apostles  were  sent,  that  the  degree  wliichwas  suited  to  every  part  of 
their  writings  was  not  withheld;  and  we  find  the  promise  of  Jesus 
perfectly  agreeable  to  this  presumption. 

II.  Inspiration  of  the  apostles  was  promised  by  our  Lord.  It  is 
not  unfair  reasoning  to  adduce  promises  contained  in  the  Scriptures 
themselves,  as  proofs  of  their  divine  inspiration.  It  were,  indeed, 
reasoning  in  a  circle,  to  bring  the  testimony  of  the  Scriptures  in  proof 
of  the  divine  mission  of  Jesus.  But  that  being  established  by  the 
evidence  which  has  been  stated,  and  the  books  of  the  New  Testament 
having  been  proved  to  be  the  authentic  genuine  records  of  the  per- 
sons whose  names  they  bear,  we  are  warranted  to  argue  from  the 
declarations  contained  in  them,  what  is  the  measure  of  inspiration 
which  Jesus  was  pleased  to  bestow  upon  his  servants.  He  might 
have  been  a  divine  teacher,  and  they  might  have  been  his  apostles, 
although  he  had  bestowed  none  at  all.  But  his  character  gives  us 
security  that  they  possessed  all  that  he  promised.  We  read  in  the 
gospels  that  Jesus  "  ordained  tv/elve  that  they  should  be  witli  him, 


160  INSPIRATION    OF    SCRIPTURE. 

and  that  he  might  send  them  forth  to  preach."*    And  as  this  was  the 
purpose  for  which  they  were  first  called,  so  it  was  the  charge  left 
them  at  his  departure — "  Go,"  said  he,  "preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature  ;  make  disciples  of  all  nations."!     His  constant  familiar  in- 
tercourse with  them  was  intended  to  qualify  them  for  the  execution 
of  this  charge  ;  and  the  promises  made  to  them  have  a  special  refe- 
rence to  the  office  in  which  they  were  to  be  employed.     When  he 
sent  them  during  his  life  to  preach  in  the  cities  of  Israel,  he  said, 
"  But  when  they  deliver  you  up,  take  no  thought  how  or  what  ye 
shall  speak,  for  it  shall  be  given  you  in  that  same  hour  what  ye  shall 
speak.     For  it  is  not  ye  that  speak,  but  the  Spirit  of  your  Father 
which  speaketh  in  you."t     And  when  he  spake  to  them  in  his  pro- 
phecy of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  of  the  persecutions  which  they 
were  to  endure  after  his  death,  he  repei^ts  the  same  promise :  "  For  I 
will  give  you  a  mouth  and  wisdom,  which  all  your  adversaries  shall 
not  be  able  to  gainsay  nor  resist."§     It  is  admitted  that  the  words  in 
both  these  passages  refer  properly  to  that  assistance,  which  the  inex- 
perience of  the  apostles  was  to  derive  from  the  suggestions  of  the 
Spirit,  when  they  should  be  called  to  defend  their  conduct  and  their 
cause  before  the  tribunals  of  the  magistrates.     But  the  fulfilment  of 
this  promise  was  a  pledge,  both  to  the  apostles  and  to  the  world,  that 
the  measure  of  inspiration  necessary  for  the  more  important  purpose 
implied  in  their  commission  would  not  be  withheld  ;  and  accordingly, 
when  that  purpose  came  to  be  unfolded  to  the  apostles,  the  promise 
of  the  assistance  of  the  Spirit  was  expressed  in  a  manner  which  ap- 
plies it  to  the  extent  of  their  commission.     In  the  long  affectionate 
discourse  recorded  by  John,  when  our  Lord  took  a  solemn  farewell 
of  the  disciples,  after  eating  the  last  passover  with  them,  he  said, 
"  And  I  will  pray  the  Father,  and  he  shall  give  you  another  Com- 
forter, that  he  may  abide  with  you  for  ever :  even  the  Spirit  of  truth, 
whom  the  world  cannot  receive,  because  it  seeth  him  not,  neither 
knoweth  him.     But  ye  know  him,  for  he  dwelleth  with  you,  and 
shall  be  in  you.    The  Comforter,  which  is  the  Holy  Ghost,  whom  the 
Father  will  send  in  my  name,  he  shall  teach  you  all  things,  and  bring 
all  things  to  your  remembrance,  whatsoever  I  have  said  unto  you.     I 
have  yet  many  things  to  say  unto  you,  but  you  cannot  bear  them 
now.     Hovvbeit,  when  he  the  Spirit  of  truth  is  come,  he  will  guide 
you  into  all  truth ;  for  he  shall  not  speak  himself,  but  whatsoever  he 
shall  hear  that  shall  he  speak  ;  and  he  will  show  you  things  to  come."|| 
Here  are  all  the  degrees  of  inspiration  which  we  found  to  be  neces- 
sary for  the  apostles :  the  Spirit  was  to  bring  to  their  remembrance 
what  they  had  heard — to  guide  them  into  the  truth,  which  they  were 
not  then  able  to  bear — and  to  show  them  thin2:s  to  come;  and  all 
this  they  were  to  derive,  not  from  occasional  illapses,  but  from  the 
perpetual  inhabitation  of  the  Spirit.  That  this  inspiration  was  vouch- 
safed to  them,  not  for  their  own  sakes,  but  in  order  to  qualify  them 
for  the  successful  discharge  of  their  office  as  the  messen2:-^rs  of  Christ, 
and  the  instructors  of  mankind,  appears  from  several  expressions  of 

•  Mark  iii.  14.         f  Mark  xvi.  16  ;  Matt,  xxviii.  If).     Sec  original. 
i  Matt.  X.  19,  20.     See  original.  §  Luke  xxi.  15. 

I  John  xiv.  16,  17,  26:  xvi.  12,  13.     See  original. 


f 


INSPIRATION    OF    SCRIPTURE.  161 

tliat  prayer  which  immediately  follows  the  discourse  containing  the 
promise  of  inspiration ;  particularly  from  these  words,  "  Neither  pray 
I  for  these  alone,  but  for  them  also  which  shall  believe  on  me  through 
their  word ;  that  they  all  may  be  one,  as  thou,  Father,  art  in  me,  and 
I  in  thee ;  that  they  may  be  one  in  us ;  that  the  world  may  believe 
that  thou  hast  sent  me."*  In  conformity  to  this  prayer,  so  becoming 
him  who  was  not  merely  the  friend  of  the  apostles,  but  the  light  of 
the  world,  is  that  charge  which  he  gives  them  immediately  before  his 
ascension.  "  Go  ye,  therefore,  and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them 
in  tlie  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost: 
teaching  them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded 
yoii :  and,  lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world," 
— the  conclusion  of  the  age  that  has  been  introduced  by  my  appear- 
ance, I  am  with  you  alway,  not  by  my  bodily  presence,  for  imme- 
diately after  he  was  taken  out  of  their  sight,  but  I  am  with  you  by 
the  Holy  Ghost,  wliich  I  am  to  send  upon  you  not  many  days  hence, 
and  which  is  to  abide  with  you  for  ever.t 

The  promise  of  Jesus  then  implies,  according  to  the  plain  construc- 
tion of  the  words,  that  the  apostles,  in  executing  their  commission, 
were  not  to  be  left  wholly  to  their  natural  powers,  but  were  to  be 
assisted  by  that  illumination  and  direction  of  the  Spirit  which  the 
nature  of  the  commission  required ;  and  you  may  learn  the  sense 
which  our  Lord  had  of  the  importance  and  effect  of  this  promise  from 
one  circumstance,  that  he  never  makes  any  distinction  between  his  own 
words  and  those  of  hisapostles,but  places  the  doctrines  and  command- 
ments which  they  were  to  deliver  upon  a  footing  with  those  which 
he  had  spoken :  "  He  that  heareth  you,  heareth  me ;  and  he  that 
despiseth  you,  despiseth  me  ;  and  he  that  despiseth  me,  despiseth 
him  that  sent  me,"J  These  words  plainly  imply,  that  Christians 
have  no  warrant  to  pay  less  regard  to  any  thing  contained  in  the 
Epistles  than  to  that  which  is  contained  in  the  Gospels;  and  teach 
us,  that  every  doctrine  and  precept  clearly  delivered  by  the  apostles, 
comes  to  the  Christian  world  with  the  same  stamp  of  divine  authority 
as  the  words  of  Jesus,  who  spake  in  the  name  of  him  that  sent  him. 

The  author  of  our  religion,  having  thus  made  the  faith  of  the  Chris- 
tian world  to  hang  upon  the  teaching  of  the  apostles,  gave  the  most 
signal  manifestation  of  the  fulfilment  of  that  promise  which  was  to 
qualify  them  for  their  office,  by  the  miraculous  gifts  with  which  they 
were  endowed  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  and  by  the  abundance  of  those 
gifts  which  the  imposition  of  their  hands  was  to  diffuse  through  the 
church.  One  of  the  twelve  indeed,  whose  labours  in  preaching  the 
Gospel  were  the  most  abundant  and  the  most  extensive,  was  not 
present  at  this  manifestation,  for  Paul  was  not  called  to  be  an  apostle 
till  after  the  day  of  Pentecost.  But  it  is  very  remarkable,  that  the 
manner  of  his  being  called  was  expressly  calculated  to  supply  this 
deficiency.  As  he  journeyed  to  Damascus,  about  noon,  to  bring  the 
Christians  who  were  there  bound  to  Jerusalem,  there  shone  from 
heaven  a  great  light  around  about  him.  And  he  heard  a  voice,  saying, 
I  am  Jesus  whom  thou  persecutest.  And  I  have  appeared  unto  thee 
for  this  purpose,  to  make  thee  a  minister  and  a  witness,  both  of  these 

•  John  xvii,  20,  21.  f  Matt,  xxviii.  19,  20.     See  original.  i  Luke  x.  16. 

10*  2  A 


162  INSPIRATION    OF    SCRIPTURE. 

things  which  thou  hast  seen,  and  of  those  things  in  the  which  I  will 
appear  unto  thee  ;  and  now  I  send  thee  to  the  Gentiles  to  open  their 
eyes.*  In  reference  to  this  manner  of  his  being  called,  Paul  generally 
inscribes  his  epistles  with  these  words :  Paul  an  apostle  of  Jesus 
Christ,  by  the  will  or  by  the  commandment  of  God  ;  and  he  explains 
very  fully  what  he  meant  by  the  use  of  this  expression,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  his  epistle  to  the  Galatians,  where  he  gives  an  account  of  his 
conversion.  "  Paul  an  apostle,  not  of  men,  neither  by  man,  but  by 
Jesus  Christ,  and  God  the  Father,  who  raised  him  from  the  dead.  I 
neither  received  the  Gospel  of  man,  neither  was  I  taught  it,  but  by 
the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ.  When  it  pleased  God,  who  separated 
me  from  my  mother's  womb,  and  called  me  by  his  grace,  to  reveal 
his  Son  in  me,  that  I  might  preach  him  among  the  heathen ;  imme- 
diately I  conferred  not  with  flesh  and  blood,  neither  went  I  up  to 
Jerusalem  to  them  which  were  apostles  before  me  ;  but  1  went  unto 
Arabia."t  All  that  we  said  of  the  necessity  of  inspiration,  and  of  the 
import  of  the  promise  which  Jesus  made  to  the  other  apostles,  receives 
very  great  confirmation  from  this  history  of  Paul,  who,  being  called 
to  be  an  apostle  after  the  ascension  of  Jesus,  received  the  Gospel  by 
immediate  revelation  from  heaven,  and  was  thus  put  upon  a  footing 
with  the  rest,  both  as  to  his  designation,  which  did  not  proceed  from 
tiie  choice  of  man,  and  as  to  his  qnaliiications,  which  were  imparted 
not  by  human  instruction,  but  by  the  teaching  of  the  author  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  Lord  Jesus,  who  appeared  to  him,  might  furnish  Paul 
\yith  the  same  advantages  which  the  other  apostles  had  derived  from 
his  presence  on  earth,  and  might  give  him  the  same  assurance  of  the 
inhabitation  of  the  Spirit  that  the  promises,  which  we  have  been  con- 
sidering, had  imparted  to  those. 

III.  Inspiration  was  claimed  by  the  apostles,  and  their  claim  may 
be  considered  as  the  interpretation  of  the  promise  of  their  Master. 

You  will  not  find  the  claim  to  inspiration  formally  advanced  in  the 
Gospels.  This  omission  has  sometimes  been  stated  by  those  super- 
ficial critics  whose  prejudices  serve  to  account  for  their  haste,  as  an 
objection  against  the  existence  of  inspiration.  But  if  you  attend  to 
the  reason  of  the  omission,  you  will  perceive  that  it  is  only  an  instance 
of  that  delicate  propriety  which  pervades  all  the  New  Testament. 

The  Gospels  are  the  record  of  the  great  facts  which  vouch  the  truth 
of  Christianity.  These  facts  are  to  be  received  upon  the  testimony 
of  men  who  had  been  eye-witnesses  of  them.  The  foundation  of 
Christian  faith  being  laid  in  an  assent  to  these  facts,  it  would  have 
been  preposterous  to  have  introduced  in  support  of  them,  that  super- 
intendence of  the  Spirit  which  preserved  the  minds  of  the  apostles 
from  error.  For  there  can  be  no  proof  of  the  inspiration  of  the 
apostles,  unless  the  truth  of  the  fucts  be  previously  admitted.  The 
apostles,  therefore,  bring  forward  the  evidence  of  Christianity  in  its 
natural  order,  when  they  speak  in  the  Gospels  as  the  companions 
and  eye-witnesses  of  Jesus,  claiming  that  credit  which  is  Hue  to 
honest  men  who  had  the  best  opportunities  of  knowing  what  they 
declared.     This  is  the  language  of  John.J     "  Many  other  signs  did 

•  Actsxxvi.  12— 18.  f  Gal.  i.  1,13,  15,  16,  17. 

t  John  XX.  30,  31,  and  xxi.  24. 


INSPIRATION    OF    SCRIPTURE.  163 

Jesus  in  the  presence  of  his  disciples.  But  these  are  written  that  ye 
may  believe,  and  this  is  the  disciple  which  testifieth  these  thnigs." 
The  evangelist  Luke  appears  to  speak  ditierently  in  the  introduction 
to  his  Gospel  ;*  and  opposite  opinions  have  been  entertained  respect- 
ing the  information  conveyed  by  that  introduction. 

There  is  a  difference  of  opinion,  first,  with  regard  to  the  time  when 
Luke  wrote  his  Gospel.  It  appears  to  some  to  be  expressly  intimated 
that  he  wrote  after  Matthew  and  Mark,  because  he  speaks  of  other 
Gospels  tlien  in  circulation  ;  and  it  is  generally  understood  that  John 
wrote  iiis  after  the  other  three.  But  the  manner  in  which  Luke 
speaks  of  these  other  Gospels  does  not  seem  to  apply  to  those  of  Mat- 
thew and  Mark.  He  calls  them  many,  which  implies  that  they  were 
more  than  two,  and  which  would  confound  these  two  canonical  Gos- 
pels with  imperfect  accounts  of  our  Lord's  life,  which  we  know  from 
ancient  writers  were  early  circulated,  but  were  rejected  after  the  four 
Gospels  were  published.  It  is  hardly  conceivable  that  Luke  would 
have  alluded  to  the  two  Gospels  of  Matthew  and  Mark  without  dis- 
tinguishing them  from  other  very  inferior  productions ;  and  therefore 
it  is  probable,  that  when  he  used  this  mode  of  expression,  no  accounts 
of  our  Lord's  life  were  then  in  existence  but  those  inferior  produc- 
tions. There  appears  also  to  very  sound  critics  to  be  internal  evidence 
that  Luke  wrote  first.  He  is  much  more  particular  than  the  other 
evangelists  in  his  report  of  our  Lord's  birth,  and  of  the  meetings  with 
his  apostles  after  his  resurrection.  They  might  think  it  unnecessary 
to  introduce  the  same  particulars  into  their  Gospels  after  Luke.  But 
if  they  wrote  before  him,  the  want  of  these  particulars  gives  to  their 
Gospels  an  appearance  of  imperfection  which  we  cannot  easily  ex- 
plain. 

The  other  point  suggested  by  this  introduction,  upon  which  there 
has  been  a  ditlerecne  of  opinion,  is,  whether  Luke,  who  was  not  an 
apostle,  wrote  his  Gospel  from  personal  knowledge,  attained  by  his 
being  a  companion  of  Jesus,  or  from  the  information  of  others.  Our 
translation  certainly  favours  the  last  opinion ;  and  it  is  the  more 
general  opinion,  defended  by  very  able  critics.  Dr.  Randolph,  in  the 
first  volume  of  his  works,  which  contains  a  history  of  our  Saviour's 
life,  supports  the  first  opinion,  and  suggests  a  punctuation  of  the 
verses,  and  an  interpretation  of  one  word,  according  to  which  that 
opinion  may  be  defended.  Read  the  second  and  third  verses  in  con- 
nexion. KaOioj  na^i^oaav  jy^iv  ot  art'  a^XV^  avtort-fai  xat  vrtJj^fTai  yivofxivoi.  rov  ?.o)'od 
ESo*£  xajitot,  fta^r^xokoverixofi,  oiVuOtv  rtatjiv  axgiScoj  xaOs^tj;  eoi  y^a^ai,  x^atiate  ©lo^ty.s. 

By  jjiw"'  is  understood  the  Christian  world,  who  had  received  informa- 
tion, both  oral  and  written,  from  those  that  had  been  avroTttai.  xav 
inr^iftai.  Kauot  mcaus  Luke,  who  proposed  to  follow  the  example  of 
those  avtontat,  in  writing  what  he  knew  ;  and  he  describes  his  own 
knowledge  by  the  word  rto^y^xoxovOr^xoii,  which  is  more  precise  than  tlie 
circumlocution,  by  which  it  is  translated,  "having  had  perfect  under- 
standing of  all  things."  Perfect  understanding  may  be  derived  from 
various^  sources  :  but  na^axoxovdeu  properly  means,  I  go  along  with  as 
a  companion,  and  derive  knowledge  from  my  own  observation.  And, 
it  is  remarkable,  that  the  word  is  used  in  this  very  sense  by  the  Jew- 

•  Luke  i.  1—4. 


164  INSPIRATION    OF    SCRIPTURE. 

ish  historian  Josephus,  who  published  his  history  not  many  years 
after  Luke  wrote,  and  who  in  his  introduction  represents  himself  as 
worthy  of  credit,  because  he  had  not  merely  inquired  of  those  who 
knew,  but  Tta^i^xoxovOrjxora, ■coLiyeyofoai,!',  wliicli  lie  explains  by  this  expres- 
sion, Tioxxi^v  ft,iv  ajveov^yoi  Ti^o^toiv,  Ti'Kii.s'tt^v  b^oMtorftYii  ytvoj/.tvoi;.  Jf  tliis  inter- 
pretation is  not  approved  of,  then,  according  to  tiie  sense  of  those 
verses  which  is  most  commonly  adopted,  Luke  will  be  understood  to 
give  in  the  second  verse,  an  account  of  that  ground  upon  which  the 
knowledge  of  the  Christian  world  with  regard  to  these  things  rested, 
the  reports  of  the  avrortrat  xat  i-rt^j^fTac, ;  and  to  state  in  the  third  verse, 
that  he,  having  collected  and  collated  these  reports  and  employed  the 
most  careful  and  minute  investigation,  had  resolved  to  write  an  ac- 
count of  the  life  of  Jesus.  Here  he  does  not  claim  inspiration :  he 
does  not  even  say  that  he  was  an  eye-witness.  But  he  says  that, 
having  like  others  heard  the  report  of  eye-witnesses,  lie  had  accurately 
examined  the  truth  of  what  they  said,  and  presented  to  the  Christian 
world  the  fruit  of  his  researches. 

The  foundation  is  still  the  same  as  in  John's  gospel,  the  report  of 
those  in  whose  presence  Jesus  did  and  said  what  is  recorded.  To 
this  report  are  added,  L  The  investigation  of  Luke,  a  contemporary 
of  the  apostles,  the  companion  of  Paul  in  a  great  part  of  his  journey- 
ings,  and  honoured  by  him  with  this  title, "  Luke  the  beloved  physi- 
cian."* 2.  The  approbation  of  Paul,  who  is  said  by  the  earliest 
Christian  writers  to  have  revised  this  gospel,  written  by  his  com- 
panion, so  that  it  came  abroad  with  apostolical  authority.  3.  The 
universal  consent  of  the  Christian  church,  which,  although  jealous  of 
the  books  that  were  tlien  published,  and  rejecting  many  that  claimed 
the  sanction  of  the  apostles,  has  uniformly,  from  the  earliest  times,  put 
the  Gospel  of  Luke  upon  a  footing  with  those  of  Matthew  and  Mark  ; 
a  clear  demonstration  that  they  who  had  access  to  the  best  informa- 
tion knew  that  it  had  been  revised  by  an  apostle. 

As  then  tlie  authors  of  the  Gospels  appear  under  the  character  of 
eye-witnesses,  attesting  what  they  had  seen,  there  would  have  been 
an  impropriety  in  their  resting  the  evidence  of  the  essential  facts  of 
Christianity  upon  inspiration.  But  after  the  respect  which  their 
character  and  their  conduct  procured  to  their  testimony,  and  the 
visible  confirmatioij  which  it  received  from  heaven,  had  established 
the  faith  of  a  part  of  the  world,  a  belief  of  their  inspiration  became 
necessary.  They  might  have  been  credible  witnesses  of  facts,  although 
they  had  not  been  distinguished  from  other  men.  But  they  were  not 
qualified  to  execute  the  office  of  apostles  without  being  inspired.  And 
therefore,  as  soon  as  the  circumstances  of  the  church  required  the 
execution  of  that  office,  the  claim  which  had  been  conveyed  to  them 
by  the  promise  of  their  Master,  and  which  is  implied  in  the  apostolical 
character,  appears  in  their  writings.  They  iiistantly  exercised  the 
authority  derived  to  them  from  Jesus,  by  planting  ministers  in  the 
cities  where  they  had  preached  the  gospel,  by  setting  every  thing  per- 
taining to  these  Christian  societies  in  order,  by  controlling  the  exer- 
cise of  those  miraculous  gifts  which  they  had  imparted,  and  by  cor- 
recting the  abuses  which  happened  even  in  their  time.     But  they  de- 

*  Coloss.  iv.  14. 


INSPIRATION    OF    SCRIPTURE.  165 

manded,  from  all  who  had  received  the  faith  of  Christ,  submission  to 
the  doctrines  and  commandments  of  his  apostles,  as  tiie  insphed  mes- 
sengt^rs  of  heaven.  "  But  God  hath  revealed  it,"  not  tliem,  as  our 
translators  have  supplied  the  accusative,  revealed  the  wisdom  of  God, 
the  dispensation  of  the  Gospel  "unto  us  by  his  Spirit;  for  the  Spirit 
scarcheth  all  things,  yea,  the  deep  things  of  God.  Now  we  liave  re- 
ceived not  the  spirit  of  the  world,  but  the  Spirit  which  is  of  God  ;  that 
we  might  know  the  tilings  which  are  freely  given  us  of  God  ;  which 
things  also  we  speak,  not  in  the  words  which  man's  wisdom  teacheth, 
but  which  the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth."*  "  If  any  man  think  himself 
to  be  a  prophet,  or  spiritual,  let  him  acknowledge  that  the  things  that 
1  write  unto  you  are  the  commandments  of  the  Lord :"  i.  e.  Let  no 
eminence  of  spiritual  gifts  be  set  up  in  opposition  to  the  authority  of 
the  apostles,  or  as  implying  any  dispensation  from  submitting  to  it.t 
"  For  this  cause  also  thank  we  God  without  ceasing,  because  when 
ye  received  the  word  of  God  which  ye  heard  of  us,  ye  received  it  not 
as  the  word  of  men,  but,  as  it  is  in  truth,  the  word  of  God. "J  Peter 
speaking  of  the  epistles  of  Paul,  says,  "  Even  as  our  beloved  brother 
Paul  also,  according  to  the  wisdom  given  unto  him,  hath  written  unto 
you."§  And  John  makes  the  same  claim  of  inspiration  for  the  other 
apostles,  as  well  as  for  himself  "  We  are  of  God  :  he  that  knoweth 
God,  heareth  us  ;  he  that  is  not  of  God,  heareth  not  us."|| 

The  claim  to  inspiration  is  clearly  made  by  the  apostles  in  those 
passages,  where  they  place  their  own  writings  upon  the  same  footing 
with  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament ;  for  Paul,  speaking  of  the 
ifga  yea,u.uora,  a  commou  expression  among  the  Jews  for  their  scrip- 
tures, in  which  Timothy  had  been  instructed  from  his  childhood,  says, 
"  All  scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God."1I  Peter,  speaking  of 
the  ancient  prophets,  says,  "  The  Spirit  of  Christ  was  in  them  ;"  and 
"  The  prophecy  came  not  in  old  time  by  the  will  of  man  ;  but  holy 
men  of  God  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost."**  And 
the  quotations  of  our  Lord  and  his  apostles  from  the  books  of  the 
Old  Testament  are  often  introduced  with  an  expression  in  which  their 
inspiration  is  directly  asserted.  "Well  spake  the  Holy  Ghost  by 
Esaias ;"  "  By  the  mouth  of  thy  servant  David  thou  hast  said,"tt 
&c.  &c. 

With  this  uniform  testimony  to  that  inspiration  of  the  Jewish  scrip- 
tures, which  was  universally  believed  among  that  people,  you  are  to 
conjoin  this  circumstance,  that  Paul  and  Peter  in  different  places  rank 
their  own  writhigs  with  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament.  Paul  com- 
mands that  his  epistles  should  be  read  in  the  churches,  where  none 
but  those  books  which  the  Jews  believed  to  be  inspired  were  ever 
read.Jt  He  says  that  Christians  "  are  built  upon  the  foundation  of 
the  apostles  and  prophets;"  tTtttc^^sft.tXKUi'tiov  artoato-Kw  xa.i7i^o<fritw,^K  a 
conjunction  which  would  have  been  highly  improper,  if  the  former 
had  not  been  inspired  as  well  as  the  latter :  and  Peter  charges  the 
Christians  to  "  be  mindful  of  the  words  which  were  spoken  before  by 
the  holy  prophets,  and  of  the  commandment  of  us  the  apostles."!!|| 

•  Cor.  ii.  10,  12.  13.  f  I    Cor.  xiv.  37.  \  1  Thes.  ii.  13. 

§  2  Pet.  iii.  15.  HI  John  iv.  6.  ^2  Tim.  iil  16. 

•*  1  Pet.  i.  II.  2  Pet.  i.  21.  ff  Acts  i.  16.  iv.  25.  iiTiii.  25. 

%\  Col.  iv.  16.  \\  Ephes.  ii.  20.  JH  2  Pet.  ill  2. 


166  INSPIRATION    OF    SCRIPTURE. 

The  nature  of  the  book  of  Revelation  led  the  apostle  John  to  assert 
most  directly  his  personal  inspiration ;  for  he  says  that  "  Jesus  sent 
and  signified  by  his  angel  to  his  servant  John  the  things  that  were  to 
come  to  pass  :"  and  that  the  divine  person,  like  the  Son  of  Man,  who 
appeared  to  him  when  he  was  in  the  spirit,  commanded  him  to  write 
in  a  book  what  he  saw :  and  in  one  of  the  visions  recorded  in  that 
book.  Rev.  xxi.  14,  when  the  dispensation  of  the  gospel  was  present- 
ed to  John  under  the  figure  of  a  great  city,  the  new  Jerusalem,  de- 
scending out  of  heaven,  there  is  one  part  of  the  image  that  is  a 
beautiful  expression  of  that  authority  in  settling  the  form  of  the 
Christian  church,  and  in  teaching  articles  of  faith,  which  the  apostles 
derived  from  their  inspiration :  "  The  wall  of  the  city  had  twelve 
foundations,  and  in  them  the  names  of  the  twelve  apostles  of  the 
Lamb."* 

These  are  only  a  few  of  the  many  passages  to  the  same  purpose 
which  will  occur  to  you  in  reading  the  New  Testament  :  but  it  is 
manifest  even  from  them,  that  the  maimer  in  which  the  apostles  speak 
of  their  own  writings  is  calculated  to  mislead  every  candid  reader,  un- 
less they  really  wrote  under  the  direction  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  So 
gross  and  daring  an  imposture  is  absolutely  inconsistent  not  only  with 
their  whole  character,  but  also  with  those  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  of 
which  there  is  unquestionable  evidence  that  they  were  possessed ; 
and  which,  being  the  natural  vouchers  of  the  assertion  made  by  them 
concerning  their  own  writings,  cannot  be  supposed,  upon  the  princi- 
ples of  sound  theism,  to  have  been  imparted  for  a  long  course  of 
years  to  persons  who  continued  during  all  that  time  asserting  such  a 
falsehood,  and  appealing  to  those  gifts  for  the  truth  of  what  they  said. 

IV.  The  claim  of  the  apostles  derives  much  confirmation  from  the 
reception  which  it  met  with  amongst  the  Christians  of  their  days.  It 
appears  from  an  expression  of  Peter,  that  at  the  time  when  he  wrote 
his  second  epistle,  the  epistles  of  Paul  were  classed  with  the  other 
scriptures,  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament ;  i.  e.  were  accounted  in- 
spired writings.f  It  is  well  known  to  those  who  are  versant  in  the 
early  history  of  the  church,  with  what  care  the  first  Christians  dis- 
criminated between  the  apostolical  writings,  and  the  compositions  of 
other  authors,  however  much  distinguished  by  their  piety,  and  with 
what  reverence  they  received  those  books  which  were  known  by  their 
inscription,  by  the  place  from  which  they  proceeded,  or  the  manner 
in  which  they  were  circulated,  to  be  the  work  of  an  apostle.  In  Lard- 
ner's  Credibility  of  the  Gospel  History  you  will  find  the  most  par- 
ticular information  upon  this  subject ;  and  you  will  perceive  that  the 
whole  history  of  the  supposititious  writings,  which  appeared  in  early 
times,  conspires  in  attesting  the  veneration  in  which  the  authority  of 
the  apostles  was  held  by  the  Christian  church.  We  learn  from  Justin 
INIartyr  that,  before  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  ta.aTto^vri^ovivy.a.ta. 
tuiv  Artourojicov  xat  to.  avyy^ajj-natoi  f  wk  rt^o^y^ruv  wcrc  read  together  in  the  Chris- 
tian assemblies  ;  we  know  that,  from  the  earliest  times,  the  church 
has  submitted  to  the  writings  of  the  apostles  as  the  infallible  standard 
of  faith  and  practice  ;  and  we  find  the  ground  of  this  peculiar  respect 
expressed  by  the  first  Christian  writers  as  well  as  by  their  successors, 

*  Rev.  i.  1,  10—19  ;  xxi.  14.  ^2  Peter  iii.  16. 


INSPIRATION    OF    SCRIPTURE.  167 

who  speak  of  the  writings  of  the  apostles  as  ^"ac  y^a^cu,  f|  t^trti-oias  aywu 

Ttvivixato;* 

V.  Tlie  O'nly  point  that  remains  to  be  considered  is,  whether  there 
be  any  thing  in  the  books  themselves  inconsistent  with  the  notion  of 
their  being  inspired.  It  is  impossible  for  me  to  follow  the  detail  into 
which  this  point  runs.  But  I  may  suggest  the  general  heads  of  an- 
swer to  the  multiplicity  of  objections  wliich  fall  under  it.  Even  those 
who  acknowledge  the  excellence  of  the  general  system  contained  in 
the  New  Testament,  who  admit  that  it  must  have  been  revealed  to 
the  authors  of  the  books  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  that  there  are 
some  instances  in  which  the  clearness  of  the  predictions,  and  even  the 
majesty  of  the  style  imply  a  peculiar  illumination  and  direction  of 
their  minds,  even  such  persons  meet,  in  reading  the  New  Testament, 
with  ditficulties  whicii  they  are  unable  to  reconcile  with  the  notion 
of  inspiration  ;  and  if  they  are  stumbled,  others,  who  wish  to  dis- 
credit the  truth  of  Christianity,  represent  the  notion  of  inspiration  as 
rendered  wholly  indefensible,  and  even  ridiculous,  by  the  mistakes  in 
small  matters,  the  contradiction,  the  varieties,  and  littlenesses  that 
occur  in  several  places,  and  the  numberless  instances  of  a  style  very 
far  removed  from  that  which  the  Almighty  might  be  conceived  to 
assume. 

When  you  come  to  examine  these  objections,  there  are  two  general 
remarks  which  it  will  be  of  great  importance  for  you  to  carry  in  your 
minds. 

1.  Recollect  that  the  objectors  upon  such  a  subject  have  great  ad- 
vantage. It  is  very  easy  to  start  difficulties  and  objections.  And 
when  the  solution  is  to  be  derived  from  an  examination  of  the  con- 
text, and  from  a  knowledge  of  ancient  languages  and  customs,  the 
difficulty  or  objection  may  be  urged  in  so  specious  or  lively  a  manner 
as  to  make  a  deep  impression,  before  the  solution  can  be  brought  for- 
ward. But  the  diligence,  the  learning,  and  sagacity  of  modern  com- 
mentators have  furnished  every  student,  who  wishes  the  scriptures  to 
be  true,  with  satisfying  answers  to  the  most  formidable  objections 
against  particular  parts  of  them  ;  and  it  is  a  general  rule  which  you 
ought  to  observe  in  your  study  of  the  scriptures,  never  to  suppose, 
never  to  allow  the  most  positive  affirmation  or  the  most  pointed  ridi- 
cule to  persuade  you,  that  a  passage  is  indefensible,  because  that 
measure  of  information  respecting  antiquity  and  of  experience  in 
sacred  criticism  which  you  possess,  does  not  suggest  the  manner  in 
which  it  can  be  defended.  You  will  find,  upon  inquiry,  that  apparent 
contradictions  in  the  narration  of  the  gospels,  or  in  the  doctrine  of  the 
epistles,  may  be  easily  reconciled  ;  that  expressions  which  have  been 
represented  as  mean,  are  justified  by  the  practice  of  classical  writers ; 
that  the  harsh  sense,  which  single  phrases  seem  to  contain,  is  removed 
either  by  a  more  accurate  translation  of  the  original,  or  by  the  con- 
nection in  which  they  stand ;  that  supposed  errors  in  chronology  or 
geography  either  disappear  upon  being  closely  examined,  or  arise 
from  some  of  those  trifling  variations  in  the  copies  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament which  modern  criticism  has  investigated  ;  that  those  parts  of 
the  conduct  of  Peter  and  Paul  which  have  been  censured  are  in  no 

*  Lardner's  Cred.  vol.  i.  p.  273 ;  vol.  iii.  p.  230. 


168  .  INSPIRATION    OF    SCRIPTURE. 

respect  inconsistent  with  the  general  doctrine  which  they  taught ;  and, 
upon  the  whole,  that  as  the  general  matter  of  the  New  Testament 
could  not  have  been  known  to  any  who  were  not  inspired  of  God, 
and  as  the  maimer  in  which  that  matter  is  delivered  appears,  the  more 
it  is  considered,  to  be  the  more  fit  and  excellent,  so  there  is  nothing 
throughout  all  the  books  unworthy  of  that  measure  of  inspiration  of 
which  we  have  hitherto  spoken. 

2.  Observe  tliat  the  objections  which  have  been  urged  against  par- 
ticular passages  of  the  New  Testament  are  in  general  of  no  weight 
in  overturning  the  doctrine  of  inspiration,  unless  you  suppose  tliat 
the  authors  wrote  continually  under  the  influence  of  what  has  been 
called  the  inspiration  of  suggestion,  i.  e.  that  every  thought  was  put 
into  their  mind,  and  every  word  dictated  to  them  by  the  Spirit  of  God. 
But  this  opinion,  which  is  probably  entertained  by  many  well-mean- 
ing Christians,  and  which  has  been  held  by  some  able  defenders  of 
Christianity,  is  now  generally  abandoned  by  those  who  examine  the 
subject  with  due  care.  And  the  following  reasons  will  satisfy  you  that 
it  has  not  been  lightly  abandoned.  It  is  unnecessary  to  suppose  that 
this  highest  degree  of  inspiration  is  extended  through  all  the  parts  of 
the  New  Testament,  because  there  are  many  facts  in  the  gospels, 
which  the  apostles  might  know  perfectly  from  their  own  observation 
or  recollection,  many  expressions  which  would  naturally  occur  to 
them,  many  directions  and  salutations  in  their  epistles,  such  as  were 
to  be  expected  in  that  correspondence.  It  is  not  only  unnecessary  to 
suppose  that  the  highest  degree  of  inspiration  was  extended  through 
all  the  parts  of  the  New  Testament,  but  the  supposition  is  really  in- 
consistent with  many  circumstances  that  occur  there.  I  shall  mention 
a  few,  Paul  in  some  instances  makes  a  distinction  between  the  coun- 
sels which  he  gives  in  matters  of  indifference,  upon  his  own  judgment, 
and  the  commandments  which  he  delivers  with  the  authority  of  an 
apostle :  "  I  speak  this  by  permission,  and  not  of  commandment." 
"  This  I  command,  yet  not  I,  but  the  Lord :"  a  distinction  for  which 
there  could  have  been  no  room,  had  every  word  been  dictated  by  the 
Spirit  of  God.*  Paul  sometimes  discovers  a  doubt,  and  a  change  of 
purpose  as  to  the  time  of  his  journeyings,  and  other  little  incidents, 
which  the  highest  degree  of  inspiration  would  have  prevented.t  It 
is  allowed  that  there  is  a  degree  of  imperfection  and  obscurity,  which, 
in  some  instances,  remains  on  the  style  of  the  sacred  writers,  and  par- 
ticularly of  Paul,  which  we  cannot  easily  reconcile  with  the  highest 
degree  of  inspiration.J  Once  more,  there  are  peculiarities  of  expres- 
sion, and  a  marked  manner,  by  which  a  person  of  taste  and  discern- 
ment may  clearly  distinguish  the  writings  of  every  one  from  those  of 
every  other.  But  had  all  written  uniformly  under  the  same  inspira- 
tion of  suggestion,  there  could  not  have  been  a  difference  of  manner 
corresponding  to  the  difference  of  character ;  and  the  expression  used 
by  all  might  have  been  expected  to  be  the  best  possible. 

These  circumstances  lead  us  to  abandon  the  notion  that  the  apos- 
tles wrote  under  a  continual  inspiration  of  suggestion.  But  they  are 
not  in  the  least  inconsistent  with  that  kind  of  inspiration  which  we 
found  to  be  necessary  for  the  purposes  of  their  mission ;  which  is 

•  1  Cor.  vii.  6,  10.  |  1  Cor.  xvi.  3— 6,  10,  11.  +  2  Peter  iii,  1 6. 


INSPIRATION    OF    SCRIPTURE.  169 

commonly  called  an  inspiration  of  direction,  and  which  consists  in  this, 
that  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament,  although  allowed  to  exercise 
their  own  memory  and  understanding,  as  far  as  they  could  be  of  use  ; 
although  allowed  to  employ  their  own  modes  of  thinking  and  expres- 
sion, as  far  as  there  was  no  impropriety  in  their  being  employed,  were, 
by  the  superintendence  of  the  Spirit,  effectually  guarded  from  error 
while  they  were  writing,  and  were  at  all  times  furnished  with  that 
measure  of  inspiration  which  the  nature  of  the  subject  required.     In 
his  history  every  evangelist  brings  forward  those  discourses  and  facts 
which  had  made  the  deepest  impression  upon  his  mind  ;  but  while, 
from  the  variety  which  thus  naturally  takes  place  in  the  histories, 
there  arises  the  strongest  proof  that  there  was  no  collusion,  the  recol- 
lection of  every  historian  was  so  far  assisted,  that  he  gives  us  no  false 
information ;  and  by  laying  together  the  several  accounts,  we  may- 
attain  as  complete  a  view  of  the  transactions  recorded  as  the  Spirit 
of  God  judged  to  be  necessary.  In  the  book  of  Acts  we  see  the  mind 
of  the  apostles  gradually  led,  by  the  teaching  of  the  Spirit,  to  a  full 
apprehension  of  the  whole  counsel  of  God.     In  the  Epistles  they 
apply  the  knowledge  which  had  thus  been  imparted  to  them  by  reve- 
lation, in  ministering  to  the  edification,  the  comfort,  or  reproof  of  the 
churches  which  they  had  established  ;  and  the  Spirit,  who  had  by  this 
time  guided  them  into  all  truth,  abode  with  them,  so  that  from  the 
words  and  commandments  of  the  apostles  we  may  learn  the  truth  as 
it  is  in  Christ  Jesus. 

It  hath  pleased  God  that  the  Christian  world  should  derive  those 
treasures  of  divine  knowledge  which  resided  in  the  apostles,  not  by 
formal  systematical  discourses  composed  for  the  instruction  of  future 
ages,  but  by  the  short  familiar  incidental  mention  of  the  Christian 
doctrines  in  their  epistles.    This  form  of  the  doctrinal  writings  of  the 
apostles  has  been  stated  as  an  objection  to  their  being  inspired  ;  but 
by  a  little  attention  you  will  perceive  the  great  advantages  of  their 
being  permitted  to  adopt  this  form.     Our  industry  is  thus  quickened 
in  searching  the  Scriptures.     The  doctrines  are  rendered  more  level 
to  the  capacity  of  the  great  body  of  Christians,  and  more  easily  re- 
called to  their  minds  by  this  mode  of  being  delivered :  and  the  books 
containing  the  doctrines  are  thus  made  to  bring  along  with  them  in- 
ternal marks  of  authenticity,  which  could  not  have  belonged  to  them 
had  they  been  in  another  form.*     The  inscription  of  the  epistle  is  a 
sure  voucher,  transmitted  from  the  earliest  times,  that  a  letter  had 
truly  been  sent  by  an  apostle  of  Christ  to  a  church.     The  character 
of  the  apostle  is  marked  in  his  epistle,  and  the  many  little  circum- 
stances, which  his  situation  or  that  of  the  church  introduces  into  an 
affectionate  letter,  while  they  exhibit  the  natural  expressions  of  Chris- 
tian benevolence,  bring  a  conviction,  more  satisfying  than  that  which 
arises  from  any  testimony,  that  the  apostles  of  Jesus  proceeded,  in 
execution  of  the  charge  given  them  by  their  Master,  to  make  disci- 
ples of  all  nations. 

In  the  prophecies  which  the  New  Testament  contains,  there  must 
have  been  the  inspiration  of  suggestion.  Neither  the  words  nor  the 
thoughts  could  there  come  by  the  will  of  man;  and  the  writers  spake 

•  Paley's  Horse  Paulina. 
17  2  B 


170  INSPIRATION    OF    SCRIPTURE. 

as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  Accordingly  Paul  introdiKies 
his  predictions  with  these  words  :  The  Spirit  speaketh  expressly ;  and 
John,  we  found,  says  in  the  book  of  Revelation,  that  he  was  com- 
manded to  write  what  he  saw  and  heard, 

I  have  explained  under  this  second  remark  that  kind  of  inspiration, 
which  the  different  branches  of  the  evidence  that  has  been  stated  ap- 
pears to  me  clearly  to  establish,  and  which  is  now  generally  consider- 
ed as  all  that  was  necessary  for  the  purposes  of  the  apostolical  otSce. 
We  do  not  say  that  every  thought  was  put  into  the  mind  of  the  apos- 
tles, and  every  word  dictated  to  their  pen  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  But 
Ave  say,  that  by  the  superuitendence  of  the  Spirit,  they  were  at  all 
times  guarded  from  error,  and  were  furnished  upon  every  occasion 
with  the  measure  of  inspiration  which  the  naUu'e  of  the  subject  re- 
quired. Upon  this  view  of  the  matter,  we  can  easily  account  for  all 
the  circumstances  that  are  commonly  urged  as  objections  against  the 
notion  of  inspiration.  We  may  even  admit  that  the  apostles  were 
liable  to  err  in  their  conduct,  and  were  left  ignorant  of  some  things 
which  they  wished  to  know  :  and  at  the  same  time  we  have  all  that 
security  against  misrepresentations  of  fact,  or  error  in  doctrine,  which 
the  nature  of  the  commission  given  to  the  apostles  and  the  importance 
of  the  truths  declared  by  tliem  render  necessary  for  our  faith.  By 
this  kind  of  ins^airation,  while  a  provision  is  made  for  the  introduc- 
tion of  those  internal  marks  of  authenticity  by  which  the  Bible  is  dis- 
tinguished above  every  other  book  in  the  world,  there  is  also  a  perfect 
fulfilment  of  the  promise  given  to  the  apostles  by  Jesus,  a  justification 
of  the  claim  which  their  writings  contain,  and  a  rational  account  of 
that  entire  submission  which  the  Christian  church  in  every  age  has 
yielded  to  the  authority  of  the  apostles. 

Here  then  is  the  ground  upon  which  I  rest  my  foot,  and  the  point 
from  which  I  desire  to  be  considered  as  setting  out  in  my  Lectures 
upon  Divinity.  Jesus  was  a  teacher  sent  from  God.  His  apostles, 
who  were  commanded  by  him  to  publish  his  doctrine  to  the  world, 
received,  in  fulfilment  of  his  promise,  such  a  measure  of  the  visible 
gifts  of  the  Spirit  as  attested  their  commission,  and  such  a  measure 
of  internal  illumination  and  direction,  as  rendered  their  writings  the  in- 
fallible standard  of  Christian  truth.  From  hence  it  follows,  that  every 
thing  which  is  clearly  contained  in  the  gospels  and  epistles,  or  which 
may  be  fairly  deduced  from  the  words  there  used,  is  true  ;  and  that 
every  thing  which  cannot  be  so  proved  is  no  part  of  the  doctrine 
that  Christians  are  required  to  believe.  After  we  have  attained  this 
point,  sound  criticism  becomes  the  foundation  of  theology.  My  busi- 
ness is  not  to  frame  a  system  of  divinity,  but  to  delineate  that  system 
which  the  Scriptures  teach,  by  a  clear  exposition  of  the  passages  in 
which  it  is  taught :  and  to  defend  it,  by  rescuing  the  Scriptures  from 
misinterpretation.  We  shall  be  very  much  assisted  in  this  course  by 
our  knowledge  of  the  Greek  language.  The  Greek  Testament  will 
be  our  constant  companion  ;  and  the  best  preparation  for  what  you 
are  to  learn  from  me  is  to  apply  the  knowledge,  which  you  have  ac- 
quired elsewhere,  in  rendering  the  Greek  Tes'tament  familiar  to  your 
minds. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Inspiration  of  Scripture  is  touched  upon  in  all  the  complete  defences 


INSPIRATION    OF    SCRIPTURE.  171 

of  Christianity  ;  of  most  of  which  you  have  both  an  Index  and  an  Abridgment  in  Le- 
land's  View  of  the  Deistical  Writers. 

Bishop  Burnet  has  treated  it  shortly  in  his  Exposition  of  the  sixth  article  of  the  Church 
of  England. 

There  are  many  excellent  Sermons  of  EngUsh  divines  upon  this  subject.  I  mention  par- 
ticularly Archbishop  Seeker's,  in  the  third  volume  of  his  works. 

And  there  is  a  rational,  masterly  Essay  upon  this  subject,  in  Bishop  Benson's  Paraphrase 
on  the  Epistles  of  Paul. 

Potter's  PriElectiones  Theologicse  in  Opera  Theologica,  torn.  iii. 

Le  Clerc's  Letters  on  Inspiration,  with  Lowth's  Answer. 

Randolph's  Works, 

Wakefield  on  Inspiration. 

Middleton. 

Pretty  man's  Elements  of  Christian  Theology. 

Watson's  Apology  for  the  Bible  and  for  Christianity. 

Preliminary  Essays  prefixed  to  Dr.  Macknight's  new  translation  of  the  Epistles. 

Dick  on  the  Inspiration  of  Scripture. 

Jones's  Canon  of  Scripture. 

Doddridge. 

Paley. 

Marsh's  Michselis. 


173  PECULIAR    DOCTKINES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 


CHAPTER  II. 


PECULIAR    DOCTRIiS-ES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 


Having  established  the  divine  inspiration  of  the  books  of  the  New 
Testament,  we  have  next  to  learn  from  this  infallible  guide  that  sys- 
tem of  doctrine  which  characterizes  the  Christian  religion.  It  is  pre- 
sumptuous and  childish  to  busy  ourselves  in  fancying  what  that 
system  ought  to  be.  If  the  books  containing  the  Gospel  of  Christ 
were  really  written  by  men  under  the  direction  of  the  Spirit  of  God, 
they  will  teach  us  the  truth  without  mixture  of  error:  and  all  our 
speculations  vanish  before  the  authoritative  declarations  which  they 
bring. 

I  need  not  occupy  time  with  delineating  the  great  truths  of  natural 
religion.  These  must  be  the  same  in  every  true  system,  because  they 
are  unchangeable  ;  and  it  occurred  formerly,  in  stating  the  evidences 
of  Christianity,  that  this  revelation  carries  along  with  it  one  strong 
presumption  of  its  divine  original,  by  giving  in  the  simplest  language, 
and  the  plainest  form,  views  of  the  nature  of  God,  and  of  the  duty  of 
man,  more  clear,  more  consistent,  and  more  exalted  than  are  to  be 
found  in  any  other  writings.  If  you  were  to  throw  out  of  the  Scrip- 
tures all  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  Christianity,  there  would  remain  a 
complete  system  of  natural  religion,  in  comparison  with  which,  even 
the  speculations  of  the  enlightened  and  virtuous  sage  of  Athens  appear 
low  and  partial.  But  it  is  of  these  peculiar  doctrines  that  Christian 
theology  consists ;  and  I  mean  at  present  to  prepare  for  examining 
them  particularly,  by  stating  them  in  a  short  connected  view.  I 
cannot  propose  to  meet  in  this  view  the  sentiments  of  all  the  different 
sects  of  Christians  ;  for  if  I  were  to  attempt  to  accommodate  the  sketch 
that  is  to  be  given,  to  the  peculiar  tenets  of  some  sects,  I  should  be 
obliged  to  leave  out  several  doctrines  which  appear  to  me  most  essen- 
tial to  Christianity.  But  although  I  cannot  meet  the  sentiments  of 
opposite  sects,  I  do  not  wish  to  derive  this  short  system  from  the 
discriminating  tenets,  or  the  peculiar  language  of  any  one  sect:  I  wish 
to  avoid  the  use  of  any  terms  that  are  not  scriptural,  and  to  present 
to  you  the  form  of  sound  words  which  is  taught  by  the  apostles 
themselves.  We  shall  have  enough  of  controverted  opinions  when 
we  come  to  attend  to  the  ditferent  facts  of  the  system.  But  it  seems 
to  me  proper  that  you  should  carry  in  your  minds  a  general  distinct 
conception  of  the  subjects  upon  which  the  controversies  turn,  before 
we  be  entangled  in  that  thorny  path. 

The  foundation  of  the  Gospel  is  this,  that  men  are  sinners.  If  you 
take  away  this  propositiouj  the  whole  system  is  left  without  meaning : 


PECULIAR    DOCTRINES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  173 

if  you  receive  it  in  its  full  import,  you  perceive  the  use  of  the  different 
parts,  and  the  harmony  with  which  they  unite  hi  producing  the  effect 
that  is  ascribed  to  the  whole.  The  proposition  is  often  enunciated  in 
Scripture ;  but  the  truth  of  it  is  independent  of  tiie  authority  of  any 
revelation,  and  must  be  admitted  by  every  candid  observer,  whether 
lie  believes  or  rejects  the  divine  mission  of  Jesus.  Although  different 
states  of  society  have  exhibited  different  forms  of  wickedness,  authentic 
history  does  not  record  any  in  wliich  human  virtue  has  appeared 
pure.  A  great  part  of  the  business  of  every  government  is  to  inter- 
pose restraints  upon  the  evil  passions  of  the  subjects  :  yet  so  inellectual 
are  those  restraints,  that  the  peace  of  the  best  constituted  society  is 
often  disturbed  by  enormous  crimes,  while  there  are  transgressions  of 
virtue  which  elude  the  law,  that  indicate  a  deeper  depravity  of  mind 
than  those  enormities  which  are  punished  ;  and  even  the  best  of  the 
sons  of  men,  those  who  by  the  innocence  of  their  lives  are  exempted 
not  only  from  the  punishments,  but  even  from  the  censures  of  human 
society,  have  the  consciousness  of  imperfection,  of  failing,  and 
demerit. 

The  Scriptures  connect  this  abounding  of  iniquity  with  a  transac- 
tion wliich  took  place  soon  after  the  creation  of  Adam.  "  By  one 
man,"  says  Paul,  "sin  entered  into  the  world,  and  death  by  sin,  and 
so  death  passed  upon  all  men,  for  that  all  have  sinned: — By  the 
offence  of  one,  judgment  came  upon  all  men  to  condemnation  ;  in 
Adam  all  die."*  This  is  the  commentary  made  by  an  apostle  upon 
the  third  chapter  of  Genesis;  and  when  we  take  that  chapter,  the 
commentary  of  Paul,  and  other  incidental  expressions  in  connexion, 
we  are  led  by  the  Scriptures  to  consider  the  transgressions  of  the  first 
parents  of  the  human  race  as  altering  the  condition  of  their  posterity, 
rendering  this  earth  a  less  comfortable,  and  less  virtuous  habitation, 
than  without  that  transgression  it  would  have  been,  and  introducing 
sin,  with  all  its  attendant  misery,  aiiiongst  a  part  of  the  rational  crea- 
tion who  were  made  at  first  after  the  image  of  God. 

Something  analogous  to  this  effect  of  the  transgression  of  our  first 
parents,  may  often  be  observed  in  human  connections.  And  we  are 
guarded  against  wantonly  rejecting  the  Scripture  account  of  this  early 
transaction,  as  incredible  or  inconsistent  with  the  government  of  God, 
when  we  see,  in  numberless  instances,  the  sins  of  some  persons 
extending  their  baleful  influence  to  the  minds  and  the  fortunes  of 
others,  afather  corrupting  the  manners  of  his  children,  entailing  upon 
them  disease,  disgrace,  poverty  and  vice,  and  thus  reducing  them  by 
his  wickedness  to  a  calamitous  state,  wliich,  had  they  sprung  from 
other  parents,  it  appears  to  us  they  might  have  avoided. 

To  this  it  must  be  added,  that  in  the  present  condition  of  the  human 
race  there  are  many  symptoms  of  degradation.  The  combat  between 
the  higher  and  the  lower  parts  of  our  nature,  the  temptations  to  vice 
which  every  thing  around  us  presents,  the  judgments  which  are  often 
executed  by  changes  upon  the  face  of  nature,  that  abridgment  of  the 
comforts  of  life  which  arises  from  our  own  faults,  or  those  of  others, 
and  the  violence  which  is  done  to  our  feelings  and  our  alfections  by 
the  manner  in  which  we  are  called  out  of  the  world ;  all  this,  and 

♦  Rom.  V.  12,  18.     I  Cor.  xv.  22. 
17* 


174  PECULIAR    DOCTRINES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

much  more  of  the  same  kind,  indicates  a  disordered  state,  and  accords 
with  the  sUght  incidental  openings  which  the  Scriptures  give  us  into 
that  ancient  transaction,  to  which  they  trace  the  sin  and  misery  of 
mankind.  The  effects  of  this  transaction  continued  in  the  world  not- 
withstanding all  the  efforts  of  philosophy,  good  government,  and 
civihzation.  Neither  the  vigilant  education  and  rigorous  discipline 
prescribed  in  some  ancient  states,  nor  the  circumspection  and  morti- 
fication learned  in  some  ancient  schools,  were  able  to  cleanse  the  heart 
of  any  one  individual  from  every  kind  of  defilement,  or  to  maintain  a 
hfe,  in  all  respects  blameless.  And,  whatever  remedy  the  progress  of  im- 
provement may  be  conceived  to  have  applied  to  the  other  evils  which 
proceed  from  sin,  there  is  one  standing  memorial  of  its  power,  which 
defies  the  wit  and  the  strength  of  man.  None  can  deliver  his  own 
soul,  or  the  soul  of  his  brother  from  death.  "  It  is  appointed  unto  all 
men  once  to  die."*  But  death  is  represented  in  the  Scriptures  as  the 
fruit  of  sin ;  and  therefore  the  continuance  of  death  is  one  of  those 
practical  lessons  which  the  Almighty  often  administers,  which  is 
independent  of  speculation,  but,  being  by  its  nature  a  strong  confir- 
mation of  the  discoveries  that  are  made,  is  sufficient  to  teach  all  who 
receive  the  Scriptures,  that  the  transaction  to  which  they  ascribe  the 
introduction  of  death,  has  not  exhausted  all  its  force. 

The  gospel  then  proceeds  upon  a  fact,  which  was  not  created  by 
the  revelation,  but  would  have  been  true,  although  the  gospel  had 
not  appeared,  that  that  part  of  the  reasonable  offsprhig  of  God  who 
inhabit  this  earth  are  sinners,  and  that  their  efforts  to  extricate  them- 
selves out  of  this  condition  had  proved  ineftectual.  But  sin  is  repug- 
nant to  our  moral  feelings,  and  excites  our  abhorrence.  How  much 
more  odious  must  it  appear  in  the  sight  of  Him,  whom  natural  reli- 
gion and  the  declarations  of  Scripture  teach  us  to  consider  as  infinitely 
holy!  We  see  only  a  small  portion  of  human  wickedness.  But  all 
the  demerit  of  every  individual  sinner,  and  the  whole  sum  of  iniquity 
committed  throughout  the  earth,  are  continually  present  to  the  eyes 
of  Him  with  whose  nature  they  are  most  inconsistent.  The  sins  of 
men  are  transgressions  of  the  law  given  them  by  their  Creator,  an 
insult  to  his  authority,  a  violation  of  the  order  which  he  had  estab- 
lished, a  diminution  of  the  happiness  which  he  had  spread  over  his 
works.  It  is  unknown  to  us  what  connections  there  are  amongst  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  universe.  But  it  is  manifest  that  no  government 
can  subsist  if  the  laws  are  transgressed  with  impunity.  It  is  very 
conceivable  that  the  other  creatures  of  God  might  be  tempted  to  dis- 
obedience, if  the  transgressions  of  the  human  race  received  no  chas- 
tisement. And  therefore,  as  every  temptation  to  disobey  laws  which 
bring  peace  to  the  obedient,  is  really  an  introduction  to  misery,  it 
appears  most  becoming  the  Almighty,  both  as  the  Ruler  and  the  Fa- 
ther of  the  universe,  to  execute  his  judgments  against  the  human  race. 
Accordingly  the  Scriptures  record  many  awful  testimonies  of  the 
divine  displeasure  with  sin  ;  and  they  represent  the  whole  World  as 
the  children  of  wrath,  guilty  before  God,  and  under  the  curse,  be- 
cause they  are  the  children  of  disobedience.     It  is  not  in  the  nature 

*  Heb.  ix.  27. 


PECULIAR    DOCTRINES    OP    CHRISTIANITY.  175 

of  repentance  to  avert  those  evils  which  past  transgressions  had  de- 
served. But  we  have  seen  that  men  were  unable  to  forsake  their 
shis;  and  we  cannot  form  a  conception  of  any  mode,  consistent  with 
the  honour  and  the  great  objects  of  the  divine  government,  by  which 
a  creature  who  continues  to  transgress  the  divine*  laws,  can  stop  the 
course  of  that  punishment,  which  is  the  fruit  of  his  transgression. 

In  this  situation,  when  tlie  reasonings  of  nature  fail,  and  every  ap- 
pearance in  nature  conspires  to  show  that  hope  is  presumptuous,  the 
revelation  of  the  gospel  is  fitted  by  its  peculiar  character  to  enlighten 
and  revive  the  human  mind.  We  there  learn  that  God,  who  is  rich 
in  mercy,  moved  by  compassion  for  the  work  of  his  hands,  for  the 
great  love  wherewith  he  loved  the  world,  conceived  a  plan  for  deliv- 
ering the  children  of  Adam  from  that  sin  and  misery  out  of  which 
they  were  unable  to  extricate  themselves.*  Having  foreseen,  before 
the  foundation  of  the  world,  that  they  would  yield  to  the  temptation 
of  an  evil  spirit,  and  abuse  that  liberty  which  forms  an  essential  part 
of  their  nature,  he  comprehended  in  the  same  eternal  counsel  a  pur- 
pose to  create,  and  a  purpose  to  save.f  Immediately  after  the  trans- 
gression of  the  first  man  there  was  some  discovery  of  the  gracious 
plan.  At  the  same  time  that  a  curse  is  pronounced  upon  the  ground, 
and  deatli  is  declared  to  be  the  punishment  of  sin,  there  is  an  intima- 
tion of  future  deliverance  in  these  words  :  "  I  will  put  enmity  between 
thee  and  the  woman,  and  between  thy  seed  and  her  seed;  it  shall 
bruise  thy  head,  and  thou  shalt  bruise  his  heel, "J  The  promise  was 
unfolded,  and  the  plan  gradually  opened  through  a  succession  of  dis- 
pensations, all  conspiring  in  their  place  to  produce  the  fulness  of  time, 
when  the  plan  was  executed  by  the  manifestation  of  that  glorious 
person  whom  prophecy  had  announced.  The  light  of  nature  does 
not  give  any  notice  of  the  existence  of  this  person.  But  as  the  im- 
portance of  the  office  which  he  executed  renders  his  character  most 
interesting  to  the  human  race,  the  Scriptures  declare  that  he  was  with 
God  in  the  beginning,  that  he  had  glory  with  the  Father  before  the 
world  was,  that  by  him  God  made  the  world,  that  he  was  God,  but 
that  veiling  liis  glory,  although  he  could  not  divest  himself  of  the 
nature  of  God,  he  was  born  in  a  miraculous  manner,  was  made  in 
the  likeness  of  men,  took  part  of  flesh  and  blood,  and  dwelt  with 
tiiose  whom  he  is  not  ashamed  to  call  his  brethren. §  The  purpose 
for  which  this  extraordinary  messenger  visited  the  earth,  was  declared 
by  the  angel  who  announced  the  singular  manner  of  his  birth  :  "  Thou 
shalt  call  his  name  Jesus;  for  he  shall  save  his  people  from  their 
sins."||  John  his  forerunner  thus  marked  him  out :  "  Behold  the  Lamb 
of  God  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world."1I  He  said  of  him- 
self, "  I  am  come  to  call  sinners  to  repentance  ;  to  give  my  life  a  ran- 
som for  many,''**  And  the  charge  which  he  gave  to  his  apostles, 
and  which  they  executed  in  all  their  discourses  and  writings,  was  this, 
that  repentance  and  remission  of  sins  should  be  preached  in  his  name 
amongst  all  nations,  beginning  at  Jerusalem.tt     These  expressions 

»  Ephes.  ii.  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  Rom,  iii,  19  ;  v.  12.  Gal.  iii.  10,  22,  Col,  iii.  5,  6,  7. 

f  E[)hcs.  iii,  11,  :t:  Gen.  iii,  15. 

§  John  i.  1,  2,  3,  14 ;  xvii.  5.     Heb,  L  2  ;  ii.  14.  Phil.  ii.  6.  7,  Luke  i.  26—38. 

U  Matth,  i.21.  t  John  i.  29. 

*♦  Matlh.  ix.  13  ;  xx.  28.  ft  Luke  xxiv.  47. 


176  PECULIAR    DOCTRINES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

imply  that  tlie  peculiarity  of  the  Jewish  state  was  concluded  by  the 
appearance  of  this  prophet,  and  that  the  benefit  of  his  manifestation 
was  to  extend  to  all  nations.  The  same  expressions  imply  also  that 
the  nature  of  that  benefit  was  accommodated  to  what  we  have  found 
the  sitnatlon  of  mankind  to  require.  In  fulfilment  of  that  character 
of  a  Saviour  which  he  assumed,  he  not  only  taught  men  the  will  of 
God  by  precept  and  by  example,  unfolded  that  future  state  in  which 
they  are  to  receive  according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the  body,  and  en- 
forced the  practice  of  righteousness  by  every  motive  addressed  to  the 
understanding  and  the  affections,  but  he  voluntarily  submitted  to  the 
most  grievous  sufferings,  and  the  most  cruel  death,  as  the  method  or- 
dained in  the  counsel  of  heaven  for  procuring  their  deliverance  from 
sin.  There  is  no  mode  of  expression  that  we  can  devise,  which  is 
not  employed  by  Scripture  to  convey  this  conception,  that  the  death 
of  Christ  was  not  barely  a  confirmation  of  the  truth  of  Christianity, 
an  example  of  disinterested  benevolence  and  of  heroic  virtue,  but  a 
true  sacrifice  for  sin,  offered  by  him  to  God  the  Father,  in  order  to 
avert  the  punishment  which  the  sins  of  men  deserved,  and  to  render 
it  consistent  with  the  character  of  the  Deity  and  the  honour  of  the 
divine  laws,  to  forgive  men  their  trespasses.  "  I  am  the  good  shep- 
herd," says  Jesus  ;  "  the  good  shepherd  giveth  his  life  for  the  sheep."* 
"  God  hath  set  him  forth  to  be  a  propitiation  through  faith  in  his  blood 
to  declare  his  righteousness  for  the  remission  of  sins  that  are  past."t 
"  We  are  redeemed  with  the  precious  blood  of  Christ,  as  of  a  lamb 
without  blemish  and  without  spot."J  The  natural  conclusion  which 
any  person,  whose  mind  is  not  warped  by  a  particular  system,  will 
draw  from  these  and  numberless  other  expressions  of  the  same  kind, 
is  this,  that  as  the  scheme  for  the  deliverance  of  the  human  race 
originated  from  the  love  of  God  the  Father,  so  it  was  accoaiplished 
by  the  instrumentality  of  that  person,  who  is  called  in  Scripture  the 
Son  of  God. 

As  the  effect  of  this  instrumentality  is  clearly  declared  in  Scripture, 
so  it  is  analogous  to  one  part  of  the  divine  procedure  which  we  have 
often  occasion  to  observe.  The  whole  course  of  human  affairs  is  car- 
ried on  by  alternate  successions  of  wisdom  and  folly.  Evils  are 
incurred,  and  they  are  remedied.  The  good  affections  or  the 
generosity  of  some  are  employed  to  retrieve  the  faults  or  the  mis- 
fortunes of  others :  and  the  condescension  and  zeal,  with  which  the 
talents  of  an  exalted  character  are  exerted  in  some  cause  which  did 
not  properly  belong  to  him,  are  often  seen  to  restore  that  order  and 
happiness  which  the  extravagance  of  vice  appeared  to  have  destroyed. 
The  dispensation  revealed  in  the  Gospel  is  the  same  in  kind  with 
these  instances,  although  infinitely  exalted  above  them  in  magnificence 
and  extent.  We  see  there  sin  and  misery  entering  into  the  world  by 
the  transgression  of  one  man,  the  effects  spreading  through  the  whole 
race,  and  the  remedy  brought  by  the  generous  interposition  of  a  per- 
son who  had  no  share  in  the  disaster,  whose  power  of  doing  good  was 
called  forth  purely  by  compassion  for  the  distressed,  and,in  opposition 
to  all  the  obstacles  raised  by  an  evil  spirit,  was  exerted  with  perse- 
verance and  success,  in  removing  the  deformity  and  disorder  which 

*  John  X.  II.  j-  Rom.  iii.  25.  i  1  Pet.  i.  18.  19. 


PECULIAR    DOCTRINES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  177 

he  had  introduced  into  the  creation.  "  For  this  purpose  the  Son  of 
God  was  manifested,  that  he  might  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil."* 
"  He  took  part  of  flesh  and  blood,  that  through  death  he  might  des- 
stroy  him  that  had  the  power  of  death,  that  is,  the  devil,  and  deliver 
them  who  through  fear  of  death  were  ail  their  life-time  subject  to 
bondage."! 

That  the  interposition  of  the  Son  of  God  was  effectual  in  promoting 
the  purpose  for  which  it  was  made,  and  that  his  death  did  really 
overcome  that  evil  spirit,  who  is  styled  the  prince  of  this  world, J  was 
declared  by  his  resurrection,  and  by  the  gifts  which  in  fulfilment  of 
his  promise  were  sent  upon  his  apostles  after  his  ascension. §     Tliis  is 
the  Scripture  proof,  "  that  Jesus  is  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost  all 
that  come  to  God  by  him."||     So  speaks  Peter  in  one  of  his  first 
sermons.lf      "  The  God  of  our  Fathers  raised  up  Jesus,  whom  ye 
slew  and  hanged  on  a  tree.     Him  hath  God  exalted  with  his  right 
hand,  to  be  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour,  for  to  give  repentance  to  Israel 
and  forgiveness  of  sins.     And  we  are  his  witnesses  of  these  thitigs; 
and  so  is  the  Holy  Ghost,  whom  God  hath  given  to  them  that  obey 
him."  i.  e.  Our  testimony  of  his  resurrection,  confirmed  by  the  wit- 
ness of  the  Holy  Ghost,  is  the  evidence  that  God  hath  exalted  him  to 
be  a  Saviour.     He  is  now,  by  the  appointment  of  God,  the  dispenser 
of  those  blessings  which  he  died  to  purchase;**  the  Mediator  of  the 
new  covenant,  which  was  sealed  by  his  blood,  and  which  is  established 
upon  better  promises,tt  of  the  fulfilment  of  which  we  receive  perfect 
assurance  from  the  power  that  is  given  to  him  in  heaven  and  in 
earth.:tt     Pardon,  grace,  and  consolation,  flow   from  him  as  their 
proprietor,  who    hath   acquired   by   his  sufferings  the  right  of  dis- 
tributing gifts  to  men.§§     "Being  justified  by  his  blood,  we  have 
peace  with  God,  and  access  to  the  Father  through  him.||||     He  is  now 
the  advocate  of  his  people,^"II  who  appears  in  the  presence  of  God 
for  them  ;***   "  who  ever  lives   to  make  intercession,"ff|   and   by 
whom  their  prayers  and  services  are  rendered  acceptable. :!:K     He 
directs  the  course  of  his  Providence,  so  as  to  promote  their  welfare, 
not  by  abolishing  the  present  consequences  of  sin,  but  by  rendering 
them  medicinal  to  the  soul  :§§§  and  death,  which  is  still  allowed  to 
continue  as  a  standing  memorial  of  the  evil  of  sin,  shall  at  length  be 
destroyed  by  the  working  of  his  mighty  power,  which  is  able  to 
quicken    the   bodies   that  had  been  mingled  with  the  dust   of  the 
earth.||||||     "lam,"  says   he,  "the   resurrection  and  the  life."TI^*[[ 
"  The  hour  is  coming,  in  the  which  all  that  are  in  the  graves  shall 
hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  shall  come  forth."****  "  Power 
is  given  him  over  all  flesh,  that  he  may  give  eternal  life  to  as  many 
as  he  will."tttt     And  the  crown  of  life  that  shall  be  conferred  at  the 
last  upon  those  for  whom  it  is  prepared,  is  represented  in  Scripture 

*  1  John  iii.  8.  f  f  Hcb.  viii.  4  ;  ix.  12,  15.  +tt  Rev.  viii.  3,  4. 

f  Hcb.  ii.  14,  15.  it  Matth.  xxviii.  18.  §^§  Rom.  vii.  28. 

tJohnxiv.30.  §§  Rom.  v.  1,  2,  9,11.  Eph.  ii.  18.      DPI  Phil.  iii.  21. 

§  Rom,i.  4.  Acts  ii.  32,  33.  Ill  Ephes.  iv.  8.  ^"i^  John  ii.  25, 

I  Hcb.  vii.  25.  Ill  John  ii.  1.  •*••  John  v.  2,  29. 

H  Acts  V.  30—32.  »••  Heb.  ix.  24.  f-j-fl  John  xvii.  2. 

**  Heb.  xii.  2.  fff  Rom.  viii.  34. 

2  C 


178  PECULIAR    DOCTRINES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

not  as  a  recompense  which  they  have  earned,  but  as  the  gift  of  God 
through  him.  "  The  wages  of  sin  is  death ;  but  eternal  life  is  the 
gift  of  God  through  Jesus  Clirist  our  Lord."* 

In  this  manner  the  blessings  which  that  divine  Person  who  inter- 
posed for  the  salvation  of  mankind  is  able  to  bestow,  imply  a  com- 
plete deliverance  from  the  evils  of  sin.  "As  through  one  man's 
oifence,  death  reigned  by  one,  so  they  who  receive  abundance  of 
grace,  and  of  the  gift  of  righteousness,  shall  reign  in  life  by  one  Jesus 
Christ."t 

Hitherto  we  have  confined  our  attention  to  the  interposition  of  that 
Person,  who  appeared  upon  earth  to  save  his  people  from  their  sins. 
But  we  are  introduced  in  the  gospel  to  the  knowledge  of  a  third  Per- 
son, who  concurs  in  the  salvation  of  mankind  ;  who  proceedeth  from 
the  Father,  who  is  sent  by  the  Son  as  his  Spirit,:]:  whose  power  is 
spoken  of  in  exalted  terms,§  to  whom  the  highest  reverence  is  chal- 
lenged,|l  and  who  in  all  the  variety  of  his  operations,  is  one  and  the 
self-same  Spirit,  dividing  to  every  one  severally  as  he  will.H  One 
God  and  Father  of  all  is  known  by  the  works  of  nature :  the  Son  of 
God  is  made  known  by  revelation,  because  the  world  which  he  had 
made  stood  in  need  of  his  interposition  to  redeem  it :  and  the  Spirit 
is  made  known  by  the  same  revelation,  because  the  benefits  of  this 
redemption  are  applied  through  his  agency.  Our  knowledge  in  this 
way  grows  with  our  necessities.  We  learn  how  inadequate  our 
faculties  are  to  comprehend  the  divine  nature,  when  we  see  such  im- 
portant discoveries  superinduced  upon  the  investigations  of  the  most 
enlightened  reason.  And  we  learn  also  that  the  measures  of  know- 
ledge, which  the  Father  of  Spirits  sees  meet  to  communicate,  are  not 
intended  to  amuse  our  minds  with  speculation,  and  to  gratify  curiosity, 
but  are  immediately  connected  with  the  grounds  of  our  comfort  and 
hope.  They  comprehend  all  that  is  necessary  for  us  in  our  present 
circumstances.  But  they  may  be  far  from  exhausting  the  subject 
revealed  :  and  from  the  very  great  addition  which  the  revelation  of 
the  gospel  has  made  to  our  knowledge,  it  is  natural  for  us  to  infer 
that  creatures  in  another  situation,  or  we  ourselves  in  a  more 
advanced  state  of  being,  may  see  distinctly  many  things,  which  we 
now  in  vain  attempt  to  penetrate.  The  mode  in  which  the  Son  and 
the  Spirit  subsist,  and  the  nature  of  their  connexion  with  the  Father, 
however  much  they  have  been  the  subject  of  human  speculation,  are 
nowhere  revealed  in  Scripture.  But  the  offices  of  these  persons, 
being  of  infinite  importance  to  us,  are  revealed  with  such  hints  only 
of  their  nature,  as  may  satisfy  us  that  they  are  qualified  for  these 
offices. 

We  have  seen  the  office  of  the  Son  in  the  redemption  of  the  world, 
the  right  which  he  acquired  by  his  perfect  obedience  and  suffi-'ring  to 
dispense  the  blessings  of  his  purchase.  It  is  in  the  dispensation  of 
these  blessings  that  the  office  of  the  Spirit  appears.  This  office  com- 
menced from  the  earliest  times :  "  For  he  spake  by  the  mouth  of  all 
the  holy  prophets,  who  prophesied,  since  the  world  began,  of  the 

*  Rom.  vi.  23.  f  Rom.  v.  17.  t  John  xv.  26. 

§  Acts  iv.  31,  33.  Rom.  viii.  11,26.  2  Cor.  iii.  17,  18.  0  Heb.  ix.  14 ;  x.  29. 

1  1  Cor.  xii.  4—11. 


PECULIAR    DOCTRINES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  179 

sufferings  of  Christ,  and  of  the  glory  that  should  follow."*  To  his 
agency  the  miraculous  conception  of  the  Son  of  man  is  ascribed. t  He 
descended  upon  Jesus  at  his  baptism  :J  he  was  given  to  him  without 
measure  during  his  ministry  ;§  and  after  his  ascension  he  was  n)ani- 
Ibsted  in  the  variety  and  fuhiess  of  those  gifts  which  distinguisiied  the 
first  preachers  of  Christianity.||  But  all  these  branches  of  the  office  of 
the  Spirit,  so  necessary  for  confirming  the  truth,  and  for  diffusing  the 
knowledge  of  the  Christian  religion,  were  only  the  pledges  of  those 
ordinasy  inthiences,  by  which  the  same  Divine  Person  continues  in 
all  ages  to  apply  the  blessings  which  are  thus  revealed. 

The  ordinary  influences  of  the  Spirit  are  represented  in  Scripture 
as  opposed  to  all  those  circumstances  in  the  present  condition  of  hu- 
man nature,  which  indispose  men  for  receiving  such  a  religion  as  the 
gospel.  Thus  you  read,  that  "  the  natural  man  receiveth  not  the 
things  of  God;  they  are  foolishness  to  him,  because  they  are  spirit- 
ually discerned."^  But  the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  revelation  is  given 
to  Christians,  that  "  the  eyes  of  their  understanding  being  enlighten- 
ed, they  may  know  what  is  the  hope  of  their  calling."^*  You  read, 
that  "  the  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against  God,  and  cannot  be  subject 
to  his  law  :  but  they  that  are  led  by  the  Spirit,  mind  the  things  of  the 
Spirit. "tt  You  read  of  a  complacency  in  their  own  righteousness, 
which  prevents  many  from  submitting  themselves  to  the  righteous- 
ness of  God.JJ  But  the  Spirit  casts  down  every  high  thought  which 
exalteth  itself.§§ 

In  all  this  there  is  nothing  contrary  to  the  reasonable  nature  of 
man.  We  have  daily  experience  of  the  influence  which  one  mind 
has  over  another,  by  presenting  objects  in  the  light  best  fitted  to  com- 
mand assent  and  conviction,  by  suggesting  forcible  motives,  by  over- 
ruling objections,  by  addressing  every  generous  principle,  and  exciting 
every  latent  spark  of  good  affection.  You  sometimes  see  or  hear  of 
persons  formed  for  commanding  others,  not  by  force,  but  by  an  ac- 
knowledged eminence  of  talents  and  virtues:  and  you  often  see  men 
conducted  by  a  skilful  exposition  to  the  clear  apprehension  of  truths 
which  seemed  to  be  above  their  capacity,  and  irresistibly,  yet  freely, 
led,  by  well-adapted  persuasion,  to  exertions  which  they  considered 
as  beyond  their  power.  All  this  is  a  very  faint  image  indeed,  but  it 
may  assist  you  in  forming  some  conception  of  the  action  of  the  Spirit 
of  God  upon  the  mind  of  man.  He,  who  knows  every  spring  of  that 
heart  which  he  formed,  every  method  of  approach,  every  secret  wish, 
every  reluctant  thought,  and  whose  power  over  mind  is  as  entire  as 
that  which  he  exercises  over  matter,  can  in  various  ways  illuminate 
the  darkest  understanding,  and  bend  the  most  stubborn  will,  without 
destroying  that  freedom  which  is  the  essential  character  of  tlie  being 
upon  whom  he  acts.  The  influence  is  efficacious,  and  the  purpose  of 
him  from  whom  it  proceeds  cannot  be  defeated.  Yet  the  being  who 
is  thus  moved  has  as  little  feeling  of  constraint,  acts  as  much  from 
choice  and  deliberation,  as  if  the  views  and  motives  had  occurred  to 

•  1  Pet  i.  11.  §  John  iii.  34.  ••  Ephes.  i.  17,  18. 

f  Luke  i.  35.  |  Acts  ii.  4.  -^-j-  Rom.  viii.  5,  7. 

i  Luke  iii.  22.  ^  I  Cor.  ii.  14.  ++  Rom.  i.  3. 

§§  2  Cor.  I.  5. 


180  PECULIAR    DOCTRINES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

his  own  mind  without  a  guide,  or  had  been  suggested  to  him  by  any 
of  his  neighbours.  Hence,  although  this  influence  of  the  Spirit  is 
expressed  in  Scripture  by  a  new  creation,*  and  tlie  quickening  of 
those  who  were  dead,f  although  our  Lord  hath  said,  "  Except  a  man 
be  born  again  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God," 
i.  e.  become  a  Christian;  and  again,  "No  man  can  come  unto  me, 
except  the  Father  which  hath  sent  me  draw  him,"J  yet  the  persons 
tlius  created,  quickened,  and  drawn,  are  said  to  be  "  willing  in  a  day 
of  power."§  "  Where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,"  says  the  apostle, 
"there  is  liberty,"||  the  Uberty  which  belongs  to  those  whose  under- 
standings know  the  truth,  whose  affections  are  orderly,  and  who  are 
not  the  servants  of  sin.  The  gospel  is  styled  "  the  perfect  law  of 
liberty."T[  A  Christian  is  significantly  called  "  the  Lord's  freeman."** 
And  Jesus  said  to  those  who  believed  on  him,  "  If  the  Son  shall  make 
you  free,  ye  shall  be  free  indeed."ff 

Such  is  the  nature  of  that  influence  which  the  Scriptures  represent 
the  Spirit  of  God  as  exerting  upon  every  true  Christian.  The  imme- 
/  diate  effect  of  that  influence  is  called  in  Scripture  faith  ;  a  word  which, 
according  to  its  etymology,  rttctttj,  denotes  a  firm  persuasion  of  truth, 
but  which,  in  the  Scripture  sense  of  the  word,  comprehends  all  the 
f  sentimi^nts  and  affections  which  naturally  arise  from  a  firm  persua- 
sion of  the  truth  of  Christianity;  a  cordial  acquiescence  in  the  doc- 
trines of  the  gospel,  a  thankful  acceptance  of  the  method  of  salvation 
(  from  sin  there  offered,  a  reliance  upon  the  promises  of  God,  and  a 
V  submission  to  his  will.  Although  an  acquaintance  with  the  historical 
evidences  of  the  truth  of  Christianity  be  the  natural  foundation  of  a 
persuasion  of  its  truth,  yet  a  person  may  have  studied  these  evidences 
with  care,  and  may  be  able  to  answer  the  objections  that  have  been 
urged  against  them,  who,  at  the  same  time,  from  some  wrongness  of 
mind,  does  not  attain  to  the  sentiments  and  dispositions  implied  under 
faith.  The  Scriptures  hold  forth  examples  of  this  in  the  enemies  of 
our  Lord  during  his  life,  who  had  clearer  evidences  of  his  divine 
mission  before  their  eyes  than  we  are  able  to  attain  with  all  our  in- 
vestigation, and  in  many  of  those,  who,  by  teaching  and  doing  won- 
derful works  in  his  name,  had  that  evidence  within  themselves,  yet 
are  for  ever  separated  from  him  by  his  own  declaration. JJ  And  these 
examples  will  not  appear  strange  to  any  person  who  has  bestowed 
a  philosophical  attention  upon  the  inconsistencies  in  the  human  mind, 
and  the  small  influence  which  deductions  of  the  understanding  often 
appear  to  have  upon  the  heart.  On  the  other  hand,  both  the  Scrip- 
tures and  our  own  experience  afford  many  examples  of  persons,  who, 
with  limited  information  and  narrow  powers  of  reasoning,  yet  by  a 
tractable  disposition,  a  love  of  the  truth,  and  a  fairness  of  mind,  have 
attained  to  what  the  Scriptures  call  faith,  and  become  the  discii)les  of 
Christ  indeed.  To  this  purpose  Jesus  says,  "  I  thank  thee,  0  Father, 
Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  that  thou  hast  hid  these  things  from  the 
wise  and  prudent,  and  hast  revealed  them  unto  babes.  Even  so. 
Father,  for  so  it  seemed  good  in  thy  sight."§§     And  again,  "  Except 

♦  2  Cor.  V.  17.  f  Ephes.  ii.  1.  t  John  iii.  3,  5  ;  vi.  44.  ^  Psalm  ex.  3. 

I  2  Cor.  iii.  17.  ^  James  i.  2S.  **  1  Cor.  vii.  22.  ff  John  viii.  36. 

XX  Matt.  vii.  22,  23.  §§  Matt.  xi.  25,  2G. 


EJECULIAR  DOCTRINES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  181 

ye  become  as  little  children,  ye  shall  not  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven ;"  i.  e.  Except  ye  receive  the  truth  with  that  freedom  from 
prejudice,  that  desire  of  learning,  and  that  simplicity  of  intention, 
which  are  all  implied  in  the  character  of  children,  ye  cannot  become 
Christians.*     In  another  place  our  Lord  says,  "  If  any  man  will  do 
the  will  of  God,  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine  whether  it  be  of 
God  ;"t  and  he  explains  the  good  soil,  in  which  the  seed  fell  that 
produced  an  hundred  fold,  by  a  good  and  honest  heart,  in  which  they 
keep  the  word,  who  bring  forth  fruit  with  patience.J     All  these  ex- | 
pressions  imply  not  merely  that  faith  is  an  exercise  of  understanding, 
but  that  a  certain  preparation  of  heart  is  requisite  for  it ;  and  hence 
you  will  perceive  that,  although  faith  be  a  reasonable  act  proceeding  ^ 
upon  evidence,  there  is  room  for  the  influence  of  the  Spirit  in  dis- 
posing the  mind  to  attend  to  the  evidence,  and  to  see  its  force,  in  over-  , 
coming  prejudice,  and  carrying  home  the  truth  with  power  to  the 
heart.  Accordingly  the  apostle  Paul  says  expressly,  that  faith  is  «  the 
gift  of  God  ;"§  and  this  declaration  is  only  expressing,  in  one  sen- 
tence, the  uniform  doctrine  of  Scripture  upon  this  subject. 

Faith,  which  is  thus  produced  by  the  influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
upon  the  mind  of  man,  is  the  character  with  which  a  participation  of 
the  blessings  of  the  gospel  is  always  connected  in  Scripture.     These 
blessings  were  acquired,  and  are  dispensed  by  the  Lord  Jesus.     But 
they  are  applied  by  his  Spirit  only  to  them  who  believe.     "  God  so 
loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever 
believeth  in  him  should  not  perish."    "  He  that  believeth  and  is  bap- 
tized shall  be  saved  ;  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned."    "  This  ; 
is  the  word  of  faith  which  we  preach,  that  if  thou  shalt  confess  with 
thy  mouth  the  Lord  Jesus, and  shalt  believe  in  thine  heart  that  God  hath  ; 
raised  him  from  the  dead,  thou  shalt  be  saved."     We  are  said  to  be 
"justified  by  faith;"  and  the  only  direction  which  Paul  gave  to  the 
jailer,  when  he  cried  out,  "What  must  I  do  to  be  saved?"  was  this,., 
«  Believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved."  1| 

Declarations  of  this  kind  abound  in  Scripture.  But  there  are  two 
mistakes  which  such  declarations  are  apt  to  occasion  ;  and  both  are 
so  opposite  to  the  Scripture  system,  that  they  require  to  be  mentioned 
in  this  short  account  of  it.  ,     o    •  j 

The  first  mistake,  into  which  you  may  be  led  by  the  Scripture  de- 
clarations concerning  faith,  is  to  imagine  that  faith  is  the  procuring 
cause  of  our  salvation ;  that  because  Christ  says,  « this  is  the  work 
of  God,  that  ye  believe  on  him  whom  he  hath  sent,"  any  person  who 
does  the  work  receives  the  blessings  of  the  gospel  as  the  wages  which 
he  has  earned.  But  such  an  opinion  contradicts  all  the  views  which 
we  have  hitherto  deduced  from  Scripture.  For  the  gospel  being  a 
salvation  from  sin,  those  who  are  to  be  saved  are  considered  as  sin- 
ners, until  they  partake  of  the  salvation.  The  investiture  with  a  cer- 
tain character  is  indeed  a  present,  and  in  some  sense  an  immediate 
effect  of  the  salvation,  and  is  so  inseparably  connected  with  it,  as  to 
be  the  Scripture  mark,  that  a  person  has  "  passed  from  death  unto 
life."     But  being  an  eff'ect,  it  cannot  in  the  nature  of  things  be  a 

•  Matt,  xviii.  3.  f  J^^"  vii.  17.  +  Luke  viii.  15.  §  Ephes.  ii.  8. 

H  John  iii.  16.     Mark  ivi.  16.     Rom.  x.  8,  9 ;   v.  i.     Acts  xvi.  30,   31. 
18 


182  PECULIAR    DOCTRINES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

cause  of  that  from  which  it  proceeds ;  and  therefore  the  Scriptures 
speaic  in  perfect  consistency  with  themselves,  when  they  declare, 
"  God  hath  saved  us,  and  called  us  with  an  holy  calling,  not  according 
to  our  works,  but  according  to  his  own  purpose  and  grace,  which  was 
given  us  in  Christ  Jesus."*  "  When  we  were  dead  in  sins,  he  quick- 
ened us  together  with  Christ,  for  by  grace  ye  are  saved  through  faith  ; 
and  that  not  of  yourselves,  it  is  the  gift  of  God."t  Faith  is  the  in- 
strument by  which  the  Spirit  of  God  applies  to  us  the  blessings  which 
Christ  hath  acquired  the  right  of  dispensing.  But  there  is  no  merit 
in  the  instrument.  Since  all  had  sinned  and  come  short  of  the  glory 
of  God,  "  we  are  justified  freely  by  the  grace  of  God,  through  the 
redemption  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus ;"  and  he  is  "  the  Lord  our  right- 
eousness." 

The  second  mistake  into  which  you  may  be  led  by  the  Scripture 
declaration  concerning  faith  is,  that  faith  is  the  only  thing  which  is 
required  of  a  Christian.  If  all  that  Paul  said  to  the  jailer  was,  "  Be- 
lieve in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved,"  it  seems  to 
follow  that,  if  he  believed,  it  mattered  not  how  far  he  disregarded 
every  other  precept  of  the  gospel.  But  the  Scriptures,  by  all  their 
descriptions  of  faith,  mean  to  teach  us  that  it  cannot  be  alone.  It  is 
the  principle  of  a  divine  life,  by  which  we  are  united  to  Christ  and 
derive  from  him  grace  and  strength  for  the  discharge  -of  every  duty. 
It  works  by  love,  and  purifies  the  heart,  and  overcomes  the  world. 
So  we  read  in  Scripture  of  a  life  of  faith,  of  the  obedience  of  faith, 
of  faith  being  dead,  because  it  is  without  works.  "  Do  we  make  void 
the  law  through  faith?  God  forbid:  yea,  we  establish  the  law."t 
Here  then  you  will  mark  the  place  which  good  works  hold  in  the 
Christian  system.  They  are  not  the  ground  of  our  acceptance  with 
God,  for  the  whole  world,  according  to  this  system,  being  guilty  be- 
fore God,  we  must  have  remained  for  ever  excluded  from  his  favour 
had  good  works  been  the  condition  upon  which  our  being  received 
into  it  was  suspended.  "  Therefore,"  the  apostle  Paul  says,  "  by  the 
deeds  of  the  law  shall  no  flesh  be  justified  in  the  sight  of  God," 
Neither  are  those  the  good  works  of  a  Christian,  which,  although  fit 
in  themselves,  and  profitable  to  those  who  do  them,  and  to  others, 
are  done  merely  upon  considerations  of  reason,  honour,  and  con- 
science, which  ought  to  actuate  the  mind  in  every  situation.  But  the 
good  works  required  in  the  gospel  flow  from  faith,  i.  e.  they  are  per- 
formed in  the  spirit  of  a  Christian,  from  the  motives  suggested  by  a 
firm  persuasion  of  the  truth  of  the  gospel.  Good  works,  therefore, 
are  stated  in  Scripture  as  the  fruits  and  evidences  of  faith,  the  neces- 
sary effect  of  the  operation  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  "  For  we  are  his 
workmanship  created  in  Christ  Jesus  unto  good  works,  which  God 
hath  before  ordained  that  we  should  walk  in  them  ;"§  and  there  thus 
appears  to  be  the  most  perfect  consistency  between  the  doctrine  of 
Paul  and  that  of  James.  Paul  says  that  we  are  not  justified  by  any 
thing  that  we  can  do  ourselves,  but  freely  by  grace,  through  faith  in 
the  blood  of  Christ.     James  says.  Show  me  thy  faith  by  thy  works ; 

*  2  Tim.  i.  9.  -  f  Ephes.  ii.  1,  8. 

i  Gal.  V.  6  ;  iL  20.    Acts  xv.  9,     1  John  v.  4,     Rom.  i.  5 ;  iii.  31.    James  ii.  12. 

§  Ephes.  ii.  10. 


PECULIAii    DOCTRINES    OF    CHRISTIANlTt".  183 

faith  witliout  works  is  dead,  as  the  body  without  the  spirit.  And  he 
conckides,  that  a  man  is  justified  not  by  faitii  only,  i.  e.  by  such  a 
faith  as  does  not  produce  what  Paul  had  stated  to  be  the  constant 
eflect  of  true  faith,  but  by  tliat  faith  which  by  works  is  made 
perfect. 

As  the  gospel  calls  men,  by  motives  peculiar  to  itself,  and  with  an 
energy  which  no  other  system  ever  possessed,  to  the  practice  of 
righteousness,  so  it  is  uniformly  supposed  in  Scripture,  that  the  fol- 
lowers of  Jesus  are  to  be  distinguished  by  the  zeal  and  constancy 
with  which  they  abound  in  the  work  of  the  Lord.  "  The  question  of 
our  Lord,  "  What  do  ye  more  than  others  ?"  and  such  expressions 
as  these,  "  being  dead  to  sin,"  "  crucifying  the  flesh  with  the  atlec- 
tions  and  lusts,"  "being  alive  unto  God,"  "putting  on  the  new  man," 
"  walking  after  the  Spirit,"  imply  an  eminence  and  uniformity  of 
virtues,  a  light  which  shines  before  men.  That  innocence  which  the 
laws  of  our  country  enjoin,  that  measure  of  virtue  which  a  regard  to 
public  opinion  or  even  the  principles  of  natural  religion  require,  falls 
very  far  short  of  the  evangelical  standard.  It  is  the  duty  of  a  Chris- 
tian to  aspire  after  perfection,  yet  never  to  count  that  he  has  attained 
it ;  to  forsake  the  vices  of  others,  and  to  endeavour  to  excel  their 
virtues,  yet  to  be  deeply  sensible  of  his  own  imperfection,  and  ready 
to  allow  his  brethren  all  the  praise  which  they  deserve ;  to  fill  up  his 
life  with  the  various  exertions  of  active,  diffusive,  disinterested 
benevolence,  yet  to  guard  against  the  emotions  of  vanity,  and  that 
spirit  of  ostentation  by  which  a  good  deed  loses  all  its  value  ;  and  to 
ascribe  the  honour  of  his  progress  in  virtue,  not  to  his  natural  disposi- 
tion, to  his  own  diligence  and  watchfulness,  or  to  any  concurrence  of 
favourable  circumstances,  but  to  that  God  who  called  him  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  Gospel,  to  that  Saviour  by  the  faith  of  whom  he 
lives,  and  to  that  Spirit  by  whose  influence  he  is  sanctified. 

The  Scriptures  assure  us  that  the  good  works  which  thus  proceed 
from  faith,  although  imperfect  in  degree  and  mingled  with  many 
infirmities,  are  well  pleasing  in  the  sight  of  God  through  Jesus  Christ. 
He,  in  allusion  to  the  Jewish  law,  is  represented  as  the  high  priest 
over  the  house  of  God,  who,  having  yielded  a  perfect  obedience  to 
the  divine  law,  has  no  occasion  to  make  any  offering  for  his  own 
sins,  but  appears  in  the  presence  of  God  for  his  people.*  And 
the  good  works  which  they  perform  through  the  strength  which  his 
Spirit  imparts,  are  styled  spiritual  sacrifices,  acceptable  to  God  by 
him.t  The  Almighty  lifts  the  light  of  his  countenance  upon  those 
who  offer  this  sacrifice  ;  he  admits  them  into  his  family  ;  he  rejoices 
over  them  to  do  them  good ;  he  chastens  them  with  the  tenderness 
of  a  father ;  he  seals  them  by  his  Spirit  unto  the  day  of  redemption  ; 
and  he  will  receive  them  hereafter  to  that  incorruptible  inheritance, 
which  is  not  due  to  their  services,  but  a  reward  of  grace,  purchased 
by  the  death  of  Christ,  secured  by  his  intercession,  and  "  reserved  in 
heaven  for  those  who  are  kept  by  the  power  of  God  through  faith 
unto  salvation." 

It  appears  then  from  the  Scriptures,  that  the  religion  of  Jesus, 
having  for  its  ultimate  design  the  removal  of  those  evils  which  sin 

•  Heb.  vii.  25—28.  f  1  Peter  ii.  5. 


184  PECULIAR    DOCTRINES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

had  introduced,  destroys  the  present  dominion  of  sin  in  all  true 
Christians.  Its  tendency  is  to  restore  upon  the  soul  of  man  that 
image  of  God  after  which  he  was  made,  to  revive  those  sentiments 
and  desires  which  constitute  the  excellence  and  dignity  of  his 
nature,  to  elevate  his  affections  from  earth  to  heaven,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  to  enforce  the  discharge  of  those  relative  duties  which  his  present 
condition  renders  necessary  to  the  comfort  of  society.  It  is  plain  that 
if  this  religion  were  universally  acknowledged  and  obeyed,  the 
character  of  every  individual  would  be  rescued  from  the  degradation 
of  vice,  and  assimilated  to  the  most  exalted  beings  in  the  universe ; 
that  the  happiness  of  human  life  would  receive  the  most  substantial 
and  permanent  improvement,  and  that  the  abode  of  the  human  race 
upon  earth  would  be  a  stage  in  the  progress  of  their  existence  to  the 
perfection  and  the  joys  of  heaven.  It  is  not  possible  to  conceive  any 
design  more  worthy  of  the  father  of  mankind,  and  more  beneficial  to  his 
creatures.  There  is  implied  in  the  nature  of  this  design  the  strongest 
obligation  upon  every  reasonable  being  to  whom  the  knowledge  of  it  is 
communicated,  to  co-operate  in  its  accomplishment :  and  it  is  especially 
to  be  remarked,  in  a  view  of  the  Scripture  system,  that  this  co-opera- 
tion is  not  only  required  by  precept,  but  is  recommended  by  the  most 
illustrious  examples.  The  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  con- 
descended to  take  a  part  in  this  scheme ;  the  angels  attend  to  the 
progress  of  it,  rejoice  in  the  conversion  of  a  sinner,  and  are  "  minister- 
ing spirits  sent  forth  to  minister  to  the  heirs  of  salvation."  All  the 
prophets  and  holy  men  in  ancient  times,  of  whom  the  Scriptures 
speak,  looked  forward  to  it,  and  contributed  in  some  measure  to  its 
approach.  And  now  that  it  is  manifested,  every  one  is  called  upon 
to  be  a  worker  together  with  God.  The  whole  Christian  world  is 
represented  as  one  great  society,  united,  by  their  submission  to  the 
same  Master  and  by  the  guidance  of  the  same  Spirit  in  following 
"after  holiness,  without  which  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord;"  and 
"  after  the  things — wherewith  one  may  edify  another." 

We  are  warranted  to  speak  of  this  co-operation  in  accomplishing 
the  great  design  of  the  gospel ;  for  although  the  Scriptures  represent 
the  blessings  there  revealed  as  acquired  by  the  interposition  of  the 
Son  of  God,  and  the  character  necessary  in  order  to  a  participation  of 
them  as  originating  from  the  influence  of  the  Spirit,  yet  they  uniformly 
address  us  in  a  style  which  supposes  that  there  is  something  for  us  to 
do.  We  are  conmianded  to  "  work  out  our  own  salvation,"  and  we 
are  required  to  help  our  brethren  in  the  good  ways  of  die  Lord.  We 
soon  bewilder  ourselves  in  our  speculations,  when  we  attempt  to  settle 
the  boundaries  between  the  agency  of  God  and  the  agency  of  man. 
But  the  Scriptures,  without  condescending  to  enter  into  these  discus- 
sions, abound  in  exhortations ;  and  we  cannot  suppose  that  our  shal- 
low reasonings  upon  subjects  so  infinitely  above  our  comprehension, 
will  be  sustained  as  an  excuse  for  neglecting  to  obey  precepts  so  often 
repeated  and  so  plainly  expressed. 

The  Scriptures  mention  various  means,  which  the  Spirit  of  God 
employs,  in  producing  that  faith  which  is  the  principle  of  the  Chris- 
tian character,  and  those  good  works  which  flow  from  this  principle. 
But  they  have  nowhere  furnished  any  marks  to  distinguish  the 
natural  operation  of  these  means  from  that  agency  of  the  Spirit,  with- 


PECULIAR    DOCTRINES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  185 

out  which  they  are  ineffectual.  "  The  wind,"  says  our  Lord, 
"  bloweth  where  it  hsteth,  and  thou  hearest  the  sound  thereof,  but 
canst  not  tell  whence  it  cometh,  and  whither  it  goeth  ;  so  is  every  one 
that  is  born  of  the  Spirit."  The  Spirit  may  act  as  he  will,  but  there 
is  no  warrant  to  expect  that  the  conversion  of  any  individual  will  be 
brought  about  in  a  sudden  sensible  manner.  The  exercises  of  a  pious 
education,  the  habits  of  virtuous  youth,  the  impressions  fixed  upon 
the  mind  by  the  continued  instruction  and  conversation  of  the  wise, 
may  have  so  gradually  disposed  a  person  for  receiving  the  Gospel  in 
faith,  that  he  shall  not  be  able  to  mark  any  great  change  which  ever 
took  place  in  the  state  of  his  soul,  or  the  time  when  faith,  the  gift  of 
God,  was  imparted  to  him  by  the  Spirit.  Yet  this  man  may  appear 
to  be  a  Christian  indeed,  by  bringing  forth  in  his  life  those  fruits  of 
the  Spirit,  which  are  the  evidences  of  faith.  The  assurance  which 
arises  from  these  evidences  may  give  him  that  "peace  of  God  which 
passeth  understanding ;"  and  the  Spirit  itself  may  bear  witness  with 
his  spirit  that  he  is  a  child  of  God.  From  hence  we  deduce  the  duty 
of  using  the  means  by  which  the  influences  of  the  Spirit  are  ordinarily 
conveyed,  and  the  presumption  of  all  who,  undervaluing  the  means, 
say  that  they  wait  for  an  extraordinary  instantaneous  illapse  of  the 
Spirit.  Hence  too  you  perceive  the  reason  why  the  Scriptures  repre- 
sent the  earliest  Christians,  and  speak  of  Christians  in  all  succeeding 
ages,  as  a  society  distinguished  by  certain  regulations  and  outward 
ordinances.  If  the  Spirit  operated  immediately  upon  every  indivi- 
dual, all  these  would  be  a  yoke  of  ceremonies.  But  if  the  heavenly 
gift,  as  well  as  the  common  bounties  of  Providence,  is  to  be  dispensed 
by  the  instrumentality  of  men,  the  establishment  of  what  we  call  a 
church  is  necessary  for  "  perfecting  the  saints,  and  for  edifying  the 
body  of  Christ."  So  speaks  the  apostle  Paul.  "  How  shall  they  call 
on  him  in  whom  they  have  not  believed  ?  And  how  shall  they  believe 
in  him  of  whom  they  have  not  heard  ?  And  how  shall  they  hear 
without  a  preacher  ?  And  how  shall  they  preach  except  they  be 
sent  ?  So  faith  cometh  by  hearing,  and  hearing  by  the  word  of 
God,"*  The  promise  of  our  Lord  to  his  apostles,  "  Lo,  I  am  with 
you  always,  even  to  the  end  of  the  world,"  seems,  by  the  terms  of  it, 
to  extend  to  a  much  longer  period  than  their  ministry  required ;  and 
that  it  does  really  imply  the  presence  of  Jesus  with  his  church  in  all 
ages,  not  indeed  by  extraordinary  inspiration,  but  by  his  countenance 
and  protection,  is  manifest  from  another  declaration  of  his,  "  The 
gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  my  church,"  and  from  the 
practice  of  his  apostles,  who  ordained  teachers,  overseers  of  the  flock, 
in  every  city  where  they  preached,  and  who  made  provision  that  the 
instruction  which  they  gave  by  word  or  writing  should  be  transmit- 
ted to  future  generations.  "  The  things,"  says  Paul  to  Timothy,  the 
minister  of  Ephesus,  "  That  thou  hast  heard  of  me  among  many 
witnesses,  the  same  commit  thou  to  faithful  men,  who  shall  be  able 
to  teach  others  also."t  Some  of  the  epistles  of  Paul  contain  a 
delineation  of  the  form  of  those  churches  to  the  ministers  of  which  he 
writes,  and  directions  concerning  the  conduct  of  the  several  oflice- 
bearers,  and  concerning  the  exercise  of  discipline.     There  can  be  no 

♦  Rom.  X.  14,  15.  f  2  Tim.  ii.  2. 

18*  2D 


186  PECtTLIAR    DOCTRINES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

doubt  that  this  form  had  been  established  by  his  authority ;  and  it  is 
natnral  for  all  Christian  churches  to  endeavour  to  show  tliat  tlieir 
ecclesiastical  institutions  do  not  depart  far  from  it.  Yet  it  is  nowhere 
said  that  this  ought  to  be  the  form  of  the  church  universal :  and  there 
are  expressions  in  the  epistles  of  Paul  which  imply  that  Christians 
are  allowed  to  use  a  prudent  accommodation  to  circumstances  in 
matters  of  external  order.  The  spirit  of  Christianity  calls  our  atten- 
tion to  things  infinitely  more  important  than  the  varieties  of  church 
government.  "  The  kingdom  of  God  is  not  meat  and  drink,  but 
righteousness,  and  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost:"*  and  those 
societies,  whose  institutions  approach  nearest  to  the  apostolical  prac- 
tice, have  no  warrant  to  condemn  their  brethren,  who  have  been  led 
by  a  different  progress  of  society  to  establishments  farther  removed 
from  it. 

But  amidst  this  difference  in  matters  of  order,  which  the  Scriptures 
do  not  condemn,  there  are  points  resulting  from  the  design  of  their 
institution  in  which  all  churches  ought  to  agree,  otherwise  they  are 
not  the  chiirches  of  Christ.  They  must  acknowledge  him  as  their 
head  and  master,  teaching  no  other  doctrine  than  that  form  of  sound 
doctrine,  which  is  to  be  gathered  from  the  writings  of  his  apostles. 
They  must  maintain  that  spiritual  worship  which  he  hath  substituted 
in  place  of  the  idolatry  of  the  heathen,  and  the  ceremonies  of  the 
Mosaic  dispensation  ;  and  they  must  observe,  according  to  his  institu- 
tion, the  ordinances  which  he  hath  established  in  his  church.  We 
apply  the  word  ordinances  or  sacraments  to  baptism  and  the  Lord's 
Supper ;  the  first,  a  rite  borrowed  from  the  Jewish  custom  of  plunging 
into  water  the  proselytes  from  heathenism  to  the  law  of  Moses,  but 
consecrated  by  the  words  of  Jesus,  and  the  universal  practice  of  his 
disciples,  as  the  mode  of  admitting  members  into  the  Christian 
society  :  the  second,  a  rite  which  originated  in  the  affectionate  leave 
which  our  Lord  took  of  his  disciples  at  the  domestic  feast  that  follow- 
ed the  celebration  of  the  Jewish  passover.  The  words  of  the  institu- 
tion, "  As  often  as  ye  eat  this  bread  and  drink  this  cup,  ye  do  show 
the  Lord's  death  till  he  come,"  imply  that  the  Lord's  supper  is,  by 
the  appointment  of  Christ,  a  perpetual  ordinance  in  the  Christian 
church,  in  which  there  is  a  thankful  commemoration  of  the  benefits 
purchased  by  his  death ;  and  the  Scriptures  lead  us  to  entertain  a 
very  high  conception  of  the  spiritual  effects  of  this  ordinance  with 
regard  to  those  who  partake  of  it  worthily,  by  calling  it  "  the  com- 
munion of  the  body  and  the  blood  of  Christ."f  Baptism  and  the 
Lord's  supper  are  the  external  badges  of  the  Christian  profession,  the 
rites  by  which  the  author  of  the  Gospel  meant  that  the  society  which 
he  was  to  found  should  be  distinguished  from  every  other.  They  are 
most  apposite  to  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  his  religion  ;  there  is  a 
simplicity  and  significancy  in  them  which  accords  with  the  whole 
character  of  the  Gospel ;  and,  as  they  were  appointed  by  Jesus 
himself,  no  human  authority  is  entitled  to  add  to  their  number,  or  to 
make  any  material  alteration  upon  the  manner  of  their  being 
observed. 

Upon  this  account,  we  rank  the  right  administration  of  Baptism  and 

•  Rom.  Xif.  17.  t  1  Cor.  x.  16. 


PECULIAR    DOCTRINES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  1S7 

of  the  Lord's  Supper,  the  preaching  the  "  faith  once  delivered  to  the 
saints,"  and  the  maintenance  of  spiritual  worship,  as  the  marks  of  a 
Christian  church.  We  gather  all  the  three  marks  from  the  nature  of 
such  a  society,  and  from  several  places  of  Scripture  ;  and  we  find  the 
three  brought  into  one  view  in  the  description,  given  in  the  book  of 
Acts,  of  the  three  thousand  who  were  added'' to  the  number  of  the 
disciples  by  the  sermon,  which  Peter  preached  ten  days  after  the 
ascension  of  Jesus.  "  Then  they  that  gladly  received  his  word  were 
baptized.  And  they  continued  stedfastly  in  the  apostles'  doctrine  and 
fellowship,  and  in  breaking  of  bread,  and  in  prayers."* 

The  Church  of  Christ,  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  world  by  these 
marks  of  distinction,  is  not  set  in  opposition  to  human  government. 
But  the  gospel,  without  entering  into  any  discussion  of  the  claims 
made  by  subjects  and  their  rulers,  enforces  obedience  by  the  example 
of  Jesus  and  of  his  apostles,  and  by  various  precepts  such  as  these, 
"  Render  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Ca3sar's."  "  Let  every  soul 
be  subject  to  the  higher  powers."  "  Submit  yourselves  to  every 
ordinance  of  man  for  the  Lord's  sake."t  The  ministers  of  this  religion, 
although  invested  with  a  sacred  character,  and  constituted  by  their 
master  the  spiritual  rulers  of  that  society,  for  whose  good  they  labour, 
are  not  entitled  to  assume,  in  virtue  of  their  office,  any  measure  of 
civil  power.  They  are  not  the  arbiters  between  the  parties  who 
contend  for  dominion.  But  they  co-operate  with  the  authority  of 
government,  by  their  prayers,  by  their  exhortations,  and  by  the 
natural  tendency  of  discourses  composed  upon  the  true  principles  of 
Christianity,  to  diffuse  a  general  spirit  of  industry,  sobriety,  and  order. 
Upon  this  account  they  have  received,  in  every  Christian  country,  the 
protection  of  the  state;  and  in  these  happy  lands  where  we  live,  the 
establishment  of  that  form  of  Church  government,  which  was  sup- 
posed to  be  most  agreeable  to  the  inclinations  of  the  people,  is  incor- 
porated with  the  civil  constitution.  The  ministers  of  the  establish- 
ment have  legal  security  for  their  livings.  They  have,  in  critical 
times,  by  their  influence  over  public  opinion,  rendered  very  important 
services  to  their  country;  and,  although  that  unwillingness  to  part 
with  any  portion  of  their  property,  which  is  felt  by  all  the  orders  of 
the  state,  and  which  grows  with  the  progress  of  luxury,  may  prevent 
any  great  augmentation  of  the  moderate  provision  which  is  made  for 
the  ministers  of  our  church,  they  cannot  fail,  while  they  discharge 
their  duty,  to  continue  to  receive  the  countenance,  the  support,  and 
the  indulgence  of  the  legislature. 

•  Acts  ii.  41,  43.  f  Matt.  xxii.  31.  Rom.  xiii.  1.  1  Pet.  ii.  13, 


188  CHRISTIANITY    OF    INFINITE    IMPORTANCE. 


CHAPTER  III. 


CHRISTIANITY    OF    INFINITE    IMPORTANCE. 


Out  of  the  preceding  view  of  the  Scripture  system,  there  arise 
some  general  observations  upon  which  I  wish  to  fix  your  attention, 
because  I  think  they  may  be  of  use  in  preparing  your  minds  for  the 
more  particular  discussions  upon  which  we  are  to  enter. 

The  first  observation  respects  the  importance  of  Christianity. 

This  is  a  subject  upon  which,  for  the  reason  which  I  mentioned  in 
the  outset,  I  have  hitherto  hardly  said  any  thing.  The  common 
method  is,  to  place  what  is  called  the  necessity  of  revelation  before 
the  evidences  of  it,  and  to  argue  from  the  necessity  to  the  probabiUty 
of  its  having  been  given.  But  I  have  always  thought  this  an  unfair 
and  a  presumptuous  mode  of  arguing.  It  appears  to  me,  that  we 
are  so  little  qualified  to  judge  what  is  necessary,  and  so  little  entitled 
to  build  our  expectation  of  heavenly  gifts  upon  our  own  reasonings, 
that  the  only  method  becoming  our  distance,  and  our  ignorance  of  the 
divine  counsels,  is  first  to  establish  the  fact  that  a  revelation  has  been 
given,  and  then  to  learn  its  importance  by  examining  its  contents. 
Agreeably  to  this  method,  I  have  led  you  through  the  principal 
evidences  of  the  divine  mission  of  Jesus  ;  I  have  given  a  general  account 
of  the  system  contained  in  those  books,  which  his  servants  wrote  by 
inspiration  ;  and  I  now  mean  to  deduce  from  that  account  the  im- 
portance of  what  the  inspired  books  contain. 

There  are  two  views  under  which  the  importance  of  Christianity 
may  be  stated.  We  may  consider  the  gospel  as  a  republication  of  the 
religion  of  nature,  or  we  may  consider  it  as  a  method  of  saving  sinners. 


Section  I. 

We  may  consider  the  religion  of  Jesus  as  a  republication  of  the 
religion  of  nature.  I  have  adopted  this  phrase,  because,  from  the 
very  respectable  authority  by  which  it  has  been  used,  as  well  as  from 
its  own  significancy,  it  has  become  a  fashionable  phrase;  and  yet 
there  are  two  capital  mistakes  which  the  unguarded  use  of  it  may  oc- 
casion. The  first  is  an  opinion,  that  Christianity  is  merely  a  republi- 
cation of  the  religion  of  nature,  containing  nothing  more  than  the 
doctrines  and  duties  which  may  be  investigated  by  the  light  of  reason. 
But  it  follows  clearly  from  the  general  view  of  the  Scripture  system. 


CHRISTIANITY    OF    INFINITE    IMPORTANCE.  189 

that  this  is  an  imperfect  and  false  account  of  Christianity  ;  because 
in  that  system  there  are  doctrines  concerning  the  Son  and  tlie  Spirit, 
and  their  offices  in  the  salvation  of  men,  of  which  reason  did  not 
give  any  intimation ;  and  there  are  duties  resulting  from  the  interpo- 
sition recorded  in  the  gospel,  which  could  not  possibly  exist  till  the 
knowledge  of  that  interposition  was  communicated  to  man.  The 
gospel  then,  professing  to  be  more  than  a  republication  of  the  religion 
of  nature,  a  view  of  its  importance,  proceeding  upon  the  supposition 
that  it  is  merely  a  republication,  must  be  so  lame  as  to  do  injustice  to 
the  system  thus  misrepresented. 

The  second  mistake,  which  the  unguarded  use  of  this  phrase  may 
occasion,  is  an  opinion  that  the  religion  of  nature  is  essentially  defec- 
tive either  in  its  constitution,  or  in  the  mode  of  its  being  promulgated, 
and  that  the  imperfection  originally  adhering  to  it  called  for  amend- 
ment. But  this  is  an  opinion  which  appears  at  first  sight  unreasonable. 
If  the  Creator  intended  man  to  be  a  religious  creature,  it  is  to  be  pre- 
sumed that  he  endowed  him  in  the  beginning  with  the  faculty  of 
attaining  such  a  knowledge  of  the  divine  nature  as  might  be  the 
foundation  of  religion.  If  he  intended  him  to  be  a  moral  accountable 
creature,  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  he  furnished  him  with  a  rule  of  life. 
These  presumptions  are  confirmed,  when  we  proceed  to  examine  the 
subject  closely;  for  we  cannot  analyze  the  human  mind,  whhout  dis- 
covering that  an  impression  of  the  Supreme  Being  is  congenial  to 
many  of  its  natural  sentiments.     There  is  a  strain  of  fair  reasoning, 
by  which  we  are  conducted,  from  principles  universally  admitted,  to 
some  knowledge  of  the  divine  attributes.     There  are  obligations  im- 
plied in  the  dependence  of  a  reasonable  being  upon  his  Creator. 
There  is  a  certain  line  of  conduct  dictated  by  the  constitution  and  the 
circumstances  of  man  ;  and  there  is  a  general  expectation  with  regard 
to  the  future  conduct  of  the  divine  government,  created  by  that  part 
of  it  which  we  behold,  and  corresponding  to  hopes  and  fears  of  which 
we  cannot  divest  ourselves.     All  this  makes  up  what  we  call  natural 
religion.     And  it  is  -manifestly  supposed  in  Scripture ;  for  we  read 
there,  that  "that  which  maybe  known  of  God  is  manifest  among 
them :  for  God  hath  shown  it  to  them ;  for  the  invisible  things  of  God 
are  clearly  seen  ever  since  the  creation  of  the  world,  being  understood 
by  the  things  that  are  made,  even  his  eternal  power  and  Godhead  : 
so  they  are  without  excuse,  because  that  when  they  knew  God,  they 
glorified  him  not  as  God."     We  read  that  those  who  had  no  written 
law  "are  a  law  to  themselves,  their  conscience  bearing  witness."* 
And,  through  the  whole  of  Scripture,  there  are  appeals  to  those  no- 
tions of  God  which  are  agreeable  to  right  reason,  and  to  that  sense 
of  right  and  wrong  which  is  there  considered  as  a  part  of  the  human 
constitution.     Although,  therefore,  some  zealous  unwise  friends  of 
Christianity  have  thought  of  doing  honour  to  revelation  by  depre- 
ciating natural  religion,  and  although  you  will  find  that  some' sects  of 
Christians  have  been  led  by  their  peculiar  tenets  to  deny  that  man 
has  naturally  any  knowledge  of  God,  you  will  not  suppose  that  all 
who  use  the  phrase,  Republication  of  the  religion  of  nature,  adopt 
these  opinions,  or  even  approach  to  them ;  and  you  will  find,  that  the 

•  See  Macknight's  translation  of  Rom.  ii.  15 ;  i.  18,  19,  20. 


190  CHRISTIANITY    OF    INFINITE    IMPORTANCE. 

soundest  and  ablest  divines  consider  natural  religion  as  suited  to  the 
circumstances  of  man  at  the  time  of  his  creation.  If  you  take  the 
known  history  of  the  human  race  in  conjunction  with  the  principles 
of  human  nature,  you  will  readily  perceive  that  the  opinion  of  these 
divines  is  well  founded.  There  would  undoubtedly  be  transmitted 
from  the  first  man  to  his  descendants  a  tradition  of  his  coming  into 
the  world,  and  of  his  finding  every  thing  there  new ;  and  if  you  ad- 
mit the  truth  of  the  Mosaic  account,  this  tradition,  by  the  long  lives 
of  the  first  inhabitants  of  the  earth,  would  pass  for  many  centuries 
through  very  few  hands.  It  is  to  be  presumed,  too,  even  indepen- 
dently of  the  authority  of  Moses,  that,  in  the  infancy  of  the  human 
race,  there  would  be  a  more  immediate  intercourse  between  man  and 
his  Creator,  than  after  the  connections  of  society  had  been  formed 
and  established  upon  the  earth.  This  tradition  and  this  revelatiou 
might  fix  the  attention  of  the  posterity  of  the  first  man  upon  those 
suggestions  and  deductions  of  reason,  which  give  some  knowledge 
of  the  being,  the  attributes,  and  the  moral  government  of  God ;  and 
there  might  be  thus  a  foundation  laid  for  the  universal  observance  of 
some  kind  of  worship  as  the  expression  of  gratitude  and  trust.  From 
a  sense  of  dependence  upon  the  Creator,  there  would  arise  the  feeling 
of  obligation  to  serve  him,  so  that  natural  religion  would  come  in  aid 
of  the  dictates  of  conscience  ;  and  the  obedience  which  man  yielded 
to  the  law  of  morality,  while  by  the  constitution  of  his  nature  it  was 
rewarded  with  inward  peace,  would  enable  him,  by  his  apprehension 
of  a  righteous  Sovereign  of  the  universe,  to  look  forward  with  good 
hope  to  those  future  scenes  of  the  divine  government  under  which  he 
might  be  permitted  to  exist.  I  do  not  say  that  this  complete  system 
of  pure  natural  religion  ever  was  established  in  any  country  merelj'' 
by  reasoning :  but  I  do  say,  that  all  the  parts  of  it  may  be  referred  to 
principles  of  reason ;  that  early  tradition  called  and  directed  men  to 
apply  these  principles  to  the  subject  of  religion;  and  that,  had  they 
been  properly  followed  out,  man  would  have  been  possessed,  inde- 
pendently of  any  extraordinary  revelation,  of  a  ground  of  religion, 
and  a  rule  of  life,  suited  to  the  circumstances  in  which  he  was  cre- 
ated. 

Having  guarded  against  the  second  mistake  which  I  mentioned,  by 
fixing  in  your  minds  this  preliminary  point,  that  the  religion  of  nature 
was  not  originally  defective,  you  proceed  to  consider  what  importance 
the  Gospel  derives  from  being  a  republication  of  that  religion. 

You  will  begin  with  observing  it  to  be  very  conceivable  that  the 
whole  system  of  natural  religion  may  admit  of  being  proved  by 
reason,  and  yet  that  particular  circumstances  may  have  prevented 
that  continued  exercise  of  reason,  by  which  the  knowledge  of  it  might 
have  been  attained.  We  often  see  men  remaining,  through  their  own 
fault  or  neglect,  ignorant  of  many  things  which  they  might  have 
known ;  and  the  recency  of  many  great  discoveries  is  a  proof  how 
slowly  the  human  mind  advances  to  truth,  although  no  one  is  so 
absurd  as  to  infer,  from  the  abounding  of  error,  that  truth  is  not 
agreeable  to  reason.  If  there  was  an  early  departure  from  the  duties 
of  natural  religion,  it  is  plain  that  this  circumstance  in  the  history  of 
mankind  would  estrange  them  from  that  God  whom  they  were 
conscious  of  disobeying,  would  weaken  the  original  impression  of  that 


CHRISTIANITY    OF    INFINITE    IMPORTANCE.  191 

law  which  they  were  breaking,  and  would  overcast  the  hopes  con- 
nected with  the  observance  of  it.  The  universal  tradition  of  the 
creation  might,  for  a  few  generations,  in  some  measure  counterbalance 
this  tendency.  But  as  men  spread  over  the  earth,  the  memory  of  the 
truths  received  from  their  first  parents  would  become  fainter ;  as  tiieir 
passions  were  excited  by  a  multiplicity  of  new  objects,  the  restraints 
to  which  they  had  submitted  in  a  simpler  state  of  society  would  lose 
tlieir  power,  and  a  growing  corruption  of  religion  would  accompany 
the  progress  of  vice.  This  is  the  very  account  of  the  matter  which 
the  apostle  Paul  gives  us.  "  When  they  knew  God,  they  glorified 
him  not  as  God,  nor  were  thankful,  but  became  vain  in  their  imaa;i- 
nations,  and  their  foolish  heart  was  darkened ;  and  they  changed  the 
glory  of  the  incorruptible  God  into  an  image  made  like  to  corruptible 
man,  and  to  birds,  and  four-footed  beasts,  and  creeping  things.  And 
even  as  they  did  not  like  to  retain  God  in  their  knowledge,  God  gave 
them  over  to  a  reprobate  mind,  to  do  those  things  which  are  not  con- 
venient." These  are  the  words  of  Paul  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans ; 
and  the  best  commentary  upon  them  is  the  religious  history  of  the 
heathen  world.  You  need  not  look  to  those  savage  tribes,  where  the 
faculties  of  the  human  mind,  depressed  by  unfavourable  circum- 
stances, have  a  very  limited  range,  and  man  appears  raised  but  a  few 
degrees  above  the  beasts  with  whom  he  associates.  Recollect  the 
polished  and  learned  nations,  whose  philosophy  we  study,  and  to 
whose  writings  every  scholar  feels  and  owns  his  obligations  ;  and  in 
their  religious  history  you  will  find  abundant  confirmation  of  the 
words  of  St.  Paul.  Although  reason  was  there  highly  cultivated  ; 
although  art  and  science  made  distinguished  progress;  although  the 
public  establishments  of  religion  were  magnificent  and  expensive,  yet 
the  fathers  of  science,  in  respect  of  religious  knowledge  were  as 
children,  "and  the  world  by  wisdom  knew  not  God."  There  was  a 
darkness  with  regard  to  the  nature  of  God.  The  knowledge  of  one 
supreme  Being,  the  Creator  and  Ruler  of  all  things,  the  rewarder  of 
those  who  seek  him,  the  friend  and  protector  of  the  good^  and  the 
avenger  of  the  wicked,  this  most  valuable  knowledge  was  lost  in  the 
belief  of  a  multiplicity  of  gods,  who  had  the  passions,  the  vices,  the 
contentions  of  men,  whose  character  and  conduct,  instead  of  adminis- 
tering comfort  in  distress,  and  strength  under  temptation,  sunk  the 
afliicted  in  despair,  and  corrupted  the  manners  of  the  worshipper. 
There  was  a  darkness  with  regard  to  the  method  of  pleasing  the  gods. 
Multiplied  sacrifices  offered  with  much  doubt,  and  with  the  fear  of 
giving  offence,  a  pageantry  of  costly  ceremonies,  a  wearisome  round 
of  superstitious  observances,  made  up  the  religion  of  the  heathen,  and 
excluded  that  worship  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  wliich  it  is  the  hoiionr  of 
a  reasonable  creature  to  ofter  to  the  Searcher  of  hearts.  There  was  a 
darkness  with  regard  to  the  duties  of  life.  The  voice  of  conscience 
was  not  only  left  without  the  support  of  true  religion,  but  was  in 
many  instances  perverted  by  corrupt  systems.  No  scholar  will  deny, 
that  the  laws  and  the  constitution  of  ancient  states  cherished  certain 
public  virtues  which  were  both  useful  and  splendid  ;  and  the  names 
of  many  citizens  will  be  celebrated  as  long  as  the  world  lasts,  for 
heroism,  the  love  of  their  country,  disinterestedness,  and  generosity. 
But  any  person,  who  takes  a  near  view  of  the  manners  of  the  great 


192  CHRISTIANITY    OF    INFINITE    IMPORTANCE. 

body  of  the  people  in  ancient  times,  finds  that  the  established  system 
of  morality  was  loose  and  debauched  ;  for,  although  the  state  often 
required  great  exertions  from  the  citizens  for  its  own  preservation,  no 
restraint  was  imposed  upon  the  indulgence  of  many  evil  passions,  and 
the  grossest  vices  were  conceived  to  be  consistent  with  pure  virtue. 
There  was  still  greater  darkness  witli  regard  to  the  hopes  of  men. 
The  impression  of  a  future  state  is  so  congenial  to  the  mind  of  man, 
that  it  could  not  be  efi'aced.  But  the  opinions  generally  entertained 
with  regard  to  the  future  place  of  both  the  good  and  the  bad  were 
mixed  with  a  number  of  childish  fables,  which  exposed  to  ridicule, 
and  even  brought  into  suspicion,  that  important  truth  which  they  only 
obscured.  The  wise  men  who  arose  in  different  ages,  although  they 
did  not  implicitly  adopt  the  vulgar  errors,  were  not  fitted  to  dispel 
this  darkness.  Some  were  led  by  the  absurdity  of  the  received  creeds 
rashly  to  reject  the  fundamental  articles  of  religion  ;  and  that  they 
might  depart  as  far  as  possible  from  the  superstition  of  their  country- 
men, they  denied  the  being  of  a  God,  or  they  excluded  him  from  the 
government  of  the  world.  Those  who  did  not  thus  contradict  the 
natural  sentiments  of  the  human  mind  were  unable  to  divest  them- 
selves of  an  attachment  to  prevailing  opinions  and  universal  practice  ; 
and  while  their  writings  contain  many  traces  of  a  rational  system, 
they  sacrificed  in  public  to  the  gods  of  their  country.  Their  writings 
and  their  discourses  did  enlighten  the  minds  of  their  scholars.  But 
these  scholars  were  few.  The  great  body  of  the  people  had  neither 
leisure  nor  capacity  to  follow  their  investigations.  But  they  saw  that 
the  practice  of  the  philosophers  did  not,  in  any  material  respect,  differ 
from  their  own.  The  authority  of  the  wise,  therefore,  instead  of 
correcting,  confirmed  the  popular  system,  and  that  system,  founded  in 
ignorance  of  the  true  God,  took  deep  root  in  the  minds  of  men,  and 
was  established  by  law,  by  example,  and  by  custom. 

I  need  not  dwell  longer  upon  this  picture  of  the  religious  state  of 
the  heathen  world.  You  find  it  drawn  at  full  length  in  the  books 
which  are  commonly  read  upon  this  subject,  particularly  in  Clarke's 
Evidences  of  Natural  and  Revealed  Religion,  in  Leland's  Advantages 
of  the  Christian  Revelation,  and  in  the  first  volume  of  Bishop  Sher- 
lock's Discourses.  But  even  from  the  slight  sketch  that  has  now  been 
given,  it  is  manifest  that  there  is  a  veiy  great  difference  between  the 
system  of  natural  religion,  which  we  are  able  to  deduce  from  princi- 
ples of  reason,  and  the  forms  of  religion  which  obtained  in  the  most 
enlightened  nations.  It  is  true  that  the  land  of  Judea  enjoyed,  from 
very  early  times,  a  revelation  of  one  God.  The  Maker  of  heaven 
and  earth  was  worshipped  in  that  country  for  many  ages  without  the 
mixture  of  idolatry,  and  a  system  of  pure  morality  was  contained  in 
the  books  that  were  read  in  the  Jewish  synagogue.  But  the  revela- 
tion which  distinguished  this  narrow  district  was  not  intended,  and 
was  not  fitted,  to  be  the  light  of  the  world.  At  the  time  of  our  Saviour's 
birth,  it  was  obscured  by  tradition  ;  and  the  law  given  to  the  children 
of  Israel,  instead  of  being  able  to  correct  the  prevailing  superstition, 
stood  in  need  of  a  more  spiritual  interpretation  than  it  received  from 
the  Jewish  doctors.  But  whatever  was  the  measvn-e  of  light  wiiich 
the  Jews  enjoyed,  it  extended  in  very  scanty  uncertain  portions  to 
other  nations,  and  they  were,  as  the  apostle  speaks,  "  without  God, 


CHRISTIANITY    OF    INFINITE    IMPORTANCE.  193 

and  without  hope  in  the  world,"  till  the  pure  system  of  natural  reli- 
gion which  they  had  lost  was  republished  in  the  gospel. 

It  appears,  then,  from  the  religious  history  of  the  world,  that  a  re- 
publication of  the  religion  of  nature  was  most  desirable.  And  when 
you  attend  to  the  gospel,  you  will  find  that  it  not  only  contains  the 
knowledge  which  was  lost,  but  is  peculiarly  fitted  by  its  character  to 
give  such  a  republication  as  the  circumstances  that  have  been  stated 
seem  to  require.  Those  notions  of  the  being,  the  attributes,  and  the 
government  of  God,  which,  as  soon  as  they  are  proposed,  appear 
most  agreeable  to  right  reason,  are  delivered  by  a  teacher  who  was 
sent  from  heaven  to  declare  God  to  man.  That  law,  which  the  Al- 
mighty wrote  in  the  beginning  upon  the  human  heart,  is  taught  by 
authority  as  the  will  of  our  Creator;  and  the  hope  of  future  recom- 
pense is  established  by  his  promise.  The  manifest  signatures  of  a 
divine  interposition,  which  attended  the  introduction  of  the  gospel, 
rouse  the  attention  of  the  world  to  the  system  there  republished  ;  the 
form  in  .which  that  system  is  delivered  renders  it  level  to  the  capaci- 
ties of  every  one ;  and  the  institutions  of  the  gospel  perpetuate  the 
instruction  which  it  conveys. 

It  is  particularly  to  be  remarked  upon  this  subject,  that  the  simpli- 
city which  distinguishes  the  gospel,  corresponds  in  the  most  admirable 
manner  to  its  character,  as  a  republication  of  the  religion  of  nature. 
The  ancient  philosophers  were  accustomed  to  exercise  their  reason  in 
profound  and  subtle  disquisitions,  and  valued  any  system  according  to 
the  depth  and  acuteness  of  thought  which  it  discovered.  There  are 
many  points  respecting  the  nature  of  the  soul,  the  manner  of  its  ex- 
istence, and  its  operations,  which  they  had  investigated  with  much 
care,  and  which,  after  all  their  research,  they  found  involved  in  much 
darkness.  But  such  speculations,  however  agreeable  an  amusement 
they  afford  to  a  thinking  mind,  form  no  part  of  natural  religion  ;  and 
accordingly  they  do  not  enter  into  the  republication  of  it.  There  is 
not  in  the  gospel  any  delineation  of  the  nature  and  properties  of 
spiritual  substances,  or  any  solution  of  those  questions  about  which 
the  ancient  schools  were  divided.  All  abstruse  points  are  left  just 
where  they  were ;  and  the  important  practical  truths,  in  which  the 
learned  and  the  unlearned  are  equally  concerned,  are  rested  not  upon 
long  deductions  of  reasoning,  which  the  great  body  of  the  people 
find  themselves  incapable  of  following,  but  upon  an  authority  which 
they  are  at  no  loss  to  apprehend,  the  simple  assertion  of  men  who 
bring  with  them  the  most  satisfying  evidence  that  they  speak  the 
truth. 

The  order  and  precision  of  a  philosophical  system  might  have 
pleased  the  learned.  But  had  the  gospel  condescended,  in  this  respect, 
to  assimilate  itself  to  works  of  human  genius,  it  would  have  borne 
on  its  face  this  manifest  inconsistency,  that  while  it  professed  to  teach 
doctrines  of  equal  importance  to  all,  it  taught  them  in  a  manner  which 
few  only  could  understand.  That  it  might  be  of  universal  use,  and 
might  truly  supply  what  was  wanting,  it  came  at  first  "  not  with  ex- 
cellency of  speech,  or  of  wisdom,"  but  with  great  plainness  of  words, 
accompanied  with  the  demonstration  of  the  Spirit.  The  book  in 
which  this  republication  is  handed  down,  from  the  historical  form  of 
some  parts,  and  the  familiar  epistolary  style  of  others,  imprints  itself 
19  2  E 


194  CHRISTIANITY    OF    INFINITE    IMPORTANCE. 

deeply  upon  every  understanding,  mingles  itself  readily  with  the 
habits  and  modes  of  thinking  of  ordinary  men,  and  is  retained  in  the 
memory,  so  as  to  be  easily  applied  upon  every  occasion.  Those  who 
are  not  accustomed  to  form  general  views,  to  connect  in  their  minds 
the  parts  of  a  whole,  or  to  act  systematically,  carry  away  from  the 
reading  of  this  book  detached  sentences  and  precepts,  which  minister 
to  their  comfort  and  improvement :  and  even  when  their  quotations 
discover  narrow  or  mistaken  notions  of  theology,  their  hearts  are 
made  better  by  the  facility  with  which  the  quotations  occur. 

To  all  this  there  must  be  added  that  popular  and  familiar  mode  of 
instruction,  which  the  institutions  of  the  gospel  furnish.  The  crowd 
of  worshippers,  who  assembled  in  a  heathen  temple  to  behold  a 
splendid  sacrifice,  retired  without  any  rational  conceptions  of  the 
Supreme  Being.  No  attempt  was  made  to  connect  the  ordinary 
services  of  religion  with  the  information  of  the  great  body  of  the 
people,  and  lessons  of  morality  were  confined  to  the  schools  of  the 
philosophers.  But  all  who  live  in  a  Christian  country  enjoy,  by  the 
republication  of  natural  religion,  a  standing  kind  of  admonition,  with 
winch  the  world  was  unacquainted  in  former  ages.  Those  truths  and 
those  duties  which  are  intimately  connected  with  the  happiness  of 
society  as  well  as  with  the  eternal  interests  of  man,  are  placed  before 
them  in  a  language  which  every  one  that  is  willing  to  hear  may 
understand.  Persons,  who  feel  themselves  unequal  in  every  other 
respect,  are  admitted  to  receive  the  same  benefit  and  consolation. 
The  ignorant  are  enlightened,  and  the  careless  are  put  in  remem- 
brance. 

And  thus,  as  we  formerly  found  that  the  system  of  natural  religion 
contained  in  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  is  infinitely  more  per- 
fect than  any  that  had  been  published  before,  as  we  found  also  that 
the  growing  improvement  of  those  that  have  been  published  since 
cannot  reasonably  be  ascribed  to  any  other  cause  than  to  the  benefit 
which  they  derived  from  this  republication,  so  to  the  same  cause  we 
may  ascribe  the  universal  diffusion  of  the  principles  of  natural  religion 
in  every  Christian  country.  The  public  establishment  of  Christianity 
is  a  standing  memorial,  a  perpetual  remembrancer  of  the  fundamental 
truths  of  religion,  and  the  great  duties  of  life.  It  has  given  the  vulgar 
in  our  days  more  sound  and  enlarged  conceptions  of  the  nature  and 
government  of  God,  of  the  extent  of  our  obligations  and  our  hopes, 
than  almost  any  philosopher  in  ancient  times  was  able  to  attain  ;  and 
it  is  not  easy  to  find  any  words,  which  so  perfectly  express  the  dif- 
ference between  the  heathen  world  and  those  countries  where  Chris- 
tianity is  professed  in  simplicity  and  purity,  as  the  words  by  which 
Jeremiah  foretold  the  change.  "  After  those  days,"  saith  the  Lord,  "  I 
will  put  my  law  in  their  inward  parts,  and  write  it  in  their  hearts: 
And  they  shall  teach  no  more  every  man  his  neighbour,  and  every 
man  his  brother,  saying,  know  the  Lord  ;  for  they  shall  all  know  me, 
from  the  least  of  them  to  the  greatest  of  them."* 

The  sum  of  what  has  been  said  upon  the  first  view  of  the  impor- 
tance of  Christianity  is  this.  The  gospel  is  a  republication  of  the 
religion  of  nature,  imparthig  that  knowledge  upon  this  subject,  which 

*  Jer.  xxxi.  33,  3t. 


CHRISTIANITY    OF    INFINITE    IMPORTANCE.  195 

is  agreeable  to  the  deductions  of  the  most  enHghtened  reason,  but 
which  unfavourable  circumstances  had  prevented  any  man  from 
attaining  by  means  of  reason,  removing  those  errors  to  which  no 
other  method  of  instruction  had  applied  any  efi'ectual  remedy,  and 
diti'using  by  its  institutions,  to  men  of  every  condition,  the  information, 
the  instruction,  and  the  comfort  which  it  conveys.  If  knowledge  be 
better  than  ignorance,  if,  of  all  kinds  of  knowledge,  an  acquaintance 
with  the  principles  of  true  religion  contribute  the  largest  share  to  the 
consolation  and  improvement  of  human  life;  and  if  this  most  valuable 
knowledge  be  now  rendered  accessible,  extensive,  and  permanent, — 
Christianity,  which  has  accomplished  so  happy  a  change  by  repub- 
lishing the  religion  of  nature,  is  in  this  view  most  important.  It 
deserves  to  be  received  with  thankfulness,  to  be  cherished  with  care, 
to  be  honoured  and  encouraged  by  every  friend  of  mankind.  He, 
whose  discourse  or  example  recommends  Christianity  to  others,  con- 
tributes by  so  doing  to  preserve  and  to  spread  the  light  that  is  in  the 
world.  He,  who  employs  any  means  to  depreciate  the  public  estab- 
lishment of  Christianity,  does  so  fiir  contribute  to  extinguish  that  light, 
and  to  bring  back  those  times  of  heathen  darkness,  from  which  this 
republication  of  natural  religion  hath  rescued  a  great  part  of  the 
human  race. 


Section  U. 

The  general  account  of  the  Scripture  system  presented  Christianity 
to  us  as  a  remedy  for  the  depravity  which  has  pervaded  the  human 
race.     I  am  now  to  illustrate  its  importance  considered  in  this  view. 

Although  the  religion  of  nature  be  liable  to  be  obscured  by  the 
general  practice  of  vice,  yet  if  it  were  fitted  by  its  original  constitution 
to  be  the  religion  of  a  sinner,  nothing  more  than  a  republication  would 
at  any  time  be  required,  in  order  to  render  it  suitable  to  the  circum- 
stances of  man.  But  even  after  the  religion  of  nature  has  been 
restored  in  its  original  purity,  the  provision  made  by  it  for  the  com- 
fort, the  direction,  and  the  hope  of  man,  is  inadequate  to  the  new 
situation  in  which  he  is  placed,  by  being  a  sinner.  In  this  new 
situation,  the  deformity,  the  weakness,  the  depravity  of  mind,  which 
belong  to  sin,  enter  into  his  condition  ;  he  is  also  a  transgressor  of  the 
divine  law,  and  as  such  is  liable  to  the  consequences  of  transgression. 
But  religion  cannot  exist  in  such  a  situation,  without  the  knowledge 
of  some  method  of  obtaining  pardon.  For  the  expression  which  you 
read  in  the  130th  Psalm,  is  strictly  accurate.  "  If  thou.  Lord,  shouldst 
mark  iniquities,  0  Lord,  who  shall  stand  ?  But  there  is  forgiveness 
with  thee,  that  thou  mayest  be  feared ;"  i.  e.  there  can  be  no  fear  of 
God,  no  religion  to  a  sinner,  unless  there  be  forgiveness  with  God : 
and,  therefore,  the  first  thing  to  be  considered  in  judging  of  the  im- 
portance of  Christianity  under  this  second  view  is.  What  are  the 
hopes  of  forgiveness  in  the  religion  of  nature  ?  From  whence  are  these 
hopes  derived  ? 

It  is  manifest,  that  the  hopes  of  forgiveness  are  not  necessarily  con- 
nected with  that  law  which  the  religion  of  nature  delivers.     A  law 


196  CHRISTIANITY    OF    INFINITE    IMPORTANCE. 

enjoins  obedience,  promises  reward,  it  may  be,  to  tliose  who  obey, 
and  always  denounces  punish  merit  against  those  who  disobey.  It 
would  destroy  itself,  if  it  were  delivered  in  these  terms:  You  are  com- 
manded to  obey,  but  you  shall  be  forgiven  although  you  transgress. 
The  hopes  of  forgiveness,  then,  are  to  be  sought  in  some  part  of  the 
religion  of  nature  distinct  from  the  law.  But  it  is  not  pretended  that 
tlie  religion  of  nature  contains  any  specific  promise  of  forgiveness,  the 
record  of  which  may  be  pleaded  by  transgressors  as  a  bar  to  the  full 
execution  of  the  sanctions  of  the  law.  It  is  not  possible  to  show  the 
place  where  such  a  record  is  to  be  found.  And  therefore  there  is  no 
source  from  which  the  hopes  of  forgiveness  can  be  drawn  under  the 
religion  of  nature,  but  those  general  notiojis  of  the  compassion  of 
God,  from  which  it  may  appear  probable  that  he  will  accept  of  the 
repentance  of  a  sinner,  and  reinstate  in  his  favour  those  who  have 
offended  him,  when  they  return  to  their  duty.  It  is  admitted,  by  all 
who  have  just  notions  of  the  divine  character,  that  the  same  process 
of  reasoning,  which  conducts  us  to  the  knowledge  of  the  being  of  God, 
establishes  in  our  minds  a  belief  of  his  goodness.  It  is  natural  to 
think,  that  the  goodness  of  the  Supreme  Being,  when  exercised  to 
frail  fallible  creatures,  will  assume  the  form  of  compassion  or  long 
suffering.  We  see,  in  the  course  of  his  Providence,  various  instances 
of  a  delay  or  mitigation  of  punishment ;  and  there  are  many  appear- 
ances, which  clearly  indicate  that  we  live  under  a  merciful  constitu- 
tion. But  we  are  by  no  means  warranted  from  them  to  draw  this 
general  conclusion,  that  all  who  repent  will  finally  be  forgiven  under 
the  Divine  government.  You  will  be  satisfied  that  this  conclusion 
goes  very  far  beyond  the  premises,  if  you  attend  to  the  following  circum- 
stances. The  same  process  of  reasoning  which  leads  us  to  the  belief 
of  the  goodness  of  God,  ascertains  also  his  holiness,  his  wisdom,  and  his 
justice,  all  of  which  seem  to  require  the  punishment  of  sinners.  It  is 
true  those  perfections,  of  which  our  conceptions  lead  us  to  speak  as 
separate  from  one  another,  unite  in  the  Deity  with  entire  harmony 
to  form  one  purpose,  and  that  there  never  can  be  any  opposition 
among  them  in  the  Divine  mind,  or  in  the  execution  of  the  Divine 
counsels.  But  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  say  how  far  any  particular 
exercise  of  justice  or  of  goodness  is  consistent  with  this  harmony  ;  and 
it  is  manifest  that  every  reasoning,  which  proceeds  upon  a  partial 
view  of  the  divine  character,  must  be  insecure.  Further,  we  are  not 
acquainted  with  the  relations  which  subsist  amongst  the  parts  of  the 
universe.  But,  we  can  suppose  that  reasons  of  the  divine  conduct, 
inexplicable  to  us,  may  arise  from  these  relations  ;  and  even  in  that 
part  of  the  universe  which  is  most  open  to  our  observation,  although 
we  cannot  always  account  for  the  limitations  of  the  divine  goodness, 
we  can  mark  instances  where  the  long  suffering  of  God  seems  to  be 
exhausted,  where  repentance  ceases  to  be  of  any  avail,  and  men  are 
left  to  endure,  without  alleviation,  all  the  evils 'which  they  had 
incurred  by  transgression.  It  is  possible,  that  instances  of  this  kind, 
which  are  very  numerous,  may  be  mingled  with  the  examples  of 
compassion  in  the  Divine  government  to  guard  us  against  the  conclu- 
sion which  repeated  compassion  might  seem  to  warrant,  to  give  us 
warning  that  the  time  for  repentance  has  an  end,  and  that,  in  the  finni 
issue  of  the  system  in  which  we  are  placed,  the  obstinate  transgressors 


CHKISTIANITY    OF    INFINITE    IMPORTANCE.  197 

of  divine  law  shall  bear  without  remedy  the  full  weight  of  that 
punishment  whicii  they  deserve. 

But  even  although  there  were  not  so  many  analogies  in  nature, 
conspiring  to  show  that  repentance  is  not  always  efficacious,  the  bare 
impossibility  of  demonstrating,  from  any  known  principles,  that  every 
penitent  shall  be  forgiven,  is  sufficient  to  evince  the  infinite  impor- 
tance of  Christianity.  If  the  religion  of  nature,  with  all  those  intima- 
tions of  tlie  divine  goodness,  which  are  the  ground  of  trust  and  hope 
to  those  who  obey,  does  not  give  a  positive  assurance  that  it  is  con- 
sistent with  the  nature  and  government  of  God  to  forgive  all  who 
transgress,  then  it  is  plain  that  the  new  situation,  into  which  men  are 
brought  by  being  sinners,  renders  a  promise  of  pardon  most  desirable 
to  them,  because  without  this  special  declaration  of  the  divine  will,  their 
religion  must  rest  upon  a  very  precarious  foundation  ;  and  tlierefore  the 
Gospel,  whose  peculiar  character  it  is  to  contain  such  a  declaration, 
which  publishes  the  forgiveness  of  sins  through  the  blood  of  him,  by 
whom  all  that  believe  are  justified,  and  have  peace  with  God,  deserves 
the  name  of  ffayy^oi/,  good  tidings,  better  than  any  other  message 
which  the  world  ever  heard,  and  is  in  truth  the  best  gift  which 
heaven  could  bestow.  It  is  further  to  be  observed,  that  while  the 
religion  of  nature  leaves  the  reason  of  a  sinner  to  struggle  with  his 
passions,  and  does  not  revive  his  soul,  under  the  experience  of  his 
weakness,  by  the  assurance  of  his  receiving  any  assistance  in  the  con- 
flict, the  Gospel  contains  a  promise  of  grace  as  well  as  of  pardon.  It 
confirms  the  law  of  his  mind  by  those  influences  of  the  Spirit,  which 
we  stated  as  perfectly  consistent  with  the  reasonable  nature  of  man, 
and  while  it  publishes  the  remission  of  sins  that  are  past,  places  him 
in  circumstances  so  favourable  to  his  moral  improvement  as  may 
prevent  a  repetition  of  sins.  That  progress  in  virtue,  which  the  grace  of 
the  Gospel  forms,  is  connected  with  the  hope  of  a  reward  which  is  in- 
finitely more  precious  than  the  most  exalted  creature  of  God  can  claim 
as  a  recompence  due  to  his  obedience,  but  which,  having  been  pur- 
chased by  the  death  of  Christ,  is  reserved  in  heaven  to  crown  the  feeble 
divided  services  of  a  degenerate  race,  and  the  security  of  which  is  so 
completely  incorporated  with  the  whole  constitution  of  the  law,  that 
no  doubt  of  this  unmerited  gift  being  at  length  conferred  can  remain 
in  the  breasts  of  those  who  live  under  the  power  of  the  Christian 
religion. 

From  the  circumstances  that  have  been  mentioned,  you  may  mark 
the  precise  difference  between  the  religion  of  nature  and  the  religion 
of  Christ.  The  former  has  no  original  defect.  When  properly  under- 
stood, i.  e.  when  conclusions  are  fairly  and  fully  drawn  from  premises 
which  the  light  of  reason  may  discover,  it  includes  the  most  exalted 
views  of  the  perfections  of  God,  and  of  his  moral  government,  and  a 
complete  delineation  of  the  duties  of  man  as  a  creature  of  God,  an 
individual,  and  a  member  of  society.  But  being,  by  its  constitution, 
the  religion  of  those  who  perform  their  duty,  it  holds  forth  only 
general  doubtful  grounds  of  hope  to  those  who  transgress.  The 
gospel,  on  the  other  hand,  having  been  revealed  after  transgression 
was  introduced,  and  professing  to  be  the  religion  of  sinners,  makes 
an  adequate  provision  for  the  new  situation  of  man.  It  is  this  difi"er- 
ence  which  constitutes  the  infinite  importance  of  Christianity.  A 
,    19* 


198  CHRISTIANITY    OP    INFINITE    IMPORTANCE. 

remedy  is  there  offered  for  that  state  of  depravity  which  is  acknow- 
ledged to  be  universal.  The  remedy  is  complete  in  its  nature.  But 
it  is  not  of  use  to  those  by  whom  it  is  rejected.  In  what  degree  its 
efficacy  may  extend  to  those  who  never  heard  of  it,  we  have  no 
warrant  to  say.  But  it  is  most  reasonable,  that  those,  who  refuse  tiie 
remedy  when  it  is  offered  to  them,  should  remain  under  the  disease. 
The  disease  was  not  created  by  the  gospel ;  it  existed  before-hand, 
and  unless  it  be  removed,  the  natural  effects  of  it  must  be  felt.  The 
Scripture,  therefore,  says,  that  "  he  that  believeth  not  the  Son  shall 
not  see  life,  but  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him,"*  i.  e.  the  sentence 
of  condemnation,  which  his  sins  deserve,  retains  its  force.  And  he 
cannot  surely  complain,  if  when  he  despises  the  deliverance  which 
the  gospel  brings,  he  continues  in  the  same  state  in  which  the  whole 
world  would  have  been,  if  there  had  been  no  gospel. 

Hitherto  we  have  deduced  the  importance  of  Christianity  from  its 
suitableness  to  the  present  circumstances  of  man,  from  the  value  of 
the  blessings  which  are  peculiar  to  this  religion,  and  from  this  plain 
position,  that  a  rejection  of  it  necessarily  implies  a  forfeiture  of  its 
peculiar  blessings.  But  we  have  not  yet  exhausted  the  subject,  and 
there  remain  some  awful  views  of  the  importance  of  Christianity, 
which  imply  that  the  rejection  of  it  is  not  only  a  forfeiture  of  bless- 
ings, but  is  attended  with  a  high  degree  of  positive  guilt. 

In  order  to  enter  into  these  views,  you  will  recollect,  from  the 
general  account  of  the  Scripture  system,  that  the  manner  in  which 
the  assurance  of  pardon  is  conveyed  by  the  gospel  discloses  to  us  the 
Son  and  the  Spirit  of  God,  two  persons,  of  whose  existence  the  light 
of  nature  had  not  given  any  intimation,  but  who,  by  their  active 
interposition  in  our  behalf,  claim  the  reverence  and  gratitude  of  all 
to  whom  that  interposition  is  made  known.  The  sentiments,  which 
it  becomes  us  to  entertain  towards  any  person,  correspond  to  the 
knowledge  that  we  have  of  his  character  and  his  exertions.  And 
therefore  as  the  first  duties  of  natural  religion  respect  the  God  and 
Father  of  all,  who  is  made  known  to  us  by  his  works,  so  there  are 
duties  resulting  immediately  from  that  knowledge  of  the  Son  and  the 
Spirit  which  is  communicated  by  the  gospel ;  and  a  failure  in  these 
duties  is  as  truly  a  breach  of  morality  as  any  transgression  of  the  law 
of  nature. 

It  may  be  said,  indeed,  that  these  duties  are  binding  only  upon 
those  who  study  the  revelation  of  the  gospel,  and  that  if  any  person 
willingly  remains  ignorant  of  the  peculiar  nature  of  that  interposition 
which  it  records,  he  is  not  answerable  for  neglecting  the  duties  created 
by  that  interposition.  But  it  will  readily  occur  to  you,  in  answer  to 
this  objection,  that  a  reasonable  creature  is  as  much  bound  to  make 
himself  acquainted  with  the  extent  of  his  duty,  as  to  perform  it  after 
it  is  known :  and  you  will  find  that  the  plea,  drawn  from  wilful 
ignorance  or  unbelief  to  excuse  the  neglect  of  the  peculiar  duties  of 
the  gospel,  is  diametrically  opposite  to  the  declarations  of  Scripture. 
We  read  there,  that  "  he  that  believeth  not  is  condemned,"  for  this 
very  reason,  "  because  he  hath  not  believed  on  the  name  of  the  Sou 
of  God."t     His   unbelief  is  the  cause  of  his  condemnation.     The 

•  John  iii.  36.  f  John  iii.  18. 


CHRISTIANITY    OF    INFINITE    IMPORTANCE.  199 

enemies  of  Christianity  have  formed,  out  of  such  declarations,  a  very- 
heavy  charge  against  our  rehgion.  They  say  that  the  gospel  means 
to  threaten  men  into  a  belief  of  its  doctrines,  and  that  the  manner  in 
whicli  we  are  now  stating  the  importance  of  Christianity  is  calculated 
to  supply  the  defect  of  evidence  by  working  upon  the  principle  of 
fear,  and  to  force  assent  in  spite  of  reason.  VV^e  admit  that  if  this 
charge  were  true,  the  gospel  would  indeed  be  unworthy  of  God,  and 
unworthy  of  man.  We  admit  that  authority  never  can  supply  the 
place  of  truth,  and  that  not  even  the  immediate  prospect  of  danger 
can  compel  a  reasonable  creature  to  yield  his  assent  without  sufficient 
evidence.  But,  at  the  same  time,  we  assert,  that  it  is  often  incumbent 
upon  a  reasonable  creature  to  exercise  his  reason,  and  that  he  may 
deserve  punishment  for  refusing  his  assent  when  sufficient  evidence  is 
offered  him.  In  common  life,  we  meet  with  many  instances  where 
men  bring  calamities  upon  themselves  and  their  families,  by  not 
believing  what  they  would  have  believed,  if  they  had  bestowed  pro- 
per attention.  It  is  therefore  no  new  doctrine,  and  it  is  perfectly 
analogous  to  the  ordinary  procedure  of  the  Divine  government,  that 
men  should  suffer  for  unbelief;  and  in  the  case  of  the  gospel,  there  are 
circumstances  which  render  unbelief,  in  a  peculiar  degree,  criminal. 
The  gospel  contains  the  strongest  call  which  a  reasonable  creature 
can  receive,  to  exercise  his  reason  in  judging  of  evidence.  It  professes 
to  be  a  message  from  God,  the  author  of  human  nature,  aflbrding  man 
that  assistance  in  recovering  the  dignity  and  happiness  of  his  nature, 
of  which  he  is  conscious  that  he  stands  in  need.  The  person,  who 
delivered  this  gracious  and  seasonable  message,  appealed  to  a  series 
of  prophecies  meant  to  prepare  the  world  for  his  coming,  and  to  works 
of  his  own,  far  exceeding  human  power.  Unlike  the  former  servants 
of  heaven,  he  called  himself  the  Son  of  God;  and  he  introduced  his 
doctrine,  not  as  a  temporary  institution,  looking  forward  to  something 
beyond  itself,  but  as  a  complete,  universal,  and  unchangeable 
religion.  "  Last  of  all,"  says  Jesus,  "  he  sent  unto  them  his  Son, 
saying,  they  will  reverence  my  Son.'*  We  behold  here  every 
circumstance,  which  is  fitted  to  rouse  attention,  and  which  can  render 
inattention  unpardonable.  That  the  most  exalted  Spirit  should  refuse 
to  listen  to  any  thing  which  bore  the  name  of  a  message  from  his 
Creator,  were  presumption.  But,  that  a  feeble  imperfect  creature, 
who  is  conscious  that  he  has  ofiended  God,  should  precipitately  reject 
a  religion  which  brings  the  offers  of  mercy,  were  madness.  It  might 
be  expected,  that,  even  although  he  doubted  of  its  truth,  he  would 
eagerly  examine  it,  because,  if  it  be  true,  it  brings  him  the  most 
joyful  tidings,  and,  if  it  be  true,  to  reject  it  is  to  reject  the  counsel  of 
God  against  himself,  and  to  exclude  himself  from  all  future  hope  of 
mercy.  For  you  will  notice,  and  it  is  an  awful  consideration  which 
places  the  importance  of  Christianity  in  the  strongest  light,  that,  how- 
ever men  might  flatter  themselves,  under  the  simple  religion  of 
nature,  with  general  reasonings  concerning  divine  mercy,  the  moment 
that  a  special  revelation  is  published,  promising  the  mercy  of  God 
upon  certain  terms,  and  disclosing  a  particular  maimer  of  dispensing 
pardon  to  those  who  repent,  these  general  reasonings  are  at  an  end. 
If  every  one  must  admit  that  God  knows  better  than  we  do,  what  is 
becoming  his  nature  and  consistent  with  his  administration,  it  follows 


200  CHRISTIANITY    OF    INFINITE    IMPORTANCE. 

undeniably  that  it  is  most  presumptuous  in  those  who  acknowledge 
that  pardon  is  necessary,  to  reject  the  particular  method  of  dispensing 
pardon  that  is  revealed,  and  yet  still  to  build  upon  uncertain  reason- 
ings an  expectation  that  it  will  be  dispensed.  If  the  words  which 
Jesus  uttered  be  true,  the  hopes  of  nature  are  included  in  the  hopes 
of  the  gospel,  and  no  hope  is  left  to  those  who,  neglecting  the  "  great 
salvation  spoken  by  the  Lord,"  betake  themselves  to  the  religion  of 
nature. 

"  This,"  then,  "  is  a  faithful  saying,  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation, 
that  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners."  It  is  supposed 
by  your  profession  that  you  understand  and  acknowledge  the  infinite 
importance  of  Christianity  considered  in  this  view ;  and  it  will  be 
your  peculiar  business  to  impress  upon  the  minds  of  others  a  sense 
of  that  importance.  For  this  purpose  you  must  "be  ready  always 
to  give  an  answer  to  every  one  that  asketh  you  a  reason  of  the  hope 
that  is  in  you  ;"  you  must  show,  by  your  manner  of  defending  Chris- 
tianity, that  you  are  not  afraid  of  the  light,  and  that  you  consider  the 
evidences  of  Christianity  as  capable  of  bearing  the  narrowest  scru- 
tiny, and  those  whom  you  call  to  receive  it  as  entitled  to  examine 
into  the  truth.  But  your  chief  difficulty  will  be  to  bring  them  to  this 
examination  with  a  fair  unprejudiced  mind.  You  will  meet  with 
many  who  ascribe  to  want  of  evidence,  or  to  a  peculiarity  in  their 
understanding,  what  does  in  fact  proceed  from  an  evil  heart.  You 
have  to  encounter  that  pride  which  refuses  to  submit  to  the  righteous- 
ness of  God,  and  those  evil  passions,  which,  because  they  do  not  ex- 
pect to  receive  indulgence  under  the  gospel,  create  a  secret  wish  that 
it  were  false.  If  your  labours,  performed  with  good  intention,  with 
diligence,  with  prudence,  and  with  ability,  shall,  through  the  blessing 
of  God,  overcome  these  obstacles,  shall  form  in  the  minds  of  your 
hearers  what  our  Lord  calls  a  good  and  honest  heart,  and  shall  estab- 
lish their  faith  upon  a  rational  foundation,  you  will  not  only  promote 
the  welfare  of  society  by  teaching  in  the  most  effectual  manner  the 
great  duties  of  morality,  but  you  will  be  the  instruments  in  the  hand 
of  God  of  saving  the  souls  of  men  from  death,  and  so  carrying  for- 
ward the  great  purpose  for  which  this  dispensation  of  grace  was 
given. 

I  have  chosen  throughout  this  chapter  to  avoid  a  phrase  which  you 
often  hear,  the  necessity  of  the  Christian  revelation,  because  that 
phrase,  when  unguardedly  used,  is  apt  to  convey  improper  notions. 
It  may  be  conceived  to  imply,  that  God  was  in  justice  bound  to  grant 
this  revelation  ;  whereas  it  should  always  be  remembered,  in  theolo- 
gical discussions,  that  sinners  have  no  claim  to  any  thing,  and  that  the 
gospel  is  a  free  gift  proceeding  from  the  unmerited  grace  of  God,  for 
the  bestowing  or  withholding  of  which  He  is  in  no  degree  accounta- 
ble to  any  of  his  creatures.  The  phrase,  necessity  of  the  Christian 
revelation,  may  also  be  conceived  to  imply,  that  it  was  impossible  for 
God,  in  any  other  way,  to  save  the  world  ;  whereas  we  have  no  prin- 
ciples that  can  enable  us  to  judge  what  it  is  possible  for  God  to  do. 
We  investigate,  according  to  the  measure  of  our  understanding,  the 
fitness  of  that  which  he  has  done.  But  there  is  an  irreverence  in  our 
saying  confidently,  that  infinite  wisdom  could  not  have  devised  other 
ways  of  accomplishing  the  same  end.    I  have  chosen  rather  to  speak 


CHRISTIANITY  OF  INFINITE  IMPORTANCE.  201 

of  the  desirableness  and  the  importance  of  Christianity,  which  imply 
all  that  should  be  meant  by  the  necessity  of  it,  viz.  that  it  ropublislu  s 
with  clearness  and  authority  the  religion  of  nature  ;  that  it  gives  the 
penitent  that  assurance  of  pardon  which  the  religion  of  nature  did 
not  afford  them ;  that  it  brings  along  with  it  an  indispensable  obliga- 
tion upon  those  to  whom  it  is  made  known  to  examine  its  evidence  : 
and  that  it  leaves  those  who  wantonly  reject  it  to  perish  in  their  sins. 
I  have  spoken  of  this  subject  with  an  earnestness  and  seriousness 
suited  to  its  nature.  You  often  hear  it  stated  from  the  pulpit,  and 
there  are  many  printed  sermons  where  it  is  fully  illustrated.  It  enters 
into  most  of  the  books  which  treat  of  the  evidences  of  Christianity. 
But  it  requires  from  you  a  particular  study ;  and  when  you  have 
leisure  to  bestow  close  attention  upon  it,  I  would  recommend  to  you 
to  read  the  ablest  book  that  ever  was  written  against  the  importance 
of  Christianity,  I  mean  Tindal's  book,  entitled,  Christianity  as  old  as 
the  Creation.  The  object  of  the  book  is  to  show,  that  the  law  given 
to  man  at  his  creation  was  complete ;  that  it  is  published  in  the  most 
perfect  manner;  that  it  does  not  admit  of  amendment ;  and  that  the 
additions,  which  succeeding  revelations  profess  to  make  to  it,  are  a 
proof  that  these  revelations  are  spurious.  The  positions  of  this  book, 
then,  if  they  be  true,  completely  annihilate  the  importance  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  for  they  go  thus  far,  to  show  that  there  is  nothing  in  the 
gospel  true,  but  what  was  from  the  beginning  contained  in  the  reli- 
gion of  nature,  and  published  more  universally,  and  with  much  less 
danger  of  error,  by  being  written  on  the  heart  of  man,  than  by  being 
recorded  in  the  books  of  the  New  Testament.  1  would  not  advise 
you  to  read  this  book,  which  is  written  with  great  art,  without  at  the 
same  time  reading  some  of  the  answers  to  it.  Leland,  on  the  Advan- 
tages of  the  Christian  Revelation,  has  given  a  full  picture  of  the  reli- 
gious and  moral  state  of  the  world,  when  the  gospel  was  published, 
which  demonstrates  that  there  is  much  false  colouring  in  Tindal's 
book.  Foster  also,  the  author  of  Sermons  and  Discourses  on  Natural 
Religion,  has  written  against  Tindal.  But  the  most  complete  answer, 
which  ought  to  be  read  by  every  student  who  reads  Tindal,  is  Cony- 
beare's  Defence  of  Revealed  Religion.  There  have  been  few  abler 
divines  than  Bishop  Conybeare.  He  had  a  clear  logical  understand- 
ing, and  his  talents  were  whetted  and  called  forth  by  very  formidable 
antagonists.  He  was  contemporary  with  Lord  Bolingbroke,  whose 
numerous  writings  against  Christianity  are  replete  with  false  philo- 
sophy, malicious  misrepresentations  of  facts,  and  keen  satire.  Lord 
Bolingbroke  used  to  say,  that  it  cost  more  trouble  to  demolish  Cony- 
beare's  out-works,  than  to  take  the  citadel  of  any  of  his  other  oppo- 
nents; an  expression  which  implies,  that  this  divine  took  always 
strong  ground,  and  knew  well  where  to  rest  his  defence.  Accordingly 
in  his  answer  to  Tindal's  book,  he  has  detected  all  its  sophisms  and 
equivocations :  he  has  aflixed  a  precise  meaning  to  his  words,  and 
has  shown,  in  a  train  of  the  most  convincing  and  masterly  reasoning, 
that  that  republication  of  the  religion  of  nature,  and  that  method  of 
redemption,  which  the  gospel  contains,  were  most  desirable  ;  and  that 
these  views  of  the  importance  of  Christianity  are  not  inconsistent  with 
the  original  perfection  which  every  sound  theist  ascribes  to  the  law 
of  nature.    Bishop  Conybeare's  book  is  a  complete  illustration  of  the 


202  CHRISTIANITY    OF    INFINITE    IMPORTANCE. 

importance  of  Christianity,  But  there  are  three  other  names  which 
cannot  be  omitted  at  this  time.  Clarke,  in  his  Evidences,  has  stated 
fully  what  is  commonly  called  the  necessity  of  revelation.  In  the  first 
volume  of  Sherlock's  Discourses,  which  is  almost  wholly  occupied 
with  this  subject,  you  find  those  luminous  views  which  distinguish 
the  writings  of  that  eminent  prelate  ;  and  Bishop  Butler,  in  the  first 
chapter  of  the  second  part  of  his  Analogy  of  Natural  and  Revealed 
Religion,  with  rather  less  obscurity  than  is  found  in  other  chapters 
of  that  precious  treatise,  but  with  no  less  depth  of  thought,  has  stated, 
in  a  short  compass,  the  importance  of  Christianity. 

Leland  on  the  Christian  Revelation. 

Foster  on  Natural  Religion. 

Conybeare's  Defence  of  Revealed  Religion. 

Clarke's  Evidences. 

Sherlock's  Discourses. 

Butler's  Analogy. 

Paley's  Evidences. 

Brown  against  Tindal. 

Halyburton  on  Deism. 


1 


DIFFICULTIES    IN    THE    SCRIPTURE    SYSTEM.  203 


CHAPTER  IV. 


DIFFICULTIES    IN    THE    SCRIPTURE    SYSTEM. 


A  SECOND  general  observation  arising  out  of  the  short  account  of 
the  Scripture  system,  is  this,  that  we  may  expect  to  find  in  that  sys- 
tem many  things  which  we  do  not  fully  comprehend.  Deistical  writers 
urge  this  as  an  objection  against  the  gospel.  They  say  that  it  is  the 
very  character  of  revelation  to  make  every  thing  plain,  but  that  a 
system  which  contains  mysteries,  leaves  us  still  in  the  dark,  and 
therefore,  that  the  mysteries  with  which  the  gospel  abounds,  are  a 
convincing  evidence  that  it  did  not  proceed  from  the  God  of  light  and 
truth.  The  same  word,  mysteries,  which  generally  enters  into  the 
statement  of  this  objection,  occurs  often  in  the  writings  and  the  dis- 
courses of  many  pious  Christians,  who  mean  to  speak  of  the  gospel 
with  the  highest  reverence.  And  yet,  there  is  reason  to  think,  that 
neither  the  former  class  of  writers,  nor  the  latter,  have  paid  a  proper 
attention  to  the  Scripture  use  of  the  word.  Upon  this  account,  be- 
fore I  proceed  to  answer  the  objection  by  illustrating  my  second  ob- 
servation, I  shall  state  the  sense  in  which  the  Scriptures  use  the  word 
mystery,  and  in  so  doing  shall  explain  the  reason  why  I  choose  to 
avoid  that  word  upon  this  subject. 

The  ceremonies  of  the  ancient  heathen  worship  were  of  two  kinds. 
Some  were  public,  performed  openly  in  the  temple,  before  the  great 
body  of  the  people  who  were  supposed  to  join  in  them.  Others  were 
private,  performed  in  a  retired  place,  often  in  the  night,  far  from  the 
view  of  the  multitude  ;  and  they  were  never  divulged  to  the  crowd, 
but  were  communicated  only  to  a  few  enlightened  worshippers.  The 
persons  to  whom  these  secret  rites  were  made  known,  were  said  to 
be  initiated  ;  and  the  rites  themselves  were  called  nvartj^ia.  Every  god 
had  his  secret  as  well  as  his  open  worship  ;  and  hence  various  mys- 
teries are  occasionally  mentioned  by  ancient  writers.  "  But,"  says 
Dr.  Warburton,  who  has  investigated  this  subject  in  his  Divine  Lega- 
tion of  Moses,  "  of  all  the  mysteries,  those  which  bore  that  name  by 
way  of  eminence,  the  Eleusinian,  celebrated  at  Athens  in  honour  of 
Ceres,  were  by  far  the  most  renowned,  and,  in  course  of  time,  eclipsed, 
and  almost  swallowed  up  the  rest.  Hence  Cicero,  speaking  of 
Eleusina,  says,  tcbi  initiantiir  gentes  orarum  ultimx.^''*  I  have 
quoted  this  passage  from  Warburton,  because  it  contains  the  reason 
why  you  seldom  read  of  any  other  than  the  Eleusinian  mysteries, 
although  the  word  had  originally  a  general  acceptation.  The  theme 
of  the  word  is  f^w>  occludo/tiom  whence  comes  f^ww,  in  sacris  instituo, 

•  Vol  ii.  book  ii.  4. 


204  DIFFICULTIES    IN    THE    SCRIPTURE  SYSTEM. 

referring  to  the  silence  which  the  initiated  were  required  to  observe  ; 
and  from  ."ff"  comes  ^vari^^ioi/,  the  amount  of  which  may  be  considered 
as  equivalent  to  arcanum.  The  writers  of  the  New  Testament  have 
adopted  this  word,  which  was  at  tliat  time  well  understood ;  and  it 
is  used  by  them  in  a  variety  of  instances  to  denote  that  which  God 
had  purposed,  but  winch  was  not  known  to  men  till  he  was  pleased 
to  reveal  it.  When  the  disciples  of  Jesus  came  to  him,  and  said, 
"  Why  speakest  thou  to  the  people  in  parables  ?"  his  answer  was, 
Matt.  xiii.  11,  "Because  it  is  given  unto  you  to  know  the  mysteries 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  to  them  it  is  not  given,"  i.  e.  there  are 
circumstances  respecting  the  nature  and  the  history  of  my  religion, 
which  I  explain  clearly  to  you  my  disciples  by  whom  it  is  to  be  pub- 
lished, but  which  it  is  proper  at  present  to  convey  to  the  people  un- 
der the  disguise  of  parables.  You  will  not  understand  however,  from 
these  words,  that  there  were  always  to  continue,  under  the  religion 
of  Jesus,  two  kinds  of  instruction,  one  for  the  initiated,  and  one  for 
the  vulgar  ;  for  our  Lord  had  said  to  these  very  disciples  a  little  be- 
fore. Matt.  X.  26,27,  "There  is  nothing  covered  that  shall  not  be 
revealed,  and  hid  that  shall  not  be  known.  What  I  tell  you  in  dark- 
ness, that  speak  ye  in  light,  and  what  ye  hear  in  the  ear,  that  preach 
ye  upon  the  house  tops."  Accordingly,  when  the  apostles  came  forth 
to  execute  their  commission;  the  character  under  which  they  appeared 
is  thus  expressed  by  Paul,  1  Cor.  iv.  1 :  "  Let  a  man  so  account  of  us 
as  of  the  ministers  of  Christ,  and  stewards  of  the  mysteries  of  God:" 
dispensers  of  that  knowledge  which  was  communicated  to  us  first, 
for  this  very  purpose,  that  we  might  be  the  instruments  of  convey- 
ing it  to  others.  Paul  calls  the  gospel.  Col.  i.  26, — "  The  mysterj'' 
hid  from  ages  and  from  generations,  but  now  made  manifest  to  his 
saints,"  hid  from  ages,  because  it  was  not  investigated  by  reason,  and 
must  have  remained  for  ever  unknown,  if  it  had  not  been  declared  by 
God  in  his  word.  The  rejection  of  the  Jewish  nation,  who  had  always 
considered  themselves  as  the  favourite  people  of  heaven,  is  called  a 
mystery,  Rom.  xi.  25,  because  it  was  very  opposite  to  the  opinions 
and  expectations  of  men;  and  for  the  same  reason,  the  calling  of  the 
heathen  by  the  gospel  to  partake  of  all  the  privileges  of  the  people 
of  God  is  in  many  places  styled  a  mystery.  Ephes.  iii,  3,  5,  6.  I  men- 
tion only  one  other  instance,  1  Cor.  xv.  51.  The  resurrection  of  the 
body  is  called  a  mystery,  because,  although  many  philosophers  had 
speculated  concerning  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  it  had  never  en- 
tered into  the  minds  of  any  that  the  body  was  to  rise. 

Dr.  Campbell,  in  the  first  volume  of  his  new  translation  of  the 
gospels,  has  one  dissertation  upon  the  word  mystery.  He  states  that 
the  leading  sense  of  ^ivatr^^Mv ^  m  the  Septuagint,  the  Apocrypha,  and 
the  New  Testament,  is  arcanxim,  any  thing  not  published  to  the 
world,  though  perhaps  communicated  to  a  select  number.  With  his 
usual  accurate  and  mimite  attention,  he  mentions  another  meaning 
very  nearly  related  to  the  former,  or  more  properly  only  a  particular 
application  of  that  general  meaning.  It  is  sometimes  employed  to 
denote  the  figurative  sense,  which  is  conveyed  under  an}^  fable, 
parable,  allegory,  symbolical  action,  or  dream.  The  reason  of  this 
application  is  obvious.  The  literal  meaning  of  a  fable  is  open  to  the 
senses:  the  spiritual  meaning  requires  penetration  and  reflection,  and 


DIFFICULTIES    IN    THE    SCRIPTURE    SYSTEM.  205 

is  known  only  to  the  intelligent.  In  Rev.  i.  20,  and  xvii.  7,  John  saw 
the  figures,  but  he  did  not  understand  the  meaning  intended  to  be 
conveyed  by  them,  till  it  was  ex])luined  to  him  by  the  angel.  To 
him  it  v/as  arcanum.  There  is  an  allusion  to  this  import  of  the 
word  mystery  in  Mark  iv.  11.  "  Unto  you  it  is  given  to  know  the 
mystery  of  the  kingdom  of  God  ;  but  unto  them  that  are  without,  all 
these  things  are  done  in  parables,"  The  Eleusinian  mysteries  being 
accessible  only  to  the  initiated,  the  early  Christians,  to  whom  the 
language  and  the  practice  of  the  heathen  were  familiar,  transferred  to 
tlie  Lord's  Snpper  the  word  mysteries  ;  because  from  that  ordinance 
were  excluded  the  catechumens,  who  had  not  yet  been  baptized,  and 
the  penitents,  who  had  not  yet  been  restored  to  the  communion  of  the 
church.  It  was  administered  only  to  those  who  had  been  initiated  by 
baptism ;  and  from  fear  of  persecution  it  was  often  administered  in 
the  night.  On  account  of  this  secrecy,  and  the  select  number  of 
communicants,  strangers  might  apprehend  a  similarity  between  the 
Lord's  Supper  and  the  heathen  mysteries;  and  from  whomsoever 
this  use  of  the  word  originated,  the  Christians  might  not  be  unwilling 
to  retain  it,  as  conveying,  according  to  the  language  of  the  times,  an 
exalted  conception  of  their  distinguishing  rites. 

It  appears  then,  from  this  deduction,  that  there  are  three  accepta- 
tions of  the  word  nw-erie^wv.  In  the  New  Testament  it  is  used  to  express 
that  which  God  had  purposed  from  the  beginning,  which  was  not 
known  till  he  was  pleased  to  reveal  it,  but  which  by  the  revelation 
was  shown  and  made  manifest.  With  early  ecclesiastical  writers,  it 
means  the  solemn  positive  rites  of  our  religion;  and  so,  in  the  com- 
uuuiion  service  of  the  church  of  England,  the  elements  after  conse- 
cration are  called  holy  mysteries.  In  modern  theological  writings, 
and  in  the  objections  of  the  deists,  mystery  denotes  that  which  is  in 
its  nature  so  dark  and  incomprehensible,  that  it  cannot  be  understood 
after  it  is  revealed.  As  this  sense  is  really  opposite  to  the  sense  in 
which  the  Scriptures  use  the  word  mystery,  it  appears  to  me  advisa- 
ble, both  in  discourses  to  the  people,  and  in  theological  discussions,  to 
choose  other  expressions  for  denoting  that  which  cannot  be  compre- 
hended. 

But  although,  by  avoiding  an  unscriptural  use  of  a  Scripture  word, 
we  may  guard  against  the  abuses  and  mistakes  which  the  change  of 
its  meaning  has  probably  occasioned,  yet  we  readily  admit  that  there 
are,  in  the  Scripture  system  of  the  gospel,  many  points  which  we  do 
not  fully  comprehend.  And  this  is  so  far  from  being  a  solid  objection 
to  the  gospel,  that  to  every  wise  inquirer  it  appears  to  arise  from  the 
nature  of  that  dispensation.  In  order  to  account  for  the  difficulties 
which  are  found  in  the  revelation  made  by  the  gospel,  we  may  follow 
the  same  division  which  occurred  when  we  were  speaking  of  tiie 
importance  of  Christianity,  and  consider  the  gospel  as  a  republication 
of  the  religion  of  nature,  and  as  a  method  of  saving  sinners. 

1.  Even  were  the  gospel  nothing  more  than  a  republication  of  the 
religion  of  nature,  we  could  not  expect  to  find  every  thing  in  it  plain  ; 
for  we  have  experience  that  many  points  in  natural  religion,  concern- 
ing the  evidence  of  which  we  do  not  entertain  any  doubt,  are  to  our 
understanding  full  of  difficulties.  We  have  very  indistinct  concep- 
tions of  the  nature  of  spirits,  or  of  the  manner  in  which  spirit  acts 
20 


206  DIFFICULTIES    IN    THE    SCRIPTURE    SYSTEM. 

upon  matter.  The  eternity  and  infinity  of  God  are  connected  with 
all  the  intricate  speculations  concerning  time  and  space.  The  origin 
of  evil,  under  the  government  of  a  Being,  whose  wisdom  and  good- 
ness are  not  restrained  by  any  want  of  power,  has  perplexed  the 
human  mind  ever  since  it  began  to  reason  ;  and  liberty,  the  very 
essence  of  morality,  appears  to  be  affected  by  tliat  dependence  of  a 
moral  agent  upon  the  influence  of  a  superior  Being,  which  is  insepa- 
rable from  the  notion  of  his  being  a  creature  of  God.  Reason  is 
unable  to  solve  all  the  difliculties  that  have  been  started  upon  these 
points,  yet  she  draws,  from  premises  within  her  reach,  this  conclusion, 
that  a  Spirit  who  exists  in  all  times  and  places  exercises  a  moral 
government  over  free  agents.  Revelation  has  given  assurance  to  this 
conclusion,  has  diff"used  the  knowledge  of  it,  and  inculcates  with 
authority  the  practical  lessons  which  it  implies.  But  revelation,  far 
from  professing  to  enter  into  the  speculations  connected  with  this 
conclusion,  leaves  man,  with  regard  to  many  metaphysical  questions 
that  have  no  influence  upon  his  virtue  or  happiness,  in  the  same  dark- 
ness which  all  the  sages  of  antiquity  experienced.  A  clear  explica- 
tion of  these  points,  supposing  it  possible,  might  have  afforded  amuse- 
ment to  a  few  inquisitive  minds.  To  the  great  body  of  mankind,  for 
whose  sake  the  religion  of  nature  is  republished  in  the  gospel,  it  is 
insignificant,  and  would  have  only  loaded  a  system  whose  simplicity 
is  fitted  to  render  it  of  universal  use,  with  subtleties  which  the  gene- 
rality find  neither  interesting  nor  intelligible.  Such  an  explication, 
then,  would  have  been  of  little  importance.  I  said,  supposing  it 
possible  ;  for  they  who  demand  it,  know  not  what  they  ask.  Difli- 
culties in  any  subject  are  merely  relative  to  the  understanding  and 
opportunities  of  those  who  consider  it.  As  a  child  cannot  form  any 
conception  of  the  nature  of  the  exertion  which  is  made,  or  of  the 
object  which  is  proposed  in  many  of  the  employments  of  men  :  as  a 
man,  whose  mind  has  been  untutored,  or  whose  observation  has  been 
narrow,  wonders  at  the  discoveries  of  Astronomy,  or  the  refined 
operations  of  art,  and  while  he  believes  that  both  exist,  is  incapable 
of  apprehending  the  principles  upon  which  they  proceed  :  so  it  is 
likely  that  we  feel  ourselves  involved  in  an  inextricable  labyrinth 
upon  questions,  which  superior  orders  of  being  can  easily  resolve. 
We  inhabit  a  spot  in  the  creation  of  God.  We  are  placed  in  a  system 
consisting  of  many  parts,  the  relations  and  dependencies  of  which  are 
beyond  our  observation  ;  and  om-  faculties  in  vain  attempt  to  explore 
the  intimate  essence  of  those  objects  which  are  most  familiar  to  us. 
There  are  measures  of  knowledge  to  which  our  condition  is  manifestly 
not  suited.  There  is  a  degree  of  mental  exertion  of  which  we  may 
be  supposed  incapable.  "  Now  we  see  through  a  glass  darkly  ;"  and 
it  is  forgetting  our  condition  and  our  character,  to  ask  that  every  thing 
in  nature  should  at  present  be  made  plain  to  our  apprehension.  If 
there  be  such  a  thing  as  Natural  Religion,  the  comfort  and  improve- 
ment which  it  administers  cannot  imply  a  kind  of  illumination,  which 
man  is  not  qualified  to  receive.  They  must  be  compatible  with  the 
rank  which  he  holds  in  the  intellectual  system,  and  they  may  leave 
him  unacquainted  with  many  parts  of  tliat  system,  the  whole  extent 
of  which  he  is  at  present  incapable  of  apprehending.  It  cannot, 
therefore,  be  stated  as  an  objection  to  the  gospel,  that  while,  by 


DIFFICULTIES    IN    THE    SCRIPTURE    SYSTEM.  207 

republishing  the  rehgion  of  nature,  it  restores  that  comfort  and  im- 
provement in  the  most  perfect  manner,  it  i\eeps  iiis  knowledge 
confined  within  the  limits  suited  to  his  condition.  Other  orders  of 
spirits  may  clearly  apprehend  the  nature  of  objects,  and  the  solution 
of  questions,  to  which  his  faculties  are  inadequate  ;  because  the 
knowledg'e  of  them  is  not,  in  any  degree,  necessary  for  his  enjoy- 
ment of  the  portion,  or  his  discharge  of  the  duties,  assigned  him  by 
his  Creator, 

2.  If  difficulties  belong  to  the  Gospel,  as  it  is  a  republication  of  the 
religion  of  nature,  we  may  expect  to  meet  with  more  difficulties,  when 
we  consider  it  in  its  higher  character,  as  the  religion  of  sinners.  By 
this  character,  the  Gospel  makes  provision  for  a  new  situation,  which 
had  brought  upon  men  evils,  any  remedy  of  which  was  not  sug- 
gested by  their  knowledge  of  nature.  We  found  tliat  all  those  no- 
tions of  the  Divine  character  and  government,  which  constitute  natural 
religion,  fail  us  in  this  new  situation  ;  and  that  the  assurance  of  par- 
don rests  upon  an  interposition  of  the  Creator.  What  parts  of  the 
universe  may  be  affected  by  that  interposition  we  cannot  say  :  and  it 
is  presumptuous  to  think,  that  all  the  branches  and  the  ends  of  it  may 
be  fully  comprehended  by  our  understanding,  since  it  is  a  subject  con- 
fessedly farther  beyond  our  reach  than  any  part  of  nature.  But  if 
the  revelation  of  the  gospel  leaves  no  doubt  that  the  interposition  has 
been  made,  and  that  the  effects  of  it  with  regard  to  us  are  attained, 
this  is  all  the  knowledge  that  is  of  real  importance  upon  the  subject. 
Clear  evidence  of  the  fact  is  sufficient  to  revive  our  hopes  ;  and 
although  the  manner  in  which  the  interposition  is  calculated  to  pro- 
duce the  effect  had  not  been,  in  any  measure,  revealed  to  us,  we  should 
have  been  in  no  worse  situation  with  regard  to  this  fact  than  with 
regard  to  many  others  in  nature,  most  important  to  our  being  and 
comfort,  where  we  know  that  an  effect  exists,  but  have  no  apprehen- 
sion of  the  kind  of  connexion  between  the  effect  and  its  cause.  If 
this  interposition  involve  the  agency  of  other  beings  that  are  not  made 
known  to  us  by  the  light  of  nature,  and  if  their  agency  be  a  ground 
of  hope,  or  the  principle  of  any  duty,  the  revelation  must  inform  us 
that  they  exist.  But  the  knowledge  of  their  existence  and  agency 
does  not  require  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  their  nature.  There 
are  in  natural  religion  many  intricate  questions  concerning  the  manner 
in  which  the  Deity  exists,  that  do  not  in  the  least  affect  the  proof  of 
his  existence.  The  manner  in  which  those  beings  exist,  who  are 
made  known  to  iis  merely  by  revelation,  may  be  still  farther  removed 
beyond  the  reach  of  our  faculties.  At  any  rate  the  knowledge  of  it 
is  not  necessary  for  the  purposes  of  the  revelation  ;  and,  therefore, 
although  so  very  little  be  revealed  concerning  them,  as  to  leave  im- 
penetrable darkness  over  all  the  speculations  by  which  men  attempt 
to  investigate  the  manner  in  which  they  are  distinguished  from  one 
another,  and  the  manner  in  which  they  are  united,  still  their  existence 
and  their  agency  may  be  placed  beyond  doubt  by  explicit  declarations, 
and  the  reHance  upon  these  declarations  may  establish,  on  the  firmest 
grounds,  that  hope  which  the  revelation  was  meant  to  convey. 

Tlie  state  of  the  case,  then,  with  regard  to  the  difficulties  of  rehgion, 
is  precisely  this.  We  have,  by  reason,  the  means  of  acquiring  that 
knowledge  which  the  original  condition  of  our  being  required,  but  not 


208  DIFFICULTIES    IN    THE    SCRIPTURE    SYSTEM. 

that  which  our  curiosity  may  desire  ;  and  accordingly  when  we  launch 
into  questions  and  speculations  of  mere  curiosity,  our  pride  is  rebuked, 
and  we  are  reminded  that  "  we  are  of  yesterday,  and  know  nothing." 
The  gospel,  by  the  provision  which  it  has  made  for  the  change  in  our 
original  condition,  has  opened  to  us  a  state  of  things  in  many  respects 
new,  by  which  we  perceive  how  very  limited  the  range  of  our  natural 
knowledge  was.  But  this  state  of  things  is  intimated,  only  in  so  far 
as  the  provision  for  our  condition  renders  an  intimation  necessary ; 
and  while  all  the  facts  of  real  importance  to  our  comfort  and  hope  are 
published  with  the  most  satisfying  evidence,  we  are  checked  in  our 
speculations  concerning  this  new  state  of  things,  by  the  very  scanty 
measure  of  light  which  is  afforded  us  to  guide  them.  This  is  a  view 
of  the  extent  of  our  knowledge  not  very  flattering  to  our  pride.  But 
it  may  be  favourable  both  to  our  happuiess  and  to  our  improvement ; 
and  if  we  are  wise  enough  to  cultivate  the  temper  of  mind  which 
such  a  view  is  peculiarly  calculated  to  form,  we  may  derive  much 
profit  from  the  bounds  which  are  set  to  our  inquiries,  as  well  as  from 
the  enlargement  which  is  given  to  our  hopes.  There  does  arise, 
however,  from  this  view  of  our  knowledge,  one  most  interesting  and 
fundamental  question,  which  is  the  subject  of  my  third  preliminary 
observation,  What  is  the  use  of  reason  in  matters  of  religion  ? 

Butler.    Sherlock.     Campbell. 


USE    OF    REASON    IX    RELIGION.  209 


CHAPTER  V. 


USE    OF    REASON    IN    RELIGION. 


If  the  Christian  religion  contain  many  pointsVhich  we  do  not  fully 
comprehend,  and  if  we  be  required  to  believe  these  points,  a  difficulty 
seems  to  arise  with  regard  to  the  boundaries  between  reason  and 
faith.  This  is  a  subject  upon  which  it  is  of  very  great  importance  to 
form  distinct  apprehensions,  before  we  proceed  to  a  particular  consi- 
deration of  the  doctrines  of  Christianity.  When  you  study  church 
history,  you  will  find  that  this  question  has  been  agitated  in  various 
forms  from  the  beginning  of  Christianity  to  this  day.  It  is  not  my 
province  to  relate  the  progress  of  this  dispute,  or  the  different  appear- 
ances which  it  has  assumed.  And,  in  truth,  many  of  the  controver- 
sies to  which  it  has  given  occasion  are  insignificant,  because  when 
they  are  examined  they  appear  to  be  purely  verbal.  Those  who  said 
that  reason  was  of  no  use  in  matters  of  religion,  sometimes  meant 
nothing  more  than  that  religion  derived  no  benefit  from  that  which  is 
really  the  abuse  of  reason,  false  philosophy,  and  the  jargon  of  meta- 
physics. The  argument  was  kept  up  by  the  equivocation  between 
reason  and  the  abuse  of  reason ;  and  had  the  disputants  shown  them- 
selves wiUing  to  understand  one  another  by  defining  the  terms  which 
they  used,  it  would  have  appeared  that  there  was  very  little  differ- 
ence in  their  opinions. 

But  this  account  will  not  apply  to  all  the  controversies  that  have 
turned  upon  this  question.  The  subUme  incomprehensible  nature  of 
some  of  the  Christian  doctrines  has  so  completely  subdued  the  under- 
standing of  many  pious  men,  as  to  make  them  think  it  presumptuous 
to  apply  reason  any  how  to  the  revelation  of  God ;  and  the  many 
instances  in  which  the  simplicity  of  truth  has  been  corrupted  by  an 
alliance  with  philosophy,  confirm  them  in  the  belief  that  it  is  safer,  as 
well  as  more  respectful,  to  resign  their  minds  to  devout  impressions, 
than  to  exercise  their  understandings  in  any  speculations  upon  sacred 
subjects.  Enthusiasts  and  fanatics  of  all  different  names  and  sects 
agree  in  decrying  the  use  of  reason,  because  it  is  the  very  essence  of 
fanaticism  to  substitute,  in  place  of  the  sober  deductions  of  reason, 
the  extravagant  fancies  of  a  disordered  imagination,  and  to  consider 
these  fancies  as  the  immediate  illumination  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 
Insidious  writers  in  the  deistical  controversy  have  pretended  to  adopt 
those  sentiments  of  humility  and  reverence,  which  are  inseparable 
from  true  Christians,  and  even  that  total  subjection  of  reason  to  faith 
which  characterises  enthusiasts.  A  pamphlet  was  pubhshed  about 
20*  2G 


210  USE    OF    REASON    IN    RELIOION. 

the  middle  of  the  last  century,  that  made  a  noise  in  its  day,  although 
it  is  now  forgotten,  entitled,  Christianity  not  Founded  on  Argument, 
which,  while  to  a  careless  reader  it  may  seem  to  magnify  the  gospel, 
does  in  reality  tend  to  undermine  our  faith,  by  separating  it  from  a 
rational  assent ;  and  Mr.  Hume,  in  the  spirit  of  this  pamphlet,  con- 
cludes his  Essay  on  Miracles,  with  calling  those  dangerous  friends  or 
disguised  enemies  to  the  Christian  religion,  who  have  undertaken  to 
defend  it  by  the  principles  of  human  reason.  "  Our  most  holy  reli- 
gion," he  says,  with  a  disingenuity  very  unbecoming  his  respectable 
talents,  "  is  founded  on  faith,  not  on  reason," — and  "  mere  reason  is 
insufficient  to  convince  us  of  its  veracity."  The  Church  of  Rome, 
in  order  to  subject  the  minds  of  her  votaries  to  her  authority,  has  re- 
probated the  use  of  reason  in  matters  of  religion.  She  has  revived  an 
ancient  position,  that  things  may  be  true  in  theology  which  are  false 
in  philosophy ;  and  she  has,  in  some  instances,  made  the  merit  of  faith 
to  consist  in  the  absurdity  of  that  which  was  believed. 

The  extravagance  of  these  positions  has  produced,  since  the  Re- 
formation, an  opposite  extreme.  While  those  who  deny  the  truth  of 
revelation  consider  reason  as  in  all  respects  a  sufficient  guide,  the  So- 
cinians,  who  admit  that  a  revelation  has  been  made,  employ  reason 
as  the  supreme  judge  of  its  doctrines,  and  boldly  strike  out  of  their 
creed  every  article  that  is  not  altogether  conformable  to  those  notions 
which  may  be  derived  from  the  exercise  of  reason. 

These  controversies,  concerning  the  use  of  reason  in  matters  of  re- 
ligion, are  disputes  not  about  words,  but  about  the  essence  of  Chris- 
tianity. They  form  a  most  interesting  object  of  attention  to  a  student 
in  divinity,  because  they  affect  the  whole  course  and  direction  of  his 
studies;  and  yet,  it  appears  to  me  that  a  few  plain  observations  are 
sufficient  to  ascertain  where  the  truth  lies  in  this  subject. 

1.  The  first  use  of  reason  in  matters  of  religion  is  to  examine  the 
evidences  of  revelation.  For  the  more  entire  the  submission  which 
we  consider  as  due  to  every  thing  that  is  revealed,  we  have  the  more 
need  to  be  satisfied  that  any  system  which  professes  to  be  a  divine 
revelation,  does  really  come  from  God.  It  is  plain  from  the  review 
which  we  took  of  the  evidences  of  Christianity,  that  very  large  pro- 
vision is  made  for  affording  our  minds  a  rational  conviction  of  its 
divine  original ;  and  the  style  of  argument,  which  pervades  the  dis- 
courses of  our  Lord,  and  the  sermons  and  the  writings  of  his  apostles, 
is  a  continued  call  upon  us  to  exercise  our  reason  in  judging  of  that 
provision.  I  need  not  quote  particular  passages ;  for  that  man  must 
have  read  the  gospels  and  the  Acts  of  the  apostles  with  a  very  care- 
less or  a  very  prejudiced  eye,  who  does  not  feel  the  manner  in  which 
our  religion  was  proposed  by  its  divine  author  and  his  immediate  dis- 
ciples, to  be  a  clear  refutation  of  the  position  which  I  mentioned 
lately,  that  Christianity  is  not  founded  on  argument.  You  will  recol- 
lect, too,  that  all  the  different  branches  of  the  evidence  of  Chrisfianity 
are  ultimately  resolvable  into  some  principle  of  reason.  The  internal 
evidence  of  Christianity  is  only  then  perceived,  when  you  try  the  sys- 
tem of  the  gospel  by  a  standard  which  you  are  supposed  to  have  derived 
from  natural  religion.  The  argument  which  miracles  and  prophecies 
afford  is  but  an  inference  from  the  power,  wisdom,  and  holiness  of 
God,  all  of  which  you  assume  as  premises  that  are  not  disputed ;  and 


USE    OF    REASON    IN    BELIGION.  211 

that  complication  of  circumstances  which  constitutes  the  historical 
evidence  for  Christianity,  derives  its  weight  from  those  laws  of  proba- 
bihty  which  experience  and  reflection  suggest  as  the  guide  of  our 
judgment.  It  is  not  easy  to  conceive  that  a  creature,  who  is  accus- 
tomed to  exercise  his  reason  upon  every  other  subject,  should  be  re- 
quired to  lay  it  aside  upon  a  subject  so  interesting  as  the  evidences  of 
religion  ;  and  it  is  plain,  that  to  substitute  as  the  ground  of  our  faith 
certain  impressions,  tiie  liveliness  of  which  depends  very  much  upon 
the  state  of  the  animal  spirits,  in  place  of  the  various  exercises  of 
reason  which  this  subject  calls  forth,  is  to  render  that  precarious  and 
inexpUcable  which  might  rest  upon  sure  principles,  and  to  disregard 
the  provision  made  by  tlie  author  of  our  faith,  who  hath  both  com- 
manded and  enabled  us  to  "  be  always  ready  to  give  an  answer  to 
every  one  that  asketh  a  reason  of  the  hope  that  is  in  us." 

2.  After  the  exercise  of  reason  has  established  in  our  minds  a  firm 
belief  that  Christianity  is  of  divine  original,  the  second  use  of  reason 
is  to  learn  wliat  are  the  truths  revealed.  As  these  truths  are  not  in 
our  days  communicated  to  any  by  immediate  inspiration,  the  know- 
ledge of  them  is  to  be  acquired  only  from  books  transmitted  to  us 
with  satisfying  evidence  that  they  were  written  above  seventeen 
hundred  years  ago,  in  a  remote  country,  and  a  foreign  language, 
under  the  direction  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  In  order  to  attain  the 
meaning  of  these  books,  we  must  study  the  language  in  which  they 
were  written,  and  we  must  study  also  the  manners  of  the  times,  and 
the  state  of  the  countries  in  which  the  writers  lived,  because  these  are 
circumstances  to  which  an  original  author  is  often  alluding,  and  by 
which  his  phraseology  is  generally  affected:  we  must  lay  together 
different  passages  in  which  the  same  word  or  phrase  occurs,  because 
without  this  labour  we  cannot  ascertain  its  precise  signification  ;  and 
we  must  mark  the  difference  of  style  and  manner  that  characterizes 
different  writers,  because  a  right  apprehension  of  their  meaning  often 
depends  upon  attention  to  this  difference.  All  this  supposes  the 
application  of  grammar,  history,  geography,  chronology,  and  criticism 
in  matters  of  religion,  /.  e.  it  supposes  that  the  reason  of  man  had 
been  previously  exercised  in  pursuing  these  different  branches  of 
knowledge,  and  that  our  success  in  attaining  the  true  sense  of  Scrip- 
ture depends  upon  the  diligence  with  which  we  avail  ourselves  of  the 
progress  that  has  been  made  in  them.  It  is  obvious  that  every 
Christian  is  not  capable  of  making  this  application.  But  this  is  no 
argument  against  the  use  of  reason  of  which  we  are  now  speaking. 
For  they,  who  use  translations  and  commentaries,  only  rely  upon  the 
reason  of  others,  instead  of  exercising  their  own.  The  several 
branches  of  knowledge,  which  I  mentioned,  have  been  applied  in 
every  age  by  some  persons  for  the  benefit  of  others  ;  and  the  progress 
in  sacred  criticism,  which  distinguishes  the  present  times,  is  nothing 
else  but  the  continued  application,  in  elucidating  the  Scriptures,  of 
reason  enlightened  by  every  kind  of  subsidiary  knowledge,  and  very 
much  improved  in  this  kind  of  exercise,  by  the  employment  whicfi 
the  ancient  classics  have  given  it  since  the  revival  of  letters. 

As  the  use  of  reason  thus  leads  us  into  the  meaning  of  the  single 
words  and  phrases  of  Scripture,  so  it  is  equally  necessary  to  enable 
us  to  attain  a  comprehensive  view  of  the  whole  system  of  Scripture 


212  USE    or    REASON    IN  RELIGION. 

doctrine.  Our  Lord  said  to  his  apostles  a  little  before  his  death,  "  I 
have  yet  many  things  to  say  unto  you,  but  ye  cannot  hear  them  now." 
The  Spirit  guided  them  into  all  truth  after  the  ascension  of  their 
master  ;  and  their  discourses  and  epistles  are  the  fruit  of  that  perfect 
teaching,  which  they  had  not  been  able  to  receive  during  his  life. 
The  epistles  of  Paul  to  the  different  churches  refer  to  points  which  he 
had  explained  to  the  Christians  when  he  was  with  them,  or  to  ques- 
tions which  had  risen  amongst  them  after  his  departure.  They  men- 
tion rather  incidentally  than  formally  the  great  truths  of  the  gospel : 
and  there  is  no  passage  in  them  which  can  be  considered  as  a  complete 
delineation  of  all  that  we  are  called  to  believe.  Yet  the  apostles 
speak  of"  the  form  of  sound  words,"  of"  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus," 
of"  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints,"  for  which  Christians  ought 
to  contend.  The  knowledge  of  this  form  of  sound  words,  this  truth 
and  faith,  we  are  left  to  attain  by  searching  the  Scriptures,  by  com- 
paring the  discourses  of  our  Lord,  and  the  writings  of  his  apostles,  by 
employing  expressions  which  are  plain  to  illustrate  those  which  are 
obscure,  by  giving  such  interpretations  of  the  sacred  writers  as  will 
preserve  their  consistency  with  themselves  and  with  one  another,  by 
marking  the  consequences  which  are  fairly  deducible  from  their 
explicit  declaration,  and  by  framing,  out  of  what  is  said  and  what  is 
implied  in  their  writings,  a  system  that  shall  appear  to  be  fully  war- 
ranted by  their  authority.  Without  all  this,  we  do  not  learn  the 
revelation  which  is  contained  in  the  gospel ;  and  yet  this  implies 
some  of  the  highest  exercises  of  reason,  sagacity,  investigation,  com- 
parison, abstraction ;  and  it  is  the  most  important  service  which 
sound  philosophy  can  render  to  Christianity,  that  it  enables  us  by 
these  exercises  to  attain  a  distinct  and  enlarged  apprehension  of  the 
gospel  scheme  in  all  its  connexions  and  consequences.  It  is  very  true, 
that  many  pious  Christians  derive  much  consolation  and  improve- 
ment from  the  particular  doctrines  of  Christianity,  althoughthe  narrow- 
ness of  their  views,  and  the  distraction  of  their  thoughts,  render  it  im- 
possible for  them  to  form  a  just  and  comprehensive  view  of  the  whole. 
But  it  is  the  professed  object  of  those  who  propose  to  be  teachers  of 
Christianity  to  attain  such  a  view.  It  is  an  object  for  which  they  are 
supposed  to  have  leisure  and  opportunity  :  and  unless  they  thus  know 
the  truth,  they  are  not  qualified  to  show  that  Christ  is  indeed  "the 
power  of  God  and  the  wisdom  of  God,"  or  to  defend  the  gospel  scheme 
against  the  objections,  and  rescue  it  from  the  abuses,  to  which  a  par- 
tial consideration  has  often  given  occasion. 

3.  After  the  two  uses  of  reason  that  have  been  illustrated,  a  third 
comes  to  be  mentioned,  which  may  be  considered  as  compounded  of 
both.  Reason  is  of  eminent  use  in  repelling  the  attacks  of  the  adver- 
saries of  Christianity. 

When  men  of  erudition,  of  philosophical  acuteness,  and  of  accom- 
plished taste,  direct  their  talents  against  our  religion,  the  cause  is  very 
much  hurt  by  an  unskilful  defender.  He  cannot  unravel  their  sophis- 
try ;  he  does  not  perceive  the  amount  and  the  effect  of  the  concessions 
which  he  makes  to  them;  he  is  bewildered  by  their  quotations,  and 
he  is  often  led  by  their  artifice  upon  dangerous  ground.  In  all  ages 
of  the  church  there  have  been  weak  defenders  of  Christianity ;  and 
the  only  triumphs  of  the  enemies  of  our  religion  have  arisen  from 


USE    OF    REASON    IN    RELIGION.  213 

their  being  able  to  expose  the  defects  of  those  methods  of  defending 
the  truth,  which  some  of  its  advocates  had  unwarily  chosen.  A  mind, 
trained  to  accurate  philosophical  views  of  the  nature  and  the  amount 
of  evidence,  enriched  with  historical  knowledge,  accustomed  to  throw 
out  of  a  subject  all  that  is  minute  and  unrelated,  to  collect  what  is  of 
importance  within  a  short  compass,  and  to  form  the  comprehension 
of  a  whole,  is  the  mind  qualified  to  contend  with  the  learning,  the 
wit,  and  the  sophistry  of  infidelity.  Many  such  minds  have  appeared 
in  this  honourable  controversy  during  the  course  of  this  and  the  last 
century  ;  and  the  success  has  corresponded  to  the  completeness  of  the 
furniture  with  which  they  engaged  in  the  combat.  The  Christian 
doctrine  has  been  vindicated  by  their  masterly  exposition  from 
various  misrepresentations  ;  the  arguments  for  its  divine  original  have 
been  placed  in  their  true  light ;  and  the  attempts  to  confound  the 
miracles  and  prophecies,  upon  which  Christianity  rests  its  claim, 
with  the  delusions  of  imposture,  have  been  eflectually  repelled. 
Christianity  has,  in  this  way,  received  the  most  important  advantages 
from  the  attacks  of  its  enemies ;  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  its  doc- 
trines would  never  have  been  so  thoroughly  cleared  from  all  the  cor- 
ruptions and  subtleties  which  had  attached  to  them  in  the  progress 
of  ages,  nor  the  evidences  of  its  truths  have  been  so  accurately  under- 
stood, nor  its  peculiar  character  been  so  perfectly  discriminated,  had 
not  the  zeal  and  abilities,  which  have  been  employed  against  it,  called 
forth  in  its  defence  some  of  the  most  distinguished  masters  of  reason. 
They  brought  into  the  service  of  Christianity  the  same  weapons 
which  had  been  drawn  for  her  destruction,  and,  wielding  them  with 
confidence  and  skill  in  a  good  cause,  became  the  successful  champions 
of  the  truth. 

I  cannot  speak  of  this  third  use  of  reason  in  matters  of  religion, 
without  recommending  to  you  an  excellent  book,  in  which  you  will 
find  the  advantage  that  Christianity  has  derived  from  it  very  fully 
illustrated.  I  mean  Dissertations  on  the  genius  and  evidences  of 
Christianity,  by  Dr.  Gerard,  formerly  Professor  of  Divinity  in  King's 
College,  Aberdeen.  All  his  works  show  Dr.  Gerard  to  have  been  an 
acute  distinguishing  man.  The  observations  in  this  book  are  very 
ingenious,  and  although  there  is  in  some  of  them  an  appearance  of 
remoteness  and  research  that  is  not  perfectly  agreeable,  yet  they  are 
spread  out  at  such  length,  and  placed  in  so  many  different  views,  as 
to  satisfy  every  reader  not  only  that  they  are  just,  but  that  they  add 
considerable  weight  to  the  collateral  presumptive  evidence  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  first  part  of  the  book  is  intended  to  show  that  the 
manner  in  which  our  Lord  and  his  apostles  proposed  the  evidences 
of  Christianity  was  the  most  perfect.  It  is  the  second  part  which 
relates  more  directly  to  our  present  subject.  Dr.  Gerard  entitled  the 
second  part,  Christianity  confirmed  by  the  opposition  of  Infidels.  He 
states  the  advantages  which  it  derived  from  the  opposition  of  early 
hifidels,  and  then,  with  much  useful  reference  to  the  present  state  of 
theological  discussions,  the  advantages  which  it  has  derived  from 
opposition  in  modern  times,  and  the  argument  thence  arising  for  its 
truth.  The  whole  second  part  is  the  best  illustration,  that  I  can  point 
out,  of  the  use  of  reason  in  repelling  the  attacks  of  the  adversaries  of 
Christianity. 


214  USE    OF    REASON    IN    RELIGION. 

But  while  many  of  the  champions  of  Christianity  have  adorned  and 
illustrated  that  truth  which  they  defended,  you  will  find  that  others, 
by  a  hcentious  use  of  reason,  have  mutilated  the  Christian  doctrine, 
and  reduced  it  to  little  more  than  a  system  of  morality.  And  there- 
fore it  becomes  necessary  to  speak, 

4.  Of  the  fourth  use  of  reason  in  judging  of  the  truths  of  religion. 
The  principles  upon  this  subject  are  so  simple  and  clear,  that  I  shall 
be  able  to  state  them  in  a  few  words  ;  and,  although  there  has  been 
very  gross  abuse  of  reason  in  judging  of  the  truths  of  religion,  it  will 
not  readily  occur  to  you,  how  any  person  who  understands  the  prin- 
ciples can  fail  essentially  in  the  application  of  them.     Every  thing 
which  is  revealed  by  God  comes  to  his  creatures  from  so  high  an 
authority,  that  it  may  be  rested  in  with  perfect  assurance  as  true. 
Nothing  can  be  received  by  us  as  true  which  is  contrary  to  the  dictates 
of  reason,  because  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  perceive  at  the  same  time 
the  truth  and  the  falsehood  of  a  proposition.     But  many  things  are 
true  which   we  do  not  fully  comprehend,  and  many  propositions, 
which  appear  incredible   when  they  are  first  enunciated,  are  found, 
upon   examination,  such  as  our  understanding  can  readily  admit. 
These  principles  appear  to  me  to  embrace  the  whole  of  the  subject, 
and  they  mark  out  the  steps  by  which  reason  is  to  proceed  in  judging 
of  the  truths  of  religion.     We  first  examine  the  evidences  of  revela- 
tion.    If  these  satisfy  our  understandings,  we  are  certain  that  there 
can  be  no  contradiction  between  the  doctrines  of  this  true  religion, 
and  the  dictates  of  right  reason.     If  any  such  contradiction  appear, 
there  must  be  some  mistake  :  by  not  making  a  proper  use  of  our 
reason  in  the  interpretation  of  the  gospel,  we  suppose  that  it  contains 
doctrines  which  it  does  not  teach  :  or,  we  give  the  name  of  right 
reason  to  some  narrow  prejudices  which  deeper  reflection  and  more 
enlarged  knowledge  will  dissipate ;  or,  we  consider  a  proposition  as 
implying  a  contradiction,  when,  in  truth,  it  is  only  imperfectly  under- 
stood.    Here,  as  in  every  other  case,  mistakes  are  to  be  corrected  by 
measuring  back  our  steps.   We  must  examine  closely  and  impartially 
the  meaning  of  those  passages  which  appear  to  contain  the  doctrine : 
we  must  compare  them  with  one  another:  we  must  endeavour  to 
derive  light  from  the  general  phraseology  of  Scripture  and  the  analogy 
of  faith ;  and  we  shall  generally  be  able,  in  this  way,  to  separate  the 
doctrine  from  all  those  adventitious  circumstances  which  give  it  the 
appearance  of  absurdity.     If  a  doctrine,   which,   upon   the  closest 
examination,  appears  unquestionably  to  be  taught  in  Scripture,  still 
does  not  approve  itself  to  our  understanding,  we  must  consider  care- 
fully what  it  is  that  prevents  us  from  receiving  it.     There  may  be 
preconceived  notions  hastily  taken  up  which  that  doctrine  opposes  ; 
there  may  be  pride  of  understanding  that  does  not  readily  submit  to 
the  views  which  it  communicates ;  or  reason  may  need  to  be  remind- 
ed, that  we  must  expect  to  find  in  religion  many  things  which  we  are 
not  able  to  comprehend.    One  of  the  most  important  offices  of  reason 
is  to  recognise  her  own  limits.     She  never  can  be  moved  by  any 
authority  to  receive  as  true  what  she  perceives  to  be  absurd.     But  if 
she  has  formed  a  just  estimate  of  the  measure  of  human  knowledge, 
she  will  not  shelter  her  presumption  in  rejecting  the  truths  of  revela- 
tion under  the  pretence  of  contradictions  that  do  not  really  exist ;  she 


USE    OF    REASON    IN    RELIGION.  215 

will  readily  admit  that  there  may  be  in  a  subject  some  points  which 
she  knows,  and  others  of  which  she  is  ignorant;  she  will  not  allow 
I'uer  ignorance  of  the  latter  to  shake  the  evidence  of  the  former  ;  but 
will  yield  a  firm  assent  to  that  which  she  does  understand,  without 
presuming  to  deny  what  is  beyond  her  comprehension.  And  thus 
availing  herself  of  all  the  light  which  she  now  has,  she  will  wait  in 
humble  hope  for  the  time  when  a  larger  measure  shall  be  imparted. 

The  importance,  and  indeed  the  meaning,  of  the  principles  which 
I  have  stated,  would  be  best  understood  by  examples.  But  were  I 
to  attempt  to  exemplify  them,  I  should  anticipate  the  subjects  upon 
which  we  are  to  enter.  These  principles  will  often  recur  in  the  pro- 
gress of  my  Lectures  upon  the  particular  doctrines  of  Christianity ; 
and  therefore  I  shall  content  myself  with  having  stated  them  in  this 
general  manner  at  present. 

A  right  apprehension  of  this  fourth  use  of  reason  in  matters  of  reli- 
gion constitutes  the  defence  of  Christianity  against  a  large  class  of 
objections,  that  are  often  urged  against  some  of  its  peculiar  doctrines. 
You  will  find  it  therefore  occasionally  stated  in  all  the  writers  who 
treat  of  these  doctrines,  and  if  there  is  a  proper  selection  of  your  read- 
ing, just  views  upon  this  important  subject  will  become  familiar  to 
your  minds  at  the  same  time  that  you  are  studying  the  Scripture 
system.  The  best  preparation  for  these  views  is  sound  logic,  which, 
in  teaching  the  right  use  of  reason,  ascertains  its  boundaries,  and 
guards  against  the  abuse  of  it.  You  bring  that  furniture  with  you 
when  you  enter  upon  the  study  of  divinity.  You  improve  it  during 
the  prosecution  of  that  study,  by  reading  Bacon,  Locke,  and  Reid, 
and  the  other  writers  who  treat  of  the  intellectual  powers,  and  by  all 
those  exercises,  which  render  your  own  intellectual  powers  more 
sound  and  more  acute,  which  increases  their  vigour,  while  they  check 
their  presumption.  I  would  recommend  to  you  particularly  to  read 
and  study  upon  this  subject,  Reid's  Essay  on  the  Intellectual  Powers, 
and  five  chapters  of  the  4th  book  of  Locke's  Essay  on  the  Human 
Understanding,  which  treat  of  assent,  reason,  faith  and  reason,  enthu- 
siasm, wrong  assent  and  error.  They  contain  a  most  rational,  and  I 
think,  when  properly  understood,  a  just  view  of  reason  in  judging  of 
the  truths  of  rehgion  ;  and  every  student  ought  to  be  well  acquainted 
with  them. 

Potter,  Prselectiones  Theologicoe,  vol.  iii. 
Randolph. 


216  CONTROVERSIES    OCCASIONED    BY 


CHAPTER  VI. 


CONTROVERSIES    OCCASIONED    BY    THE    SCRIPTURE    SYSTEM. 


The  last  preliminary  observation  arising  out  of  the  general  view  of 
the  Scripture  system  respects  the  controversies,  to  which  that  system 
has  given  occasion.  Even  those,  who  agreed  as  to  the  divine 
authority  of  the  Christian  religion,  have  differed  very  widely  in  their 
interpretation  of  its  doctrines.  These  differences  have  not  been  confined 
to  trifling  matters,  but  have  often  touched  upon  points  which  are 
said  to  concern  the  very  essence  of  the  religion,  and  they,  who  held 
the  opposite  opinions,  have  discovered  a  mutual  contempt  and  bitter- 
ness, very  inconsistent  with  the  spirit  which  might  be  supposed  to 
animate  the  disciples  of  the  same  Master. 

When  we  endeavour  to  account  for  the  controversies  in  religion, 
we  must  begin  with  recollecting  that  there  is  hardly  any  subject  of 
speculation,  upon  which  those  by  whom  it  has  been  thoroughly  can- 
vassed have  not  differed  in  opinion.  The  degrees  of  understanding, 
and  the  opportunities  of  improvement  are  so  various,  and  there  is 
such  variety  in  the  circumstances  and  connexions  which  direct  men 
to  their  first  opinions,  and  which  insensibly  warp  their  judgment, 
that  the  same  subject  is  seldom  viewed  by  two  persons  exactly  in  the 
same  light.  Minuter  shades  of  difference  are  generally  overlooked 
by  those  who  agree  in  important  points.  But  there  are  opinions  so 
far  removed  from  one  another,  that  no  explication  of  terms,  no  con- 
cessions which  either  side  can  make  in  consistency  with  their  own 
principle,  are  sufficient  to  reconcile  them.  Hence  the  different 
systems  which  have  been  framed,  and  zealously  maintained  with 
regard  to  several  branches  of  natural  theology  and  pneumatics,  with 
regard  to  the  principles  of  morality,  with  regard  to  politics,  I  do  not 
mean  the  politics  of  the  day,  but  the  general  science  of  politics,  and 
with  regard  to  various  questions  in  natural  philosophy.  Any  person, 
who  is  conversant  with  the  writings  of  the  ancient  and  modern 
philosophers,  knows  that  without  opposition  of  interest,  merely  from 
a  difference  in  the  mode  of  exercising  the  understanding  upon  sub- 
jects which  appear  to  be  within  the  reach  of  the  human  powers, 
controversies  have  been  agitated  ever  since  men  began  to  speculate, 
and,  after  receiving  the  fullest  discussion,  have  revived  in  a  m\v 
form  with  fresh  vigour. 

But,  notwithstanding  this  multiplicity  of  controversies,  which  the 
love  of  disputation  has  produced  upon  all  other  subjects,  it  may  occur 
to  you,  that  the  authority,  with  which  a  messenger  of  heaven  speaks, 
should  put  an  end  to  all  dispute  with  regard  to  the  subjects  of  his 
mission,  amongst  those  who  acknowledge  that  he  comes  from  God. 


THE    SCRIPTURE    SYSTEM.  217 

You  consider  it  as  essential  to  a  divine  revelation,  that  all  which  is 
necessary  to  be  known  should  there  be  delivered  in  explicit  terms, 
and  you  think  it  impossible  that  any  Christian  should  deny  those 
propositions  which  are  clearly  contained  in  Scripture.  A  little 
attention,  however,  to  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  will  enable  you 
to  reconcile  the  existence  of  theological  controversy  with  these 
principles. 

The  different  parts  of  my  discourse  upon  this  subject  are,  from  their 
nuture,  so  blended  together,  that  I  shall  not  attempt  to  keep  them 
asunder  by  separate  heads.  But  the  points  to  which  I  am  to  call 
your  attention,  as  serving  to  account  for  the  multiplicity  of  theological 
controversies,  are  these — the  manner  in  which  the  truths  of  the  gospel 
are  to  be  learned, — the  nature  and  importance  of  these  truths — the 
sentiments  and  passions,  which,  from  the  weakness  of  humanity, 
frequently  operated  in  the  breasts  of  persons  who  speculated  concern- 
ing them — and  the  genius  of  that  philosophy  in  which  many  of  those 
persons  were  educated. 

The  truths  of  the  gospel  must  be  deduced  from  an  interpretation 
of  the  words  of  Scripture ;  and  this  interpretation  admits  of  variety, 
according  to  the  measure  in  which  those  who  profess  to  interpret  are 
acquainted  with  the  language,  the  manners,  and  the  phraseology  of 
the  writers,  according  to  the  attention  which  they  bestow,  and  the 
honesty  of  mind  with  which  they  receive  the  truth.  In  the  plainest 
language  that  can  be  used,  there  are  metaphorical  expressions  which 
some  may  stretch  too  far,  and  others  may  consider  as  not  admitting 
of  any  direct  application  to  the  subject.  In  every  discourse  extending 
to  a  considerable  length,  there  are  limitations  of  general  expressions 
arising  out  of  the  occasion  upon  which  they  are  used,  that  may  be 
overlooked,  or  that  may  be  perverted ;  and  with  regard  to  the  gospel 
in  particular,  there  are  pre-conceived  opinions,  which,  by  bending 
every  proposition  to  a  conformity  with  themselves,  may  lead  men  far 
from  the  truth,  without  their  being  conscious  of  showing  any  contempt 
to  the  authority  of  the  revelation.  These  causes  have  operated  even 
with  regard  to  the  meaning  of  the  precepts  of  the  gospel,  and  have 
produced  that  casuistical  morality,  which,  while  it  acknoAvledges 
Scripture  as  the  standard  of  practice,  has  abounded  in  controversies 
concerning  the  application  of  that  standard  to  particular  cases. 

But  the  controversies,  with  which  you  are  chiefly  concerned,  res- 
pect not  so  much  the  practical  parts  of  our  religion  as  its  doctrines ; 
and  you  will  not  be  surprised  at  the  multiplicity  of  these,  when  you 
recollect  the  imperfect  measure  in  which  the  gospel  has  opened  to  the 
human  mind  new,  interesting,  and  profound  subjects  of  speculation. 
We  found  formerly,  that,  while  the  gospel  brings  the  most  convincing 
evidence  of  the  great  facts  in  natural  theology,  it  leaves  all  the  intri- 
cate questions  which  have  occurred  concerning  these  facts  just  where 
they  were  ;  and  that,  while  by  revealing  a  new  dispensation  of  Provi- 
dence it  necessarily  mentioned  the  existence  of  persons  not  known  by 
the  religion  of  nature,  their  relation  to  us,  and  the  conduct  of  that 
scheme  in  which  they  are  engaged  for  our  benefit,  it  has  communi- 
cated only  such  information,  with  regard  to  this  new  set  of  facts  that 
are  to  be  received  upon  the  authority  of  revelation,  as  is  of  real  im- 
portance, leaving  many  pouits  in  darkness.  Here  is  the  most  fruitful 
21  2  H 


218  CONTROVERSIES    OCCASIONED    BY 

subject  of  controversy  that  can  be  conceived.  The  propositions 
revealed  in  Scripture  are  so  few  and  simple,  that  it  is  hardly  possible 
for  those  who  rest  in  Scripture  to  disagree.  But  the  pride  of  human 
wisdom  does  not  readily  submit  to  be  confined  within  bounds  so  nar- 
row. Those,  who  have  been  accustomed  to  speculate  upon  other 
subjects,  continue  their  speculations  upon  religion,  and,  forgetting 
the  proper  province  of  reason  with  regard  to  truths  that  are  revealed, 
which  is  to  receive  with  humility  what  does  not  appear  upon  examina- 
tion to  be  absurd,  they  reject  as  unimportant  every  thing  that  reason 
did  not  investigate ;  or  they  endeavour,  by  -means  of  reason,  to  carry 
their  explanations  and  discoveries  far  beyond  the  measure  of  light 
contained  in  the  Scripture  ;  or  they  embarrass,  by  the  term^  and  dis- 
tinc|;ions  of  human  science,  subjects  so  imperfectly  revealed  as  not  to 
admit  of  them.  It  cannot  be  expected  that  there  should  be  uniformity 
in  employments  such  as  these,  which  do  not  proceed  upon  certain 
principles,  and  do  not  admit  of  being  reduced  to  any  fixed  rule.  When 
men  of  different  modes  of  education,  and  different  habits  of  thinking, 
undervaluing  the  simplicity  of  the  facts  revealed  in  Scripture,  and 
desirous  to  be  wise  above  what  is  written,  carry  their  inquiries  into 
the  manner  of  these  facts,  they  set  out  from  different  points,  they 
wander  without  a  guide  in  a  boundless  field  of  conjecture,  and,  having 
assumed  their  premises  at  pleasure,  they  arrive  at  opposite  conclu- 
sions. 

Even  in  the  days  of  the  apostles,  "  the  form  of  sound  words" 
which  they  delivered  was  complicated,  and  disguised  by  the  prejudices 
of  those  who  embraced  it.  The  Jewish  converts,  retaining  an  implicit 
veneration  for  the  teachers  of  the  law,  wished  to  incorporate  with  the 
Christian  faith  all  the  fables  which  they  found  in  the  writings  of  their 
Rabbins  ;  and  many  of  the  heathen  converts  proceeded  to  canvass 
the  subjects  of  revelation,  with  the  presumptuous  and  inquisitive 
spirit  of  the  philosophy  which  they  had  learned.  Hence  you  read  in 
the  Epistles  of  Paul  of  "  foolish  and  unlearned  questions  which  gender 
strife  ;"  of  teachers  "  who,  concerning  the  truth  had  erred,  and  over- 
threw the  faith  of  some ;"  of  "fables  and  endless  genealogies;"  and 
of"oppositions  of  science,  falsely  so  called."  We  learn  from  Peter 
that  the  unlearned  and  unstable  wrested  some  things  in  Paul's  Epis- 
tles that  are  hard  to  be  understood,  and  the  other  Scriptures  also,  to 
their  own  destruction  :  and  it  is  a  tradition  from  the  earliest  Chris- 
tian writers,  that  John  wrote  both  his  first  Epistle  and  his  gospel  with 
a  view  to  combat  a  heresy  concerning  our  Lord's  person,  which 
attachment  to  the  oriental  philosophy  had  introduced  amongst  the  first 
Christians.  If  controversy  thus  found  a  place  in  the  church  even 
under  the  eye  of  the  apostles,  and  was  not  effectually  repressed  by 
their  explanation  of  their  own  words,  and  by  their  authority,  you  may 
expect  that  it  would  multiply  fast  after  their  departure,  when  the  only 
standard  of  faith  was  the  written  word,  and  no  person  was  entitled  to 
impose  his  interpretation  of  that  word  as  the  true  mind  of  the  apostles. 
The  same  presumptuous  curiosity,  which  had  appeared  in  the  earliest 
times,  continued  to  extend  to  all  the  parts  of  Christian  doctrine.  Men 
speculated  concerning  the  manner  in  which  the  Son  and  the  Spirit 
exist  with  the  Father.  Instead  of  judging  of  the  evidences  of  the 
divine  mission  of  Jesus, they  proceeded  to  scan  the  reasons  of  that  dis- 


THE    SCRIPTURE    SYSTEM.  219 

pensation  which  they  were  required  to  bcHeve.  They  investigated 
the  principles  upon  which  the  several  parts  of  the  dispensation  com- 
bine in  producing  the  end,  and  they  pretended  to  ascertain  the  nature 
and  (he  manner  of  their  operation.  They  spread  out  the  scanty  in- 
formation whicli  Scripture  affords  upon  all  these  subjects  into  large 
systems.  But  the  original  materials  being  very  few,  and  the  rest 
being  supplied  by  imagination  and  false  philosophy,  the-  systems 
dilfered  widely  from  one  another,  and  it  was  impossible  to  find  any 
method  of  reconciling  the  ditference. 

You  will  not  suppose  that  these  discussions  proceeded  in  every  in- 
stance purely  from  a  desire  of  attaining  the  truth,  or  that  they  were 
conducted  Avith  the  calm  disinterested  spirit  which  becomes  a  lover 
of  knowledge.  Any  person,  who  has  that  acquaintance  with  human 
nature  which  history  and  experience  atlord,  will  not  be  surprised  to 
find  that  other  passions  often  mingled  their  influence  with  the  pride 
of  reason.  Jealousy  of  a  rival  produced  opposition  to  his  opinions, 
so  that  some  systems  of  theology  grew  out  of  a  private  quarrel.  The 
vices  of  an  individual  needed  some  shelter,  and  he  tried  to  find  it  in 
the  zeal  and  ingenuity  with  which  he  brought  forward  speculations 
upon  some  of  the  points  that  were  then  universally  interesting.  The 
love  of  power  induced  some  to  stand  forth  as  the  leaders  in  theolo- 
gical controversy,  whilst  meaner  desires  dictated  to  others  the  station 
which  they  were  to  assume,  and  the  humble  offices  by  which  they 
were  to  maintain  the  combat.  Matters  of  order,  ceremonies  of  wor- 
ship, and  all  those  usages  in  Christian  societies,  which  the  word  of 
God  has  left  as  matters  of  indifference  to  be  regulated  by  human  pru- 
dence, were  laid  hold  of  by  artful  men  who  knew  that  they  were  of 
no  essential  importance,  and  placed  in  such  a  light  as  to  be  the  most 
effectual  means  of  inflaming  the  minds  of  the  multitude.  Some  of 
the  earliest  and  most  violent  controversies  respected  the  time  of  cele- 
brating Easter ;  and  the  history  of  the  church  abounds  with  others 
equally  insignificant.  By  this  mixture  of  more  ignoble  principles 
with  the  presumptuous  curiosity  that  pried  into  those  "  secret  things 
which  belong  to  the  Lord,"  theological  subjects  became  one  field  for 
exhibiting  the  angry  passions,  which  from  the  beginning  of  the  world 
have  disturbed  the  peace  of  society.  Had  that  field  been  wanting, 
men  would  have  found  other  pretexts  for  acting,  from  jealousy,  am- 
bition, and  avarice ;  and  many  of  the  controversies  of  the  Christian 
church  are,  in  one  respect,  a  proof  of  that  depravity  of  human  na- 
ture, which,  notwithstanding  the  remedy  brought  by  the  gospel,  con- 
tinued to  operate  in  the  breasts  of  those  who  professed  to  receive  that 
religion. 

The  number  and  intricacy  of  theological  controversies  were  very 
much  increased  by  the  philosophy  of  the  times.  In  the  second  cen- 
tury the  philosophy  of  Plato  was  held  in  the  highest  admiration,  and 
some  of  the  learned  Christians,  having  been  educated  in  the  schools 
of  the  later  Platonists,  retained  the  sentiments,  and  even  the  dress  of 
philosophers,  after  they  became  the  disciples  of  Christ.  In  the  third 
century,  Origen,  who  by  the  extent  of  his  erudition,  the  intenseness 
of  his  application,  and  the  vigour  of  his  genius,  was  qualified  to  lead 
the  minds  not  of  his  contemporaries  only,  but  of  succeeding  ages, 
was  a  professed  Platonist.     In  his  theological  system,  he  accommo- 


220  CONTROVEPvSIES    OCCASIONED    BY 

dates  the  whole  scheme  of  Christian  doctrine  to  the  leading  princi- 
ples of  Platonism ;  and  in  his  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures,  he 
adopts  tliat  allegorical  and  mystical  method  of  exposition,  to  which 
the  luxuriant  fancy,  and  the  sublime  imagery  of  the  Athenian  philo- 
sopher had  given  occasion,  and  the  Platonic  father  was  thus  able  to 
bring  out  of  the  simplicity  of  the  Scriptures  all  the  profoinid  specu- 
lations vvhich  he  wished  to  find  there.  Origen  is  generally  regarded 
as  the  father  of  scholastic  theology,  which  derives  its  name  from  ap- 
plying the  terms  and  distinctions  of  human  science  to  the  truths  of 
revelation.  Scholastic  theology  assumed  different  forms,  correspond- 
ing to  the  succession  of  particular  systems  of  philosophy.  But  during 
the  whole  period  of  its  existence,  it  maintained  this  general  charac- 
ter, that  it  altered  and  corrupted  the  divine  simplicity  of  the  gospel, 
and  that  by  affecting  metaphysical  precision  upon  subjects  which  the 
Scriptures  have  let^t  undefined,  it  was  productive  of  endless  contro- 
versies. The  progress  of  these  controversies,  which  rendered  it 
necessary  for  the  opposite  parties  to  entrench  their  opinions  behind 
definitions,  divisions,  and  terms  of  art,  recommended  to  theologians 
the  philosophy  of  Aristotle.  The  subtile  distinguishing  genius  of 
Aristotle  had  invented  a  language  peculiarly  fitted  to  convey  the  dis- 
criminating tenets  of  their  systems,  and  his  authority  had  introduced 
and  established  the  syllogistical  mode  of  reasoning,  a  mode  of  no 
avail  in  making  discovery,  but  of  singular  use  in  disputation,  because 
it  furnishes  a  kind  of  defensive  weapons,  which,  by  keeping  an  oppo- 
nent at  a  distance,  may,  when  skilfully  managed,  render  it  impossible 
for  him  to  gain  a  victory.  For  these  reasons,  as  well  as  for  others, 
which  it  is  not  my  province  to  explain,  the  Platonic  philosophy  yield- 
ed after  a  few  centuries  to  the  Peripatetic.  The  authority  of  Aristotle 
became  as  complete  in  the  schools  of  theology  as  in  those  of  logic  or 
metaphysics;  and  all  theological  systems  abounded  so  much  with  the 
barbarous  jargon  then  in  use,  that  we  cannot  at  this  day  understand 
the  opinions  which  were  held  upon  intricate  points  of  divinity  without 
attempting  to  learn  it.  Upon  all  subjects  this  language  served  to  con- 
ceal ignorance  under  an  ostentatious  parade  of  words.  But  when  it 
is  applied  to  those  subjects  which  the  wisdom  of  God  hath  seen  meet 
to  reveal  in  very  imperfect  measure,  the  number  of  clear  ideas  bears 
so  very  small  a  proportion  to  the  multitude  of  words,  that  the  study 
of  it  forms  a  very  unprofitable  waste  of  time ;  for  it  requires  mucli 
labour  to  apprehend  the  meaning,  and,  unless  your  mind  be  so  un- 
happily constituted,  as  to  remember  words  better  than  things,  the 
meaning  escapes  almost  as  soon  as  it  is  attained. 

Since  the  era  of  the  Reformation,  the  Aristotelian  philosophy  has 
been  gradually  sinking  in  the  public  esteem;  and  the  human  mind, 
having  broken  the  fetters  in  which  she  had  long  been  bound,  has 
freely  canvassed  all  subjects  connected  with  religion.  While  the 
ablest  writers  have  appeared  during  the  two  last  centuries  in  the  de- 
istical  controversy,  all  the  other  controversies  relating  both  to  the  doc- 
trine, and  to  the  rites  or  discipline  of  the  Christian  church,  have  called 
forth  men  of  profound  erudition  and  of  philosophical  minds.  The 
same  causes  which  we  formerly  mentioned,  have  produced  in  modern 
times  a  difference  of  opinion,  both  with  regard  to  those  intricate 
questions  in  natural  theology  which  the  gospel  has  not  solved,  and 


THE    SCRIPTURE    SYSTEM.  221 

with  regard  to  those  new  points,  concerning  which  the  information 
given  in  Scripture  is  by  no  means  satisfying  to  the  curiosity  of  man. 
A  more  rational  criticism,  than  that  used  in  ancient  times,  has  been 
applied  to  the  interpretation  of  Scripture.  A  more  enhghtened  phi- 
losoj^hy,  a  sounder  logic,  and  a  language  less  technical,  but  not  defi- 
ciet]t  in  precision,  have  been  employed  in  supporting  the  difterent 
theological  opinions  which  former  habits  of  thinking,  or  the  interpre- 
tation of  Scripture,  have  led  men  to  adopt.  The  most  controverted 
points  have  been  the  subject  of  public  national  disputes,  as  well  as  of 
private  inquiry.  Churches  are  discriminated  from  one  another  by  the 
system  upon  those  points  which  enters  into  their  creed ;  and  indivi- 
dual members  of  every  church,  with  that  boldness  of  inquiry  of  which 
the  Reformation  set  the  example,  have  carried  their  researches  into 
many  points  which  most  creeds  had  left  undefined.  The  consequence 
of  this  thorough  examination  of  the  Scripture  system  has  been,  not 
that  all  the  parts  of  it  are  understood,  but  that  the  measure  in  which 
they  can  be  understood  is  known  ;  every  unnecessary  degree  of  ob- 
scurity which  had  been  attached  to  them  is  removed,  and  the  limits 
of  reason  in  judging  of  religion,  together  with  the  proper  method  of 
its  being  applied  to  that  subject,  are  ascertained.  The  opponents  in 
these  controversies  have  corrected  the  errors  of  one  another.  The 
appeals  which  have  been  constantly  made  to  Scripture,  the  diligence 
with  which  all  the  passages  relating  to  every  subject  have  been  col- 
lected, and  the  ingenuity  with  which  they  have  been  applied  in  sup- 
port of  difierent  systems,  enable  an  impartial  inquirer  to  attain  the 
true  meaning;  and  a  student  of  divinity  must  be  very  much  wanting 
to  himself,  if,  after  all  the  labours  of  those  who  have  gone  before  him, 
he  does  not  acquire  a  distinct  notion  of  the  various  opinions  that  have 
been  entertained  concerning  the  several  parts  of  the  Scripture  system, 
and  an  apprehension  of  the  train  of  argument  by  which  every  one 
of  them  is  supported. 

A  review  of  the  controversies  forms  a  principal  part  of  a  course  of 
theological  lectures.  We  do  not  bring  forward  to  the  people  all  the 
variety  of  opinions  which  have  been  held  by  presumptuous  inquirers, 
or  superficial  reasoners.  To  men  who  have  not  leisure  to  speculate 
upon  religion,  and  who  require  the  united  force  of  all  its  doctrines  to 
promote  those  practical  purposes,  which  are  of  more  essential  import- 
ance than  any  other,  it  is  much  better  to  present  "  the  form  of  sound 
words,"  as  it  was  "  once  delivered  to  the  saints,"  unembarrassed  by 
human  distinctions  and  oppositions  of  science,  and  to  imprint  upon 
their  minds  the  consolation  and"  instruction  in  righteousness,"  which, 
when  thus  stated,  it  is  well  fitted  to  administer.  This  is  the  business 
of  preaching.  But  this  is  not  the  only  business  of  students  in  divinity. 
You  are  not  masters  of  your  profession,  you  are  not  qualified  to  defend 
the  truth  against  the  muUiplicity  of  error,  and  your  conceptions  of  the 
system  of  theology  have  not  that  enlargement  and  accuracy  which 
they  might  have,  unless  you  study  the  controverted  points  of  divinity. 
It  is  true  that  there  have  been  many  disputes  merely  verbal  ;  that 
there  have  been  others  that  cannot  be  called  verbal,  the  matter  of 
which  is  wholly  unimportant ;  and  that  perhaps  all  have  been  con- 
duced with  a  degree  of  acrimony  which  the  principles  of  Christian 
toleration,  when  thorouirhly  understood,  will  enable  you  to  avoid. 
21* 


222  CONTROVERSIES    OCCASIONED    BY 

These  general  remarks  will  find  their  proper  place,  after  reviewing 
the  particular  controversies.  But  in  that  review  you  will  meet  with 
many  which  turn  upon  points  so  essential  to  the  Christian  faith,  where 
the  arguments  upon  both  sides  appear  to  have  so  much  force,  and 
have  been  urged  in  a  manner  so  able,  and  so  well  fitted  to  enlighten 
the  mind,  that  you  will  think  it  childish  to  affect  to  despise  theological 
controversies  in  general,  because  there  has  been  some  impropriety  in 
the  manner  of  their  being  conducted,  or  because  some  of  them  are 
insignificant. 

The  time  was  when  the  decision  of  all  theological  controversies 
turned  upon  a  kind  of  traditional  authority.  The  writers  in  the  first 
four  centuries  of  the  Christian  church  were  supposed  to  be  much 
better  acquainted  with  the  mind  of  the  apostles,  and  to  have  been  in 
a  more  favourable  situation  for  knowing  the  truth  upon  all  difficult 
questions,  than  those  who  apply  to  the  study  of  theology  in  later 
times.  They  were  dignified  with  the  name  of  the  fathers.  Their 
opinions  were  resorted  to  with  a  kind  of  reverence,  which  is  not  due 
to  any  human  compositions.  They  were  considered  as  the  only  sure 
interpreters  of  Scripture  ;  and  such  confidence  was  reposed  in  their 
interpretation,  that  their  works  were  sometimes  placed  very  nearly 
upon  a  level  with  the  inspired  writings.  The  charm  of  human 
authority  was  dispelled  by  the  Reformation.  An  accurate  enlight- 
ened criticism  has  appreciated  the  merit  of  the  Christian  fathers. 
We  allow  them  all  the  credit,  which  is  due  to  honest  men  attesting 
facts  that  came  within  their  own  knowledge.  We  venerate  their 
antiquity  ;  we  prize  that  knowledge  of  the  early  rites  of  the  Christian 
church,  and  of  the  tradition  of  doctrine  from  the  days  of  the  apostles, 
which  can  be  derived  only  from  them.  Above  all,  we  consider  their 
writings  as  an  inestimable  treasure  upon  this  account,  that  by  their 
mention  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  and  by  the  quotations 
from  Scripture  with  which  they  abound,  they  are  to  us  the  vouchers 
of  the  authenticity  of  the  sacred  books,  and  of  the  manner  in  which 
the  canon  of  Scripture  was  completed.  But  our  sense  of  their  merit, 
and  of  their  importance  to  the  Christian  faith  in  the  character  of 
historians,  does  not  induce  us  to  submit  to  them  as  teachers.  With- 
out any  invidious  detraction,  with  every  indulgence  which  the 
manners  of  the  times  and  the  imperfections  of  other  early  writers 
demand  for  the  Christian  fathers,  Protestants  adhere  to  their  leading 
principle,  which  is  this,  to  consider  the  Scriptures  as  the  only  infalli- 
ble rule  of  faith.  They  have  learned  to  call  no  man  their  master, 
because  one  is  their  Master,  even  Christ :  and  in  interpreting  the 
words  of  Christ  and  his  apostles,  they  consider  themselves  as  no  less 
entitled  to  judge  for  themselves,  and  as,  in  some  respects,  no  less 
qualified  to  form  a  sound  judgment,  than  those  who,  living  in  earlier 
times,  had  prejudices  and  disadvantages  from  which  we  may  be 
exempt.  I  cannot  express  this  principle  better  than  in  the  words  of 
our  Confession  of  Faith  :  "  The  Supreme  Judge,  by  which  all  contro- 
versies of  religion  are  to  be  determined,  and  all  decrees  of  councils, 
opinions  of  ancient  writers,  doctrines  of  men,  and  private  spirits,  are 
to  be  examined,  and  in  whose  sentence  we  are  to  rest,  can  be  no 
other  but  the  Holy  Spirit  speaking  in  the  Scripture." 

This  is  the  principle  to  be  followed  in  that  review  of  the  great  con- 


THE    SCRIPTURE    SYSTEM.  223 

troversies  of  religion,  which  forms  a  prominent  subject  of  my  lectures. 
I  may  often  give  you,  from  ancient  writers,  the  history  of  opinions, 
and  may  occasionally  combat  those  misrepresentations  of  that  history 
which  are  found  in  modern  authors,  eager  to  call  in  every  aid  to  sup- 
port their  particular  systems.  But  I  shall  quote  the  Christian  fathers 
as  historians,  not  as  authorities.  I  know  no  authority  upon  which 
you  ought  to  rest  in  judging  of  the  truth  of  any  doctrine  but  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  therefore  I  consider  sacred  criticism  as  the  most  important 
branch  of  the  study  of  theology.  We  are  to  avail  ourselves  of  an 
intimate  acquaintance  with  the  language  of  the  New  Testament,  i.  e. 
■with  the  meaning  of  single  words,  with  the  usual  acceptation  of 
phrases,  and  with  the  real  amount  of  figurative  expression.  We  are 
to  study  the  general  customs  of  the  people  amongst  whom  that  lan- 
guage was  used,  and  the  habits  of  thinking  which  might  dictate  a  par- 
ticular phraseology  to  some  writers.  We  are  to  investigate  the  mind 
of  an  author,  by  comparing  his  language  in  one  place  with  that  which 
occurs  in  another,  and  we  are  to  endeavour  to  attain  a  full  and  pre- 
cise conception  of  the  whole  doctrine  of  Scripture  upon  every  point, 
by  laying  together  those  passages  of  Scripture  in  which  it  is  stated 
under  ditferent  views. 

It  is  by  this  patient  exercise  of  reason  and  criticism  that  a  student 
of  divinity  is  emancipated  from  all  subjection  to  the  opinions  of  men, 
and  led  most  certainly  into  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Christ  Jesus.  It  is  the 
great  object  of  my  lectures,  to  assist  you  in  this  exercise,  and  Imay 
hope,  after  having  bestowed  much  pains  in  going  before  you,  to  be 
of  some  use  in  abridging  your  labour,  by  pointing  out  the  shortest  and 
most  successful  method  of  arriving  at  the  conclusion.  I  shall  not 
decline  giving  ray  opinion  upon  the  passages  which  I  quote,  and  the 
comparison  of  Scripture  which  I  shall  often  make.  But  I  do  not  desire 
you  to  pay  more  regard  to  my  opinions  than  to  those  of  any  other 
writer,  unless  in  so  far  as  they  appear  to  you  upon  examination  to  be 
well  founded.  You  will  derive  more  benefit  from  canvassing  what  I 
say  than  from  imbibing  all  that  I  can  teach ;  and  the  most  useful 
lessons  which  you  can  learn  from  me  are  a  habit  of  attention,  a  love 
of  truth,  and  a  spirit  of  inquiry. 


224  AKRANGEMENT    OF    THE    COURSE. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


ARRANGEMENT    OF    THE    COURSE. 


Our  Shorter  Catechism,  and  our  Confession  of  Faith,  are  formed 
upon  the  course  in  which  systems  of  divinity  commonly  proceed,  and 
both  of  them  are  clear  and  well  digested.  You  will  find  another  ex- 
cellent abridgment  of  the  ordinary  course  in  Marckii  Medulla  Theolo- 
giae,  a  duodecimo  of  three  hundred  pages,  which  used  to  be  the  text 
book  in  St.  Mary's  College,  and  which,  in  my  opinion,  ought  to  be 
read  by  every  student  of  divinity,  not  early,  but  before  he  finishes 
his  studies.  You  will  see  in  this  little  book  all  the  controversies  that 
have  been  agitated.  But  you  will  see  them  in  the  order  of  the  sys- 
tem, and  the  order  is  this.  After  a  general  account  of  the  nature  of 
theology,  and  of  the  Scriptures  as  the  principle  of  theology,  the  fol- 
lowing subjects  succeed  one  another.  God  and  the  Trinity — the 
decrees  of  God — the  execution  of  these  decrees  in  the  works  of  Crea- 
tion— a  view  of  the  visible  and  invisible  world — the  Providence  and 
government  which  God  exercises  over  his  works — man — the  state  of 
innocence — the  fall — the  consequences  of  sin — the  covenant  of  grace 
— the  person,  offices,  and  state  of  the  Mediator  of  the  covenant — the 
benefits  of  the  covenant — the  duties  of  those  who  partake  of  the 
benefits — the  sacraments — the  Church — the  final  condition  of  man- 
kind. 

Upon  all  these  subjects,  the  orthodox  doctrine  is  stated,  and  the 
objections  that  have  been  made  to  the  several  parts  of  the  doctrine 
are  answered,  so  that  every  chapter  contains  an  account  of  the  several 
opinions,  that  have  been  held  upon  all  the  points  that  occur  in  the 
chapter.  I  was  afraid  to  entangle  myself  in  this  course,  partly  from 
an  apprehension,  proceeding  both  upon  the  number  of  subjects  which 
it  embraces,  and  upon  the  experience  of  other  professors  of  divinity 
who  have  engaged  in  it,  that  it  was  likely  to  stretch  out  to  such  a 
length,  as  to  leave  me  no  hope  of  finishing  my  lectures  during  the 
longest  term  of  attendance  which  the  law  prescribes  to  students  ;  and 
partly  from  an  opinion  that  the  arrangement  adopted  in  the  ordinary 
course  is  not  the  most  perfect.  You  will  not  think  this  opinion  ill 
founded,  when  you  come  to  read  Marckii  Medulla ;  for  there,  and  I 
believe,  in  every  other  of  the  common  systems,  there  is  so  close  an 
alliance  between  the  subjects  treated  under  the  different  heads,  that 
the  same  principles  are  frequently  resorted  to  in  order  to  illustrate  the 
orthodox  doctrine ;  objections,  the  same  in  substance  with  those  that 
had  been  answered  in  a  former  chapter,  recur  under  a  different  form, 
and  the  same  answers  are  repeated  with  only  a  little  variation  in  the 


ARRANGEMENT    OF    THE    COUKSE.  225 

manner  of  applying  them.  I  am  very  far  from  condemning  this 
arrangement  as  in  all  respects  improper.  It  was  adopted  by  very 
able  men  ;  it  is  most  useful  for  giving  a  thorough  acquaintance  with 
all  the  parts  of  the  Scripture  system ;  and  there  is  one  booJc  in  which 
it  appears  to  such  advantage,  that  what  I  account  its  imperfection  is 
almost  forgotten,  I  mean  Calvin's  Institutes  of  the  Christian  religion; 
a  book  written  in  Latin,  that  is  not  only  perspicuous,  but  elegant,  and 
giving  a  most  masterly  comprehensive  view  of  the  great  points  in 
theology.  It  consists  of  four  books.  The  first  is  entitled,  De  Cogni- 
tione  Dei  Creatoris.  The  second,  De  Cognitione  Dei  Redemptoris. 
The  third,  De  Modo  Percipiendai  Christi  gratise,  et  qui  fructus  inde 
nobis  proveniant,  et  qui  effecfus  consequantur.  The  fourth,  De  Ex- 
ternis  Mediis  ad  Salutem.  It  requires  much  time  to  read  this  book 
carefully ;  but  when  a  student  has  leisure  to  make  it  his  business,  he 
will  find  his  labour  abundantly  recompensed  ;  and  I  do  not  know  a 
more  useful  book  for  a  clergyman  in  the  country.  It  may  be  pur- 
chased for  a  trifle,  and  it  is  the  best  body  of  divinity.  But  excellent 
and  profitable  as  this  book  is,  the  imperfection  which  I  mentioned 
adheres  to  the  plan  upon  which  it  is  composed ;  and  although  the 
order  of  Calvin's  Institutes  appears  to  me  simpler  and  more  natural 
than  that  of  any  other  system  which  I  have  read,  yet  I  think  that,  if 
I  were  to  attempt  to  follow  it,  I  should  be  reminded  by  frequent 
repetitions,  that  a  more  perfect  arrangement  might  have  rendered  the 
course  shorter  and  less  fatiguing. 

This  impression  led  me  to  attend  to  another  arrangement  of  the 
controversies,  which  has  been  executed  with  much  ability  by  some 
theological  writers.  Every  controversy  is  stated  by  itself;  L  e.  all 
the  distinguishing  opinions  of  those,  who  derive  a  particular  name 
from  tlie  peculiarity  of  their  tenets,  are  brought  into  one  view,  and 
are  referred  to  one  general  principle,  so  that  you  see  the  system  of 
their  creed,  and  can  mark  the  connection  between  the  several  parts. 
To  give  an  example  :  Socinianism  is  the  system  of  those  who  hold 
the  opinions  of  Socinus.  The  principle  of  Socinianism  is,  that  man 
may  be  saved  by  that  religion,  which  is  founded  upon  the  relation 
between  God  the  Creator  and  man  his  creature.  From  this  principle 
flow  their  opinions  with  regard  to  the  intention  of  Christ's  death  as  a 
witness  to  the  truth,  and  an  example  to  his  followers,  but  not  as  an 
atonement  for  sin ;  their  exclusion  of  mysteries  from  religion  ;  and 
all  those  tenets  by  which  they  transform  the  Christian  religion  into 
the  most  perfect  system  of  morality.  The  principle  of  Pelagianism, 
or  of  those  who  hold  the  opinions  of  Pelagius,  is  this,  that  the  natural 
powers  of  man  since  the  fall  are  sufficient  to  enable  him  to  keep  the 
law  of  God.  From  this  principle  flow  the  opinions  of  the  Pelagians 
concerning  original  sin,  the  decrees  of  God,  the  influences  of  the 
Spirit,  and  the  measure  of  perfection  which  may  be  attained  upon 
earth. 

This  metliod  of  arranging  the  controversies  is  manifestly  much 
more  scientific  than  the  former.  In  every  set  of  opinions  which  de- 
serves the  name  of  a  system,  there  are  some  leading  principles  which 
connect  the  several  parts.  It  is  an  agreeable  exercise  of  the  under- 
standing to  trace  these  principles,  and  to  mark  that  kind  of  unity  and 
subordination  which  arises  from  their  influence.     It  is  an  act  of  jus- 

21 


226  ARRANGEMENT    OF    THE    COURSE. 

tice  in  those  who  examine  the  opinions  of  others,  to  take  into  view 
that  mutual  dependence  which  renders  them  a  consistent  whole ;  and 
it  is  an  endless  unavailing  task  to  attempt  to  defend  the  truth  against 
a  multitude  of  detached  errors,  unless  your  reasoning  reach  the 
sources  from  which  these  errors  proceed.     I  recommend  it,  therefore, 
to  those  students  who,  in  the  course  of  their  reading,  have  attained 
an  intimate  acquaintance  both  with  the  evidences  of  Christianity  and 
with  the  particular  doctrines  of  our  faith,  to  study  the  most  important 
controversies  in  this  scientific  manner.     You  will  derive  much  assist- 
ance in  this  branch  of  your  researches  from  Mosheim's  Church  His- 
tory, which  is  an  invaluable  treasure  of  theological  knowledge.    This 
most  learned  and  ingenious  author,  who,  when  read  along  with  the 
able  and  judicious  notes  of  his  translator  Maclaine,  is  in  almost  every 
instance  a  safe  guide,  has  given,  in  one  division  of  his  work,  a  sum- 
mary of  all  the  heresies  or  particular  opinions  that  were  held  in  the  dif- 
ferent ages  of  the  church.  He  has  traced  their  rise  and  their  progress, 
and  has  discriminated,  with  critical  acumen,  those  which  appear  to 
an  ordinary  eye  almost  the  same.     As  his  work,  from  its  nature, 
makes  mention  of  all  the  controversies,  both  those  which  are  impor- 
tant and  those  which  are  trifling,  you  cannot  expect  that  even  the 
opinions  upon  which  he  has  judged  it  proper  to  bestow  the  most  par- 
ticular attention,  will  be  fully  elucidated  in  a  book  which  comprehends 
such  an  extent  of  time,  and  such  a  variety  of  matter.    You  will  sup- 
ply this  unavoidable  defect  by  the  books  which  Mosheim  quotes  in 
his  notes,  or  which  I  recommend  :  and  from  the  general  index  which 
he  furnishes,  and  the  treatises  which  professedly  explain  the  particu- 
lar subjects,  you  will  be  able  to  form  a  distinct  connected  view  of 
every  one  of  the  five  controversies  which  are  universally  interesting, 
and  which  are  commonly  known  by  the  names  of  Arianism,  Pelagi- 
anism,  Socinianism,  Arminianism,  and  the  Popish  controversy.  There 
are  many  other  controversies  that  turn  upon  very  important  points. 
But  they  have  not  been  so  perfectly  digested  into  the  form  of  a  sys- 
tem as  the  five  now  mentioned,  nor  have  they  been  defended  with 
such  ability  as  to  occupy  a  great  part  of  the  attention  of  a  student. 

Although  I  thus  earnestly  recommend  attention  to  the  scientifical 
arrangement  of  the  controversies,  I  have  been  restrained  from  adopt- 
ing it  as  the  plan  of  my  course  by  the  following  reasons.  Some  of 
the  five  great  controversies  resemble  one  another  in  several  points. 
Thus  Pelagianism  and  Arminianism  both  turn  upon  the  natural 
powers  which  man  has,  since  the  fall,  to  obey  the  will  of  God.  So- 
cinianism agrees  with  Pelagianism  upon  this  point,  and  it  agrees  with 
Arianism  in  denying  that  Jesus  is  truly  God,  while  it  ditfers  from 
Arianism  in  the  account  which  it  gives  of  his  person.  You  may  judge 
from  this  specimen,  that  although  the  scientifical  method,  which  I 
mentioned,  is  unquestionably  the  best  for  making  you  acquainted 
with  any  particular  system  of  opinions,  yet  to  us,  v/lio  mean  to  re- 
view ail  the  most  important  controverted  points,  it  would  necessarily 
be  attended  with  much  repetition.  We  should  often  meet,  under  ditfer- 
ent  names,  with  the  same  objections,  and  the  same  heretical  opinions, 
and  we  should  be  obliged  to  bring  forward  the  same  arguments  and 
the  same  passages  of  Scripture  in  answer  to  them.  Further,  our 
object  is  not  so  much  to  know  who  held  the  particular  opinions,  and 


ARRANGEMENT    OF    THE    COURSE.  227 

what  was  the  age  in  which  they  hved ;  but  what  were  the  various 
opinions  upon  the  great  subjects  of  theology,  and  what  were  the 
grounds  upon  which  tliey  rested.  We  may  attain  this  object,  although 
we  confound  the  shades  of  difference  between  systems  that  nearly 
approach,  and  therefore  to  us  it  were  a  needless  waste  of  research 
and  of  time  to  discriminate  them  nicely.  Further  still,  as  every  one 
of  the  five  great  controversies  embraces  particular  opinions  upon 
many  different  points,  the  arranging  the  five  separately  breaks  the 
subjects  of  theology  into  parts,  and  does  not  afford  a  full  united  view 
of  any  one  subject.  You  will  understand  what  I  mean  from  an  ex- 
amjile.  Besides  the  opinions  of  the  early  ages  concerning  the  person 
of  Christ,  one  opinion  was  held  in  the  third  century  by  Arius,  another 
at  a  much  later  period  by  Socinus,  and  a  third  has  been  the  general 
doctrine  of  the  Christian  church.  Any  one  wlio  wishes  to  make  him- 
self master  of  this  interesting  subject  will  desire  to  see  the  different 
opinions  brought  together,  that  he  may  compare  their  probability, 
that  he  may  judge  of  the  support  which  every  one  of  them  receives 
from  particular  passages  of  Scripture,  or  from  the  analogy  of  faith, 
and  may  thus  attain  a  conclusion  which  he  can  defend  by  good  rea- 
sons. Had  you  a  book  continually  by  you,  in  which  all  the  contro- 
versies were  arranged  singly,  you  might  make  a  collation  of  the 
different  opinions  upon  the  same  subject,  by  reading  first  a  part  of 
Arianism,  then  the  corresponding  part  of  Socinianism,  and  next  the 
corresponding  part  of  that  system  which  is  called  Orthodox,  in  the 
same  manner  as  you  get  a  full  view  of  a  siege  in  the  Peloponnesian 
war,  by  passing  directly  from  the  portion  of  the  siege  which  is  writ- 
ten in  one  book  of  the  history  of  Thucydides,  to  the  portion  of  the 
same  siege  which  is  written  in  another  book.  But  you  could  not 
make  this  collation  in  hearing  a  course  of  lectures,  unless  I  repeated 
under  one  controversy  as  much  of  what  I  had  said  under  the  corres- 
ponding part  of  another,  as  to  bring  it  to  your  mind  ;  and  this  repe- 
tition would  be  a  proof  that  the  arrangement,  however  favourable  to 
your  understanding  any  one  system  of  opinions,  is  unfavourable  to 
your  understanding  the  whole  controverted  subject. 

Once  more,  there  is  in  the  different  opinions  upon  the  same  subject 
a  progress  that  may  be  traced,  by  which  you  see  how  one  paved  the 
way  for  the  other  ;  and  the  succeeding  opinion  is  often  illustrated  by 
the  preparation  which  had  been  made  for  its  reception.  This  advan- 
tage is  lost,  when  you  throw  together  the  different  subjects  that  were 
agitated  in  one  system  of  opinions.  You  see,  in  this  way,  the  chain 
which  binds  together  all  the  parts  of  Pelagianism,  Arminianism,  or 
Socinianism.  But  in  passing  along  the  cliain,  you  miss  the  thread 
wliich  conducts  you  from  the  opinions  on  a  particular  subject  found 
under  one  system,  to  the  opinions  on  the  same  subject  found  under 
another. 

For  these  reasons,  I  resolved  neither  to  follow  the  path  of  the  ordi- 
nary systems  of  theology,  nor  to  adopt  the  more  scientific  mode  of 
classing  the  opinions  that  distinguish  different  sects  of  Christians. 
The  plan  of  my  course  is  this  : 

Out  of  the  mass  of  matter  that  is  found  in  the  system,  I  select  the 
great  subjects  which  have  agitated  and  divided  the  minds  of  those 
who  profess  to  build  their  faith  upon  the  same  Scriptures.    I  consider 


228  ARRANGEMENT    OF    THE    COURSE. 

every  one  of  these  subjects  separately ;  I  present  the  wliole  train 
and  progress  of  opinions  that  have  been  held  concerning  it;  and  I  state 
the  grounds  upon  which  they  rest,  passing  slightly  over  those  opinions 
which  are  now  forgotten,  or  whose  extravagance  prevents  any  danger 
of  their  being  revived,  and  dwelling  upon  those  whose  plausibility 
gave  them  at  any  time  a  general  possession  of  the  minds  of  men,  or 
which  still  retain  their  influence  and  credit  amongst  some  denomina- 
tions of  Christians, 

In  selecting  the  great  subjects  to  be  thus  brought  forward,  I  was 
guided  by  that  general  view  of  the  Gospel  which  was  formerly  illus- 
trated. We  found  its  distinguishing  character  to  be  the  religion  of 
sinners, — a  remedy  for  the  present  state  of  moral  evil,  provided  by  the 
love  of  God  the  Father,  brought  into  the  world  by  Jesus  Christ,  and 
applied  by  the  influences  of  the  Spirit.  All  the  controversies  which 
are  scattered  through  the  ordinary  systems,  and  which  have  been 
classed  under  the  different  heads,  Arianism,  Pelagian  ism,  Arminian- 
ism,  and  Socinianism,  respect  either  the  Persons  by  whom  the  remedy 
is  brought  and  applied,  or  the  remedy  itself  The  different  opinions 
respecting  the  Persons  comprehend  the  whole  of  the  Arian,  a  part  of 
the  Socinian,  and  all  that  is  commonly  called  the  Trinitarian  contro- 
versy, upon  which  so  much  has  been  written  since  the  beginning  of 
the  last  century.  The  different  opinions  concerning  the  remedy  itself 
respect  either  the  nature  of  the  remedy,  the  extent  of  the  remedy,  or 
the  application  of  it ;  and  they  comprehend  the  whole  system  of  Pela- 
gian and  Arminian  principles,  a  part  of  the  Socinian,  and  many  of 
the  doctrines  of  Popery.  Opinions  as  to  the  nature  of  the  remedy 
depend  upon  the  apprehensions  entertained  of  the  nature  of  the 
disease ;  so  that  all  the  questions  concerning  original  sin,  the  demerit 
of  sin,  and  the  manner  in  which  guilt  can  be  expiated,  fall  under  this 
head.  Opinions  as  to  the  extent  of  the  remedy  embrace  the  questions 
concerning  universal  and  particular  redemption,  and  concerning  the 
decrees  of  God.  Opinions  as  to  the  application  of  the  remedy  turn 
upon  the  necessity  of  divine  assistance,  the  manner  in  which  it  is 
bestowed  and  received,  and  the  effects  which  it  produces  upon  the 
mind  and  the  conduct  of  those  to  whom  it  is  given. 

It  appears  to  me,  therefore,  that  by  this  distribution  we  do  not 
omit  any  of  the  great  controversies,  with  which  students  of  divinity 
ought  to  be  acquainted:  at  the  same  time,  by  tracing  with  undistracted 
attention  the  progress  of  opinions  upon  every  subject,  by  viewing 
their  points  of  opposition,  and  examining  their  respective  merits,  we 
consider  one  subject  closely  upon  all  sides  before  we  proceed  to 
another,  and  are  thus  saved  the  necessity  of  returning  at  any  future , 
period  upon  the  ground  which  we  had  formerly  trodden.  Much  light 
v/ill  probably  be  struck  from  this  collision  of  different  opinions.  You 
have  experience  that  you  are  never  so  thoroughly  acquainted  with  a 
subject,  as  when  you  have  heard  the  discussion  of  the  several  qiies-  - 
tions  to  which  it  gives  rise,  either  in  conversation,  or  in  more  formal 
debate  ;  and  therefore  you  have  reason  to  expect  that  your  knowledge 
of  theology  will  be  rendered  much  more  accurate  and  profound,  by 
canvassing  the  different  opinions  held  in  a  succession  of  ages  by  very 
able  men,  and  defended  by  them  with  a  zeal  that  cannot  be  supposed 


ARRANGEMENT  OP  THE  COURSE.  229 

to  have  omitted  any  argument,  because  it  was  dictated  not  merely  by 
the  love  of  (ruth,  but  in  many  instances  by  the  desire  of  victory. 

After  I  have  derived  all  the  benefit  which  the  labours  of  these  men 
can  aftbrd,  in  oi)onii)g  to  you  those  doctrines  of  Christianity  which 
are  the  great  subject  of  your  studies,  I  next  consider  the  church  of 
Christ jis  a  society  founded  by  its  Author.  This  branch  of  our  course 
entered  into  the  general  view  of  the  Scripture  system  ;  and  it  demands 
your  particular  attention,  not  only  from  the  mention  made  of  it  in 
Scripture,  but  also  from  the  many  violent  controversies  to  which  it 
has  given  birth.  The  notion  of  a  society  implies  the  use  of  certaiu 
external  observances,  wliich  are  necessary  to  distinguish  it  from  other 
societies,  and  to  maintain  order  amongst  the  members.  It  is  natural, 
therefore,  in  speaking  of  the  Christian  society,  to  give  a  history  of 
church  government,  or  an  account  of  the  various  practices  and  ques- 
tions which  have  occurred  upon  this  head  ;  and  in  tliis  account  I  am 
led  to  investigate  the  grounds  of  that  claim  advanced  by  the  Bishop 
of  Rome,  as  the  head  of  the  church,  and  the  Vicar  of  Christ  upon 
earth.  There  are  many  of  the  doctrines  of  the  church  of  Rome,  which 
fall  under  some  of  the  controversies  that  we  propose  to  review.  But 
these  doctrines  were  only  called  in  as  auxiUaries  of  the  hierarchy,  to 
lend  their  aid  in  supporting  that  system  of  spiritual  power,  of  which 
the  claim  made  by  the  Bishop  of  Rome  was  the  principal  pillar  ;  so 
that  by  much  the  greater  part  of  the  Popish  controversy  belongs  to 
the  head  of  church  government. 

It  is  impossible,  in  this  country,  to  consider  Church  government 
without  bestowing  attention  upon  the  claims  of  Episcopacy  and  Pres- 
bytery. After  examining  the  support  which  they  derive  from  the 
word  of  God,  and  from  the  practice  of  antiquity,  the  transition  is 
natural  to  the  constitution  of  that  Church,  of  which  you  expect  to 
become  members.  The  Church  of  Scotland,  like  every  other 
established  Church,  requires  her  office-bearers  to  subscribe  a  declara- 
tion of  their  faith.  It  is  proper,  therefore,  to  consider  the  right  upon 
which  such  requisition  rests,  and  the  propriety  of  that  right  being 
exercised.  The  peculiar  doctrines  contained  in  that  declaration, 
which  we  call  the  Confession  of  Faith,  will  have  passed  in  review 
before  we  come  to  this  part  of  our  course.  But  it  will  be  proper  that 
you  then  attend  to  the  reason  of  the  peculiarities  of  that  worship,  in 
which  you  may  soon  be  called  to  preside,  and  to  the  principles  of  that 
discipline  and  government,  of  which  you  may  soon  be  called  to  be  the 
guardians  and  the  administrators. 

The  different  parts  of  the  office  of  a  parish  minister  are  familiar  to 
those  who  live  in  this  country,  where  they  are  not  neglected.  But 
some  observations,  with  regard  to  the  importance  of  performing  them 
properly,  and  the  manner  in  which  they  may  be  rendered  most  use- 
ful, will  not  appear  unseasonable  to  those  who  are  about  to  enter 
upon  the  office  of  the  ministry  ;  and  there  is  one  branch  of  that  office, 
I  mean  the  preparation  and  the  delivery  of  sermons,  concerning  which, 
after  all  that  you  have  heard  of  composition  elsewhere,  you  will 
naturally  expect  some  practical  rules  in  a  place  where  your  own 
discourses,  the  legal  specimen  of  your  proficiency  in  the  study  of 
theology,  are  exhibited  and  judged. 

When  I  have  filled  up  this  plan  to  my  own  satisfaction,  I  shall  think 
22 


230  ARRANGEMENT    OF    THE    COURSE. 

that  I  discharge  that  part  of  the  public  duties  of  my  station  which 
consists  in  lecturing,  by  contributing  the  wliole  stock  of  my  informa- 
tion and  experience  for  your  advantage.  My  principle  is,  to  con- 
dense the  execution  of  the  plan  as  much  as  possible.  I  shall  be 
disappointed,  if  I  be  not  able  to  comprise  my  whole  course  in  such  a 
period  as  will  give  to  every  residing  student  of  divinity  an  opportu- 
nity, if  he  chooses,  of  hearing  all  the  parts  of  it ;  and  I  shall  think  it 
an  advantage,  if,  by  omitting  some  parts,  and  abridging  others,  I  can 
so  reduce  the  course,  as  to  admit  of  passing  over  it  twice,  in  the  time 
prescribed  for  regular  attendance  at  college. 

Turretin,  abridged  by  Russenius,  is  a  very  useful  book  for  giving  a  short  view  of  all  the 

controverted  points. 
Stapferi  Instit.  Theol.  Polemicae,  in  5  vols,  is  a  valuable  work.     The  different  systems  of 

opinions  concerning  the  truths  of  religion  are  there  separately  arranged. 


BOOK  III. 

OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE    SON,   THE    SPIRIT,   AND 

THE    MANNER    OF    THEIR    BEING    UNITED 

WITH  THE  FATHER. 


^  The  Gospel  reveals  two  persons,  whose  existence  was  not  known 
\>Y  the  light  of  nature  ;  the  Son,  by  whom  the  remedy  offered  in  the 
Gospel  was  brought  into  the  world,  and  the  Spirit,  by  whom  it  is 
applied.  The  revelation  concerning  the  first  of  these  persons  is  much 
more  full  than  that  concerning  the  second,  and  has  given  occasion  to 
a  greater  variety  of  opinions.  I  shall  begin  therefore  with  stating  the 
opinions  concerning  the  Son ;  I  shall  next  give  a  short  view  of  the 
opinions  concerning  the  Spirit ;  after  which,  there  will  remain  a 
general  subject,  arising,  as  we  shall  find,  out  of  the  illustration  of 
these  separate  branches  ;  and,  in  speaking  of  this,  I  shall  have  to  state 
the  opinions  respecting  the  manner  in  which  these  two  persons  are 
united  with  the  Father. 


CHAPTER  I. 


OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE    PERSON    OF    THE    SON. 


In  entering  upon  the  opinions  concerning  the  person  of  the  Son,  I 
must  warn  you  not  to  consider  the  subject  as  unimportant.  It  is  the 
language  of  Dr.  Priestley,  that  the  value  of  the  Gospel  does  not,  in 
any  degree,.depend  upon  the  idea  which  we  may  entertain  concerning 
the  person  of  Christ,  because  all  that  is  truly  interesting  to  us,  is  the 
object  of  his  mission,  and  the  authority  with  which  his  doctrine  is 
promulgated.  But  this  language  is  inconsistent  with  the  general 
strain  of  the  New  Testament,  a  great  part  of  which  we  shall  find 
occupied  in  giving  us  just  conceptions  of  the  person  of  Christ:  It  is 
inconsistent  with  the  general  sentiments  of  the  Christian  Church,  who 
liave  canvassed  this  subject  with  much  diligence,  and  with  deep 
interest,  ever  since  the  Gospel  appeared  :  It  is  inconsistent  with  th« 
zeal  which  Dr.  Priestley  and  his  associates  have  discovered  in  com- 

231 


232  -  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE 

municating  their  opinions  upon  this  subject  to  the  world ;  and  it  is 
inconsistent  with  the  natural  propensity  to  which  the  Scriptures  have 
graciously  accommodated  themselves,  and  by  which  every  one  is  led 
to  connect  the  importance  of  a  message  with  the  dignity  of  the 
messenger.  It  does  not  become  any  one  to  suppose,  that  the  discover- 
ies made  in  the  gospel  concerning  the  person  of  Christ  contain  merely 
a  popular  argument,  to  which  it  is  unnecessary  for  him  to  attend.  But 
it  becomes  every  person,  who  believes  that  the  message  proceeds  from 
heaven,  to  receive  with  reverence  the  discoveries  concerning  the 
messenger,  as  conveying  important  truth,  which  claims  the  attention 
of  every  understanding  to  which  it  is  made  known,  and  creates  duties 
which  a  Christian  ought  not  to  neglect. 

With  this  impression  of  the  importance  of  the  subject,  I  proceed  to 
analyse  the  opinions  concerning  the  Person  of  Christ.  I  do  not  pro- 
pose to  follow  the  order  of  time,  because  there  is  some  difficulty  in 
ascertaining  the  dates  of  particular  opinions,  because  the  order  in 
which  they  arose  is  not  always  very  material,  and  because  the 
frequent  revival  of  old  opinions  in  new  systems  would  render  a  chro- 
nology of  them  full  of  repetitions.  Neither  do  I  propose  to  fatigue 
your  attention  with  the  useless  uninteresting  detail  of  all  the  extrava- 
gant conceits  broached  by  particular  men,  or  of  the  minute  shades  of 
difference  among  those  who  agreed  in  their  general  system.  I  shall 
furnish  you  with  the  information  that  is  of  real  importance,  by  bring- 
ing forward  the  three  great  systems  upon  this  subject.  Their  features 
are  strongly  marked  and  clearly  discriminated,  and  they  appear  to 
comprehend  all  the  variety  of  which  the  subject  admits,  because  the 
several  opinions  which  have  at  some  times  been  exploded  and  at 
other  times  revived,  are  always  reducible  to  one  or  other  of  these 
three  systems. 

The  simplest  opinion  concerning  the  person  of  Christ  is,  that  he 
was  merely  a  man  who  had  no  existence  before  he  was  born  of 
Mary ;  who  was  distinguished  from  the  former  messengers  of 
lieaven,  not  by  any  thing  more  sacred  in  his  original  character,  but 
by  the  virtues  of  his  life,  and  by  the  extraordinary  powers  with 
which,  upon  account  of  the  peculiar  importance  of  his  commission,  he 
was  invested ;  who,  after  he  had  executed  this  commission  with 
fidelity,  with  fortitude,  and  zeal,  was  rewarded  for  his  obedience  to 
God,  his  good-will  to  men,  and  his  patience  under  suffering,  by  being 
raised  from  the  dead,  and  exalted  to  the  highest  honour,  being  con- 
stituted at  his  resurrection  the  Lord  of  the  creation,  and  entering  at 
that  time  into  a  kingdom  which  is  to  continue  to  the  end  of  the  world, 
and  the  administration  of  which  entitles  him  to  reverence  and  sub- 
mission from  the  human  race.  Some  who  held  this  general  system 
admitted  that  Jesus  was  born  in  a  miraculous  manner  of  a  virgin  ; 
while  others  contended  that  he  was  literally  the  son  of  Joseph  and 
Mary.  Some  said  that  Jesus  might  be  worshipped  upon  account  of 
the  dominion  to  which  he  is  raised ;  while  others,  who  allow  that 
gratitude  and  honour  are  due  to  him,  confine  adoration  to  the  Father. 
But  these  two  differences  do  not  affect  the  general  principle  of  the 
system.  In  whatsoever  manner  Jesus  came  into  the  world,  he  is, 
according  to  this  system,  4-^7^0;  w^^wrtoj,  a  mere  man  ;  and  whether  reve- 
rence in  general,  or  that  particular  expression  of  reverence  that  is 


PERSON    OF    THE    SON.  233 

called  adoration,  be  considered  as  due  to  him,  it  is  not  npon  account 
of  any  essential  property  of  his  nature,  but  upon  account  of  a  domi- 
nion that  was  given  him  by  God. 

The  grounds  upon  which  this  opinion  rests,  are  the  general  strain 
of  the  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament,  in  which  Jesus  is  foretold  as 
the  seed  of  the  woman  ;  the  general  strain  of  the  New  Testament  in 
which  our  Lord  speaks  of  himself,  and  his  apostles  speak  of  him  as  a 
man  ;  the  accounts  of  his  birth,  his  childhood,  his  sufferings,  and  his 
giving  up  the  ghost ;  and  the  manner  in  which  tlie  Scriptures 
frequently  state  his  glory  as  the  recompense  of  what  he  did  upon 
earth.  The  argument  drawn  from  this  language  of  Scripture  is 
supported  by  general  reasonings  concerning  the  fitness  of  employing 
a  man,  whose  life  is  a  pattern  which  we  may  be  supposed  capable  of 
imitating,  and  whose  resurrection  and  exaltation  furnish  an  encourage- 
ment, suited  to  the  condition  of  those  who  encounter  hardships  the 
same  in  kind  with  those  which  he  overcame  :  and  this  argument  is 
defended  by  attempts  to  explain  away  such  passages  of  Scripture,  as 
seem  to  contradict  the  system,  and  particularly  by  referring  every 
thing  that  is  said  of  the  glory  of  Christ  to  that  power  which  was 
given  him  upon  earth,  or  to  that  state  of  exaltation  which  he  now 
holds  in  .heaven. 

It  is  said  that  this  opinion  was  held  in  the  first  century  by  a  small 
sect  of  Jewish  converts,  called  the  Ebionites,  who  received  no  other 
part  of  the  canon  of  the  New  Testament  but  the  Gospel  according  to 
JNIatthew,  after  rejecting  the  first  two  chapters.  The  opinion  \vas 
openly  taught  by  Theodotus  and  Artemon,  about  the  end  of  the 
second  century  :  and  Eusebius  says  that  Theodotus  was  the  first  who 
taught  the  simple  humanity  of  Christ.*  It  may  be  traced  also  in 
other  systems  that  divided  the  Christian  church  before  the  Coimcil  of 
Nice,  which  met  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century.  But  after 
that  Council,  this  opinion  appears  to  have  been  exploded  till  the  time 
of  the  Reformation,  when  it  was  revived  by  Socinus,  and  propagated 
among  his  disciples,  who  abounded  in  Transylvania,  Hungary,  and 
Poland.  It  continues  to  form  one  of  the  leading  characteristical 
featiu'es  of  those  who  are  called  Socinians.  It  was  insinuated  with 
modesty  and  diffidence  by  some  eminent  men  in  the  course  of  the 
last  century,  amongst  whom  is  Lardner,  who  has  deserved  so  well  of 
the  Christian  world  by  that  laborious  and  valuable  collection  entitled 
the  Credibility  of  the  Gospel  History.  It  has  of  late  been  published 
with  zeal  and  confidence  by  Lindsey,  Priestley,  and  tlieir  associates ; 
and  it  is  the  avowed  principle  of  those  Socinians  who  choose  to  dis- 
tinguish themselves  by  the  title  of  Unitarians. 

The  second  opinion  concerning  the  person  of  Christ,  is,  that  he  was 
not  a  mere  man,  but  that  he  existed  before  he  appeared  upon  earth.  It 
occurs  to  mention  under  this  second  opinion  one  branch  of  the  tenets  of 
the  Gnostics,  those  heretics  who  began,  even  in  the  days  of  the  apostles, 
to  corrupt  the  simplicity  of  the  gospel  by  a  mixture  of  oriental  philo- 
sophy. They  held  that  the  Christ  was  an  emanation  from  the 
supreme  mind,  one  of  those  beings  whom  they  considered  as  filling 
the  pleroma,  and  to  Avhom  they  gave  the  name  of  yEous.     This 

*  Eus.  Hist.  Ecc.  lib.  v. 
22*  2  K 


234  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE 

glorious  ^on,  who  was  sent  by  the  Supreme  Being  to  the  earth, 
according  to  some  of  the  Gnostics,  united  himself  to  the  man  Jesus  at 
his  baptism,  and  left  him  at  his  crucifixion  ;  according  to  others,  he 
only  assumed  the  appearance  of  a  man  ;  so  that  the  body  which  the 
Jews  saw,  and  which  they  thought  they  crucified,  was  a  shadowy 
form  that  eluded  their  malice.  Hence  this  latter  class  of  Gnostics 
were  called  by  the  ancient  fathers,  Docetas,  from  Soxw,  videor,  as  they 
ascribed  a  seeming,  not  a  real  body  to  Jesus.  It  were  endless  to  fol- 
low all  the  differences  of  opinion  concerning  the  person  of  Christ 
among  those  who  held  the  Gnostic  principles  ;  because  as  the  princi- 
ples were  merely  the  fruit  of  imagination,  resting  upon  no  solid 
ground  either  in  reason  or  in  revelation,  they  admitted  of  infinite 
variety.  A  sounder  philosophy  has  exploded  these  abuses  of  fancy, 
and  given  human  speculations  a  more  useful  direction,  so  that  the 
whole  system  of  Gnostic  principles  is  now  an  object  of  study,  only  in 
so  far  as  some  acquaintance  with  it  is  necessary  to  throw  light  upon 
those  parts  of  the  sacred  writings  in  which  it  is  attacked.  Mosheim 
has  delineated  that  system  in  his  Church  History  with  great  ingenuity 
and  learning,  with  more  minuteness  in  some  instances,  than  it  appears 
to  deserve,  and  with  as  much  precision  and  clearness  as  its  obscure 
airy  form  admitted.  You  will  learn  from  him  all  that  needs  to  be 
known  upon  this  subject;  and  you  will  find  that  almost  all  the 
Gnostic  sects  considered  Jesus  as  dignified  and  animated  by  some 
kind  of  union  with  a  celestial  NaQW,  who  had  existed  in  the  pleroma 
before  he  descended  to  earth.* 

It  is  of  more  importance  to  fix  your  attention  upon  the  substantial 
definite  form  which  the  second  opinion  concerning  the  person  of 
Christ,  I  mean  that  which  raised  him  above  man  by  ascribing  to 
him  pre-existence,  assumed  in  the  system  of  Arius.  It  was  the  lead- 
ing principle  of  this  system,  that  the  Christ,  the  first  and  most 
exalted  of  the  creatures  of  God,  existed  before  the  rest  were  created, 
and  is  not  like  any  thing  else  that  was  made.  I  call  this  the  charac- 
teristical  principle  of  Arianism ;  because,  whatever  traces  of  it  some 
have  pretended  to  discover  in  more  ancient  writers,  Arius  is  univer- 
sally allowed  to  be  the  first  who  taught  it  systematically;  and  this 
principle  was  the  opinion  for  which  he  was  condemned  by  the  council 
of  Nice  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century.  The  writings  of 
Arius,  in  which  he  unfolded  and  defended  his  system,  were  burnt  by 
the  authority  which  condemned  his  opinions.  But  a  few  of  his 
epistles,  the  creed  which  he  gave  in  to  Constantine,  and  the  sentence 
pronounced  against  him  by  the  council  of  Nice,  are  extant ;  from  a 
comparison  of  which,  a  candid  inquirer  may  attain  a  clear  concep- 
tion of  the  outlines  of  his  system.  His  system  was  this — the  one 
Eternal  God,  the  source  of  all  being  and  power,  did,  in  the  beginning, 
before  any  thing  was  made,  produce  by  his  own  will  a  most  perfect 
Creature,  to  whom  he  communicated  a  large  measure  of  glory  and 
power.  By  this  Creature,  God  made  the  worlds,  all  things  that  are 
in  heaven  and  that  are  in  earth,  so  that  he  alone  proceeded  immediately 
from  God,  while  all  other  creatures  not  only  existed  after  him,  but 
were  called  into  being  by  his  instrumentality,  and  placed  by  the 

•  Mosheim's  Eccles.  Hist,  Cent.  II.  Part  II.  ch.  V. 


PERSON    OF    THE    SON.  235 

Father  under  his  administration.  Having  been  the  Creator  of  the 
first  man,  he  was  from  the  beginning  the  medium  of  all  divine  com- 
munication with  the  human  race.  He  appeared  to  the  patriarchs; 
he  spake  by  the  prophets,  and  in  the  fulness  of  time  he  was  incarnate, 
i.  e.  clothed  with  that  body,  which,  by  the  immediate  oj^eration  of 
God,  was  formed  out  of  the  Virgin  Mary :  and  thus,  according  to  the 
Arian  system,  the  man  Christ  Jesus  had  a  real  body,  like  his  brethren. 
But  that  body,  instead  of  being  animated  by  a  human  soul,  was  in- 
formed by  the  super-angelical  spirit,  who  had  been  with  God  from 
the  beginning,  who  condescended  to  leave  that  glory,  partook  in  the 
sorrow  and  agony  which  filled  up  the  life  of  Jesus,  and  in  recompense 
of  this  humiliation  and  obedience,  was  exalted  to  be  the  Saviour,  the 
Sovereign  and  the  Judge  of  mankind. 

Arius  professed  to  have  received  this  faith  from  the  gospel,  and  to 
hold  the  sense  of  the  Scriptures  ;  and  he  might  suppose  that  his  system 
reconciled  those  passages  which  speak  of  the  dignity  and  eternity  of 
the  Son  of  God,  with  those  which  seem  to  imply  an  inferiority  to  the 
Father.  It  appeared  to  him,  that  this  first  creature,  upon  account  of 
the  super-eminent-  glory  and  power  communicated  to  him,  might 
without  impropriety  be  called  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God,  and 
God ;  and  he  admitted  that  this  Creature  was  in  one  sense  eternal, 
because  he  proceeded  from  God  before  the  existence  of  those  measures 
of  time,  which  arise  from  the  motion  and  succession  of  created  objects. 
He  thought  himself  at  liberty,  therefore,  to  hold  this  language  in  his 
creed,  "  We  believe  in  one  God,  the  Father  Almighty,  and  in  his  Son 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  who  was  made  by  him,  begotten  before  all 
ages,  God  the  word,  by  whom  all  things  were  made  in  heaven  and  in 
earth."  But  although  all  these  expressions,  except  one,  '•  who  was 
made  by  him,"  might  have  been  used  by  those  who  held  the  received 
opinions,  there  were  three  points  in  his  system  which  were  condemned 
by  the  council.  He  said  of  the  Son, »?«'  rcots  ite  ovx  r^v—n^iv  ytwrjerjtut  ovx 
*iv — and  4  ovx  ov-rwv  tytvcto.  The  meaning  of  the  three  points  upon 
which  he  was  condemned  was  this.  Although  Arius  carried  back 
the  existence  of  the  Son  before  all  worlds,  and  so  before  all  times,  3^et 
it  was  possible,  according  to  his  system,  to  conceive  some  point  from 
whence  that  existence  commenced.  The  Son  had  no  existence  till 
the  act  of  the  Father  produced  him,  and  he  was  produced,  not  out  of 
the  substance  of  the  Father,  but  like  other  creatures,  out  of  nothing. 
We  suffer  persecution,  says  Arius  in  one  of  his  epistles,  because  we 
have  said,  the  Son  hath  a  beginning,  but  God  hath  no  beginning,  and 
because  we  have  asserted  that  the  Son  is  out  of  nothing.*  This 
opinion  was  opposed  by  the  authority  of  successive  councils,  and  by 
the  decrees  of  the  Roman  Emperors,  who  had  by  this  time  embraced 
Christianity,  and  those  by  whom  it  was  avowed  were  exposed  to 
contumely  and  barbarity.  Before  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  it 
was  extirpated  in  the  greater  part  of  the  Roman  empire,  and  appears 
to  have  been  so  much  forgotten,  that  all  the  Divines  who  wrote  upon 
this  subject  after  that  period  till  the  Reformation,  were  almost  wholly 
employed,  not  in  explaining  or  combating  the  Arian  system,  but  in 
proposing  different  modifications  of  that  which  I  am  to  state  as  the 

•  K.  \.  apud  Epipb,  H.  69.  N.  vl 


236  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE 

tliird  opinion  concRrning  the  person  of  Christ.  The  opinion  of  Arius 
revived  in  the  seventeenth  centnry,-\vhen  the  progress  of  the  Refor- 
mation allowed  greater  hberty  in  rehgious  speculation  ;  and,  although 
it  be  contrary,  not  only  to  the  confessions  of  the  established  churches 
of  Great  Britain,  but  to  the  laws  of  the  land,  it  has  appeared  with 
little  disguise  in  many  able  treatises,  and  was  held  with  certain  quali- 
fications, by  some  of  the  most  eminent  divines  in  the  last  century. 

The  third  opinion  concerning  the  person  of  Christ  is,  that  from  all 
eternity  he  was  God.  Neither  the  Socinians  nor  the  Arians  deny 
that  the  name  of  God  is  ascribed  to  him.  But  as,  according  to  their 
systems,  the  only  foundation  of  that  name  is  the  degree  of  glory  and 
dominion  with  which  he  was  invested  at  an  earlier,  or  a  later  period, 
and  as  the  same  will,  which  thus  freely  distinguished  him  above  the 
other  creatures,  may  remove  the  distinction  when  the  purposes  of  it 
are  accomplished,  it  is  manifestly  implied  in  these  systems,  that  Christ 
has  a  dependence  upon  the  will  of  another,  and  a  possibility  of  change, 
which  require  that  the  word  God,  when  applied  to  the  Son,  be  under- 
stood in  a  sense  very  diflerent  from  that  in  which  it  is  applied  to  Him 
who  from  everlasting  to  everlasting  is  God.  Although  therefore  the 
three  opinions  coincide  in  the  use  of  the  same  name,  the  third  is 
essentially  distinguished  from  the  second  as  well  as  from  the  first  in 
this  point,  that  according  to  it  Christ  eternally  and  necessarily  co-ex- 
isted with  God.  All  the  perfections  of  the  divine  nature  belong  to 
him  essentially;  no  past  time  can  be  conceived  in  which  he  did  not 
possess  them,  and  no  time  shall  arrive  hereafter  in  which  any  of  them 
can  be  separated  from  him. 

There  has  been  much  controversy  whether  this  was  the  general 
opinion  of  the  Christian  church  before  the  council  of  Nice.  Petavius, 
a  learned  Jesuit,  in  his  immense  work,  entitled  Dogmata  Theologica, 
has  laboured  to  show,  that  the  leathers  of  the  first  three  centuries  in- 
clined to  Arianism,  and  have  in  many  places  spoken  of  Christ  as  an 
inferior  God.  Bishop  Bull,  who  wrote  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
and  is  by  much  the  ablest  defender  of  this  third  opinion,  has  rendered 
it,  in  my  opinion,  more  than  probable  that  Petavius  gives  a  false 
representation  of  those  who  are  called  the  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,  and 
that,  although  upon  many  occasions  they  expressed  themselves  loosely 
and  inaccurately,  yet  it  was  the  constant  opinion  of  the  most  respect- 
able writers  in  the  first  three  centuries,  that  Christ  was  from  eternity 
God.  But  the  truth  is,  this  controversy  concerning  the  opinion  of  the 
Ante-Nicene  Fathers  has  derived  more  importance  from  the  labour 
and  zeal  with  which  it  has  been  agitated  than  it  deserves.  For  the 
question  does  not  depend  upon  human  authority ;  and  in  whatever 
manner  ancient  writers  have  expressed  themselves  upon  this  subject, 
the  truth  remains  the  same.  Even  although  Dr.  Priestley  could  estab- 
lish the  position  which  he  has  maintained  in  other  smaller  treatises, 
and  in  a  great  work  of  four  octavo  volumes,  entitled,  the  Histoiy  of 
Early  Opinions  concerning  the  person  of  Christ,  that  the  Christian 
church  from  the  earliest  times  was  in  general  what  he  calls  Unitarian, 
and  that  the  Godhead  of  the  Son,  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word, 
was  unknown  to  the  great  body  of  Christians,  and  is  found  only 
occasionally  mentioned  in  the  works  of  a  few  authors;  still  the  mat- 
ter rests  upon  its  original  ground,  and  the  question  recurs,  which  of 


PERSON    OF    THE    SON.  237 

the  three  opinions  concerning  the  person  of  Christ  is  most  agreeable 
to  the  revelation  made  in  Scripture  upon  that  subject.  We  derive 
from  the  study  of  the  ancient  Christian  writers  the  history  of  the  pro- 
gress of  theological  opinions:  we  may  learn  the  manner  in  which 
very  able  men,  who  bestowed  their  whole  attention  upon  theological 
subjects,  illustrated  and  defended  the  opinions  which  they  held,  and 
we  may  tlius  be  assisted  in  understanding  the  truth,  and  directed 
where  to  find  the  proper  arguments  in  support  of  it.  But  these  argu- 
ments must  ultimately  be  drawn  from  Scripture,  and  Dr.  Clarke, 
however  persons  may  differ  as  to  the  merits  of  his  system,  of  which  I 
shall  have  occasion  to  speak  afterwards,  must  be  allowed  to  have 
suggested  the  only  proper  method  of  attaining  the  Scripture  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity,  by  collecting  all  the  texts  in  which  there  is  any  men- 
tion of  that  doctrine.  You  will  understand,  then,  that  when  at  any 
time  I  quote  the  sayings  of  ancient  or  respectable  Christian  writers,  I 
quote  them  as  evidences  of  what  their  opinion  was,  not  as  proofs  that 
that  opinion  was  true  ;  and  you  will  agree  with  me  in  thinking,  that 
I  should  very  much  misspend  your  time,  if  I  entered  into  a  minute 
investigation  of  those  passages  in  their  works  which  appear  to  be 
contradictory,  and  followed  the  labours  of  many  modern  authors  in 
thus  endeavouring  to  ascertain  what  were  the  sentiments  of  Tertullian, 
Eusebius,  or  Origen. 

But  while  we  disclaim  every  kind  of  submission  to  the  authority  of 
the  Fathers,  there  are  expressions  which  recur  frequently  in  their 
writings  so  marked  and  significant,  that  they  deserve  to  be  brought 
forward,  as  they  may  assist  you  in  understanding  what  the  third 
opinion  concerning  the  person  of  Christ  truly  is.  The  Ante-Nicene 
Fathers  often  speak  of  the  kindling  of  one  light  by  another,  as  the 
image  which  most  fitly  expresses  the  generation  of  the  Son  from  the 
Father,  because  in  this  case  tliere  is  no  separation  or  difference  of 
kind.  The  original  light  remains  undiminished,  and  that  which  is 
kindled  appears  to  be  the  same.  They  say,  that  as  the  sun  in  the 
heavens  cannot  exist  without  emitting  light,  as  no  interval  can  be 
conceived  between  the  existence  of  the  sun  and  the  emission  of  his 
rays,  so  Clirist  always  existed  with  God  ;  and  they  argue  the  eternity 
of  Christ  from  his  being  the  wisdom,  the  reason,  what  the  Greek 
writers  called  the  ?^oyoj  of  the  Father.  The  words  of  Athanasius,  the 
great  antagonist  of  Arius,  are  these,  o  wr  ©soj.  f|  ivtov  xm  ovta  tov  %ayov  f^n* 

xtu  ovtt   b  >.oyo$  c rt i.y e y 01' I v,  ovx  u>v   rt^ott^oi',  ovti    o   rta'trj^  aT-oyoj  t^v  rtots.*       The 

meaning  of  these,  and  other  similitudes,  with  which  the  Ante-Nicene 
Fathers  abound,  was  precisely  ascertained  by  that  word  which  the 
council  of  Nice  adopted  in  opposition  to  the  opinion  of  Arius.  They 
said  that  the  Son  is  o;tto8atoj  with  the  Father.  This  word  the  Arians 
could  not,  in  consistency  with  their  principles,  admit  into  their  confes- 
sion. They  held  that  the  Son  was  produced  immediately  by  the 
Father  out  of  nothing.  But  they  saw  that,  if  he  be  of  the  same 
substance  with  God,  he  is  God,  and  that  if  he  is  God,  he  cannot  have 
a  temporary  precarious  existence,  but  must  have  always  been  with 
the  Father  what  he  now  is.  This  word  therefore  became  the  mark 
of  distinction  between  the  second  and  the  third  opinions  concerning 

•  Athanas.  Orat.  passim. 


23S  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE 

the  person  of  Christ,  and  the  precise  amount  of  ouofwj  when  applied 
to  the  Son,  is  this,  that  although  it  be  impHed  in  the  name  of  the  Son, 
that  he  proceeded  from  the  Father,  and  ahhough,  in  reference  to  his 
proceeding  from  God,  he  be  called  the  only  begotten  of  the  Father, 
yet  the  essential  glory  and  perfections  of  the  Father  and  the  Son  are 
the  same. 

It  is  further  to  be  stated,  that  while  the  Socinians  believed  the 
Christ  to  be  a  mere  man,  in  whom  an  extraordinary  measure  of  the 
power  of  God  dwelt,  while  the  Arians  believed  that  the  Christ  was 
composed  of  a  super-angelical  spirit,  and  a  human  body,  those  who 
hold  the  third  opinion  believe  that  Christ  assumed,  at  the  incarnation, 
the  complete  human  nature  into  union  with  the  divine  ;  in  other 
words,  that  the  body  of  Christ  was  animated  by  a  human  soul,  and 
this  soul  was  so  united  with  the  Godhead  that  the  divine  and  human 
nature  formed  one  person.  I  enter  not  at  present  into  the  grounds  of 
this  third  opinion.  I  mean  only  to  state  what  it  is,  and  in  order  to 
assist  your  apprehension  of  both  parts  of  it,  I  shall  recite  to  you  a  part 
of  the  Nicene  Creed,  by  which  this  third  opinion  was  more  clearly 
defined  than  it  had  been  before,  and  those  parts  of  the  confessions  of 
the  two  established  churches  in  Britain,  by  which  it  appears  that 
both  of  them  have  adopted  the  third  opinion  concerning  the  person 
of  Christ.  The  words  of  the  Nicene  Creed,  translated  literally  from 
the  Greek,  are  these:  "We  believe  in  one  God,  the  Father,  Almighty, 
maker  of  all  things,  both  visible  and  invisible,  and  in  one  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  the  only  begotten  of  the  Father,  that  is  to  say, 
of  the  substance  of  the  Father,  God  of  God,  light  of  light,  very  God 
of  very  God,  begotten  not  made,  of  the  same  substance  with  the 
Father,  by  whom  all  things  were  made  both  in  heaven  and  in  earth, 
Avho  for  us  men,  and  for  our  salvation,  came  down,  and  was  incar- 
nate, being  made  man."  The  second  of  the  thirty-nine  articles  of  the 
church  of  England  is  in  these  words  :  "  The  Son,  which  is  the  word 
of  the  Father,  begotten  from  everlasting  of  the  Father,  the  very  and 
eternal  God,  of  one  substance  with  the  Father,  took  man's  nature  in 
the  womb  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  of  her  substance,  so  that  two  whole 
and  perfect  natures,  that  is  to  say,  the  godhead  and  manhood,  were 
joined  together  in  one  person,  never  to  be  divided,  whereof  is  one 
Christ,  very  God  and  very  man."  The  words  of  our  Confession  of 
Faith  are  :  "  The  Son  of  God,  the  second  person  in  the  Trinity,  being 
very  and  eternal  God,  of  one  substance,  and  equal  with  the  Father, 
did,  when  the  fulness  of  time  was  come,  take  upon  him  man's  nature, 
with  all  the  essential  properties  and  common  infirmities  thereof,  yet 
without  sin,  being  conceived  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  the 
womb  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  of  her  substance,  so  that  two  whole 
perfect  and  distinct  natures,  the  Godhead  and  the  Manhood,  were 
inseparably  joined  together  in  one  person;  without  conversion,  com- 
position or  confusion,  which  person  is  very  God,  and  very  man,  yet 
one  Christ." 


PERSOX    OF    CHRIST,  239 


CHAPTER  II. 


SIMPLEST    OPINION    CONCERNING    THE    PERSON    OF    CHRIST. 


Having  stated  the  three  opinions  concerning  the  person  of  Christ, 
to  which  all  others  may  be  reduced,  I  proceed  to  compare  the  grounds 
upon  which  they  rest. 

And  here  I  must  begin  with  observing,  that  general  reasonings  con- 
cerning the  probability  of  any  of  these  opinions,  or  its  apparent  suita- 
bleness to  the  end  of  Christ's  manifestation,  ought  not  to  enter  into 
this  comparison.  Ingenious  men  have  said  plausible  things  in  the 
way  of  general  reasoning  in  support  of  all  the  three.  It  may  to  some 
appear  difficult  to  balance  one  of  the  speculations  against  the  other, 
because  men  will  be  inclined  to  give  a  preference  according  to  the 
complexion  of  their  understanding,  and  their  former  habits  of  thinking. 
But  you  will  be  satisfied  that  such  reasonings  are  of  little  or  no  weight 
in  the  scale  of  evidence,  when  you  recollect  how  soon  they  lead  us 
beyond  our  depth.  Probability  in  this  subject  depends  upon  a  multi- 
tude of  circumstances,  which  are  not  within  the  sphere  of  our  obser- 
vation. Fitness  or  expediency  in  this  subject  depends  upon  the  order 
and  the  designs  of  that  universal  government  of  which  we  see  only  a 
part.  The  fact,  that  Jesus  Christ  appeared  in  the  land  of  Jndea  the 
teacher  of  a  new  religion,  could  not  have  been  investigated  by  reason, 
but  like  all  other  facts  is  received  upon  credible  testimony.  The  par- 
ticular character  and  dignity  of  this  person  therefore,  is  a  matter  of 
revelation  to  be  gathered  from  the  books  that  inform  us  of  his 
appearance  ;  and  the  only  solid  ground  of  any  opinion  concerning  his 
character  is  a  right  interpretation  of  the  books  in  which  it  is  described. 
After  we  have  attained  by  sound  criticism  the  information  which  is 
thus  afforded  us,  reason  may.  be  employed  in  vindicating  the  opinion 
which  that  information  warrants  us  to  hold,  in  bringing  forward  those 
views  of  its  expediency  which  revelation  enables  us  to  assign,  and  in 
balancing  the  difficulties  which  may  adhere  to  it,  against  those  diffi- 
culties and  objections  which  appear  to  attend  other  opinions  not 
taught  by  Scripture.  Reasoning  comes  here  in  its  proper  place  to 
support  our  faith,  by  being  opposed  to  other  reasonings  that  attempt 
to  shake  it,  and  to  rescue  the  opinion  that  is  delivered  in  the  word 
of  God  from  the  charge  of  absurdity.  But  we  profess  to  learn  the 
opinion  from  the  Scriptures ;  and  we  hold  it  with  firmness,  because 
it  is  revealed. 

This  general  observation  suggests  the  plan  upon  which  I  mean  to 
proceed  in  comparing  the  grounds  of  the  three  opinions.  1  defer  all 
speculations  concerning  them,  till  we  have  learned  what  the  Scrip- 


240  SIMPLEST    OPINION    CONCERNING 

tures  teach.  I  begin  with  the  simplest  propositions,  advancing,  as 
the  information  of  Scripture  leads  us,  to  those  which  are  farther 
removed  from  ordinary  apprehension ;  and  in  this  way,  I  shall  not 
arrive  at  the  most  intricate  parts  of  the  subject,  till  our  minds  are 
established  in  the  belief  of  those  facts  which  ought  to  guide  our  rea- 
sonings. This  patient  method  of  proceeding  is  not  the  most  favour- 
able to  disputation  upon  this  subject  •,  it  is  not  the  best  calculated  for 
lecturing  upon  it  in  a  showy  amusing  manner  ;  but  it  appears  to  me 
that  in  which  I  ought  to  persevere,  as  the  only  method  becoming  our 
distance,  and  the  certain  method  of  attaining  truth. 

The  simplest  opinion  concerning  the  person  of  Christ  is,  that  he 
was  merely  a  man,  ■"V'^oja^e^urtoj;  and  the  advocates  of  this  opinion 
rest  it  upon  numberless  passages  of  Scripture,  upon  a  solution  of  those 
declarations  concerning  Christ,  which  appear  to  be  inconsistent  with 
their  opinion,  and  upon  the  insuperable  difficulties  in  which  they 
represent  all  other  opinions  as  involved.  I  lay  aside  at  present  all 
consideration  of  these  difficulties,  because  I  consider  every  specula- 
tion concerning  them,  as  calculated  to  create  a  prejudice  either  for  or 
against  the  evidence  that  is  to  be  examined ;  and  I  direct  your  atten- 
tion only  to  the  Scripture  grounds  upon  which  this  opinion  is  rested, 
and  the  declarations  of  Scripture  by  which  it  is  opposed. 

I  take  the  Scripture  grounds  of  this  opinion  from  a  book  published 
about  the  year  1773  by  Mr.  Lindsey,  who  gave  the  world  a  pledge  of 
his  honesty,  by  resigning  his  preferment  in  the  Church  of  England, 
because  he  held  this  opinion.  The  following  arguments  and  testi- 
monies, he  says,  will  abundantly  show  that  Christ  was  a  man  like 
ourselves,  saving  those  extraordinary  gifts  of  divine  wisdom  and 
power  by  which  he  was  distinguished  from  the  rest  of  mankind.  1. 
The  prophecies  that  went  before  concerning  Christ  speak  of  him  as  a 
man, — the  seed  of  the  woman;  the  seed  of  Abraham  ;  a  prophet  like 
to  Moses ;  the  son  of  David.  2.  In  consequence  of  these  predictions, 
the  Jews  in  all  times  have  expected  the  Messiah  to  be  a  man.  "  Hath 
not  the  Scripture  said,"  observe  the  people  in  the  gospel  of  John, 
"  that  Christ  cometh  of  the  seed  of  David,  and  out  of  the  town  of 
Bethlehem,  where  David  was  ?"  3.  Christ's  appearance  in  the' 
world ;  his  birth ;  his  increase  in  wisdom  and  stature  ;  and  the  visible 
circumstances  of  his  condition  answered  to  the  prophecies  concerning 
him  that  he  was  to  be  a  man.  4.  Christ  continually  spake  of  himself 
as  a  man,  the  son  of  man  being  the  phrase  by  which  he  commonly 
designed  himself;  and  the  son  of  God,  the  title  which  he  sometimes 
assumed,  admitting  of  an  interpretation  which  does  not  contradict  his 
being  a  man.  5.  John,  his  forerunner,  calls  him  a  man.  And,  6. 
The  four  evangelists  show  by  their  narration  that  they  took  him  to  be 
a  man ;  and  in  the  other  books  of  the  New  Testament  he  is  often  so 
designed. 

The  testimonies  which  Mr.  Lindsey  has  collected  under  these  heads* 
prove  that  Christ  was  truly  a  man ;  they  undoubtedly  convey  an  im- 
pression that  he  was  a  man  in  all  respects  like  us;  and,  if  they  con- 
tained the  whole  doctrine  of  Scripture  concerning  the  nature  and  per- 
son of  Christ,  the  first  opinion  would  claim  to  be  received  upon  the 

*  Sequel  to  Apology,  by  Theophilus  Lindsey,  ch.  7. 


THE    PERSON    OP    CHRIST.  241 

highest  possible  evidence.  But  Mr.  Lindsey  is  aware  that  there  arc 
passages  in  Scripture  which  appear  to  contradict  this  opinion.  Like 
all  those  who  have  agreed  with  him  in  opinion,  he  attempts  to  give  a 
solution  of  them ;  and  the  point  that  must  be  considered  is,  whether 
there  are  declarations  in  Scripture  of  such  a  kind,  as  to  efface  the  im- 
pression made  by  the  testimonies  collected  under  the  six  heads  now 
mentioned,  and  to  show  that  the  first  opinion  rests  upon  a  partial 
view  of  Scripture. 


23  2L 


242  PRE-EXISTENCE    OF    JESUS. 


CHAPTER  III. 


PRE-EXISTENCE    OF    JESUS. 


The  philosophy  which  you  have  learned  has  completely  exploded 
the  fanciful  doctrine  of  some  ancient  sects,  that  the  souls  of  men 
existed  before  they  animated  those  bodies  with  which  we  behold 
them  connected.  You  know  that  this  doctrine  supposes  a  fact,  which 
is  no  where  revealed,  which  is  not  vouched  by  human  testimony, 
which  is  not  supported  by  any  solid  argument,  and  is  contradicted  by 
the  principle  of  consciousness.  You  believe  that  the  souls  of  men 
began  to  exist  with  their  bodies ;  and,  although  you  cannot  explain 
the  time  or  the  manner  of  the  union  between  these  two  companions, 
you  never  ascribe  to  the  being  of  the  man  any  date  more  ancient  than 
the  first  formation  of  his  body.  If  then  there  be  evidence  that  Christ 
had  a  being  before  he  was  conceived  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  he  cannot 
be  a  man  like  us.  He  may  be  truly  a  man  with  all  the  essential  pro- 
perties of  human  nature,  so  that  there  is  no  impropriety  in  ascribing 
to  him  the  name  of  man,  or  the  Son  of  Man.  But  the  opinion  of  those 
who  consider  him  as  i^^^oj  avO^cortoj,  nothing  more  than  man,  must  be 
false.  Accordingly  all  those  who  hold  the  second  and  third  opinions, 
oppose  to  the  Socinian  system  one  simple  position,  viz.  there  is  evidence 
from  Scripture  of  the  pre-existence  of  Jesus  Christ.  This  position 
is  sufficient  to  overturn  the  first  opinion,  and  it  is  necessary  to  lay 
a  foundation  for  the  second  and  third.  For,  although  it  does  not  fol- 
low from  the  pre-existence  of  Christ,  either  that  he  is  the  most  exalted 
creature  in  the  universe,  or  that  he  is  God,  yet,  if  he  did  not  exist 
before  he  was  born  of  Mary,  he  cannot  be  either  the  one  or  the 
other. 

A  position  which  contradicts  the  first  opinion,  and  which  is  assumed 
in  the  other  two,  seems  to  be  the  proper  point  from  which  to  set  out 
in  examining  the  three  opinions  concerning  the  person  of  Christ.  Un- 
less you  are  satisfied  of  the  truth  of  this  position,  you  will  not  be  dis- 
posed to  give  yourselves  much  tronble  in  canvassing  the  second  and 
third  opinions.  But  if  you  find  evidence,  that  by  his  pre-existence 
he  is  more  than  man,  it  will  be  natural  to  proceed  to  inquire  how  far 
he  is  exalted  above  man,  whether  he  is  a  creature  of  a  higher  rank, 
or  whether  he  be  entirely  exempted  from  the  order  of  creatures. 

In  examining  this  position,  I  shall  first  bring  forward  those  pas- 
sages of  Scripture,  which  teach  plainly  that  our  Saviour  did  pre-exist ; 
and  I  shall  next  direct  your  attention  to  those  passages,  which  ascribe 
to  him  different  actions  in  his  state  of  pre-existence.  From  the  first 
set  of  passages,  I  do  not  mean  to  derive  any  thing  more  than  simply 


PRE-ExrSTENCE    OP    JESUS.  243 

a  proof  of  the  pre-existence  of  Jesus  ;  but,  in  attending  to  the  second, 
we  shall  unavoidably  be  led  by  the  descriptions  of  those  actions 
which  are  ascribed  to  Christ,  to  consider  his  original  character  and 
dignity,  and  we  shall  thus  pass  naturally  from  the  proofs  of  his  pre- 
existence  to  the  proofs  of  a  higher  point,  to  those  passages,  upon  a 
right  interpretation  of  which  turns  the  decision  of  the  question  be- 
tween the  second  and  third  opinions. 

I  shall  at  present  bring  forward  only  those  passages  of  Scripture 
which  teach  plainly  that  our  Saviour  existed  before  he  was  born  of 
JNIary  ;  and,  in  reviewing  them,  I  shall  lay  before  you  those  solutions 
of  their  meaning  which  are  given  by  the  more  early  or  the  later 
Socinian  writers,  that  you  may  judge  how  far  it  is  easy  to  reconcile 
them  with  the  opinion  of  our  Lord's  being  41:^.05  a^o^urtoj. 

You  will  recollect  a  language  which  runs  through  a  great  part  of 
the  New  Testament,  that  "  God  sent  Jesus  into  the  world,"  that 
Jesus  "  came  in  the  flesh,"  "  was  made  flesh,"  "  was  made  a  little 
lower  than  the  angels,"  "took  part  of  flesh  and  blood."  Now,  this 
language  is  greatly  wanting  in  propriety  and  significancy,  if  Jesus 
began  to  exist  at  that  time  when  he  is  said  to  have  come  in  the  flesh  ; 
whereas  the  expressions  recited  are  the  very  manner  in  which  it  is 
necessary  to  speak  of  his  becoming  a  man,  if  he  had  an  existence  be- 
forehand. A  language  which  thus  implies  that  Jesus  existed  before 
he  was  born  of  Mary,  being  found  in  numberless  places,  may  be  con- 
sidered as  meant  to  correct  the  inference  which  might  otherwise  be 
drawn  from  the  phraseology  of  Scripture,  in  which  he  is  spoken  of  as 
a  man.  At  the  same  time  you  will  not  consider  this  implication  as 
the  proper  ground  upon  which  to  rest  so  important  a  conclusion.  We 
derive  the  knowledge  of  the  pre-existence  of  Jesus  from  explicit 
declarations  of  Scripture,  and,  having  in  this  way  attained  assurance 
of  the  fact,  we  find  the  general  phraseology  of  Scripture  so  contrived 
as  to  reconcile  this  fact  with  his  being  truly  a  man.  These  explicit 
declarations  were  made  by  John  the  Baptist,  by  our  Lord  himself, 
and  by  his  Apostles. 

1.  John  the  Baptist  bore  witness  of  Jesus  in  these  words.  Jo.  i. 
15,  30.  "After  me  cometh  a  man,  which  is  preferred  before  me,  for 
he  was  before  mo,"  n^uto^  ^w  r^v.  You  would  expect  ^gorfgoj  instead 
of  rtswtoj.  But  there  are  many  instances  in  the  best  Greek  writers  of 
a  similar  construction,  vl^x^  -a  nt^ffwi/  n^i^tov  Ttavti^v  Aa^aov,  is  an  expres- 
sion used  by  Aristophanes  ;*  and  if  tie,^noi  t^v,  first,  when  compared 
with  me,  be  equivalent  to  n^ott^o^  juou,  there  seems  to  be  here  a  plain 
declaration  of  the  pre-existence  of  Jesus.  The  Socinian  interpretation 
is,  "  the  Christ,  who  is  to  begin  his  ministry  after  me,  has  by  the  divine 
appointment  been  preferred  before  me,  because  he  is  my  chief  or 
principal,  n^t^toatafr^i  ^ov,  and  I  am  only  his  servant."  But  Bishop 
Pearson,  on  the  second  article  of  the  creed,  has  well  observed,  that 
according  to  this  interpretation  a  thing  is  made  the  reason  of  itself. 
He  is  preferred  before  me,  because  he  is  my  chief;  whereas  if  ^^wroj 
(lovrv  be  considered  as  expressive  of  time,  not  of  dignity,  it  contains  a 
reason  for  the  former  clause.  He  who  was  born  a  few  months  after 
me,  and  whose  ministry  begins  after  mine,  has  been  placed  before  me, 

•  Aristoph.  O^nStj,  lin.  484. 


244  PRE-EXISTENCE    OF    JESUS. 

has  a  higher  station  assigned  him  in  the  economy  of  that  dispensation 
which  is  now  opening,  because  lie  had  an  existence  before  me.     It  is 
true  that  the  three  other  evangelists  make  John  the  Baptist  say,  "  He 
that  cometh  after  me  is  mightier  than  I."    i^xv^otf^oi  i^.ov.    But  you  will 
perceive,  when  you  compare  the  four,  that  the  phrase  is  equivalent  to 
f,u7t^o^0£v  fiov,  "  is  preferred   before  me,"  not  to  rtQoto^  ^ov.      For   the 
speech  in  the  other  three  consists  only  of  one  clause  ;  and  John,  who, 
writing  after  the  others,  has  supplied  many  things  that  were  wanting 
in  them,  added  the  words  utc  n^oitoi  fA-ov  rjv.     He  has  used  the  same 
expression  in  another  place  of  his  gospel,  where  it  must  denote  time. 
If  the  world  hate  you,  says  Jesus  to  his  disciples,  ycvusxBts  6tt,  sfie  t^utov 
in^v  ^sfinjrixs.     Yon  will  obscrvc  too,  that  if  the  phrase  had  had  the 
uncommon  remote  meaning  which  the  Socinians  affix  to  it,  instead 
of  rtc^rojj^j/,  it  should  iiave  been  Ti^i^ro^  soti,.     For  unless  Jesus  pre- 
existed, he  was  not  the  chief  of  John  till  he  entered  upon  his  ministry, 
the  beginning  of  which  John  was  only  announcing.     Lardner,  aware 
probably  of  the  force  of  the  objections  made  by  Bishop  Pearson,  has 
given  another  interpretation  of  these  words,  which  some  of  the  modern 
Socinians  consider  as  probably  expressing  the  meaning  still  more 
truly.     "  He  that  cometh  after  me  has  always  been  before  me,  or  in 
my  view,  i.  e.  present  to  mj?-  mind  as  the  object  of  my  continual  ex- 
pectation and  reverence  ;  for  he  was  my  superior."     I  leave  you  to 
judge,  whether  it  is  likely  that  the  hearers  of  John  would  affix  either 
the  latter  or  the  former  Socinian  meaning  to  his  words,  and  whether 
a  declaration,  which   he  repeats  frequently  as  his  witness   to   the 
Messiah,  is  not  to  be  understood  according  to  the  plain  obvious  sense 
given  in  our  translation. 

John  iii.  31.  "He  that  cometh  from  above  is  above  all  :  he  that 
is  of  the  earth  is  earthly,  and  speaketh  of  the  earth  :  he  that  cometh 
from  heaven  is  above  all."  John  is  making  a  comparison  between 
himself  and  Jesus.  "  He  must  increase,  but  I  must  decrease."  The 
31st  verse  states  a  distinction,  not  merely  in  respect  of  dignity,  but  in 
respect  of  origin  and  extraction ;  and  the  heavenly  extraction  of 
Jesus  is  introduced  as  the  ground  of  his  superior  dignity. 

I  have  called  your  attention  to  this  passage,  because  it  appears  to 
me  to  be  the  answer  to  a  sophism  which  is  frequent  in  the  modern 
Socinian  writers.  When  such  expressions,  as  Jesus  being  sent  from 
God  and  coming  from  heaven,  are  urged  in  proof  of  his  pre-existence, 
they  uniformly  answer,  that  these  expressions  mean  nothing  more 
than  that  he  received  a  divine  commission.  "  For,"  they  say,  "  John 
also  is  called  a  man  sent  from  God  ;  and  our  Lord,  upon  one  occasion, 
asked  the  chief  priests,  the  baptism  of  John,  was  it  from  heaven,  or 
was  it  from  men?  he  meant  was  it  of  divine  or  of  human  institutioil ; 
and  it  was  the  same  thing,  whether  he  had  asked  did  John  come 
from  heaven,  or  was  his  baptism  from  heaven  ?"  But  the  words  of 
John  Baptist  in  this  place  show,  that  he  understood  there  would  have 
been  an  essential  diffijrence  between  the  two  questions.  He  asserts 
in  other  places,  that  he  was  sent  by  God  to  baptize  with  water ;  and 
therefore  his  baptism  might  be  said  to  be  from  heaven.  But  here  he 
admits  that  he  himself  was  of  earth,  whereas  the  person  to  whom  he 
bore  witness  was  from  heaven.  Their  commission  had  the  same 
authority  ;  for  both  were  sent  by  God.    But  the  one  was  a  man  who 


PRE-EXISTENCE    OF    JESUS.  245 

received  this  commission  after  he  was  born :  the  other  was  a  Being 
who,  having  existed  before  in  heaven,  came  from  heaven,  and  was 
made  man,  that  he  might  execnte  his  commission. 

John  iii.  13.  "And  no  man  hath  ascended  up  to  heaven,  but  he 
that  came  down  from  heaven,  even  the  Son  of  man  which  is  in 
heaven."  These  words  appear  to  contain  a  declaration  that  the  Son 
of  man  came  down  from  heaven.  But,  in  order  to  elude  the  force  of 
this  declaration,  two  ditferent  expositions  have  been  given.  The  one 
was  the  exposition  of  Socinus  and  his  immediate  followers  ;  the  other 
is  adopted  by  the  modern  Socinians.  The  first  is  this :  "  It  is  very 
probable,  and  agreeable  to  the  words  of  Scripture,  that  Christ,  between 
the  time  of  his  birth,  and  his  entering  upon  the  office  of  Messiah,  was 
translated  by  God  to  heaven,  and  remained  there  some  time,  that  he 
might  see  and  hear  those  things  which  he  was  to  publish  to  the  world. 
As  Moses,  who  is  acknowledged  to  be  a  type  of  Jesus,  was  forty  days 
on  the  mount  with  God,  and  brought  from  thence  the  two  tables  of 
the  law,  and  the  pattern  of  all  things  pertaining  to  the  worship  of 
God,  so  it  was  most  fit  that  Jesus  should  go  up  to  heaven,  of  which 
Sinai  was  a  type  ;  and  it  is  probable  that  the  time  of  our  Lord's 
temptation,  when  he  is  said  to  have  been  forty  days  in  the  wilderness, 
was  the  time  of  his  being  admitted  to  converse  with  God  in  heaven." 
According  to  this  exposition  our  Lord  says  to  Nicodemus,  no  man 
hath  ascended  up  to  heaven,  to  learn  these  heavenly  things  which  I 
have  to  tell  yon,  but  he  who  came  down  from  heaven,  after  he  was 
instructed  in  them,  even  the  Son  of  man,  who  ivas — rendering  wi'  the 
imperfect  participle,  who  was  in  heaven.  This  exposition  was 
employed  to  solve  all  those  passages  where  we  read  of  Christ's  coming 
from  heaven,  proceeding  from  the  Father,  being  sent  by  God.  But 
you  will  observe,  that  there  is  no  other  proof  of  the  fact  upon  which 
this  exposition  proceeds  but  this  single  circumstance,  that  it  is  possi- 
ble, in  this  way,  to  explain  such  passages  as  these,  without  supposing 
the  pre-existence  of  Jesus.  His  translation  to  heaven  is  admitted 
without  evidence,  in  order  to  exclude  his  pre-existence.  I  say  with- 
out evidence.  For  although  it  would  have  been  most  honourable  for 
a  man  to  be  thus  admitted  to  converse  with  God  in  heaven,  although, 
according  to  the  Socinian  system,  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the 
followers  of  Jesus  to  have  this  assurance,  that  the  words  spoken  by  a 
man  like  themselves,  are  truly  the  words  of  God,  there  is  not  any 
one  passage  in  the  New  Testament  which  plainly  declares,  or  even 
by  certain  niference  implies,  that  he  was  translated  to  heaven.  Other 
circumstances  are  mentioned  in  the  short  accounts  that  are  given  us 
of  that  part  of  his  life  which  elapsed  before  he  appeared  preaching  the 
Gospel.  But  this  fact,  in  comparison  of  which  most  of  tliem  are 
msignificant,  is  passed  over  in  silence  by  all  the  evangelists. 

The  modern  Socinians  have  abandoned  an  exposition  thus  resting 
upon  a  conjecture,  which  is  not  only  destitute  of  evidence,  but  is  con- 
tradicted by  the  silence  of  the  historians.  And  they  have  adopted 
another  exposition,  founded  upon  the  figurative  language  which 
abounds  in  Scripture.  In  our  way  of  apprehension,  they  say,  a  man 
that  would  be  acquainted  with  the  secrets  of  the  divine  will  should  go 
to  heaven  to  converse  with  God.  Accordingly  it  is  said  by  Moses: 
"  The  commandment  whicli  I  command  thee  this  day  is  not  in 
23* 


246  PRE-EXISTENCE    OF    JESUS. 

heaven,  that  thou  shouldest  say,  who  shall  go  up  for  us  to  heaven,  and 
bring  it  unto  us,  that  we  may  hear  it  and  do  it."*  But  if  ascending  to 
heaven  easily  signifies  being  admitted  to  the  knowledge  of  the  divine 
counsels,  coming  down  from  heaven  may  signify  being  authorized  to 
reveal  it  to  men  ;  and  being  in  heaven,  or  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father, 
means  no  more  than  being  highly  favoured  of  God,  and  made 
acquainted  with  his  counsels.  The  declaration  of  Jesus  to  Nicodemus, 
therefore,  does  not  necessarily  imply  a  literal  ascent  and  descent ;  but, 
when  stripped  of  the  metaphorical  language  in  which  it  is  clothed,  it 
amounts  merely  to  this — He  alone  was  admitted  to  an  intimate  know- 
ledge of  the  will  of  God,  and  authorized  to  reveal  it  to  men. 

This  exposition  is  much  more  plausible  than  the  former  ;  and  it  is 
agreeable  to  that  interpretation  which  we  are  often  obliged  to  give  to 
figurative  language.  But  you  will  observe  that  the  language  in  this 
passage  is  not  figurative  •,  the  words  are  perfectly  simple  ;  there  is  no 
obvious  necessity  for  departing  from  that  sense  which  is  agreeable  to 
the  plain  construction  of  them  ;  and  if  a  liberty  is  allowed  of  consider- 
mg  plain  language  as  figurative,  in  order  to  give  it  a  meaning  very 
remote,  and  evade  a  doctrine  which  it  seems  clearly  to  teach,  there 
can  be  no  certainty  in  the  declarations  of  Scripture.  You  will  observe 
also,  that  according  to  this  exposition  there  is  a  tautology  in  the  words, 
which  is  both  ungraceful  and  unmeaning.  No  man  hath  known  the 
divine  counsels  but  he  who  has  a  commission  to  declare  them,  even 
the  Son  of  man,  who  is  intimately  acquainted  with  them.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  you  understand  the  second  clause,  according  to  the 
literal  import  of  the  words,  and  according  to  many  other  declarations 
of  the  New  Testament,  to  denote  a  real  descent  from  heaven,  then  the 
first  and  third  clauses  are  clearly  distinguished.  If  you  consider  <^v  as 
the  imperfect  participle,the  third  clause  means,  the  Son  of  man  who 
was  in  heaven  before  he  descended.  If  you  consider  w  as  the  present 
participle,  you  give  the  third  clause  a  meaning  which  cannot  be 
reconciled  with  the  Socinian  system,  but  which  is  adopted  by  our 
translators  in  opposition  to  that  system  ;  the  Son  of  Man,  who,  being 
according  to  the  views  communicated  in  other  passages  of  Scripture 
both  God  and  man,  is  in  heaven  while  he  now  dwells  upon  earth. 
There  is  an  apparent  difficulty  in  the  clause,  "  No  man  hath  ascended 
up  to  heaven  but  the  Son  of  Man ;"  for  we  know  that  Elijah  did 
ascend,  and  our  Lord  had  not  ascended  when  he  spake  these  words. 
But  attention  to  the  context  enables  us,  without  doing  violence  to  the 
words,  by  an  accommodation  to  circumstances  which  is  easy  and 
obvious,  to  remove  that  difficulty.  Our  Lord  had  been  stating  to 
Nicodemus  some  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Christian  religion,  at  which 
this  master  of  Israel  is  stumbled,  saying,  "  How  can  these  thhigs  be  ?" 
Our  Lord  answers  in  words  most  expressive  of  the  dignity  of  his 
character,  and  the  entire  credit  to  which  he  was  entitled.  "  We  speak 
that  we  do  know,  and  testify  that  we  have  seen.  If  I  have  told  ycu 
earthly  things,  and  ye  believe  not,  how  shall  ye  believe  if  I  tell  you 
of  heavenly  things?"  i.  e.  There  are  doctrines  more  sublime  and 
heavenly  than  these  at  which  you  are  stumbled.  My  doctrine, 
according  to  the   expression  of  Moses  with  which  you  are  well 

•  Deut.  XXX.  11,  12. 


'  PRE-EXISTENCE    OF    JESUS.  ^  247 

acquainted,  may  be  said  to  be  in  heaven ;  and  you  can  learn  it  from 
none  but  me,  for  no  person  has  ascended  to  heaven  for  the  purpose 
of  bringing  it  from  thence,  «  m'?'  unless  you  choose  to  apply  that 
expression  to  the  person,  who,  having  been  in  heaven,  came  down 
from  it.  He  is  better  qualified  to  instruct  you  in  heavenly  things, 
than  if  he  had  ascended  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  them  down. 

John  vi.  62.  "  What  and  if  ye  shall  see  the  Son  of  Man  ascend 
up  where  he  was  before.-"'  The  ancient  and  the  modern  Socinians 
explain  aAvay  this  declaration,  in  the  same  manner  as  that  which  we 
have  now  been  considering.  One  of  their  latest  commentaries  is  in 
these  words : — "  When  you  shall  see  me  go  up  to  heaven  to  God, 
where  I  was  before,"  i.  e.  from  whom  I  have  received  my  instructions 
and  authority,  "  you  will  then  understand  the  language  which  I  now 
hold  with  you."  As  this  declaration  of  the  pre-existence  of  Jesus  is 
simpler  and  less  embarrassed  with  other  circumstances  than  that  in 
the  tliird  chapter,  so  the  context  necessarily  leads  us  to  reject  the 
Socinian  paraphrase,  and  to  understand  the  words  in  their  obvious 
sense.  Onr  Lord  had  been  holding  a  long  discourse  with  the  Jews, 
in  which  he  spoke  of  himself  as  the  "bread  of  life  that  came  down 
from  heaven.^'  The  Jews  understood  this  to  be  an  assertion  of  his 
having  been  in  heaven,  and  they  opposed  to  it  their  knowledge  of  his 
birth,  "  Is  not  this  Jesus  the  son  of  Joseph,  whose  father  and  mother 
we  know  ?  how  is  it  then  that  he  saith,  I  came  down  from  heaven." 
Our  Lord,  in  answer  to  their  murmurings,  repeats  and  enforces  his 
former  assertion  ;  and,  after  he  had  left  the  synagogue,  understanding 
from  his  disciples  that  they  also  were  offended  at  this  hard  saying, 
he  says  to  them,  "  Doth  this  offend  you  ?  what  and  if  ye  shall  see  the 
Son  of  man  ascend  up  where  he  was  before  ;"  i.  e.  to  heaven,  of 
which  he  had  been  speaking.  The  expression  implies  a  literal  ascent 
to  heaven,  which  was  to  be  an  object  of  sense,  ^n^^^iti ;  and  the  intima- 
tion of  this  glorious  event,  which  was  to  remove  all  their  doubts  and 
their  offence,  is  conjoined  with  a  repetition  in  simple  language  of  that 
assertion  at  which  they  had  been  offended.  The  Evangelist  had  told 
us  the  sense  which  the  Jews  affixed  to  that  assertion  :  the  complaint 
of  the  disciples  implies  that  they  affixed  the  same  sense  to  it ;  and 
we  cannot  suppose  that  they  were  mistaken,  because  this  private 
declaration  of  our  Lord,  where  I  was  before,  is  expressly  calculated 
to  confirm  them  in  the  mistake.  You  have  our  Lord,  therefore, in  this 
sixth  chapter  of  John,  holding  both  in  the  synagogue  of  the  Jews, 
and  in  a  confidential  intercourse  with  the  disciples,  such  a  language 
as  his  hearers  understood  to  mean  that  he  was  in  heaven,  before  they 
saw  him  upon  earth, 

John  viii,  58.  "  Before  Abraham  was,  I  am."  The  old  Socinian 
interpretation  was : — "  I  exist  before  that  Patriarch  has  become,  ac- 
cording to  the  import  of  the  name  Abraham,  the  Father  of  many 
nations  ;  for  that  name  is  to  receive  its  fulfilment  by  the  preaching  of 
my  religion,  in  which  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  are  to  be  blessed 
through  the  seed  of  Abraham."  But  this  is  saying  nothing ;  for  the 
Jews,  to  whom  our  Lord  is  speaking,  existed  also  before  this  event: 
I  am,  and  ye  all  are,  before  the  Patriarch  becomes  Abraham  in  this 
sense.  The  modern  Socinian  interpretation  is  not  more  plausible. 
«  Before  Abraham  was  born,  I  am  he ;"  i.  e.  the  Christ,  in  the  des- 


248  PRE-EXISTENCE    OF    JESUS. 

tination  and  appointment  of  God.  My  commission  as  INIessiah  was 
fixed  and  determined  by  the  Almighty,  before  Abraham  had  a  being. 
But  this  is  saying  nothing  pecuhar  to  the  Messiah  ;  for  known  to  God 
are  all  his  works.  The  existence  and  the  circumstances  of  the 
meanest  creatures  were  as  much  fore-ordained  as  those  of  the  highest 
angel.  The  natural  meaning  of  the  words  is,  that  Christ  had  a  being 
before  the  bijth  of  Abraham.  n^ivyBviadMexswov  is  a  common  classical 
phrase  for,  before  his  birth :  and  although  fy»  rjv  might  rather  have 
been  expected,  as  he  is  speaking  of  existence  in  a  past  time,  yet  the 
present  tense  does  affirm  existence  ;  and  there  is  a  reason  for  this  pe- 
culiar mode  of  expression  which  will  occur  afterwards.  This  obvious 
interpretation  of  the  words  is  very  much  confirmed  by  the  circum- 
stances in  which  they  were  spoken.  Our  Lord  had  said,  "  Your 
father  Abraham  rejoiced  to  see  my  day,  and  he  saw  it,  and  was  glad," 
The  Jews  understood  from  this  expression  that  he  had  seen  Abraham, 
that  is,  they  understood  him  to  affirm  that  he  existed  in  Abraham's 
day ;  and  they  answered,  "  Thou  art  not  fifty  years  old,  and  hast  thou 
seen  Abraham  ?"  Our  Lord  had  not  said  that  he  had  seen  Abraham, 
but,  because  it  was  true,  lie  does  not  disavow  it ;  and  he  confirms  the 
conclusion  which  they  had  drawn  from  his  former  saying,  by  declar- 
ing expressly  that  he  existed  not  only  in  the  time,  but  before  the  birth 
of  Abraham.  "  Before  Abraham  was,  I  am."  They  did  not  mis- 
take his  meaning;  but  they  were  filled  with  indignation  at  the  pre- 
sumption which  his  words  appeared  to  them  to  discover ;  and  "  they 
took  up  stones  to  cast  at  him."  Other  texts,  as  John  xvi.  28,  John 
xiii.  3,  1  Cor.  xv.  47,  2  Cor.  viii.  9,  also  teach  the  pre-existence  of 
Jesus. 

To  assist  you  in  understanding  the  principles  of  that  solution,  by 
which  the  Socinians  endeavour  to  evade  the  force  of  the  plainest  de- 
clarations concerning  the  pre-existence  of  Jesus,  I  shall  give  a  parti- 
cular account  of  the  manner  in  which  they  explain  John  xvii.  5. 
"  And  now,  O  Father,  glorify  thou  me  with  thine  ownself,  with  the 
glory  which  I  had  with  thee  before  the  world  was."  Jesus  appears 
in  this  place  to  declare  explicitly,  and  at  a  most  solemn  time,  when 
he  "  lift  up  his  eyes  to  heaven,"  and  in  the  hearing  of  his  disciples 
prayed  to  God  immediately  before  he  went  out  to  the  garden  where 
he  was  betrayed,  that  he  had  glory  with  the  Father  before  the  world 
was  :  and  it  is  very  remarkable  that  he  introduces  the  mention  of  this 
glory,  when  it  was  not  necessary  to  complete  the  sense  of  any  pro- 
position ;  for  he  is  praying  that  God  would  glorify  him.  And  yet, 
as  if  on  purpose  to  prevent  the  apostles  who  heard  the  prayer  from 
supposing  that  he  was  asking  that  which  he  had  not  possessed  in  any 
former  period,  he  adds,  "  with  the  glory  which  I  had  with  thee  before 
the  world  was."  To  a  plain  reader  it  would  seem,  that,  if  Jesus 
never  had  any  such  glory,  these  words,  uttered  in  such  circumstances, 
discover  the  highest  presumption  and  impiety.  But,  observe  the 
Socinian  exposition  :  "  The  glory  for  which  Jesus  prays  is  something 
posterior  to  his  sufferings ;  yet  he  speaks  of  it  in  the  22d  and  24th 
verses  as  already  given  him,  tt;vBo^avtr!viiA.*jv^i>s6u,xaitfi(K.  He  had  not 
at  this  time  received  it ;  but  the  Father  had  promised  it.  And  since 
the  promise  of  God  can  never  fail,  he  considers  it  as  fully  his  own  as 
if  he  had  been  in  possession  of  it.     In  the  same  manner  he  says  he 


PRE-EXI5TENCE    OF    JESUS.  249 

had  glory  with  God  before  the  world  was  ;  not  that  he  had  really- 
been  in  possession  of  it  before  the  world  was,  but  because  it  was  then 
destined  for  him  by  God.  God  is  said  to  have  '  ciiosen  us  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world  ;'  and  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  said  to  be 
prepared  for  us  from  the  beginning  of  the  world,  although  we  had 
then  no  being.  And  so  Christ  says  that  God  loved  him,  and  that  he 
had  glory  with  God  before  he  had  a  being.  And  the  glory  for  which 
he  prays  is  not  his  own  private  advancement,  but  the  success  of  that 
gospel  by  which  the  virtue  and  happiness  of  mankind  were  to  be 
promoted.  This  had  been  his  sole  aim,  for  which  he  had  lived,  and 
for  which  he  was  about  to  die.  And  now,  at  the  approach  of  death, 
he  says,  I  have  finished  the  work  which  thou  gavest  me  to  do.  And 
now,  0  Father,  complete  thine  own  work  in  the  happy  beneficial 
consequences  of  my  death,  and  speedy  restoration  to  life,  as  in  thine 
all-wise  eternal  purpose  thou  hast  decreed."  These  are  the  most 
exalted  sentiments  which  can  be  conceived  to  animate  a  human 
breast :  and  I  doubt  not  you  feel,  as  I  have  often  felt,  that  admiration 
of  these  sentiments  creates  a  kind  of  prejudice  in  favour  of  that  inter- 
pretation, which  supposes  them  to  be  uttered,  in  the  most  trying 
scenes,  by  a  mere  man.  But  we  should  recollect  that  there  are  many 
occasions  in  which  the  influence  of  the  principle  of  admiration  makes 
us  overlook  the  simplicity  of  truth ;  and  that  the  excellence  of  an  ob- 
ject is  then  really  known,  not  when  it  is  magnified  by  your  imagina- 
tions in  a  particular  light,  but  when  its  whole  nature  is  considered. 
The  Scriptures,  by  teaching  clearly  the  pre-existence  of  Jesus,  by 
representing  him  as  acting  at  all  times  under  a  consciousness  of  his 
original  dignity,  and  an  assurance  of  his  exaltation,  do  not  leave  room 
forthat  enigmatical  exposition  of  the  words  of  this  prayer,  by  which 
his  sentiments  at  the  close  of  his  life  are  assimilated  to  the  heroism  of 
mortals.  The  expressions  which  he  uses,  according  to  the  plain  sense 
of  them,  are  becoming  him  who  knew  whence  he  came  and  whither 
he  was  going ;  and,  if  they  do  not  present  us  with  an  extraordinary 
effort  of  mere  human  virtue  in  the  Son  of  man,  they  present  us  with 
a  worthier  object  of  our  faith  and  hope,  the  Son  of  God,  who  had 
been  made  man  returning  to  his  Father. 

Before  I  leave  those  passages  which  teach  the  pre-existence  of 
Jesus,  it  is  proper  to  speak  of  a  title,  the  true  meaning  of  which  is 
intimately  connected  with  this  subject.  One  of  the  grounds  of  the 
Socinian  opinion,  I  said,  is  this,  that  Jesus  commonly  designs  himself 
the  Son  of  man,  and  that  the  other  title,  the  Son  of  God,  which  he 
sometimes  assumes,  admits  of  an  interpretation  not  inconsistent  with 
his  being  a  mere  man.  This  interpretation  the  Socinians  derive  from 
different  passages  of  Scripture,  where  Jesus  is  styled  the  Son  of  God, 
for  reasons  that  have  no  connexion  with  his  existence  in  a  previous 
state.  The  first  is  his  miraculous  conception.  The  angel  said  to 
Mary,  «  The  Holy  Ghost  shall  come  upon  thee,  and  the  power  of  the 
Highest  shall  overshadow  thee  ;  therefore  also  that  holy  thing  which 
shall  be  born  of  thee,"  i.  e.  begotten  of  thee,  "  shall  be  called  the  Son 
of  God."  The  second  is  the  distinguished  commission  which  he  re- 
ceived as  Messiah,  and  the  honour  conferred  upon  him.  For,  in  the 
language  of  the  New  Testament,  the  Christ,  or  Messiah,  and  the  Son 
of  God,  are  used  as  equivalent  interchangeable  terms.   "  We  believe," 

2  M 


250  PRE-EXISTENCE    OF    JESUS. 

said  the  disciples,  "  that  thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  Uving 
God."  The  High  Priest  asked  Jesus  at  his  trial,  "  Art  thou  the  Son 
of  the  blessed  ?"  and  John  concludes  his  gospel  with  saying,  "  These 
things  are  written  that  ye  might  believe  that  Jesus  is  tlie  Christ,  the 
Son  of  God."  There  is  still  a  third  reason  upon  account  of  which 
Jesus  is  called  in  Scripture  the  Son  of  God,  and  that  is  his  resurrec- 
tion. For  Paul  says,  Acts  xiii.  33,  "  God  hath  fulfilled  the  promise 
which  was  made  unto  the  fathers,  in  that  he  hath  raised  up  Jesus 
again,  as  it  is  also  written  in  the  second  psalm.  Thou  art  my  Son, 
this  day  have  I  begotten  thee  :"  and  he  says  in  his  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,  "  Jesus  was  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power,  by 
the  resurrection  from  the  dead."  It  appears  undeniably  from  these 
passages  that  there  is  an  intimate  connection  in  the  language  of  Scrip- 
ture between  this  title,  the  Son  of  God,  and  these  three  circumstances, 
the  miraculous  conception,  the  office,  and  the  resurrection  of  Jesus. 
But  none  of  these  three  necessarily  imply  that  he  existed  in  a  pre- 
vious state  ;  and,  therefore,  it  appears  to  me,  that  although  it  be 
natural  to  form  the  most  exalted  conceptions  of  a  person  called  the 
Son  of  God,  yet,  if  no  other  premises  were  given  us,  we  should  not 
be  warranted  to  infer  the  pre-existence  of  Jesus  from  his  bearing  that 
name.  You  must  first  establish,  by  other  evidence,  that  he  did  pre- 
exist, and  then  you  infer  from  his  being  called  the  Son  of  God,  that 
the  meaning  of  that  name  is  not  exhausted  by  his  miraculous  concep- 
tion, his  office,  and  his  resurrection,  but  that  it  serves  farther  to  intimate 
the  manner  of  his  pre-existence.  This  reasoning  would  be  fair  and 
conclusive,  if  our  Lord  were  called  simply  the  Son  of  God.  But  its 
conclusiveness  appears  more  manifest,  when  you  consider  those  dis- 
criminating epithets  which  are  joined  to  this  name.  God  is  our  father 
by  creation,  and  by  the  grace  of  the  Gospel,  and  they  who  partake 
of  that  grace  are  often  called  his  sons.  But  Jesus  Christ  is  styled  his 
own  Son,  the  Son  of  his  love,  his  beloved  Son  in  whom  he  is  well 
pleased  ;  and  in  the  Gospels  and  Epistles  of  John,  the  only  begotten 
Son  of  God ;  all  which  imply,  that  the  highest  meaning  of  this  title 
belongs  to  Jesus.  It  has  been  said  that  the  phrase,  only  begotten 
Son,  which  is  peculiar  to  John,  means  nothing  more  than  beloved. 
But  these  two  phrases  are  not  synonymous  amongst  men.  A  child 
may  be  only  begotten  without  being  beloved,  and  he  may  be  beloved 
without  being  only  begotten.  It  is  irreverent  to  suppose  that  so  sig- 
nificant a  phrase  would  be  employed  by  John  upon  such  a  subject,  in 
a  sense  so  inferior  to  its  natural  import.  And  it  is  known  that  the 
Christians,  from  the  earliest  times,  adopted  in  their  creeds  this  phrase, 
his  only  begotten  Son,  or  his  only  Son,  as  distinguishing  Jesus  from 
every  other  son  of  God. 

Now,  you  will  observe,  that  although  the  name  of  the  Son  of  God 
is  connected  in  Scripture  with  the  miraculous  conception  of  Jesus,  his 
office,  and  his  resurrection,  none  of  these  three  come  up  to  the  mean- 
ing of  this  phrase,  the  only  Son  of  God.  Not  his  miraculous  con- 
ception,— he  was  indeed  conceived  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
But  Adam  also  is  called  the  Son  of  God ;  and  unless  you  deny  that 
Jesus  was  truly  the  son  of  Mary,  you  must  admit  that  there  was  in 
this  respect  still  greater  propriety  in  giving  the  name  of  the  Son  of 
God  to  a  person,  who,  being  formed  without  father  or  mother  out 


PRE-EXISTENCK    OF    JESUS.  .  251 

of  the  dust  of  the  earth,  was  still  more  immediately  the  workmanship 
of  God. — Not  his  office  as  Messiah  ;  for  many  special  messengers 
had  been  sent  by  God  to  men  in  former  times.  In  allusion  to  them, 
Jesus  is  often  styled  a  prophet,  a  messenger,  the  sent  of  God.  But  the 
mark  of  distinction  between  him  and  them,  which  some  propiiecies 
of  the  Old  Testament  announce,  and  which  the  books  of  the  New 
Testament  often  express,  is  this,  that  he  is  the  Son  of  God,  his  only 
begotten  Son;  words  which  have  no  meaning,  if  they  refer  purely  to 
that  commission  which  he  received  in  common  with  others,  and  which 
are  always  so  introduced  as  to  lead  our  thoughts  to  a  character  which 
he  had  before  he  received  the  commission.  Neither  does  the  resur- 
rection of  Jesus  come  up  to  the  meaning  of  the  phrase,  the  only  be- 
gotten Son  of  God.  He  was  indeed  brought  by  the  Father  out  of  the 
bowels  of  the  earth.  But  we  are  taught  that  all  who  are  in  their 
graves  shall  rise  ;  and  he  himself  hath  said  that  they  who  are  accounted 
worthy  to  obtain  the  world  to  come,  are  the  children  of  God,  being 
the  children  of  the  resurrection,  vioii(,a(,tov@sov,Tr;iC).vaaTarjtuivlovov'iii.  Ac- 
cording to  the  views  given  in  Scripture,  Jesus  is  the  first  that  rose 
from  the  dead  never  to  die  any  more,  and  the  resurrection  of  good 
men  is  the  effect  of  his.  He  is  thus,  in  respect  of  his  resurrection,  the 
first  among  many  brethren.  "  Every  one  in  his  own  order,  Christ 
the  first  fruits  ;  afterwards  they  that  are  Christ's."  His  resurrection 
was  indeed  the  demonstration,  that  that  name  which  he  had  taken  to 
himself  during  his  life  did  really  belong  to  him ;  and  therefore  it  is 
said,  he  "was  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power  by  his 
resurrection."  But  to  say  that  his  resurrection  made  him  the  Son  of 
God,  is  to  confound  the  evidence  of  a  thing  with  the  thing  itself 

These  few  remarks  may  satisfy  you,  that  neither  the  miraculous 
conception  of  Jesus,  nor  his  office,  nor  his  resurrection,  contains  the  full 
import  of  this  name,  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God.  But  (here  is  a  more 
ancient  and  a  more  exalted  title  to  this  name,  which  is  inseparable 
from  his  nature.  I  enter  not  at  present  into  the  various  and  intricate 
speculations  to  which  this  subject  has  given  occasion.  We  shall 
be  better  prepared  afterwards  for  touching  them  slightly.  I  meant 
only,  by  connecting  the  mention  of  this  name  with  those  passages 
which  teach  the  pre-existence  of  Jesus,  to  make  you  bear  in  your 
minds  during  the  progress  of  our  researches,  that  the  peculiar  reasons 
of  a  name  which  you  will  find  uniformly  appropriated  to  Jesus,  are 
to  be  sought  for  not  in  the  history  of  his  appearance  upon  earth,  but 
in  those  passages  which  contain  the  revelation  of  his  pre-existent 
state. 


252  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 


CHAPTER  IV. 

ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS    IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE. 

Creation. 

Having  drawn  from  explicit  declarations  of  Scripture  sufficient 
evidence  that  Jesus  existed  before  he  was  born  of  Mary,  I  am  next 
to  direct  your  attention  to  those  passages  which  ascribe  to  him  differ- 
ent actions  in  his  pre-existent  state.  The  nature  of  the  actions,  and 
the  manner  in  which  they  are  narrated,  will  unavoidably  lead  us  to 
form  some  conception  of  the  character  and  dignity  which  belonged  to 
Jesus  before  he  appeared  upon  earth ;  so  that,  if  this  branch  of  the 
examination  shall  confirm  the  belief  of  the  pre-existence  of  Jesus,  it 
will  not  only  destroy  the  first  opinion,  but  will  assist  us  in  comparing 
the  grounds  upon  which  the  second  and  third  opinions  rest. 

As  no  action  in  which  we  have  any  concern  can  be  more  ancient 
than  creation,  it  is  natural  to  begin  with  those  passages  in  which 
creation  is  ascribed  to  Jesus.  The  Apostle  Paul  says,  Eph.  iii.  9, 
"  God,  who  created  all  things  by  Jesus  Christ."  But  as  the  last 
words.  Si  iri6ov  Xgtarov,  are  not  found  in  the  most  ancient  MSS.  and 
were  not  quoted  by  any  of  the  Christian  writers  before  the  Council 
of  Nice,  it  is  conjectured  by  Mill,  in  whose  valuable  edition  of  the 
Greek  Testament  all  the  various  readings  are  collected,  that  these 
words  were  first  written  in  the  margin,  as  a  commentary  suggested 
by  expressions  in  the  other  epistles,  and  were  afterwards  adopted  by 
the  transcribers  of  the  New  Testament  into  the  text.  The  conjecture 
appears  plausible,  and  the  most  zealous  defender  of  the  pre-existence 
of  Jesus  need  not  hesitate  to  subscribe  to  it :  for  our  faith  in  this  im- 
portant article,  that  he  is  the  Creator  of  the  world,  does  by  no  means 
rest  upon  this  incidental  expression,  which,  supposing  that  it  was  not 
originally  written  by  the  apostle,  would  never  have  obtained  a  place 
in  the  text,  had  it  not  been  literally  derived  from  the  more  full  decla- 
rations contained  in  other  passages  of  Scripture. 

These  full  declarations  are  found  in  the  beginning  of  the  gospel  of 
John,  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  and  in  the 
first  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  All  the  three  appear  to 
teach,  explicitly  and  particularly,  that  Jesus  is  the  Creator  of  the 
world.  Yet  they  have  received  different  interpretations,  of  which 
you  ought  not  to  be  ignorant ;  and  your  being  able  to  deduce  with 
certainty  that  which  we  account  the  true  meaning  of  the  words,  and 
to  defend  it  against  the  objections  by  which  it  has  been  attacked, 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTEXT    STATE.  253 

depends  upon  the  knowledge  of  circumstances  which  form  so  essen- 
tial a  branch  of  your  studies,  that  I  think  it  my  duty  to  give  a  parti- 
cular elucidation  of  these  three  passages. 


Section  I. 

John  i.  1 — 18. 

You  will  begin  with  observing  the  steps  by  which  the  apostle  pro- 
ceeds in  enunciating  his  meaning.  The  first  five  verses  do  not  of 
themselves  mark  out  the  person  to  whom  they  apply.  It  would  seem 
that  a  person  is  intended  :  For  time,  sv  a^xv  place,  ^CJ  ^"^  ®^°*'^  Jind 
action,  rtavta  8i  avtov  lyivsio,  are  ascribed  to  o  Aoyoj.  But  the  name  is  not 
clear  enough  to  mark  out  who  he  is.  In  the  6th  verse  there  is  the 
proper  name  of  a  man,  iwawj^j.  And  it  appears  from  the  sequel  of  the 
chapter,  that  this  Wvrjjj  is  the  person  whom  we  are  accustomed  to 
call  John  the  Baptist.  It  is  said  of  this  l^awr]?,  in  the  7th  verse,  ovtoi 
tixdiv  £15  fto^rv^taK,  Iva  jxa^tv^i^ny]  rtsQi  tov  ^torof.  The  article  defines  the  word 
1>wT'o5.  and  leads  you  back  to  a  light  already  spoken  of,  and  consequent- 
ly supposed  to  be  known  to  the  reader;  i.  e.  the  light  mentioned  in 
the  4th  verse,  which,  from  the  construction,  is  unquestionably  the 

same  with    o  7.oyo{.      Ec  avr^,  i,  e.  ^oycfi,  fuj^  tjv,  xat  ^  ^w^  r,v  to  <pu>i  tu>v  av9Qi07tiov. 

It  is  said  in  the  5th  versa  that  this  light  appears ;  and  the  7th  verse 
establishes  a  connexion  between  the  appearance  of  the  light  and  the 
appearance  of  John,  for  he  came  to  bear  witness  of  it,  8th  verse, 
ovK.  riv  ixiivoi  to  ^toj,  oxy^  au  na^tv^t]nv]  jii^t  tov  fioto^.  The  time  of  this  shining 
of  the  light  must  have  been  posterior  to  the  appearance  of  John,  and 
the  manner  of  the  shining  must  have  been  explained  by  his  words, 
otherwise  his  testimony  could  not  have  been  of  any  use  in  making 
men  believe.  But  John  the  Baptist  was  the  contemporary  and  the 
countryman  of  the  writer  of  this  gospel.  He  died,  indeed,  at  an  early 
period  of  life.  Still,  however,  many  of  the  persons  into  whose  hands 
this  gospel  came,  might  know  perfectly,  either  from  their  own  recollec- 
tion, or  from  what  they  had  heard  others  report,  the  general  purport 
of  John's  testimony,  so  as  to  be  directed  by  his  words  in  applying  the 
expression  of  the  evangelist.  Those  who  knew  what  John  the  Bap- 
tist had  said,  could  not  fail  to  know  what  was  the  fo  ifwj  of  which  he 
came  to  bear  witness.  It  is  farther  stated,  that  the  person  who  had 
been  called  in  the  first  five  verses,  o  ^oyo?,  and  ro^wj,  was  an  inhabitant 
of  earth  at  the  time  of  John's  appearance  ;  for  you  read  in  the  10th 
verse,  svti^  xon^iu  r^v — 14th  verse,  eOm-iau.tSa.t7iv  Sotav  a.vtov.  And  this  glory 
which  was  beheld,  was  not  a  celestial  transietit  glory,  dazzling  the 
sight  of  mortals  like  a  meteor,  and  quickly  hid  in  clouds  ;  for  o  xoyo< 
ea^i  tyivito,  xm  laxi^vurav  tv  y-fiw.  It  appeared  in  a  bodily  substantial  form. 
The  person  who  has  been  called  oxoyo?,  pitched  his  tent,  dwelt  for 
some  time  amongst  men,  and  while  the  glory  which  they  beheld 
impressed  them  with  a  notion  of  his  dignity,  he  engaged  their  affec- 
tions by  the  grace  of  his  manners  ;  for  he  was  rtxt^^rjt  x<^'^oi  xMaxr^Onai. 
Here  are  limiting  circumstances  so  peculiar  in  their  nature,  that  they 
24 


254  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 

cannot  apply  to  any  other  inhabitant  of  earth  in  the  days  of  John 
Baptist  but  that  extraordinary  personage,  whose  memory  was  fresh 
in  the  minds  of  his  countrymen  when  this  gospel  was  written,  and 
whose  name  is  expressly  mentioned  in  the  17th  verse,  Ijjotvj  x^wroj.  It 
deserves  particular  notice,  that  with  all  that  simplicity  of  manner 
which  distinguishes  the  writer  of  this  gospel,  he  has  inserted  this  name 
in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it  the  explication  of  all  that  had  gone 
before.  He  had  said  in  the  14th  verse, o  ^yoy  aa^l  sytvsto-  xm  eaxrivioasv  tv  ^^cv, 

(xac  (Oeaoaixcda  ttjv  6o|av  avtov,  6o|ai'  wj  juocoyscouj  rta^a,  rtar^oj,)  rtT^j^gj/j  a^a^troj  xm 

axy;9Ha;.  Here  he  applies  to  o  jcoyoj,  the  person  of  whom  he  had  been 
speaking  from  the  beginning  of  the  chapter,  two  phrases,  ^l■ovoysvr;i,  and 
?t7ij;^»75  ;t*?'*'oj  "at  axj^ettaj :  and  in  the  17th  verse  he  introduces  the  name, 
itjwv?  x^iotoi,  after  the  repetition  of  one  of  these  phrases,  and  before 
the  repetition  of  the  other,  manifestly  connecting  the  name  with  both 
the  phrases.  It  appears,  then,  from  this  general  analysis  of  these 
eighteen  verses,  that  this  evangelist  must  be  not  merely  a  most  incon- 
sequential writer,  but  a  writer  who  purposely  and  artificially  misleads 
his  readers,  unless  the  person  who  is  called  o  J^yoj  in  the  first  verse  be 
the  same  who  is  called  Ij^otvj  XgKjtoj  in  the  17th,  that  is,  unless  the 
whole  of  this  passage  be  applicable  to  Jesus  Christ.  But  if  the  whole  be 
applicable  to  him,  we  have  the  testimony  of  an  apostle,  that  all  things 

were    made    by    him.      navta  6c  aurou  sysvi-to'  xac  A^o^tj  avT'ou  tysvBio  ovSe  tv  6 

ysyovf. 

I  have  chosen  to  lead  you  in  this  manner  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
person  meant  by  o  xoyo^  because  the  fairest  way  of  interpreting  a 
passage  is  to  lay  the  whole  of  it  together,  and  so  bring  the  sense  of  an 
author  out  of  his  words.  But  it  is  natural  to  inquire,  why  did  John 
use  this  dark  expression  ?  Why  has  he  begun  his  gospel  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  require  this  circuitous  method  of  arriving  at  his  mean- 
ing ?  Would  it  not  have  been  better  to  have  said  plainly.  In  the 
beginning  was  Jesus  Christ,  and  Jesus  Christ  was  with  God,  and 
Jesus  Christ  was  God  ? 

In  answer  to  this  question,  you  will  recollect  that  many  of  those 
modes  of  expression  in  ancient  writers,  which  appear  hurtful  to 
perspicuity,  were  dictated  by  some  circumstances  peculiar  to  the 
country,  or  the  times  in  which  the  writers  lived ;  and  that  the  obscu- 
rity, in  which  to  us  such  expressions  seem  to  be  involved,  is  removed 
by  the  knowledge  of  those  circumstances  which  rendered  them  the 
most  proper  and  significant  when  they  were  used.  There  has  been 
much  dispute  what  were  the  circumstances  that  led  John  to  use  this 
expression,  o  xoyo?.  The  subject  is  involved  in  considerable  obscurity 
from  our  imperfect  knowledge  of  the  dates  of  particular  tenets.  But 
I  shall  endeavour  to  give,  in  a  short  compass,  the  result  of  a  very 
fatiguing  examination  of  the  dispute. 

Before  the  days  of  our  Saviour,  there  were  Targums,  i.  e.  Chaldee 
paraphrases  of  the  Old  Testament,  for  the  use  of  the  vulgar  Jews, 
who,  upon  their  return  from  tlie  Babylonish  captivity,  did  not  under- 
stand the  original  Hebrew,  As  these  Targums  Avere  composed  by 
the  learned  men  of  the  nation,  and  portions  of  them  were  read  every 
Sabbath-day  in  the  Synagogues,  they  may  be  considered  as  the 
national  interpretation  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures  ;  and  they  have  often 
been  quoted  by  those  who  have  entered  deeply  into  the  argument 


IN    HIS   PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  255 

from  prophecy,  as  the  vouchers  of  the  sense  which  the  Jews  affixed 
to  their  own  predictions  before  the  days  of  our  Saviour.  Tlicse 
Targums,  in  almost  every  place  whore  Jehovah  is  mentioned  in  the 
Hebrew  as  talking  with  men,  assisting  them,  or  holding  any  imme- 
diate intercourse  with  them,  have  used  tliis  circumlocution,  the  word 
of  Jehovah.  In  the  Hebrew,  Jehovah  created  man  in  his  own 
image ;  in  the  Targum,  the  word  of  Jehovah  created  man.  In  the 
Hebrew,  Adam  and  Eve  heard  the  voice  of  the  Lord  God ;  in  the 
Targum,  they  heard  the  voice  of  the  word  of  the  Lord  God.  In  the 
Hebrew,  Jehovah  thy  God,  he  it  is  that  goeth  before  thee ;  in  the 
Targum,  Jehovah  thy  God,  his  word  goeth  before  thee.  Those  who 
are  qualified  to  judge  of  this  matter  say  that  all  the  personal  charac- 
ters of  action  are  ascribed  in  the  Targums  to  the  Word  ;  and  that 
there  are  places  where  the  sense  renders  it  impossible  to  understand 
the  word  of  Jehovah  as  merely  an  idiom  of  the  language  equivalent 
to  Jehovah.  Thus  in  the  Hebrew  it  is,  God  came  to  Abimelech  ;  in 
the  Targum,  his  word  came  from  the  face  of  God  to  Abimelech.  And 
the  110th  Psalm  is  thus  paraphrased.  Jehovah  said  to  his  Word,  sit 
thou  at  my  right  hand.  We  cannot  suppose  that  this  mode  of  expres- 
sion would  have  been  introduced  into  the  Targums,  at  the  time  when 
they  were  composed,  had  it  then  appeared  a  novelty  ;  and  there  is  no 
doubt  that,  by  the  weekly  reading  of  the  paraphrases,  it  would  become 
familiar  to  the  ears  of  the  Jews.  Accordingly,  in  the  Wisdom  of 
Solomon,  a  book  which  is  understood  to  have  been  written  a  hundred 
years  before  Christ,  we  meet  with  the  following  expression,  referring 
to  the  judgment  upon  the  land  of  Egypt :  "  Thine  almighty  word 
leaped  down  from  heaven  out  of  thy  royal  throne,  as  a  fierce  man  of 
war  into  the  midst  of  a  land  of  destruction,  and  brought  thine  unfeign- 
ed commandment  as  a  sharp  sword,  and  standing  up,  filled  all  things 
with  death,  and  it  touched  the  heavens,  but  it  stood  upon  the  earth."* 
This  may  appear  to  you  only  a  bold  expressive  figure  for  the  divine 
energy  which  was  exerted  in  the  punishment  of  the  Egyptians,  in  the 
same  manner  as  that  passage  in  Psalm  xxxiii.  "  Ey  the  word  of  the 
Lord  were  the  heavens  made,"  does  not  necessarily  convey  to  a  mind 
accustomed  to  weigh  the  import  of  language  any  thing  more  than  that 
the  heavens  were  made  by  the  Lord.  But  there  appears  the  best 
reason  for  thinking  that  the  constant  use  of  this  circumlocution  cherish- 
ed in  the  minds  of  the  body  of  the  Jews  the  belief  that  there  was  a 
person  distinct  from  the  Father  whose  name  was  the  word  of 
Jehovah ;  and  it  is  certain  that  Philo,  a  learned  Jew,  bred  at  Alexan- 
dria, who  lived  about  the  time  of  our  Saviour,  whose  books  were 
published  before  his  death,  speaks  in  numberless  places  of  the  xoyo?, 
whom  he  calls  a  second  God,  the  Son  of  God,  the  image  of  God,  the 
instrument  by  whom  God  made  the  worlds.  Philo  did  not  learn  this 
word  in  the  Platonic  school ;  for  although  ^oyo^  occurs  often  in  the 
writing  of  the  later  Platonists,  who  lived  in  the  second  and  third 
centuries,  there  is  no  evidence  that  Plato,  or  any  of  his  disciples  before 
Philo,  used  >j»y%  as  the  name  of  a  person  distinct  from  God.  It  is 
doubted  by  Mosheim,  whether  Philo  himself  beheved  that  there  was 
a  distinction  ;  and  that  indefatigable  inquirer  has  brought  together,  in 

*  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  xviii.  15,  16. 


256  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 

his  notes  upon  Cud  worth,  several  passages  which  appear  to  rae  to 
make  it  probable  that  Philo,  Uke  many  other  philosophers,  had  an 
esoteric  and  an  exoteric,  a  secret  and  an  ostensible  doctrine.  His 
secret  doctrine  was,  that  v/hat  his  countrymen  called  ^-oyoj  was  nothing 
else  but  the  conception  formed  in  the  mind  of  God  of  the  work  which 
he  was  to  execute,  and  that  what  they  accounted  a  distinction  of 
persons  was  ideal  and  nominal,  accommodated  to  the  narrowness  of 
our  apprehension.  But  if  this  was  truly  his  private  sentiment,  his 
calling  the  ^oyoi  the  Son  of  God,  and  a  second  God,  is  a  proof  that  the 
opinion  concerning  the  Word  of  Jehovah  as  a  person,  had  so  firm  a 
possession  of  the  minds  of  his  countrymen,  that  he  did  not  wish  to 
offend  them  by  teaching  openly  and  unequivocally  a  doctrine  opposite 
to  that  which  they  had  derived  from  Scripture  and  tradition. 

Not  long  after  the  writings  of  Philo  were  published,  there  arose 
the  Gnostics,  a  sect,  or  rather  a  multitude  of  sects,  who  having  learnt 
in  the  same  Alexandrian  school  to  blend  the  principles  of  oriental 
philosophy  with  the  doctrine  of  Plato,  formed  a  system  most  repug- 
nant to  the  simplicity  of  Christian  faith.     It  is  this  system  which  Paul 
so  often  attacks  under  the  name  of  "  false  philosophy,  strifes  of  words, 
endless  genealogies,  science  falsely  so  called."     The  foundation  of  the 
Gnostic   system  was  the  intrinsic  and  incorrigible  depravity  of  matter. 
Upon  this  principle  they  made  a  total  separation  between  the  spiritual 
and  the  material  world.     Accounting  it  impossible  to  educe  out  of 
matters  any  thing  which  was  good,  they  held  that  the  Supreme  Being, 
who  presided  over  the  innumerable  spirits  that  were  emanations  from 
himself,  did  not  make  this  earth,  but  that  a  spirit  of  an  inferior  nature 
very  far  removed  in  character  as  well  as  in  rank  from  the  Supreme 
Being,  formed  matter  into  that  order  which  constitutes  the  world,  and 
gave  life  to  the  different  creatures  that  inhabit  the  earth.  They  held  that 
this  Inferior  Spirit  was  the  Ruler  of  the  creatures  whom  he  had  made, 
and  they  considered  men,  whose  souls  he  imprisoned  in  earthly  taber- 
nacles, as  experiencing  under  his  dominion  the  misery  which  neces- 
sarily arose  from  their  connexion  with  matter,  and  as  estranged  from 
the  knowledge  of  the  true  God.     Most  of  the  later  sects  of  the  Gnos- 
tics rejected  every  part  of  the  Jewish  law,  because  the  books  of  Moses 
give  a  view  of  the  creation  inconsistent  with  their  system.     But  some 
of  the  earlier  sects,  consisting  of  Alexandrian  Jews,  incorporated  a 
respect  for  the  law  with  the  principles  of  their  system.     They  con- 
sidered the  Old  Testament  dispensation  as  granted  by  the  5>?fttoi)^Xoj,  the 
Maker  and  Ruler  of  the  world,  who  was  incapable,  from  his  want  of 
power,  of  dehvering  those  who  received  it  from  the  thraldom  of  mat- 
ter :  and  they  looked  for  a  more  glorious  messenger,  whom  the  com- 
passion of  the  Supreme  Being  was  to  send  for  the  purpose  of  eman- 
cipating the  human  race.     Those  Gnostics  who  embraced  Christianity, 
regarded  the  Christ  as  this  Messenger,  an  exalted  ^on,  who,  being 
in  some  manner  united  to  the  man  Jesus,  put  an  end  to  the  dominion 
of  the  5>7,wiou^yoj,  and  restored  the  souls  of  men  to  communion  with 
God.     It  was  natural  for  the  Christian  Gnostics  who  had  received  a 
Jewish  education  to  follow  the  steps  of  Philo,  and  the  general  sense 
of  their  countrymen,  in  giving  the  name  J^oyoj  to  the  Srjficov^yoi ;  and  as 
X^Mfoj  was  understood  from  the  beginning  of  our  Lord's  ministry  to 
be  the  Greek  word  equivalent  to  the  Jewish  name  Messiah,  there 


1 


IN    HIS    PKE-EXISTENT    STATE.  257 

came  to  be,  in  their  system,  a  direct  opposition  between  X^t^foj  and 
^oyo{.  Aoyoj  was  the  maker  of  the  world :  x^iafoj  was  the  iEon  sent  to 
destroy  the  tyranny  of  ?-oyoj. 

One  of  the  first  teachers  of  this  system  was  Cerinthus.  We  have 
not  any  particular  account  of  all  the  branches  of  his  system  :  and  it  is 
possible  that  we  may  ascribe  to  him  some  of  those  tenets  by  which 
later  sects  of  Gnostics  were  discriminated.  But  we  have  authority 
for  saying  that  the  general  principle  of  the  Gnostic  scheme  was  openly 
taught  by  Cerinthus  before  the  publication  of  the  Gospel  of  John. 
The  authority  is  that  of  Irena3us,  a  bishop  who  lived  in  the  second 
century,  who  in  his  youth  had  heard  Polycarp,  the  disciple  of  the 
Apostle  John,  and  who  retained  the  discourses  of  Polycarp  in  his 
memory  till  his  death.  There  are  yet  extant  of  the  works  of  Irenseus, 
five  books  which  he  wrote  against  heresies,  one  of  the  most  authentic 
and  valuable  monuments  of  theological  erudition.  In  one  place  of 
that  work  he  says,  that  Cerinthus  taught  in  Asia  that  the  world  was 
not  made  by  the  Supreme  God,  but  by  a  certain  power  very  separate 
and  far  removed  from  the  Sovereign  of  the  Universe,  and  ignorant 
of  his  nature.*  In  another  place,  he  says,  that  John  the  Apostle 
wished,  by  his  Gospel,  to  extirpate  the  error  which  had  been  spread 
among  men  by  Cerinthus  ;i  and  Jerome,  who  lived  in  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, says  that  John  wrote  his  gospel,  at  the  desire  of  the  Bishops  of 
Asia,  against  Cerinthus  and  other  heretics,  and  chiefly  against  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Ebionites,  then  springing  up,  who  said,  that  Christ  did 
not  exist  before  he  was  born  of  Mary  .J 

From  laying  these  accounts  together,  it  appears  to  have  been  the 
tradition  of  the  Christian  Church,  that  John,  who  lived  to  a  great  age, 
and  who  resided  at  Ephesus,  in  pro-consular  Asia,  was  moved  by  the 
growth  of  the  Gnostic  heresies,  and  by  the  solicitations  of  the  Chris- 
tian teachers,  to  bear  his  testimony  to  the  truth  in  writing,  and  parti- 
cularly to  recollect  those  discourses  and  actions  of  our  Lord,  which 
might  furnish  the  clearest  refutation  of  the  persons  who  denied  his 
pre-existence.  This  tradition  is  a  key  to  a  great  part  of  his  gospel. 
INIatthew,  Mark,  and  Luke,  had  given  a  detail  of  those  actions  of 
Jesus  which  are  the  evidences  of  his  divine  mission  :  of  those  events 
in  his  life  upon  earth  which  are  most  interesting  to  the  human  race ; 
and  of  those  moral  discourses  in  which  the  wisdom,  the  grace,  and 
the  sanctity  of  the  Teacher,  shine  with  united  lustre.  Their  whole 
narration  implies  that  Jesus  was  more  than  man.  But  as  it  is 
distinguished  by  a  beautiful  simplicity  which  adds  very  much  to  their 
credit  as  historians,  they  have  not,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
incidental  expressions,  formally  stated  the  conclusion  that  Jesus  was 
more  than  man,  but  have  left  the  Christian  world  to  draw  it  for  them- 
selves from  the  facts  narrated,  or  to  receive  it  by  the  teaching  and 
the  writings  of  the  Apostles.  John,  who  was  preserved  by  God  to 
see  this  conclusion,  which  had  been  drawn  by  the  great  body  of 
Christians,  and  had  been  established  in  the  Epistles,  denied  by  differ- 
ent heretics,  brings  forward,  in  the  form  of  a  history  of  Jesus,  a  view 
of  his  exalted  character,  and  draws  our  attention  particularly  to  the 

*  Iren.  contra  Hisr,  lib.  iii.  cap.  ■xi.  1.  +  Id.  lib.  i.  xxvi.  1. 

+  Jerome  De  Vit.  Illust.  cap.  ix. 

24*  2  N 


258  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS  / 

truth  of  that  which  had  been  denied.  When  you  come  to  analyze  the 
gospel  of  John,  you  will  find  that  the  first  eighteen  verses  contain  the 
positions  laid  down  by  the  Apostle,  in  order  to  meet  the  errors  of 
Cerinthus ;  that  these  positions,  which  are  merely  affirmed  in  the 
introduction,  are  proved  in  the  progress  of  the  gospel,  by  the  testimony 
of  John  the  i5aptist,and  by  the  words  and  the  actions  of  our  Lord  ;  and 
that  after  the  proof  is  concluded  by  the  declaration  of  Thomas,  who, 
upon  being  convinced  that  Jesus  had  risen,  said  to  him,  "  my  Lord, 
and  my  God,"  John  sums  up  the  amount  of  his  gospel  in  these  few 
words :  "  These  are  written  that  ye  might  believe  that  Jesus  is  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God,"  i.  e.  that  Jesus  and  the  Christ  are  not 
distinct  persons,  and  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God.  The  Apostle 
does  not  condescend  to  mention  the  name  of  Cerinthus,  because  that 
would  have  preserved,  as  long  as  the  world  lasts,  the  memory  of  a 
name  which  might  otherwise  be  forgotten.  But  although  there  is 
dignity  and  propriety  in  omitting  the  mention  of  his  name,  it  was 
necessary,  in  laying  down  the  positions  that  were  to  meet  his  errors, 
to  adopt  some  of  his  words,  because  the  Christians  of  those  days  could 
not  so  readily  have  applied  the  doctrine  of  the  Apostle  to  the  refuta- 
tion of  those  heresies  which  Cerinthus  was  spreading  among  them,  if 
they  had  not  found  in  the  exposition  of  that  doctrine  some  of  the 
terms  in  which  the  heresy  was  delivered :  and  as  the  chief  of  these 
terms,  %oyoi,  which  Cerinthus  applied  to  an  inferior  spirit,  was  equiva- 
lent to  a  phrase  in  common  use  among  the  Jews,  the  word  of  Jehovah, 
and  was  probably  borrowed  from  thence,  John,  by  his  use  of  xr^oj, 
rescues  it  from  the  degraded  use  of  Cerinthus,  and  restores  it  to  a 
sense  corresponding  to  the  dignity  of  the  Jewish  phrase. 

You  will  perceive  from  this  induction  the  fitness  with  which  the 
Apostle  John  introduces  this  word  xoyoj,  although  it  had  not  been  used 
by  the  other  Evangelists  who  wrote  before  the  errors  of  Cerinthus. 
You  may  think  it  strange  that  xoyo?,  which  is  announced  with  snch 
solemnity  at  the  beginning,  does  not  occur  again  in  this  gospel.  But 
the  reason  is  suggested  by  the  introduction  itself  John  has  said  in 
the  14th  verse,  6  ?ioyo;  (501^1  fyf^ro,  and  he  has  inserted  Jesus  Christ  in 
the  17th  verse  as  the  name  of  the  man  who  was  the  Word  made  flesh. 
Our  Lord  was  "^oyo^  in  the  beginning.  But  during  his  ministry  upon 
earth,  his  name  was  properly  Jesus  Christ ;  and  John  might  suppose 
that  every  reader  who  was  acquainted  with  his  introduction  would 
understand  by  that  name,  as  often  as  it  occurred,  the  same  person 
whom  he  had  there  called  xoyoj.  But  although  this  name  could  not 
with  propriety  occur  in  a  history  of  the  man  Christ  Jesus,  it  is  found 
in  the  beginning  of  the  first  Epistle  of  John,  which,  like  his  gospel, 
was  opposed  to  the  errors  of  Cerinthus.  "  That  which  was  from  the 
beginning,  which  we  have  heard,  which  we  have  seen  with  our  eyes, 
which  we  have  looked  upon,  and  our  hands  have  handled  of  the  word 
of  life,  rtf^t  •foil  ^.oyoD  Tj^s  ?cojj5,  that  declare  we  unto  you."  And  in  one 
of  those  sublime  descriptions  of  the  person  of  our  Saviour,  in  his 
glorified  slate,  which  are  found  in  the  book  of  Revelation,  this  name 
is  directly  applied  to  him.  ''  And  he  was  clothed  with  a  vesture  dipt 
in  blood ;  and  his  name  is  called  the  Word  of  God,"  o'^oyoji-ou  ©eov. 
Rev.  xix.  13.  If  the  book  of  Revelation  was  written,  as  there  iias 
always  appeared  to  me  great  reason  to  suppose,  before  the  gospel  of 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  259 

John,  this  direct  application  of  o  j^oyoj  to  our  Saviour,  would  render 
it  easy  for  the  Christians  to  understand  the  meaning  of  this  intro- 
duction. 

After  having  gone  at  such  length  into  the  reason  of  the  use  of  the 
word  'toyoj,  which  is  the  only  real  dilliculty  in  this  passage,  I  shall 
easily  deduce  the  proposition  for  the  sake  of  which  I  quoted  it,  that 
Jesus  created  the  world.  Observe  then,  that  ff  a^xi^  necessarily  brings 
to  our  minds  the  first  words  of  Genesis,  iva^z]]  (^oirjnfv  6  ©fojroi/  ov^avoi^  xm 
Tr,v  yrjv;  and  that  both  by  this  obvious  reference  to  a  well-known 
passage,  and  by  what  is  said  in  the  third  verse,  rtavra  Si  avtov  eyevsto,  tv 
»txr/  must  be  understood  to  mean  a  time  before  any  thing  was  made. 
The  Apostle  asserts  that,  at  this  time,  fv  a^xr,^  the  Word  was.  He  does 
not  say,  tyiveto,  was  made,  but  *}v,  existed  ;  and  that  the  Word  existed, 
not  in  a  state  of  distance,  but  rf^oj  roj/ ©for,  at,  or  with  God  ;  not  in  a 
state  of  inferiority,  but  ®io?  rjv  6  %oyoi.  This  last  clause  is  properly 
rendered,  "  the  Word  was  God."  It  is  common  in  the  Greek  language 
to  distinguish  the  subject  of  a  proposition  from  the  predicate,  by  pre- 
fixing the  article  to  the  subject,  and  giving  no  article  to  the  predicate. 
Examples  of  this  will  be  found  in  Dr.  Campbell's  Commentary, 
and  will  occur  to  those  who  are  familiar  with  the  New  Testament  in 
the  original.     John  iv.  24;  xvii.  10. 

To  cfraw  the  attention  of  the  Christians  to  the  error  of  Cerinthus, 
the  second  position  is  repeated  in  the  second  verse,  o  ^oyoj  r;v  rf^o;  toj-Gaov ; 
and  then  after  this  explicit  repeated  affirmation  of  his  original  dignity, 
it  is  added,  Tcavta  Si  avtov  syevsto.  It  is  not  said  that  all  other  things  were 
made  by  him,  as  if  he  was  one  created  being.  But  rfai^ra  5i  avtov  sytptto  -. 
and,  according  to  the  manner  of  this  apostle,  which  abounds  in  repe- 
tition, and  is  here  peculiarly  fitted  to  meet  the  error  of  Cerinthus,  it 
is  added,  ;t"?ij  aDT-ou  eytveto  ovSe  h  o  yeyovi,  wliich  marks  strongly  that  his 
creating  power  extended  to  all  parts  of  the  universe.  "  In  him," 
says  the  apostle,  "  was  the  life  of  men."  Not  only  the  great  objects 
of  nature  were  formed  by  him,  but  every  individual  being,  every 
animal,  derived  existence  from  him.  When  he  came  to  enlighten  the 
world  which  he  had  made,  he  came  nj-r-a  tSca,  to  his  own  dominion, 
and  those  who  did  not  receive  liim  were  ol  iStot,  his  own  subjects. 
According  to  the  system  of  the  Gnostics,  the  Christ,  the  light  of  the 
world,  came  into  the  territory  of  another,  to  emancipate  men  from  the 
tyranny  of  their  maker.  I3ut  here  original  creation  and  future 
illumination  are  expressly  ascribed  to  the  same  person,  who  being 
before  all  things  with  God,  in  the  beginning  made,  and  at  a  subse- 
quent period  enlightened,  the  world.  .  I  have  only  further  to  remark, 
that  ?^yo5and  ^umoyfiT^s,  which,  in  the  system  of  some  of  the  Gnostics, 
were  different  ^ons,  are  in  this  passage  the  same  with  Jesus  Christ. 

Having  thus  easily  attained  the  proposition,  which  this  passage 
was  adduced  to  prove,  I  shall  not  have  occasion  to  occupy  time  in 
refuting  the  two  other  interpretations  which  it  has  received.  The  one 
is  tlie  old  Socinian  interpretation,  according  to  which,  Jesus  is  called 
^yo5  merely  because  he  revealed  or  spoke  the  will  of  God  to  man ; 
and  the  first  three  verses  receive  the  following  paraphrase.  "  In  the 
beginning  of  the  gospel,  there  was  a  man,  who,  being  the  revealer 
of  God's  will,  was  called  oxoyo^,  who  was  with  God,  being  taken  up 
to  heaven  after  his  birth,  that  he  might  there  learn  what  he  was  to 


260  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 

teach  to  others ;  and  who  received,  after  his  resurrection,  the  title  of 
God,  in  virtue  of  the  powers  conferred  upon  him,  and  the  office  to 
which  he  was  exalted.  By  this  person  the  gospel  dispensation  was 
established,  and  without  him  no  part  of  the  world  was  reformed." 
According  to  this  interpretation,  it  is  supposed,  without  evidence,  that 
the  man  Jesus  was  taken  up  to  heaven  ;  Ey  a^x^,^  contrary  to  its  ob- 
vious meaning,  is  applied  to  the  beginning  of  the  gospel :  the  phrase 
@io;r;v  6  ■Koyoi  is  Considered  as  equivalent  to  this  proposition,  which  ap- 
pears to  be  directly  opposite,  the  man  who  was  not  God,  is  now 
made  God ;  and  expressions  which,  by  the  analogy  and  use  of  the 
Greek  language,  denote  that  things  were  brought  into  being,  are 
explained  of  a  reformation  of  their  state. 

But,  besides  all  these  reasons  suggested  by  the  words  themselves, 
the  history  which  I  have  given  of  the  term  xoyo?,  is  a  clear  refutation 
of  this  forced  construction.  For  ^oyoj,  or  its  equivalent  in  the 
Chaldee,  being,  at  the  time  when  this  gospel  was  written,  commonly 
applied  to  a  person  who  made  the  world,  John  unavoidably  misled 
his  readers,  if  he  gave  that  name  to  a  man  who  did  not  exist  before 
he  was  born  of  Mary,  and  said  of  that  man  bearing  this  name,  that 
all  things  were  made  by  him,  when  he  only  meant  that  all  things 
were  reformed  by  him. 

This  Socinian  interpretation  is  generally  abandoned,  even  by  those 
who  deny  the  pre-existence  of  Jesus ;  and  they  have  adopted  in  place 
of  it,  the  old  Sabellian  interpretation.  Aoyo?  signifies  reason  as  well 
as  speech ;  7'atio  mente  concepta,  and  ratio  enunciativa.  If  it  be 
translated  in  this  place  reason,  the  words  of  John  will  bear  a  striking 
allusion  to  a  remarkable  passage  in  the  eighth  chapter  of  the  book  of 
Proverbs.  Wisdom  thus  speaks,  "  The  Lord  possessed  me  in  the 
beginning  of  his  way,  before  his  works  of  old.  I  was  set  up  from 
everlasting,  from  the  Iseginning,  or  ever  the  earth  was.  Before  the 
mountains  were  settled,  before  the  hills  was  I  brought  forth. '  When 
he  prepared  the  heavens,  I  was  there  ;  when  he  appointed  the  founda- 
tions of  the  earth,  then  I  was  by  him,  as  one  brought  up  with  him." 
Solomon,  says  Mr.  Lindsey,  represents  Wisdom  as  a  person  dwelling 
with  God,  beloved  by  him,  present  with  him,  attending  upon  him  in 
all  his  works  of  creation  ;  and  so  John  says,  in  the  beginning  reason 
or  wisdom  was  with  God,  i.  e.  God  was  complete  in  wisdom  before 
he  made  any  manifestation  of  himself  to  his  creatures  ;  and  all  things 
were  made  by  reason,  i.  e.  were  created  according  to  the  most  perfect 
wisdom ;  and  reason  was  made  flesh,  i.  e.  the  same  divine  wisdom 
which  had  appeared  from  the  beginning  in  the  creation  of  the  world, 
was  communicated  in  large  measure  to  the  man  Jesus  Christ,  and 
residing  in  him  became  visible  to  us. 

When  you  judge  of  this  interpretation,  you  will  carry  along  with 
you,  that  all  the  Christian  writers,  from  the  earliest  times,  apply  the 
description  of  Wisdom  in  the  eighth  chapter  of  Proverbs,  to  Christ. 
It  is  quoted  and  argued  upon  in  this  light ;  and  both  those  who  held 
that  Christ  was  God,  and  those  who  held  that  he  was  a  creature, 
defended  their  opinions  by  particular  expressions  in  this  passage.  To 
us  who  enjoy  the  revelation  of  the  gospel,  every  fact  of  that  descrip- 
tion appears  most  apposite  to  Christ.  The  true  doctrine  of  the  gospel 
respecting  the  person  of  Christ,  seems  to  have  been  anticipated  by  his 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  261 

illustrious  predecessor ;  and  John,  by  the  manifest  similarity  of  some 
expressions  in  this  passage  to  expressions  in  the  description  of  Wis- 
dom, appears  to  give  his  sanction  to  this  interpretation  of  the  meaning 
of  Solomon.  It  is  not,  however,  in  my  opinion,  probable  that  any 
person  who  had  not  our  advantages,  would  have  found  the  person 
of  Christ  in  this  description  ;  and  if  you  lay  out  of  your  mind  v/hat 
you  know  of  Christ,  and  attend  merely  to  the  poetical  strain  of  the 
first  nine  chapters  of  the  book  of  Proverbs,  you  will  probably  be 
disposed  to  consider  the  passage  in  the  eighth  chapter  as  a  beautiful 
and  well-supported  instance  of  prosopopoeia.  But,  allowing  what  no 
person  can  certainly  know,  that  Solomon  meant  nothing  more  in  that 
passage  than  to  personify  the  divine  attribute  of  wisdom,  this  does  not 
afford  the  most  distant  reason  for  imagining  that  John  also  personifies 
reason.  For  observe  the  difierence  of  the  cases.  The  prosopopaia 
of  Solomon  is  in  the  midst  of  other  passages  of  a  like  kind  ;  and  there 
is  no  part  of  it  inconsistent  with  those  rules  which  are  not  of  modern 
invention,  but  are  essential  to  the  nature  and  the  beauty  of  this  figure. 
But  the  prosopoposia  in  this  place,  if  there  be  one,  is  introduced 
abruptly,  without  preparation,  at  the  beginning  of  a  plain  history.  It 
is  executed  in  so  inartificial  a  manner,  that  words  and  phrases  per- 
petually occurring  in  the  passage  destroy  the  illusion,  and  require  a 
.great  effort  of  imagination  to  recal  it.  Reason,  one  attribute  of  the 
Deity,  is  called  the  only  begotten,  as  if  he  had  no  other.  Reason  is 
called  a  man  to  whom  another  man  bore  witness ;  and  instead  of 
cro^ta,  the  word  used  by  the  Septuagint  in  that  personification  which 
John  is  supposed  to  imitate,  he  introduces,  and  applies  to  the  man  of 
whom  he  speaks  ^oyo?,  a  term  applied  at  the  very  time  of  his  writing 
to  a  person  different  from  God,  and  inferior  to  him.  To  consider 
John,  therefore,  as  meaning  here  a  personification  of  the  divine  attri- 
bute of  wisdom,  is  to  suppose  that  he  employs  a  misplaced  and  ill- 
supported  figure  of  speech  on  purpose  to  mislead  his  readers  ;  that 
when  he  intended  to  say,  Jesus  was  a  man  in  whom  the  wisdom  of 
God  the  maker  of  all  things  dwelt,  he  used  language  which,  to  the 
persons  living  in  those  days,  and  to  all  who  study  that  language,  can- 
not fail  to  convey  the  impression,  that  this  man  was  a  being  who 
existed  before  any  thing  was  made,  and  who  created  the  world. 


Section   II. 

Col.  i.  15—18. 

The  Apostle,  in  reminding  the  Christians  at  Colosse,  amidst  the 
sufferings  to  which  their  faith  might  expose  them,  of  the  grounds  of 
thankfulness  which  it  afforded,  is  led  into  one  of  those  digressions 
which  are  common  in  his  wrhings.  He  had  been  speaking  of  that 
redemption  through  the  blood  of  Christ,  which  is  the  fundamental 
doctrine  of  the  Christian  religion.  The  redemption  suggests  to  him 
the  dignity  and  character  of  the  ransomer.  He  expatiates  upon  these 
topics  for  a  few  verses,  and  then  returns  to  the  point  from  which  he 
had  set  out.     The  digression,  although  it  appears  to  interrupt  the 


~62  ACTIOS    ASCSIBSD   TO    JESUS 

course  of  his  argument,  promotes  most  eifectuaily  the  great  desisn  of 
his  Epistle,  because  it  serves  to  satisfy  the  Colossiaus.  that  the  Author 
of  the  ne\\-  religion  was  qualuied  for  the  omce  which  he  assumed, 
and  that  their  faith  in  him,  without  any  aid  from  Jewish  ceremonies, 
was  able  to  save  them.  This  digression  is  contained  in  the  loth,  16th, 
17th,  and  ISth  verses  of  the  first  chapter. 

I  shall  first  give  that  interpretation  of  these  verses,  which  seems  to 
arise  out  of  the  words  themselves :  and  I  shall  next  comment  upon 
another  interpretation  which  they  have  received. 

'Oj-  f5Ti»  six^  rex  9sai  rot  a^aroi.  It  is  proper  to  take  along  with  this 
expression,  two  corresponding  phrases  in  Heb.  i.  3. — 'O,-  w»  a.tai-urua 
t*;  Sogrj,  xai  rjc:xjr!Tp^  rrc  i-*>7rajft>s-  acrw..  All  the  three  are  hishlv  figura- 
tive, as  the  whole  language  in  which  we  presume  to  speak  of  the 
Almighty  neiessarily  must  be.  But  attention  to  the  point  in  which 
the  three  images  coincide  may  assist  us  in  understanding  every  one 
of  them.  Eix-a  is  a  likeness  or  portrait,  representing  the  features  of  a 
pers-3n,  the  expression  and  air  of  his  countenance  :  ^-cairji-ua,  that 
which  shines  forth  from  a  ray,  a  brisht  ray  of  his  glory.  Tne  expres- 
sion is  probably  borrowed  from  the  book  of  Wisdom,  vii.  25,  where 

Wisdom  is  called  i-toe^txa  rr:  rot;  ttarraxcaro^  &§r$  eUixftrjTS,  a.tiu.-ytx-:aa  fivyrcj 

oi^ua,  ~  a  pure  ray  flowing  from  the  glory  of  the  Almighty*,  the  bright- 
ness of  the  everlasting  light.'*  As  light,  says  Dionysius  of  Alexan- 
dria, who  wrote  before  the  Council  of  Nice,  is  known  by  its  shining 

forth,  so  orrof  ati  tw  =«ro--,  SrXas  Li  tjstr  a£(  tfo  astiBrjfn.7fia.     On  this  expression 

was  grounded  an  argument  for  the  eternity  and  consubstantiality  of 
the  Son.  his  being  always  with  the  Father,  and  of  the  same  nature. 
Xifazrr^.  trom  zoe3."^  imprimo.  a  stamp,  an  impression,  as  that  by 
which  the  figure  engraved  on  a  seal  is  truly  represented  in  wax.  Tr? 
f:t5;ra'5i>f  wrroc.  I  must  Warn  you  that  the  word  v^ocrra-u-.  whicli  our 
translators  have  rendered  Pei^^n,  does  not,  either  by  its  etymology, 
or  by  its  use  in  the  days  of  the  Apostle,  necessarily  convey  that 
distinction  which  we  now  mark,  when  we  speak  of  the  three  Persons 
in  the  G'>ihead.  For  the  first  three  centuries,  ot-ca  and  i-Ttoma-Ai  were 
tised  promiscuously,  and  it  was  in  the  progress  of  controversy,  that 
men  being  obliged  to  speak  with  more  precision,  and  to  define  their 
terms,  came  to  appropriate  v?to7To«^  to  denote  a  person,  while  w^^i 
signified  that  nature  or  substance  which  difierent  persons  might  have 
in  common.  It  would  therefore  have  been  more  correct,  because 
more  agreeable  to  the  language  of  the  Apostle's  time,  to  have  render- 
ed zH^'^  "^  fci35ra5ft>:-  21TOC,  the  express  image,  or  representation  of  his 
substance,  i.  e.  of  his  essential  attributes.  It  is  always  unsafe  to  build 
an  argument  upon  figurative  expressions :  and,  until  we  be  further 
advanced  in  this  inquiry,  we  are  not  warranted  to  say  whether  these 
three  phrases  ought  to  receive  that  strict  interpretation  which  renders 
them  descriptive  of  the  nature  of  Christ.  This  much  they  certainly 
imply,  that  the  glory  of  the  divine  pertections  was  most  accurately 
reflected  and  exhibited  to  man  in  Jesus  Christ.  They  may  imply 
that  this  accurate  exhibition  arises  from  a  similitude,  or  sameness  of 
nature :  and  if  plain  declarations  of  Scripture  shall  authorize  us  to 
amx  this  meaning  to  these  figurative  phrases,  you  will  recollect  that 
it  is  such  as  they  seem  easily  to  bear. 

nfL.?9r«»w>j  jt->7r?  xrin^.   The  word  rt^^anay;  is  applied  by  Homer,  II. 


ly    HIS    PRE-EXISTZNT    STATE.  26S 


xvii.  5,  to  an  animal  who,  for  the  firsi  time  brouglit  forth  young ; 
ne^oToaw,-  x«a»r.  ot  new  ft^«x  toxo^o-  nou  prius  expert  a  parium.  If  we 
followed  the  analogy  of  the  passage,  we  should  translate  aft-r&roxoj 
7ta-r:  xTt:;*i^e,  he  who  first  brought  forth  the  whole  creation,  which  would 
render  it  equivalent  to  a  phrase,  Rev.  iii.  14,  where  Jesus  calls  him- 
self r  a^xr  rr:  xti5c-k  'ov  BiM.  Mxr,  in  the  language  of  ancient  philosophy, 
denoted  an  efficient  cause,  that  which  gave  a  besinnin?  to  other 
things,  a  principle  or  source  of  existence.  According  to  this  received 
sense  of  the  word,  a^zr  TijjxTi3«.>jrw0foi  means  more  them  our  English 
translation  conveys, — the  beginning  of  the  creation  of  God  ;  it  is  he 
who  gave  a  beginning  to,  produced,  the  creation  of  God.  But  there 
are  several  reasons  which  prevent  us  from  sivin?  n^^oroxx  razrj  m^ft^ 
the  sense  which  renders  it  equivalent  to  this  true  meaning  of  aczr  -ri 
xTtjftij.  1.  Although  .-re-roToxor.  like  other  compounds  of  rsroxa.  occurs 
in  an  active  sense,  there  is  no  insrance  of  its  governing  a  case  of  the 
word,  denoting  the  thing  brought  forth  ;  and  that  case,  if  there  were 
one  governed  by  it,  would  not  be  the  genitive,  2.  In  other  places  of 
the  Xew  Testament,  and  in  the  ISth  verse  of  this  chapter,  n^-corcaroj 
must  be  translated  in  a  passive  sense,  not  the  first  who  brought  forth, 
but  the  first  who  was  brought  forth.  3.  If  you  translate  it  here  in  an 
active  sense,  then  the  16th  verse  only  repeats  in  a  multitude  of  words 
that  proposition  of  which  it  professes  to  sive  a  reason.  He  brought 
forth  the  whole  creation  :  ••  for  all  things  were  created  by  him.**  For 
these  reasons,  Christian  writers  from  the  earliest  times  have  under- 
stood this  expression  in  a  passive  sense  :  and  you  will  understand  the 
meaning  which  they  aifix  to  it,  from  the  commentarv  of  Justin  Martyr 
in  the  second  century* :  o  >.o-;Oj,  .t^o  Tt^»  .-to<raiir-j  m-^r  x(u  ;£«;«»'ts-.  And, 
nfuroToxw  rot-  Ssot.  xot  rt§o  xojTij*  to»  xxi^uar-.^.  Bv  their  use  of  the  prepo- 
sition ft?o  in  explaining  this  word,  it  appears  that  they  would  have 
translated  it  in  English,  bom  or  begotten  before  every  creature  :  and 
this  method  of  rendering  the  superlative  is  agreeable  to  the  expression 
in  John,  nc^o^  uoc  rr.  he  was  before  me,  /.  e.  in  comparison  with  me, 
he  was  the  first :  and  it  is  analogous  to  several  other  expressions  that 
occur  in  the  best  Greek  writers.  I  mention  onlv  one.  suggested  by 
Dr.  Clarke,  from  Euripides :  ox-ni  aijj[  6i;rv;tfr?arr  ;itr  iuoLm-x-za  :  there 
is  no  other  woman,  who,  considered  in  comparison  with  me,  deserves 
the  name  of  the  most  unhappy.  So  here,  Jesus,  in  respect  of  --^arr? 
xTi-fi^-.  is  ne-TOToxo.-,  the  first  born,  /.  e.  he  was  bom  before  it.  narrj 
xTt-fu>5-  is  rendered  in  our  translation, "  even,*  creature.**  According  to 
the  analogy  of  the  Greek  language,  if  xnla  means  creo,  xri^r  is  creaiio, 
the  act  of  creating,  and  xri.Z'ua.  creatura.  the  thing  created.  It  is  true 
tliat  this  distinction  is  not  invariably  observed  :  for  as  -td-oli--  often 
denotes  an  action,  a  thing  done,  so  xrtru-  sometimes  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment must  be  translated  a  creature.  But  there  are  several  passages 
where  it  must  be  understood  in  its  orisinal  import,  as  Rev.  iiL  14, 
already  quoted,  and  Rom.  i.  20.  ra  oo^ara  oi^^*  a.to  xii-t^.  xo3*u»-,-  ?«; 
nocruast  looitwia  xa5:eir=u.  The  English  wouid  havc  come  nearer  the 
Greek  if  the  word  creation  had  been  used  here  instead  of  creature  : 
and  if.  at  the  same  time,  the  true  force  of -le-jroroxoj  had  been  express- 
ed by  the  insertion  of  the  preposition,  so  as  to  make  the  whole  clause 
stand  thus,  begotten  before  the  whole  creation,  an  inconvenience 
would  have  been  avoided  which  arises  from  the  present  translation. 


264  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 


To  a  careless  reader,  indeed  to  every  one  who  is  not  capable  of  looking 
into  the  original,  these  words,  first-born  of  every  creature,  seem  to 
convey  that  Jesus  is  of  the  same  rank  and  order  with  other  creatures, 
distinguished  from  them  only  in  seniority ;  and  some  Arians  have 
urged  this  phrase  in  proof  of  the  leading  position  of  their  system.  But 
the  words,  if  closely  examined,  really  contain  a  refutation  of  that 
position  which  they  appear  to  support.  Had  it  been  said,  n^cotoxtoatoi 
Tiant^i  xu(Siu!,  this  would  havc  implied  that  Jesus  was  a  xfcaixa,  like  all 
other  beings.  But  the  word  rt^c^totoxo;  separates  him  from  all  the 
xtiai^ata.  The  act  of  producing  them  is  x^ctii.  But  he  is  tf^^aj, 
derived,  produced  from  the  Father  in  a  different  manner,  before  any 
of  them  were  made.  It  is  not  intimated  in  the  word  ^gwr'oT'oxoj,  or  in 
the  phrase  used  by  John  sv  a^xv>  at  what  time  the  Son  was  thus  pro- 
duced, whether  immediately  before  the  creation,  or  from  eternity. 
That  must  be  gathered  from  other  passages  of  Scripture.  All  that 
we  learn  here  is,  that  the  existence  of  the  Son  of  God  was  prior  to 
that  of  any  created  being,  and  that  the  manner  of  his  being  produced 
is  marked  by  a  word  different  from  creation. 

In  verse  sixteenth,  the  Apostle  mentions  an  infallible  proof  of  that 
which  we  have  given  as  the  amount  of  rc^i^totoxoi  Ttaarji  xttaM;.  The 
Son  of  God  was  born  before  the  whole  creation,  for  every  thing  that 
can  be  conceived  as  a  part  of  the  creation  was  made  by  him.     "On  iv 

avtci  ixifi,a9yi -ta  rtcw-ta  ra  st>  toii  ou^ovotj  xai,  -tairH  ttjiyrji,  'fau^ataxaitaao^ara,  ute 
^ovoL,  stfs  xv^totrits^,  ci,ts  a^;i;at,  sets  tlovstcu.'  ■fa  Ttavta  Si  avtov  xav  fij  avtov  exfi-afcU' 

The  proposition  is  enunciated  in  such  a  manner  as  to  draw  our  atten- 
tion very  strongly  to  the  universality  of  it.  There  is  first  the  same 
division  as  in  the  first  book  of  Genesis.     Ei^  a^xn  irtootj^n'  6  ©soj  -tov  oi^arov 

xac  'Trjv  ytjv.       Here  tCL  rttti'T'a  fa  cv  totj  OL'gwotj  xM  T'a  srCt  ■t*ii  yrj^.      And  witll 

the  same  anxiety  to  mark  the  universality  of  the  proposition,  which 
suggested  the  repetition  that  we  found  in  John,  this  Apostle  adds, 
ta  o^ata  xai  to.  ao^ata.  We  deduce  the  propriety  of  this  addition  from 
what  we  know  of  the  tenets  of  the  Gnostics.  They  said  that  the 
visible  world  was  made  by  the  S»7,awi.^yoj,  an  iEon  of  inferior  rank  ; 
but  that  the  invisible  world,  all  the  different  orders  of  angels,  were 
emanations  from  the  Supreme  mind.  To  them,  therefore,  ^wT'on'tt «;/ 
roii-  ovgacoij  XM  ta  erti,  tr;^  y>j;i  might  sceui  ouly  to  imply  that  the  celestial 
bodies  and  this  lower  world  were  the  work  of  Jesus.  But  ta  ao^ata, 
joined  to  ta  o^ara,  has  no  meaning  unless  it  comprehends  the  angels  ; 
and  that  no  order  of  angels  might  be  conceived  to  be  exempted,  the 
Apostle  adds  several  names,  all  of  which,  being  introduced  by  the 
particles  ate,  appear  to  be  partitions  of  ta  ao^ata.  We  cannot  explain 
the  reason  why  these  particular  names  are  chosen.  But  we  naturally 
infer,  from  their  being  chosen,  that  they  refer  to  a  system  and  a  lan- 
guage with  regard  to  angels  that  was  then  known.  It  was  one  of 
the  doctrines  of  heathen  philosophy,  that  between  God,  the  Father 
of  spirits,  and  man,  there  were  many  intermediate  spirits,  who  had 
particular  provinces  allotted  them  in  the  government  of  the  universe; 
and  this  doctrine  was  readily  embraced  by  those  who  wished  to  incor- 
porate heathen  pliilosophy  with  Rabbinical  learnhig.  For  it  accorded 
with  the  views  given  in  the  Old  Testament  of  the  dispensation  of  the 
law  which  was  ordained  by  angels,  and  with  the  whole  of  that  intei- 
course  which  the  Almighty  condescended  to  maintain  with  his  chosen 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  265 

people.  We  read  in  Scripture  of  Michael  an  archangel,  and  of  a 
chief  prince,  of  cherubim  and  seraphim,  all  which  gives  us  reason  to 
suppose  that  there  are  different  orders  amongst  the  spirits  who  excel 
in  strength.  Learned  men  have  collected  from  the  most  ancient 
writings  of  the  Jews  that  are  extant,  and  from  the  mention  which 
other  authors  incidentally  make  of  their  tenets,  that  they  not  only 
agreed  in  opinion  with  the  heathen  as  to  the  superintendence  of 
angels,  but  that  many  of  them  formed  systems  with  regard  to  the 
orders  and  oiHces  of  these  spirits,  gave  names  to  the  different  orders, 
and  paid  tliem  a  degree  of  homage  corresponding  to  the  opinion  en- 
tertained of  their  nature.  To  these  opinions  and  practices  the  Apostle 
manifestly  refers,  Col.  ii.  18.  And  in  accommodation  to  the  systems 
formed  upon  this  subject,  he  says  iiere,  that  the  angels,  all  of  whom 
are  withdrawn  from  the  eyes  of  mortals,  were  made  by  the  Son, 
whatever  be  their  rank,  implied  in  ^co^■o^•  or  power,  in  xve,wtrjti,  from 
xo^toj;  or  extent  of  dominion,  in  a^A^at;  or  liberty  allowed  them  in  ex- 
ercising their  power,  in  t^ovaiM,  Jrom  (hs-tL,  licet.  All  iv  av-tc^  (xticOir, 
and  6c  at'toD  ixriatai.  These  two  expressions  are  equivalent.  They 
were  made  through  the  exertion  of  a  power  residing  in  him.  But 
ttj  avtov  implies  more  ;  "5  marks  the  point  to  which  an  object  tends ; 
and  the  use  of  it  in  this  place  suggests  that  Jesus  did  not  create  all 
things  for  the  purpose  of  ministering  to  the  pleasure  or  glory  of 
another,  but  that  as  they  proceeded  from  him,  so  they  refer  to  him  as 
their  end.  It  is  equivalent  to  an  expression  in  the  book  of  Revela- 
tion,   i.    8,      E-^o  £i,ut  T'o  A  xac  fo  Si,  a^;^>;  jcat  *f^05,  Xsyst  (i  Kvgtoc.       It   dcSCrVCS 

your  particular  notice,  that  by  the  use  of  this  preposition  «?»  one  of 
the  forms  of  expression,  which,  in  other  places,  seems  to  be  appro- 
priated to  the  Father,  is  here  applied  to  the  Son.     We  read,  Rom.  xi. 

36,  fl  avtov,  xcu,  81  avtov,  xai  fij  avT'or  I'a  jtav-ta,  and  1  Cor.  viii.  6,  A^^'  r;(xw  tti 
©J05  o  rtatr;^,  f|  ov  fa  rtavta,  xai  i^pf ij  £tj  ai'T'or.  xai  ftj  Kii^toj  Ijjsoi'j  X^tsfo;,  6t'  ov  "ta 
ftavtl     xat,  r;i.ist,i   fia  avrov.      'H;U«j  fij  avtov    is  UOt,  "  WC  iu  him,"  aS    iu    OUr 

translation,  but  "  we  to  him,"  or  "  for  him."  The  distinction  made 
by  the  Apostle  to  the  Corinthians,  seems  to  be  removed,  when  it 

is  said,  TtavtaSvavtol  xai  tijauT'o)/  tx-tiatai. 

Verse  17th,  Kat  avto;  ta-a,  7(^0  rccwti^v.  The  Apostle  may  be  considered 
as  repeating  the  amount  of  the  expression  rt^wtoroxoj  rtasi^s  xtKStu?,  that 
the  existence  of  Jesus  was  prior  to  that  of  any  created  being,  a  repe- 
tition made  with  propriety,  after  the  thing  affirmed  by  him  has  been 
proved,  by  his  being  the  Creator  of  all  things ;  or  he  may  be  con- 
sidered as  saying  something  new.  There  are  two  circumstances 
which  lead  us  to  understand  him  so.  1.  The  import  of  av^oj,  a  pro-' 
noun  which  is  more  proper  to  introduce  a  new  proposition  than  to 
repeat  a  former  one.  2.  The  tense  of  "/"'i  which  intimates  not  what 
Jesus  was  before  the  creation,  but  what  he  is  now. 

These  circumstances  render  the  first  clause  of  the  seventeenth  verse 
an  expression  of  pre-eminence.  He  who  existed  before  all,  and  who 
created  all,  now  stands  before  all,  in  a  higher  rank  than  any  created 
being.  Kat  fa  rtavta  sv  avta  sweetrixs ;  and  in  him  they  consist,  being 
continually  preserved  by  his  agency.  Paul  has  expressed  creation 
fully  in  the  sixteenth  verse.  And  the  pronoun  avT'cj  giving  notice  that 
something  further  is  to  be  said  of  the  same  person,  it  is  most  natural 
to  translate  awiatr^xiv,  according  to  classical  use,  by  preservation.  This 
25  2  0 


26G  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 

is  perfectly  agreeable  to  the  passage  in  Aristotle.     A^;i;a'oj  fiev  ti;  >.oyoj 

ovbsi.ua  8s  fvaii,  avtrj  xaQ''  tavttjv  avta^x-zj^  f^>;/^w5£trra  t'jjj  cx  tovfou  at^rrj^M^.*      And 

also  to  an  expression  of  Paul,  Acts  xvii.  28,  where  Paul  shows  an 
acquaintance  with  the  Athenian  poets.  The  quotation  has  been 
referred  both  to  Aratus  and  Cleanthes, 

Thus,  then,  by  an  analysis  of  these  three  verses,  we  have  found  a 
learned  Jew  employing  the  language  suggested  by  the  writers  of  his 
own  country  and  the  philosophers  of  the  times,  as  the  most  proper 
for  expressing  that  Jesus,  the  Son  of  God,  is  the  creator  and  the 
preserver  of  all. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  person  here  spoken  of 
For  there  is  no  other  antecedent  to  the  relative  o^  but  vtov  •?>?;  ayanr^^ 
avtov ;  and  as  the  eighteenth  verse,  by  its  meaning,  must  be  applied  to 
Jesus  Christ,  the  first-born  from  the  dead,  there  is  as  clear  an  intima- 
tion as  can  well  be  given,  that  the  verses  intervening  between  the 
fifteenth  and  the  eighteenth,  apply  to  him  also.  But  these  intervening 
verses,  according  to  the  analysis  that  has  been  given  of  them,  are 
inconsistent  with  the  first  opinion  concerning  the  person  of  Christ. 
And,  therefore,  those  who  hold  that  opinion,  being  unable  to  apply 
these  verses  to  any  other,  are  obliged  to  bring  forward  a  system  of 
interpretation,  according  to  which  they  may,  in  consistency  with  their 
opinion,  be  applied  to  Christ.  As  this  system  is  employed  in  the 
expUcation  of  several  other  passages,  and  is  a  characteristic  mark 
perpetually  recurring  in  the  writings  of  those  who  are  called  Soci- 
nians,  I  shall  take  this  opportunity  of  laying  it  before  you  fully,  with 
the  grounds  upon  which  it  is  rested  by  themselves. 

The  gospel  is  represented  in  Scripture  as  making  a  complete  change 
upon  the  character  of  all  who  embrace  it  in  faith.  The  opinions,  the 
sentiments,  the  affections,  the  desires,  the  whole  conduct  of  those 
who  were  converted  from  the  superstition  and  gross  vices  of  heathen- 
ism became  different.  They  put  off  the  old  man  which  was  corrupt, 
and  they  put  on  the  new  man  which  is  renewed  in  knowledge  after  the 
image  of  him  that  created  him.  This  total  change,  which  restores 
tb.e  image  of  God  upon  the  soul  of  man,  is  called  in  different  places 
by  St.  Paul,  xmvyi  xnavi;  a  significant  figure,  the  meaning  of  which  be- 
comes more  obvious,  if  you  translate  it  literally  a  new  creation,  rather 

than  a  new  creature.       Eit-ij  bv  K^iato,    xawr^   xtiaii-   -ta  a.^x"^"'  rta^yjXdiv,  iSod 

ysyovi  xciiva,  tavta.  2  Cor.  V.  17.  And  the  apostle,  in  an  epistle  to  the 
Ephesians,  written  at  the  same  time  as  this  Epistle,  joining  himself, 
according  to  his  usual  manner,  with  the  converts,  says,  Adt'ou  ya^  ssi-uv 

rtor/jua,  x-tiaOivic;  ev  X^LStai   Ir^rjov  btH  leyoi^   ayaOoi;.    Epll.     ii.     10.        But    the 

figurative  language  of  Scripture  does  not  stop  here.  The  Jewish 
prophets  were  accustomed  to  describe  future  events  relative  to  the  fall 
of  kingdoms,  or  their  restoration,  by  images  drawn  from  the  Mosaic 
account  of  the  creation.  I  will  shake  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  is 
explained  by  Haggai  to  mean,  I  will  overthrow  the  throne  of  kings. 
That  I  may  plant  the  heavens,  and  lay  the  foundations  of  the  earth, 
means,  in  Isaiah,  the  deliverance  and  restoration  of  the  Jews. — In 
conformity  to   this    frequent    language   of  ancient    prophecy,    the 

*  Arist.  Opera,  vol.  i.     Lib.  de  MunJo,  ch.  vi.  375.     EJ.  Lug. 


I 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  267 

evangelical  prophet  Isaiah  paints  those  blessed  events  wliich  were  to 
be  the  consequences  of  Christ's  coming,  the  conversion  from  idolatry, 
the  assurance  of  pardon,  the  practice  of  righteousness,  and  the  union 
of  Jews  and  Gentiles  under  one  head,  by  these  words :  "  Behold  I 
create  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth :  And  the  former  shall  not  be 
remembered,  nor  come  into  mind."*  There  was  a  particular  reason 
for  the  apostles  of  our  Lord  adopting  and  extending  this  image  of 
Isaiah,  because,  in  the  interval  between  the  days  of  the  prophet  and 
their  days,  the  early  opinions  whh  regard  to  the  different  orders  of 
spiritual  beings  had  been  formed,  by  a  mixture  of  Jewish  tradition 
and  heathen  philosophy,  hito  a  regular  system.  It  was  believed  that 
those  angels,  who  had  rebelled  against  God,  exercised  a  malignant 
influence  over  the  minds  and  bodies  of  men ;  and  that  the  heathen 
were  subject  to  the  rule  of  the  prince  of  those  spirits,  who  is  styled 
in  Scripture,  "  the  prince  of  this  world. "t  But  Jesus  "  was  manifested, 
that  he  might  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil, "J  He  himself  says, 
"  I  beheld  Satan  as  lightning  fall  from  heaven."§  He  gave  his 
disciples  power  over  evil  spirits  :  and  he  is  said  to  be  now  "  set  in  the 
heavenly  places  far  above  all  principality,  and  power,  and  might,  and 
dominion  ;  angels,  and  authorities,  and  powers  being  made  subject  to 
him."||  The  gospel  dispensation,  then,  is  represented  in  Scripture 
under  the  idea  of  a  new  creation  of  men  :  a  regulation  of  the  heavenly 
communities,  a  reformation  of  all  things,  rtanyyafcrta:  and  all  this  is 
only  a  figurative  language,  according  to  the  style  of  ancient  prophecy, 
describing  in  a  manner  the  most  likely  to  convince  the  understandings, 
and  to  affect  the  imaginations  of  those  who  were  addressed,  the 
infinite  importance  of  the  gospel,  the  power  exerted  in  its  propaga- 
tion, its  intended  universality,  and  the  efficacy  with  which  it  establishes 
truth  and  virtue  in  the  mind  of  man. 

According  to  this  general  system  of  interpretation,  which  is  applied 
to  many  passages  of  Scripture,  the  three  verses  in  question  are  thus 
understood.  The  Son  of  God,  under  whose  rule  you  converts  are 
now  placed,  is  the  representative  of  the  invisible  God,  the  Lord,  (the 
word  first-born  is  conceived  to  be  adopted  instead  of  Lord,  in  reference 
to  that  right  which  primogeniture  conveys  amongst  men,)  the  Lord  of 
the  new  creation  ;  Jews  and  Gentiles  being  regenerated  into  one  mass 
by  that  doctrine  which  he  first  preached.  For  the  effects  of  his  reli- 
gion may  be  represented  under  the  figure  of  a  new  creation  of  all 
things,  there  being  not  only  a  reformation  of  the  world  of  mankind, 
but  a  subjection  to  Christ  of  those  heavenly  powers  who,  according 
to  Jewish  notions,  formerly  bore  rule  on  earth.  The  terms  in  which 
these  powers  are  here  spoken  of  were  found  in  Jewish  traditions. 
But  it  matters  not  how  far  the  tradhions  were  well-founded.  Whether 
the  powers  were  real  or  imaginary,  the  style  used  would  convey  to 
those  whom  the  apostle  is  addressing,  the  same  exalted  idea  of  the 
power  of  Christ.  And  the  whole  image  is  introduced  merely  to  paint 
tlie  excellency  of  the  gospel  above  all  former  dispensations. 

I  have  endeavoured,  in  the  exposition  of  this  system  of  interpreta- 
tion, to  do  justice  to  the  principles  upon  which  it  rests.     And  I  have 


* 


Isaiah  Ixv.  17.  f  John  xiv.  30.  +  1  John  iii.  8. 

§  Luke  X.  18.  11  Ephes.  i.  20,  21.  1  Peter  iii.  22. 


268  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 

explained  it^  not  according  to  the  rude  form  which  it  first  bore,  but 
with  all  the  improvements  and  corrections  to  which  modern  Socinians 
have  been  driven  by  a  multitude  of  objections. 

Before  we  proceed  to  examine  particularly  the  application  of  this 
system  to  the  passage  before  us,  there  are  two  general  observations 
which  I  wish  to  premise,  the  one  concerning  the  use  of  allegory  in 
Scripture  ;  and  the  other  concerning  the  interpretation  of  allegory. — 
1.  It  is  allowed  that  allegory  was  a  favourite  method  of  conveying 
truth  in  ancient  times,  and  that  while  the  vulgar  rest  in  the  literal 
sense,  an  enlargement  of  understanding  is  discovered  in  apprehending 
the  further  meaning.     There  are  allegories  of  different  kinds  in  the 
Old  Testament.     There  are  many  passages,  such  as  Psalm  Ixxii., 
which  apply,  in  a  certain  sense,  to  events  that  fell  under  the  prophet's 
observation,  but  the  full  explication  of  which  is  found  in  the  dispen- 
sation of  the  gospel.     This  arose  naturally  from  the  character  of  the 
Old  Testament,  which  was  a  preparatory  dispensation,  looking  for- 
ward in  all  its  points  to  the  grace  and  truth  that  were  to  come  by 
Jesus  Christ.     When  grace  and  truth  did  come,  this  reason  for  the 
use  of  allegory  ceased.     For  the  gospel  being  the  last  dispensation,  it 
has  not,  like  the  law,  to  give  intimation  during  its  existence,  of  an 
approaching  change.     Yet  still  the  general  uses  of  figurative  language  ^ 
continue  ;  and  it  may  be  expected  that  the  writers  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, educated  in  reverence  for  the  books  of  the  ancient  prophets, 
and  full  of  their  images,  would  not  lay  them  aside  entirely  in  de- 
scribing the  events  which  those  images  had  been  employed  to  foretell. 
Hence   an  acquaintance   with  the  figurative   language  of  the  Old 
Testament  is  of  great  service  in  expounding  the  New  ;  and  the  exact 
correspondence  between  the  two  dispensations  may  be  so  employed 
as  to  make  them  throw  light  upon  one  another.     2.  With  regard  to 
the  interpretation  of  the  allegories  which  are  found  in  Scripture,  I 
have  to  observe,  that  the  same  propensity  to  allegorize,  or  to  find 
hidden  spiritual  meanings  in  plain  expressions,  which  is  discovered 
by  some  commentators  upon  Homer  and  other  ancient  writers,  has 
been  the  occasion  of  very  great  abuse  in  the  exposition  of  Scripture. 
From  the  days  of  Origen  to  the  present  times,  the  inspired  writings 
have  been  brought  into  ridicule,  or  have  had  the  truths  in  them  per- 
verted by  the  intemperate  exercise  of  this  propensity.     In  mystical 
authors,  the  gospel  has  been  made  to  assume  a  form  which  disfigures 
its  simplicity,  and  alters  its  character :  and  by  those  writers,  whose 
principles  lead  them  to  banish  out  of  Christianity  every  doctrine  that 
is  not  easily  comprehended,  the  language  of  that  religion  is  often 
rendered  enigmatical.     For,  as  has  been  pointedly  said  of  them,  the 
Socinians  take  mystery  out  of  the  doctrine  of  Scripture,  where  it  is 
venerable,  and  they  place  it  in  the  phrase  of  Scripture,  where  it  is 
repugnant  to   God's   sincerity.      The  recollection   of  these   abuses 
should  make  you  receive  with  some  suspicion  every  allegorical  ex- 
position of  Scripture.     And  in  judging  of  it,  it  becomes  you  to  recol- 
lect those  rules  concerning  the  proper  introduction  of  figurative  lan- 
guage, which  have  been  dictated  by  good  sense  and  enlarged  obser- 
vation, and  which  are  commonly  applied  in  reading  other  writers, 
both  as  a  test  of  their  good  taste,  and  as  a  method  of  attaining  their 
true  meaning.     You  have  direct  notice  from  some  expressions  in  a 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  269 

passage,  that  the  words  are  to  be  understood  m  a  figurative  sense. 
Or  you  find,  upon  examining  them  closely,  that  there  is  a  defect  in 
the  meaning  if  you  understand  them  literally.  Or  the  context  in- 
timates, that  a  passage  which  appeared  when  considered  singly  to  be 
literal,  is  really  figurative.  There  does  not  occur  to  me  any  other 
way,  in  which  you  can  be  warranted  to  give  a  passage  of  an  inspired 
author  a  sense  different  from  that  which  the  words  naturally  bear  ; 
and  if  none  of  these  directions  are  given  us  in  this  place,  the  Socinian 
interpretation  of  these  three  verses  must  be  considered  as  an  unneces- 
sary and  licentious  introduction  of  allegory. 

There  is  not  any  expression  in  these  verses  Avhich  necessarily 
suggests  a  figurative  sense.  All  the  nominatives  introduced  as  distri- 
butives of  ta  fiavta,  are  words  generally  used  in  the  language  of  those 
times  to  denote  created  objects ;  and  xti^i^  with  its  derivatives,  is  the 
verb   commonly   used  in   the   New  Testament  to  denote  creation. 

A|to5  II,  Kv^is,  T^aSiiv  ■tmv  So^av — urt  av  fxT'ttfaj  fa  rtavta,  xai,  6ia  -to  ^iXr^ixa  aov  tisi,  xox, 

sxfiaer^aav.  Rev.  iv.  11,  ario  xtioia;  xooixov.  Rom.  i.  20.  It  is  true  that 
xtc^oi,  and  xrwtj?  are  employed  to  denote  reformation.  But  some 
expression  is  always  joined  with  them  in  these  passages  to  give  notice 
that  they  are  transferred  from  their  original  meaning.  When  Paul 
uses  xiiavi  in  this  sense,  2  Cor.  v.  17,  Gal.  vi.  15,  he  prefixes  the 
epithet  xaivri,  which  is  probably  borrowed  from  the  Septuagint  transla- 
tion of  that  passage  in  Isaiah,  which  runs  in  our  Bibles,"!  create 
new  iieavens  and  a  new  earth."  Eurae.  6  oD^avoj  xat  tj  yrj  xawri ;  and  Avhen 
he  uses  the  verb  xtiJ^a  in  the  same  figurative  sense,  the  intimation  is 
still  more  direct,  xmBiv-m  ini,  t^yotj  ayaOotj,  Ephesians  ii.  10.  In  these 
places,  the  writer  plainly  leads  us  from  the  literal  to  the  figurative 
sense.  Here  there  is  no  such  intimation ;  and  the  first  appearance 
of  the  words  does  not  suggest  any  reason  why  we  may  not  translate 
them  literally.  When  we  examine  them  according  to  this  literal 
translation,  we  do  not  find  such  a  defect  in  the  meaning  as  might 
warrant  our  rejecting  it  and  substituting  a  figurative  sense  in  its  place. 
W'e  believe,  by  the  light  of  nature,  that  all  the  things  here  spoken  of, 
Extinta.1,  were  called  out  of  nothing.  The  new  information  given 
us  is,  that  this  was  done  tv  avT'9,  by  the  Son  of  God.  But  it  is  a  very 
bold  speculation  to  reject  the  obvious  meaning  of  a  proposition  con- 
tained in  the  gospel,  merely  because  it  gives  new  information ;  and 
those  who  believe  the  inspiration  of  Scripture  will  require  some 
other  reason  to  be  assigned  before  they  find  themselves  at  liberty  to 
depart  from  the  obvious  meaning ;  more  especially  as  they  observe 
that  the  attempt  to  bring  plain  truth  out  of  the  words  in  this  place,  by 
such  departure,  is  very  unsuccessful.  You  cannot  conceive  a  reason 
for  so  particular  an  enumeration  as  is  here  given  in  the  partitives  of 
ta  rtwta.,  unless  the  action  meant  by  the  word  cxtio'tat,  extended  to 
all  the  things  enumerated.  But  that  action  cannot  be  reformation  ; 
For  with  regard  to  the  phrase  *a  tTtv  t-jjj  y*??,  even  although  you 
restrict  its  meaning  to  men,  the  inhabitants  of  earth,  we  know  that 
many  have  died  without  hearing  the  gospel,  and  that  many  who  do 
hear  it  are  not  the  better  for  it :  and  with  regard  to  the  other  phrase, 
ta  ev  ta  ov^ai'M,\ve  havc  uo  grouud  for  thinking  that  the  character  of 
the  evil  angels,  revealed  in  Scripture,  was  in  the  least  improved  by 
our  Saviour's  coming,  or  that  the  character  of  the  good  angels  stood 
25* 


270  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 

in  need  of  any  amendment :  and  thus  the  notion  conveyed  by -the 
phrase  xmv/^  xti'sti,  does  not  apply  to  a  great  part  of  the  ■fa  tHc  rrji  ->>??, 
or  to  any  of  the  to,  tp  toi  ov^avci.  The  modern  Socinians,  aware  of  the 
force  of  this  objection,  have  substituted  in  place  of  xawyj  xftsi.;,  or  rather 
have  added  to  it  what  they  call  regulation.  The  evil  angels,  they 
say,  are  stripped  of  their  power  by  Jesus,  and  he  is  placed  at  the  head 
of  the  angelic  host.  But  this  is  a  figurative  use  of  the  word  xti^a 
not  warranted  by  the  other  expressions  in  the  Epistles  of  Paul,  where 
a  new  creation  is  meant ;  and  if  it  be  adopted  here,  by  departing  from 
the  plain  literal  sense  of  sxu'yer;,  you  are  obliged  in  the  same  sentence 
to  give  it  two  figurative  meanings,  one  reformation,  applied  to  those 
inhabitants  of  earth  who  become  by  the  gospel  "  the  workmanship  of 
God,  created  unto  good  works;  the  other  regulation  or  subjection, 
applied  to  all  those  beings  whose  character  is  not  changed  by  the 
gospel.  It  is  plain  then,  that  as  the  words  themselves  do  not  neces- 
sarily suggest  a  figurative  sense,  nothing  is  gained  in  point  of  easy 
or  significant  interpretation  by  forcing  it  upon  them.  But  perhaps  the 
context  will  justify  it.  In  an  extended  allegory,  the  first  sentence  is 
generally  obscure.  But  the  primary  and  secondary  sense  are 
gradually  unfolded  by  the  art  of  the  composition  ;  and,  when  we 
look  back  to  the  beginning  after  having  arrived  at  the  end,  the  whole 
becomes  clear.  Here  the  case  is  totally  ditferent.  In  the  eighteenth 
verse,  Jesus  is  styled  "the  head  of  the  body  of  the  church,"  i.  e.  of 
those  who  were  rescued  by  his  blood  out  of  the  slavery  of  sin,  and 
translated  into  his  kingdom.  The  same  word,  Tt^c^totoxoi,  which  had 
been  applied  to  him  in  reference  to  Ttarri^f  xnTEwj,  is  there  applied  to 
him  in  reference  to  vsx^w,  because  he  was  the  first  that  rose,  or  was 
brought  forth  out  of  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  never  to  die  any  more  ; 
and  as  he  was  not  only  before  the  creation  but  produced  it,  so  he  was 
not  only  the  first  that  rose,  but  also  a^x^,  the  efficient  cause  of  the 
resurrection  of  others.  The  Head,  by  rising,  gave  assurance  that  the 
members  of  the  body  should  in  due  time  be  raised  also.  And  thus, 
as  the  pronoun  avto^  is  the  natural  intimation  that  something  else  is 
to  be  said  about  the  Person  who  had  been  mentioned  before,  so  if 
you  understand  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  verses  as  expressing  a 
literal  creation,  there  is  a  striking  analogy  between  the  phrases  that 
had  been  used  upon  that  subject,  and  the  phrases  used  upon  the  new 
subject  in  the  eigliteenth  verse.  And  there  seems  to  be  a  direct  notice 
given,  that  the  subjects  are  different,  by  the  last  clause  of  the 
eighteenth  verse,  ica  ysvrjtai,  cv  Ttmiv  avto^  rt^wtfuuv,  by  which  means  he 
might  become  the  first  in  all  things.  He  was  the  first  in  creation, 
both  as  existing  before  all  creatures,  and  as  having  made  them :  He 
became  after  his  death  the  first  also  in  the  scheme  for  the  recovery  of 
the  world,  because  being  the  first  that  rose,  he  is  the  cause  of  the 
resurrection  of  others.  Such  is  the  light  which  a  plain  interpretation 
of  the  first  three  verses  throws  upon  the  context.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  you  understand  them  figuratively,  you  are  reminded  as  you 
advance  in  the  context  that  the  harsh  interpretation,  which  you  had 
been  obliged  to  impose  upon  the  phrases  contained  in  them,  is  not  the 
true  one,  because  by  it  you  confound  these  three  verses  with  the 
eighteenth ;  you  lose  the  beauty  in  the  analogy  of  the  corresponding 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    ST.ATE.  271 

parts,  and  in  the  repetition  of  the  word  rtgwtorozoj ;  and  you  destroy 
entirely  the  meaning  of  the  last  clause  of  the  eigliteenth  verse. 

It  appears,  then,  that  according  to  those  rules  of  interpretation, 
which  a  regard  to  perspicuity  or  ornament  suggests,  the  Sociniau 
sense  of  this  passage  is  indefensible  ;  and,  therefore,  it  must  be  con- 
sidered in  the  sense  which  naturally  presents  itself  to  every  person 
who  reads  it,  as  a  declaration  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Creator  of  the 
world  ;  a  declaration  introduced  most  seasonably  in  this  place,  to 
exalt  the  dignity  of  the  Author  of  the  Gospel  in  the  eyes  of  the  new 
converts  to  that  religion. 


Section  III. 
Hebrews  i. 

The  last  passage  which  I  mentioned  as  containing  a  full  declara- 
tion that  Jesus  is  the  creator  of  the  world,  is  the  first  chapter  to  the 
Epistle  of  the  Hebrews.  I  do  not  mean  to  give  a  particular  com- 
mentary upon  all  the  parts  of  that  chapter,  because  many  of  them 
have  no  immediate  connexion  with  our  present  object ;  but  I  shall 
state  in  general  the  purport  of  the  apostle's  argument,  that  you  may 
see  the  propriety  and  significancy  with  which  the  declaration  that  Ave 
seek  finds  a  place  in  this  chapter. 

The  apostle  is  writing  to  Jews,  who  had  embraced  the  Gospel,  in 
order  to  furnish  them  with  answers  to  those  objections,  which  their 
unbelieving  countrymen  urged  against  the  new  religion.  The  first 
source  from  which  the  answers  are  drawn,  is  the  superior  dignity  of 
the  author  of  that  religion.  The  law,  indeed,  was  given  from  Mount 
Sinai  by  the  ministry  of  angels ;  and  the  succession  of  prophets  who 
enlightened  the  Jewish  nation  were  messengers  of  heaven.  But  the 
various  manifestations  of  himself  which  the  Almighty  had  made  in 
former  times,  no'Kv^f^^i  xm  Tto^vt^oftui,  cannot  claim  so  high  a  degree  of 
reverence  as  that  message  which,  in  the  last  days,  the  time  that  had 
been  announced  as  the  conclusion  of  the  law,  was  brought  by  a 
person  more  glorious  than  a  prophet  or  an  angel :  'Oi^  (Or,xs  xXi^^opojxov 

rtavtuv,  6t  oil  xat  fovj  aiw^aj  erCoctjazv'  'Oj  uv  (xHavyasixa,  ■trji  5o|»2J5  xao  a^a^axtj;^  ^j;; 
irtoofatTfWj  avtov,  ft^oiv  tc  -to.  rtavta  T'9  ^t/jfua-ti,  tr]^  Swa^isui  avT'ov,  81  eavtfov  xada^iSfiov 
rt.o(,i^!Ja.fA.fvoi -tuv  ajxa^tiuv  r;iA.uv,  exaOiOtv  sv  Si^ia  trji /xeyaXaavvrii  sv  v-^Xov^.       ThlS    is 

the  description  given  of  that  person  by  whom,  says  the  apostle,  God 
in  these  last  days  hath  spoken  to  us.  When  it  is  said  of  the  King 
Eternal,  (Orixt  x^.rt^ovofj.ov,  we  must  understand  this  figurative  expression 
in  a  sense  consistent  with  his  unchangeable  glory,  and  such  a  sense 
is  suggested  by  the  ideas  universally  annexed  to  x^rsoroj^oi.  The  heir 
has  an  interest  in  the  estate  more  intimate  than  that  of  any  one  per- 
son except  the  proprietor  ;  and  he  may  be  intrusted  with  a  degree  of 
authority  over  it,  because  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  he  will  abuse 
that  which  he  is  to  possess.  Hence  in  the  old  Roman  law,  hxres  and 
do77ii?ius  were  considered  as  equivalent  terms.  "  Pro  harede  gerere 
est  pro  domino  gerere,"  says  Justinian  :  and  Paul,  in  allusion  to  this 


272  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 

maxim  of  law,  says,  Gal.  iv.  1,  "  The  heir  while  he  is  a  minor,  is 
under  tutors,  xv^wj  Ttavtiov  w." 

Agreeably  to  this  import  of  the  word  xxri^ovofio^,  Christians  of  every 
sect  understand  the  expression  here  used  to  mean  that  God  constituted 
Jesus  Lord  of  all.  They  agree  also  that  his  appointment  to  this 
sovereignty  was  declared  to  the  world  at  his  resurrection.  The  point 
upon  which  they  differ  is  the  character  of  Jesus  before  this  appoint- 
ment. Those  who  hold  the  first  opinion  concerning  his  person,  that 
he  is  ■^'t^oj  avO^MTtoi,  consider  the  titles  of  honour,  that  are  ascribed  to 
him  in  Scripture,  as  flowing  from  his  being  constituted  Lord  of  all 
things  :  and  they  endeavour  to  explain  the  first  three  verses  in  such 
a  manner,  as  that  they  shall  not  seem  to  imply  any  original  dignity 
of  nature.  He  is  called  the  Son  of  God,  they  say,  because  he  is  made 
heir  or  Lord  of  all.  By  him  God  regulated  and  reformed  the  world  ; 
or,  understanding  atwm?,  according  to  the  literal  import  of  the  Avord 
and  its  use  in  several  places  of  Scripture,  to  denote  the  ages,  and 
considering  81  ov  as  equivalent  to  8i  ov,  they  thus  paraphrase  the  last 
clause  of  the  second  verse  ;  for  whom,  in  respect  to  whom,  in  order 
to  illustrate  whose  glory,  when  he  should  be  constituted  Lord  of  all, 
God  disposed  or  ordered  the  ages :  i.  e.  the  antediluvian,  the  patri- 
archal, and  the  legal  ages,  all  the  divine  dispensations  towards  the 
sons  of  men.  They  interpret  the  first  two  clauses  of  the  third  verse 
as  expressions  of  that  perfect  representation  of  the  divine  perfections, 
which  appeared  in  the  character  of  Jesus  while  he  dwelt  upon  earth. 
Every  one  who  saw  that  excellent  man  in  whom  the  power,  the 
wisdom,  and  the  goodness  of  God  resided,  saw  the  Father  also.  They 
apply  the  clause,  upholding  all  things  by  the  word  of  his  power,  to 
his  transactions  upon  earth,  that  command  over  nature  which  was 
given  him,  and  all  those  miracles  by  which  he  proved  his  divine  com- 
mission, and  established  that  dispensation  which,  having  been  opened 
by  his  preaching,  and  sealed  by  his  death,  is  magnified  in  the  eyes  of 
men  by  the  resurrection  of  its  author,  and  by  their  knowing  assuredly 
that  he  is  set  on  the  right  hand  of  the  throne  of  God,  having  obtained 
an  authority  and  a  rank  superior  to  that  of  the  angels. 

There  is  an  apparent  consistency  in  this  interpretation  which  ren- 
ders it  plausible.  But  when  you  weigh  the  several  expressions 
here  used,  you  will  find  that  it  is  by  no  means  adequate  to  their 
natural  import.  1.  Jesus  is  called  the  Son  of  God,  whom  he  made 
heir,  a  construction  which  implies  that  he  was  the  Son  of  God  before 
his  appointment  to  the  sovereignty.  2.  81  oi  xm  -tovi  atwvaj  snoit^asv,  are 
words  that  would  not  probably  suggest  to  the  first  readers  of  this 
epistle,  either  by  whom  God  reformed  the  world,  or,  by  whom  he 
disposed  the  ages.  Some  critics  have  thought  the  natural  translation 
of  them  to  be,  by  whom  God  made  the  angels,  as  it  is  likely  that, 
before  this  epistle  was  written,  the  Gnostics  used  ol  aiwi/sj  to  mark  the 
multitude  of  spirits  who  were  emanations  from  the  supreme  mind. 
But  although  this  use  of  the  word  might  be  known  to  the  apostle,  we 
have  no  reason  for  thinking  that  it  was  at  that  time  so  familiar  to 
Christians,  that  the  apostle  would  choose,  without  any  explication,  to 
introduce  it  into  an  epistle  written  for  the  purpose  of  confirming  their 
faith  in  the  Gospel,  more  especially  as  another  interpretation  of  these 
words  could  not  fail  readily  to  occur  to  their  minds.  We  are  told  that 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  273 

ot  oiwj'sj  is  equivalent  to  a  Hebrew  phrase,  Avhich  the  ancient  Jews 
employed  to  mark  the  whole  extent  of  creation,  divided  by  them  into 
three  parts,  this  lower  world,  the  celestial  bodies,  and  the  third 
heavens,  or  habitation  of  God.  The  Greek  word  atw^  an  wr,  was 
applied  to  the  world  as  marking  its  duration  in  contradistinction  to  the 
short  lives  of  many  of  its  inhabitants.  The  word  occurs  often  in 
the  New  Testament  in  this  sense ;  and  there  is  one  passage  which 
appears  to  be  decisive  of  the  meaning  of  this  phrase.     Heb.  xi.  3, 

rttatnvoovfiEV  xairi^tio6av  tovi  aiuvai  jj^jfiati,  ®iov.      If  yoU  join  tO  this  received 

use  of  aicoms,  thd.t  trtoitjas  is  the  word  used  in  the  Septuagint  translation 
of  the  first  verse  of  Genesis,  and  that  fita  is  one  of  the  prepositions 
which  we  found  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  expressing  the 
creation  of  all  things  by  the  Son,  you  will  not  be  inclined  to  doubt 
that  this  clause  contains  another  declaration  to  the  same  purpose ; 
and  when  you  so  understand  it,  you  see  the  reason  of  the  particle  xm 
being  introduced.  The  Son,  whom  God  did  "appoint  heir  of  all,  5t 
cv  XM,  by  whom  also,"  it  is  a  further  information  concerning  his  person, 
no  way  implied  in  the  appointment,  and  its  being  additional  is  marked 
by  XM,  «  he  made  the  worlds."    3.  According  to  this  interpretation  of 

8J  oil  :iat,  t'ouj  aiwva{  crCoitjss,  ^f^iov  is  ia  Tlavta  tcjt  ^rjfiatc  t'jjj  fiwa^uttoj  av-tov,    will 

naturally  express  his  being  the  preserver  and  supporter  of  all  things 
which  he  created,  as  the  apostle  to  the  Colossians  had  said,  "  by  him  all 
things  consist."  And,  4th,  The  first  two  clauses  of  the  third  verse, 
which  are  equivalent  to  the  expression  that  we  found  there,  ctxwv  rov 
@sov  iov  ao^ajov,  appear  by  their  form,  as  well  as  their  meaning,  intended 
to  convey  additional  information  concerning  the  person  of  the  Son, 
so  that  the  amount  of  the  third  verse  may  be  thus  stated,  the  Son, 
appointed  by  God  the  Lord  of  all,  by  whom  God  created  the  world, 
-who  being  originally  a  bright  ray  of  the  Father's  glory,  and  the  exact 
representation  of  his  essence,  and  supporting  without  any  fatiguing 
exertion  all  the  things  made  by  him,  did  in  the  last  days  appear  to 
wash  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself,  and  having  accomplished 
this  work,  sat  down  on  the  right  hand  of  the  Majesty  on  high. 

It  appears  from  this  review  of  the  first  three  verses,  that  besides 
the  simple  proposition  which  the  Socinians  find  in  them,  that  the  man 
by  whom  God  spoke  in  the  last  days  is  now  the  Lord  of  all,  they 
contain  also  further  intimation  concerning  this  man,  as  being  the  Son 
of  God,  by  whom  he  made  the  world.     These  further  intimations 
require  proof,  and  they  do  not  admit  the  same  kind  of  proof  with  the 
simple  proposition  that  he  is  now  Lord  of  all.    That  was  made  mani- 
fest by  the   extraordinary  gifts  with   which   he  endowed  the  first 
preachers  of  his  religion,  gifts  sufficient  to  prove  that  all  power  in 
heaven   and   in   earth   is  now  given  to   him,  but  not  sufficient  to 
establish  with  certainty  any  conclusion,  which  extends  to  his  state 
previous  to  the  time  of  his  receiving  that  power.     As  there  is  thus 
occasion  for  proving  the  further  intimations  concerning  the  person  of 
Christ,  which  we  have  found  in  the  first  three  verses,  it  is  natural  to 
look  for  that  proof  in  the  remaining  part  of  the  chapter,  which  seems 
at  first  reading  to  relate  to  the  same  subject ;  and  the  proof  is  formally 
introduced  by  the  fourth  verse.     Toaovt<f>  x^ntruv  ycwixtvoi  tuv  ayyau>v,  6aa 
Si-i^o^iots^oi'  rta|j  avtovi  xixrio^oiotn^xH'  ofOjua,  which  may  be  literally  rendered 
thus  :  "  being  as  far  superior  to  the  angels,  as  the  name  which  he  hath 

2V 


274  ACTIONS  ASCRIBED  TO  JESUS 

inherited  is  more  excellent  than  theirs."  The  point  to  be  proved  is 
not  that  he  is  now  superior  to  the  angels ;  that  is  self-evident,  if  he 
be  Lord  of  all ;  but  that  the  name  which  he  has  inherited  as  always 
belonging  to  him,  and  the  characters  by  which  he  has  been  announced 
in  the  former  revelations  of  God,  imply  a  pre-eminence  over  the 
angels  corresponding  to  his  present  exaltation.  This  point,  a  proof 
of  which  the  train  of  the  apostle's  argument  requires,  is  fully 
established  in  the  following  verses,  in  the  manner  most  satisfactory  to 
the  Hebrews,  by  a  reference  to  their  own  Scriptures.  I  shall  just 
mark  the  steps  of  the  proof,  without  staying  to  illustrate  fully  the 
several  quotations. 

1.  He  is  called  the  Son  of  God,  with  an  emphasis  which  is  never 
applied  to  any  other  being.  Of  the  two  citations  in  the  fifth  verse, 
the  one  is  taken  from  Psalm  ii.  which  the  Jews  considered  as  a  pro- 
phecy of  the  Messiah  ;  the  other  from  a  message  which  the  prophet 
Nathan  brought  to  David,  1  Chron.  xvii.  11 — 14.  There  is  no 
mention  in  that  message  of  the  Messiah,  but  there  are  these  words, 
which  point  to  a  greater  than  Solomon.  "  And  it  shall  come  to  pass 
when  thy  days  be  expired,  that  thou  must  go  to  be  with  thy  fathers, 
that  I  will  raise  up  thy  seed  after  thee,  which  shall  be  of  thy  sons.  I 
will  be  his  Father,  and  he  shall  be  my  Son  ;  and  1  will  settle  him  in 
mine  house,  and  in  my  kingdom  for  ever." 

2.  The  Psalmist  represents  the  Son  as  the  object  of  worship  to  angels. 

6.    'Or'ttf  Si  Tta.'Kiv  SLaarjuyv]  tov  rt^wi'OT'oxoj'  ftj  Trjv  oixovjxivi^v,  'Kiyn'   Kat  Ti^oaxvvrjnatioaav 

avta  rtwrEj  ayycxoi  ©sou.  The  repetition  of  the  adverb  ft^uv  is  the 
common  method  by  which  the  apostle  introduces  a  succession  of  quota- 
tions. It  is  therefore  a  very  forced  construction  which  has  been  given 
to  this  verse,  "  When  he  bringeth  again  the  first  begotten,  when  he 
raiseth  him  from  the  dead."  The  command  is  taken  from  the  Septua- 
gint  translation  of  Psalm  xevii.  The  psalm  appears  to  relate  to  God 
the  Father.  But  we  are  taught  by  the  authority  of  the  apostle,  in 
this  citation,  to  apply  it  to  the  Son.  "  When  God  bringeth  in  the 
first  begotten,  /.  e.  when  he  announceth  his  coming  into  the  world,  he 
saith,  Let  all  the  angels  of  God  worship  him." 

3.  The  pre-eminence  of  the  Son  over  the  angels  is  inferred  from  the 
very  different  language  which  is  employed  in  relation  to  the  angels 
and  him,  ngo?  fnv  ■tovi  ayyt^ous  xsyst.  ngo5  8s  'tov  vlov  7,  8,  9.  The  angels 
are  spoken  of  as  servants  ;  the  Son  is  addressed  by  the  name  of  God, 
as  a  king,  whose  throne  is  everlasting.  The  quotations  are  taken 
from  Psalms  civ.  and  xlv.  which  the  Jews  were  accustomed  to  apply 
to  the  Messiah.  Although  it  be  not  very  much  to  my  present 
purpose,  I  cannot  avoid  mentioning  an  ingenious  criticism  on  the  7th 
verse,  which  is  found  in  Grotius,  which  was  adopted  by  Dr.  Lowth 
in  his  elegant  book  De  Sacra  Poesi  Hebraeorum,  and  is  illustrated  by 
Dr.  Campbell  in  one  of  his  critical  dissertations.  Three  authorities  so 
respectable  claim  our  attention.  It  is  not  easy  to  affix  any  meaning 
to  the  seventh  verse,  which  both  in  this  place,  and  in  Psalm  civ.  is 
thus  rendered,  "  Who  maketh  his  angels  spirits,  and  his  ministers  a 
flame  of  fire."  But  the  Hebrew  as  well  as  the  Greek  word  for  spirits 
may  be  translated  "'winds,"  and  ayysxoj  is  the  general  word  for 
"  messenger  ;"  so  that  the  verse  admits  of  a  translation  most  agreeable 
to  the  context  in  Psalm  civ.     "  Who  maketh  the  clouds  his  chariot, 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  275 

who  walketli  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind ;  who  maketh  the  winds 
his  messenger,  and  the  flaming  fire  his  servant,"  i.  e.  who  employs 
wind  and  fire  to  accompUsh  his  purposes.  This  meaning  enters  most 
naturally  into  the  Psalm,  which  celehrates  the  glory  of  God  as  it 
appears  in  the  material  creation,  and,  if  adopted  here,  contributes  very 
much  to  the  force  of  the  apostle's  reasoning,  by  the  improvement 
which  it  makes  upon  the  sense  of  the  quotation.  "  So  little  sacred- 
ness  is  there  in  the  name  Angels,  that  it  is  applied  in  Scripture  to 
inanimate  objects,  storm,  and  lightning.  But  so  sacred  is  the 
name  of  the  Son,  that  the  Person  who  bears  it  is  addressed  by  the 
Almighty  as  an  everlasting  King.  Thy  throne,  0  God,  is  for  ever 
and  ever." 

There  is  one  objection  to  this  change  which  I  was  very  much 
surprised  to  find  the  minute  accuracy  of  Dr.  Campbell  had  omitted  to 
mention.  It  is  contrary  to  the  rule  to  which  I  referred  when  speaking 
of  these  words,  ©soj  j^w  o  xoyoj,  that  in  Greek  the  predicate  is  commonly 
distinguished  from  the  subject  of  a  proposition  by  being  without  the 
article,  more  especially  when  the  predicate  stands  first;  w^ ■^  t^fie^a tysvsto. 
I  doubt  not  that  it  was  a  regard  to  this  rule  which  led  our  translators 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  to  adopt  a  dark  expression  instead  of 
an  obvious  one.  I  believe  that  this  distinction  between  the  predicate 
and  the  subject  of  a  proposition  is  observed,  with  very  few  exceptions, 
and  much  advantage  arises  from  the  observance  of  it.  At  the  same 
time,  as  the  rule  is  fonnded  merely  upon  practice,  and  not,  as  far  as  1 
know,  upon  any  thing  essential  to  the  constitution  of  the  language ; 
and  as,  in  the  best  writers,  anomalous  expressions  sometimes  occur, 
it  does  not  appear  to  me  that  the  place  of  the  article  in  this  verse  is  a 
sufficient  reason  for  rejecting  a  translation  which  is  so  striking  an 
improvement. 

4.  The  fourth  quotation,  10,  11, 12,  is  taken  from  Psalm  cii.  There 
is  not  in  that  psalm  any  direct  mention  of  the  Son  of  God.  But  if 
you  admit  that  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  are  inspired,  you 
cannot  suppose  that  the  apostle  was  mistaken  in  applying  these  words; 
and,  therefore,  the  only  question  is,  whether  he  does  apply  them  to 
Jesus  Christ.  The  succession  of  quotations  leads  you  to  expect  this 
application,  for  there  would  be  an  abruptness  inconsistent  both  with 
elegance  and  perspicuity,  if  between  the  third  and  the  fifth  quota- 
tions, both  of  which  are  addressed  to  the  Son,  there  should  be  intro- 
duced, without  any  intimation  of  the  change,  one  addressed  to  the 
Father ;  and  all  the  attempts  to  establish  a  connexion  made  by  those 
who  consider  it  as  thus  addressed  are  so  forced  and  unnatural,  as  to 
satisfy  us  that  they  are  mistaken.  You  may  judge  of  the  rest  by  that 
attempt  which  is  the  latest,  and  is  really  the  most  plausible.  Those, 
then,  who  consider  the  10th,  11th,  and  12th  verses,  as  addressed  to 
God  the  Father,  endeavour  to  prepare  for  this  application  of  the 
words  by  translating  the  beginning  of  the  8th  verse  in  a  manner 
which  the  syntax  admits,  although  it  creates  a  very  harsh  figure. 
"  Unto  the  Son,  he  saith,  God  is  thy  throne  for  ever,"  /.  e.  the  support 
of  thy  throne.  As  it  is  said  by  God  to  the  Messiah,  Psalm  Ixxxix. 
4.  "I  will  build  up  thy  throne  to  all  generations."  And  they  con- 
sider the  10th,  nth,  and  12th  verses  as  introduced  to  show  the  un- 
changeableness   of  that  God  who  is  the  support  of  the  Messiah's 


276  ACTIONS   ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 

throne.  It  shall  endure  for  ever  ;  for  that  Lord  who  hath  promised 
to  support  it  has  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth,  and  remains  the 
same  after  the  heaA^ens  are  dissolved.  And  thus  the  apostle  is  made 
to  interrupt  a  close  argument  by  bringing  in  three  verses,  in  order  to 
prove  what  nobody  denied,  that  God  is  unchangeable.  The  question 
is  not  whether  God  be  able  to  fulfil  his  promise.  That  was  admitted 
by  all  the  Hebrews,  whether  they  received  the  Gospel  or  not.  But 
the  question  is,  what  God  had  promised  and  declared  to  the  JNIessiah  ; 
and,  therefore,  these  three  verses,  according  to  the  interpretation  now 
given  of  them,  may  be  taken  away  without  hurting  the  apostle's 
argument,  or  detracting  in  the  least  from  the  information  conveyed 
concerning  the  person  of  Christ.  On  the  other  hand,  if,  following 
the  train  of  the  apostle's  reasoning,  you  consider  this  quotation  as 
addressed  to  the  same  person  with  the  third  and  fifth,  it  is  a  proof  of 
that  assertion  in  the  end  of  the  2d  verse,  8i  oi  km  tov^  atum?  ertoi^j-K,  of 
which  no  proof  had  hitherto  been  adduced ;  and  it  is  a  direct  proof 
of  such  a  kind  that  it  cannot  be  evaded.  For  the  figurative  sense, 
given  by  the  Socinians  to  the  passage  in  the  Colossians,  will  not  avail 
them  here,  because  the  heavens  and  the  earth  spoken  of  in  this  place 
are  to  perish,  and  wax  old  like  a  garment.  But  the  kingdom  of 
righteousness,  which  Isaiah  expressed  by  new  heavens  and  a  new 
earth,  shall  endure  for  ever.  The  number  of  its  subjects  is  continually 
increasing ;  and  they  who  are  "  the  workmanship  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus,  created  unto  good  works,"  shall  shine  for  ever  with  unfading 
lustre  in  the  kingdom  of  their  Father.  The  material,  not  the  moral 
creation,  shall  be  changed ;  and,  therefore,  the  material  creation  must 
be  meant  by  that  earth  and  those  heavens,  which  are  said  to  be  the 
work  of  the  Lord  here  addressed. 

5.  The  original  pre-eminence  of  Jesus  Christ  is  inferred,  in  the  last 
place,  from  the  manner  in  which  the  promise  of  that  dominion,  which 
was  to  be  given  him,  is  expressed  in  the  Old  Testament.  The  quo- 
tation in  the  13th  verse  is  taken  from  Psalm  ex.  which  the  ancient 
Jews  always  applied  to  the  Messiah.  It  contains  a  promise  which 
was  fulfilled  in  the  Son's  being  appointed  Lord  of  all  things,  and  in 
his  sitting  down  on  the  right  hand  of  the  majesty  on  high.  The 
argument  turns  upon  the  style  of  this  promise.  A  seat  on  the  right 
is  in  all  countries  the  place  of  honour;  and  when  the  Almighty  says 
to  tlie  Messiah,  "'  Sit  thou  at  my  right  hand  till  I  make  thine  enemies 
thy  footstool,"  the  address  conveys  to  our  minds  an  impression  of  tlie 
dignity  of  the  person  upon  whom  so  distinguished  an  honour  was 
conferred,  as  well  as  of  the  stability  and  perpetuity  of  his  kingdom. 
The  Almighty  never  spoke  in  this  manner  to  any  angel.  They  do 
not  sit  at  his  right  hand.  They  are  spirits  employed  in  public  works, 
sent  forth  at  his  pleasure  in  different  services.  They  are  not  the  ser- 
vants of  men.  But  the  services  appointed  them  by  God  are  5ia  rouj 
^tfxxorroj  x'Kri^ovoixsvf  csu>fin^iav,  upou  accouut  of,  for  the  benefit  of,  those  who 
are  to  inherit  eternal  life.  The  Son,  on  the  other  hand,  remains  in 
the  highest  place  of  honour,  without  ministration,  till  those  who  resist 
his  dominion  be  completely  subdued. 

There  arises  from  this  review  of  the  latter  part  of  the  chapter,  ^he 
strongest  presumption  that  we  gave  a  right  interpretation  of  the  first 
three  verses.     For  if  we  consider  the  apostle  as  there  stating  the 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  277 

original  pre-eminence  of  the  person  who  is  now  appointed  Lord  of 
all,  we  find  the  most  exact  correspondence  between  the  positions  laid 
down  at  the  beginning,  and  the  proofs  of  them  adduced  in  the  sequel : 
whereas  if,  by  a  forced  interpretation  of  some  phrases  in  the  first 
three  verses,  we  consider  them  as  stating  simply  the  dominion  of 
Christ,  without  any  respect  to  his  having  been  in  the  beginning  the 
Son  of  God,  and  the  Creator  of  the  world,  we  are  reminded,  as  we 
advance,  of  the  violence  which  we  did  to  the  sense  of  the  autlior,  by 
meeting  with  quotations  which  we  know  not  how  to  apply  to  that 
simple  proposition  to  which  we  had  restricted  his  meaning. 


Section  IV. 

Having  now  found  in  Scripture,  full  and  explicit  declarations  that 
Christ  is  the  creator  of  the  world,  I  shall  direct  your  attention  to  the 
amount  of  that  proposition,  before  I  proceed  to  the  other  actions  that 
are  ascribed  to  Jesus  in  his  pre-existent  state. 

The  three  passages  that  have  been  illustrated  are  a  clear  refutation 
of  tiie  first  opinion  concerning  the  person  of  Christ.  If  he  was  the 
Creator  of  the  world,  he  cannot  be  -^aoi  ave^i^noi.  But  it  is  not  obvious 
how  far  this  proposition  decides  the  question  between  the  second  and 
third  opinions,  whether  he  be  the  first  and  most  exalted  creature  of 
God,  or  whether  he  be  truly  and  essentially  God.  It  has,  indeed, 
been  said  by  a  succession  of  theological  writers,  from  the  Ante-Nicene 
fathers  to  the  present  day,  that  creation,  i.  e.  the  bringing  things  out 
of  nothing  to  a  state  of  being,  is  an  incommunicable  act  of  Omnipo- 
tence ;  that  a  creature  may  be  employed  in  giving  a  new  form  to 
what  has  been  already  made,  but  that  creation  must  be  the  work  of 
God  himself;  so  that  its  being  ascribed  in  Scripture  to  Jesus  Christ  is 
a  direct  proof  that  he  is  God. 

It  appears  to  me  upon  all  occasions  most  unbecoming  and  pre- 
sumptuous for  us  to  say  what  God  can  do,  and  what  he  cannot  do  ; 
and  I  shall  never  think  that  the  truth  or  the  importance  of  a  conclu- 
sion warrants  any  degree  of  irreverence  in  the  method  of  attaining  it. 
The  power  exerted  in  making  the  most  insignificant  object  out  of 
nothing  by  a  word,  is  manifestly  so  unlike  the  greatest  human  exer- 
tions, that  we  have  no  hesitation  in  pronouncing  that  it  could  not 
proceed  from  the  strength  of  man ;  and  when  we  take  into  view  the 
immense  extent,  and  magnificence,  and  beauty  of  the  things  thus 
created,  the  different  orders  of  spirits,  as  well  as  the  frame  of  the 
material  world,  our  conceptions  of  the  power  exerted  in  creation  are 
infinitely  exalted.  But  we  have  no  means  of  judging  whether  this 
power  must  be  exerted  immediately  by  God,  or  whether  it  may  be 
delegated  by  him  to  a  creature.  It  is  certain  that  God  has  no  need 
of  any  minister  to  fulfil  his  pleasure.  He  may  do  by  himself  every 
thing  that  is  done  throughout  the  universe.  Yet  we  see  that  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  providence  he  withdraws  himself,  and  employs  the 
ministry  of  other  beings ;  and  we  believe  that,  at  the  first  appearance 
26 


278  ^  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 

of  the  gospel,  men  were  enabled  by  the  divme  power  residing  in  them 
to  perform  miracles,  i.  e.  such  works  as  man  cannot  do,  to  cure  the 
most  inveterate  diseases  by  a  word,  without  any  application  of 
human  art,  and  to  raise  the  dead.  Although  none  of  these  acts  im- 
ply a  power  equal  to  creation,  yet  as  all  of  them  imply  a  power  more 
than  human,  they  destroy  the  general  principle  of  that  argument, 
upon  which  creation  is  made  an  unequivocal  proof  of  deity  in  him 
who  creates.  And  it  becomes  a  very  uncertain  conjecture,  whether 
reasons  perfectly  unknown  to  us  might  not  induce  the  Almighty  to 
exert,  by  the  ministry  of  a  creature,  powers  exceeding  in  any  given 
degree  those  by  which  the  apostles  of  Jesus  raised  the  dead. 

But  although  I  do  not  adopt  the  language  of  those  who  presume 
to  say  that  the  Almighty  cannot  employ  a  creature  in  creating  other 
creatures,  there  appears  to  me,  from  the  nature  of  the  thing,  a  strong 
probability  that  this  work  was  not  accomplished  by  the  ministry  of  a 
creature  ;  and  when  to  this  probability  is  joined  the  manner  in  which 
the  Scriptures  uniformly  speak  of  creation,  and  the  style  of  those 
passages  in  which  creation  is  ascribed  to  Jesus,  there  seems  to  arise 
from  this  simple  proposition,  that  Christ  is  the  Creator  of  the  world, 
a  conclusive  argument  that  he  is  God. 

I.  A  strong  probability,  from  the  nature  of  the  thing,  that  the  work 
of  creation  was  not  accomplished  by  the  ministry  of  a  creature.  By 
creation  we  attain  the  knowledge  of  God.  In  a  course  of  fair 
reasoning,  proceeding  upon  the  natural  sentiments  of  the  human 
mind,  we  infer  from  the  existence  of  a  world  which  was  made  the 
existence  of  a  Being  who  is  without  beginning.  But  this  reasoning 
is  interrupted,  in  a  manner  of  which  the  light  of  nature  gives  no 
v/arning,  if  that  work  which  to  us  is  the  natural  proof  of  a  Being  who 
exists  necessarily,  was  accomplished  by  a  creature,  ?'.  e.  by  one  who 
owes  his  being,  the  manner  of  his  being,  and  the  degree  of  his  power 
entirely  to  the  will  of  another.  By  this  intervention  of  a  creature 
between  the  true  God  and  the  creation,  we  are  brought  back  to  the 
principles  of  Gnosticism,  which  separated  the  Creator  of  the  world 
from  the  Supreme  God  ;  and  the  necessary  consequence  of  considering 
the  Creator  of  the  world  as  a  creature  is,  that,  instead  of  the  security 
and  comfort  which  arise  from  the  fundamental  principle  of  sound 
theism,  we  are  left  in  uncertainty  with  regard  to  the  wisdom  and 
power  of  the  Creator,  to  entertain  a  suspicion  that  he  may  not  have 
executed  in  the  best  manner  that  which  was  committed  to  him,  that 
he  may  be  unable  to  preserve  his  work  from  destruction  or  alteration, 
and  that  some  future  arrangements  may  substitute  in  place  of  all  that 
he  has  made,  another  world  more  fair,  or  other  inhabitants  more  per- 
fect. It  is  not  probable  that  the  uncertainty  and  suspicion,  which 
necessarily  adhere  to  all  the  modifications  of  the  Gnostic  system, 
would  be  adopted  in  a  Divine  Revelation ;  that  a  doctrine  which 
combats  many  particular  errors  of  Gnosticism  would  interweave  into  , 
its  constitution  this  radical  defect,  and  would  pollute  the  source 
of  virtue  and  consolation  which  natural  religion  opens,  by  teach- 
ing us  that  the  heavens  and  the  earth  are  the  work,  not  of  the 
God  and  Father  of  all,  but  of  an  inferior  minister  of  his  power, 
removed,  as  every  creature  must  be,  at  an  infinite  distance  from  nis 
glory. 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  279 

II.  This  presumption,  which,  however  strong  it  appears,  would 
not  of  itself  warrant  us  to  form  any  conclusion,  is  very  much  con- 
firmed, when  we  attend  to  the  manner  in  which  the  Scriptures 
uniformly  speak  of  creation.  You  will  recollect,  that  in  the  Old 
Testament,  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth  is  the  characteristic  of  the 
true  God,  by  which  he  is  distinguished  from  idols.  "  The  Lord," 
says  Jeremiah,  "is  the  true  God;  he  is  the  living  God,  and  an  ever- 
lasting King.  The  gods  that  have  not  made  the  heavens  and  the 
earth,  even  they  shall  perish  from  the  earth,  and  from  under  these 
heavens.  He  hath  made  the  earth  by  his  power,  he  hath  established 
the  world  by  his  wisdom,  and  hath  stretched  out  the  heavens  by  his 
discretion."  Jer.  x.  10,  11,  12.  Creation  is  uniformly  spoken  of  as 
the  work  of  God  alone.*  And  it  is  stated  as  the  proof  of  his  being, 
and  the  ground  of  our  trust  in  him.t  "  The  heavens  declare  the 
glory  of  God,  and  the  firmament  showeth  his  handy-work.  The  sea 
is  his,  and  he  made  it,  and  his  hands  formed  the  dry  land.  0  come, 
let  us  worship  and  bow  down ;  let  us  kneel  before  the  Lord  our 
Maker.  0  Lord,  how  manifold  are  thy  Avorks  :  in  wisdom  hast  thou 
made  them  all. "J  I  have  selected  only  a  few  striking  passages.  But 
they  accord  with  the  whole  strain  of  the  poetical  books  of  the  Old 
Testament :  and  the  apostle  Paul  states  the  argument  contained 
in  them,  when  he  says  to  the  Romans,  i.  20.  "  The  invisible  things 
of  him  from  the  creation  of  the  world  are  clearly  seen,  being  under- 
stood by  the  things  that  are  made,  even  his  eternal  power  and  God- 
head." The  things  made  by  God  are  to  us  the  exhibition  of  his 
eternal  power :  and  a  few  verses  after,  when  he  is  speaking  of  the 
worship  of  the  heathen,  the  form  of  his  expression  intimates  that  no 
being  intervenes  between  the  creature  and  the  Creator.  "  They 
served  the  creature  more  than  the  Creator,  who  is  blessed  for  ever ;" 
■fov  xfiijai'T^a,  o^  sstiv  ivxoYr^toiH^tovi  aimui.  I  havo  Only  to  add,  that  the 
book  of  Revelation  states  creation  as  the  ground  of  that  praise  which 
is  offered  by  the  angels  in  heaven.  "  The  four  and  twenty  elders  fall 
down  before  him  that  sat  on  the  throne,  and  worship  him  that  liveth 
for  ever  and  ever,  and  cast  their  crowns  before  the  throne,  saying. 
Thou  art  worthy,  0  Lord,  to  receive  glory,  and  honour,  and  power  ; 
for  thou  hast  created  all  things,  and  for  thy  pleasure  they  are  and 
were  created."§ 

III.  The  style  of  the  three  passages  of  the  New  Testament,  in 
which  creation  is  ascribed  to  Jesus  Christ,  does  not  admit  of  our  con- 
sidering him  as  a  creature.  In  the  first  of  the  three  passages,  Jesus 
is  called  God.  It  is  admitted  that  the  word  God  is  used  in  Scripture 
in  an  inferior  sense,  to  denote  an  idol,  which  exists  only  in  the  imagi- 
nation of  him  by  whom  it  is  worshipped  as  a  god,  and  to  denote  a 
man  raised  by  office  far  above  others.  But  it  has  been  justly  observed, 
that  the  arrangement  of  John's  words  renders  it  impossible  to  affix 
any  other  than  the  highest  sense  to  ©foj  in  this  place.  In  the  first 
verse  of  John,  the  last  word  of  the  preceding  clause  is  made  the  first 

of  that  which    follows.       Ef  a^^^t^  y^v  u  Xoyoi,  xai  u  ^.oyoj  r^v  rt^oj  Tor  Qsov,  xai  0£oj 

*  Job.  xxxviii,  Isaiah  xl.  12  ;    xliv.  24.  f  Isaiah  xl.  26.  Jer.  xiv.  22. 

+  Psalm,  xix.  xcv.  cis'.  §  Rev.  iv.  10,  II. 


280  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 

jyv  a7a>yoj.  There  must  be  a  purpose  to  mislead,  in  a  writer  who  with 
this  arrangement  has  a  different  meaning  to  ©foj  at  the  end  of  the 
second,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  third  clause.  The  want  of  the 
article  is  of  no  importance.  For  in  the  sixth  verse  of  that  chapter, 
and  in  numberless  other  places,  ©fo?  without  the  article  is  applied  to 
God  the  Father.     In  the  second  passage,  Jesus  is  called  tcxuv  tov  @iov 

tov  ao^atov.  And  in  the  third  artaDyac/na  trji  fio|j;j,  xaiX'^^^'^*]^  *'?5  vrtosra^f uj  auTou, 

phrases  which  must  be  understood  in  a  sense  very  far  removed  from 
the  full  import  of  the  figure,  unless  they  imply  a  sameness  of  nature. 
In  the  second  passage,  it  is  said  that  all  things  were  made  Si  avtov,  a 
phrase  which  might  apply  to  a  creature  whom  the  Almighty  chose  to 
employ  as  his  minister.  But  it  is  said  in  the  same  passage,  that  they 
were  made  »5  avrov,  which  signifies  that  he  was  much  more  than  an 
instrument,  and  that  his  glory  was  an  end  for  which  things  were 
made.  It  is  said  also,  rtavta  tv  avtcf  awiatfixe,  which  implies  that  his  power 
is  not  occasional  and  precarious,  but  that  he  is  able  to  preserve  what 
he  has  made,  and  so  may  be  an  object  of  trust  to  his  creatures.  In 
the  third  passage,  it  is  said  that  God  made  the  worlds  by  the  Son. 
But  the  quotation  from  the  Psalms  adduced  in  proof  of  this  position, 
represents  the  Son  as  the  Creator ;  and  as  in  no  degree  susceptible  of 
the  changes  to  which  his  works  are  subject.  "  Thou,  Lord,  in  the 
beginning  hast  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth,  and  the  heavens  are 
the  work  of  thy  hands.  Thou  art  the  same,  and  thy  years  shall  not 
fail." 

When  you  take,  in  conjunction  with  the  strong  probability  that  the 
Creator  of  the  world  is  not  a  creature,  the  language  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, which  makes  creation  the  work  of  the  true  God,  and  the  lan- 
guage of  the  New  Testament,  where  creation  is  ascribed  to  Jesus, 
you  discover  the  traces  of  a  system  which  reconciles  the  apparent 
discordance.  Jesus  Christ  is  essentially  God,  always  with  the  Father, 
united  with  him  in  nature,  in  perfections,  in  counsel,  and  in  opera- 
tions.— "  Whatsoever  things  the  Father  doth,  these  also  doeth  the  Son 
likewise."*  The  Father  acts  by  the  Son,  and  the  Son,  in  creating 
the  world,  displayed  that  power  and  Godhead  which  from  eternity 
resided  in  him.  If  this  system  be  true,  then  creation,  the  character- 
istical  mark  of  the  Almighty,  may,  in  perfect  consistency  with  the 
passages  quoted  from  the  Old  Testament,  be  ascribed  to  Jesus,  because, 
although  the  Father  is  said  to  have  created  the  world  by  him,  upon 
account  of  the  union  in  all  their  operations,  yet  he  is  not  a  creature 
subservient  to  the  will  of  another,  but  himself  "the  everlasting  God, 
the  Creator  of  the  ends  of  the  earth."  This  system  is  delivered  in 
the  earliest  Christian  writers.  "  The  Father  had  no  need,"  they  say, 
"  of  the  assistance  of  angels  to  make  the  things  which  he  had  deter- 
mined to  be  made  ;  for  the  Son  and  the  Spirit  are  always  with  him, 
by  whom  and  in  whom  he  freely  made  all  things,  to  whom  he  speaks 
when  he  says,  Let  us  make  man  after  our  image  ;  and  who  are  one 
with  him,  because  it  is  added,  So  God  created  man  in  his  own 
image."t 

•  John  V.  19. 

I  Irenaeus,  lib.  iv.  cap.  20,  edit.  Massuet. 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  igSl 

We  require  more  evidence  than  we  have  yet  attained,  before  we 
can  pronounce  that  this  system  is  true.  You  will  only  bear  in  mind, 
that  it  is  suggested  in  all  the  passages  of  the  New  Testament,  which 
give  an  account  of  the  creation  of  the  world  by  Jesus  Christ ;  and 
that  if  it  shall  appear  to  be  supported  by  sufficient  evidence,  it  recon- 
ciles that  account  with  the  natural  impressions  of  the  human  mind, 
and  the  declarations  of  Scripture  concerning  the  extent  of  power  and 
the  supremacy  of  character  implied  in  the  act  of  creation. 


26*  .  o  Q 


282  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 


CHAPTER  V. 

ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS    IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE. 

Jldministration  of  Providence. 

Those  passages,  from  which  we  learnt  that  Jesus  is  the  Creator  of 
the  world,  taught  us  also  to  consider  him  as  the  Preserver  of  all  the 
things   which   lie  made.      This  last  character  implies   a  continued 
agency,  and  resolves  all  that  care  of  Providence  by  which  the  creatures 
have  been  supported  from  the  beginning,  into  actions  performed  by 
Jesus  in  a  state  of  pre-existence.     There  is  nothing  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  nature  which  indicates  the  agency  of  this  person  ;  there  is 
no  part  of  the  principles  of  natural  religion  which  requires  that  we 
should  distinguish  his  agency  from  the  power  of  the  Almighty  Father 
of  all ;  and  therefore,  the  Scriptures,  in  speaking  of  those  interpositions 
of  Providence  which  respect  the  material  world,  and  the  life  of  the 
different  animals,  are  not  accustomed  to  direct  our  attention  particu- 
larly to  that  Person,  by  whom  the  divine  power  is  exerted.   But  they 
do   intimate,  that   the   particular  economy    of    Providence,    which 
respects  the  restoration  of  the  human  race,  was  administered  in  all 
ages  by  that  Person,  by  whose  manifestation  it  was  accomplished  : 
and  upon  these  intimations  is  founded  an  opinion  which,  since  the 
days  of  the  apostles,  has  been  held  by  almost  every  Christian  writer 
who  admits  the  pre-existence  of  Jesus,  that  he  who  in  the  fulness  of 
time  was  made  flesh,  appeared  to  the  patriarchs,  gave  the  law  from 
Mount  Sinai,  spake  by  the  prophets,  and  maintained  the  whole  of 
that  intercourse  with  mankind,  which  is  recorded  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment as  preparatory  to  the  coming  of  the  Messiah. 

The  early  date  of  this  opinion,  and  the  general  consent  with  which 
it  has  been  received,  the  frequent  mention  made  of  it  in  theological 
books,  the  uniformity  which  it  gives  to  the  conduct  of  the  great  plan 
of  redemption,  and  the  extent  of  that  information  which  it  promises 
to  open,  all  conspire  to  draw  our  attention  to  it,  and  induce  me  to  lay 
before  you  the  grounds  upon  which  it  rests.  They  consist  not  of 
explicit  declarations  of  Scripture,  sufficient  by  themselves  to  establish 
the  opinion,  but  of  an  induction  of  particulars,  which,  although  they 
may  escape  careless  readers,  seem  intended  to  unfold  to  those  who 
search  the  Scriptures,  a  view  both  of  that  active  love  towards  the 
human  race  which  characterizes  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  and  of  the 
original  dignity  of  his  person. 

The  general  principles  of  this  opinion  are  these.  God,  the  Father, 
is  represented  in  Scripture  as  "  invisible,  whom  no  man  hath  seen  at 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  283 

any   time."     But   it   is   often   said   in  the  Old  Testament  that  the 

patriarchs,  the  prophets,  and  the  people  saw  God  ;  and  there  is  an 

ease,  a  familiarity  of  intercourse  in  many  of  the  scenes  which  are 

recorded,  inconsistent  with  the  awful  majesty  of  him  who  covereth 

himself  with  thick  clouds.    The  God  of  Israel,  whom  the  people  saw, 

is  often  called  an  angel,  i.  e.  a  person  sent ;  therefore  he  cannot  be 

God  the  Father,  for  it  is  impossible  that  the  Father  should  be  sent  by 

any  one.    But  he  is  also  called  Jehovah.   The  highest  titles,  the  most 

exalted  actions,  and  the  most  entire  reverence  are  appropriated  to 

him.     Therefore  he  cannot  be  a  being  of  an  inferior  order.     And  the 

only  method  in  which  we  can  reconcile  the  seeming  discordance  is, 

by  supposing  that  he  is  the  Son  of  God,  who,  as  we  learn  from  John, 

"  was  in  the  beginning  with  God,  and  Avas  God,"  who  being  at  a 

particular  time  "  made  flesh,"  and  so  manifested  in  the  human  nature, 

may  be  conceived,  without  irreverence,  to  have  manifested  himself  at 

former  times  in  different  ways.     This  supposition,  suggested  by  the 

language  of  the  Old  Testament,  seems  to  be  confirmed  by  the  words 

of  our  Lord,  John  vi.  46,  "  Not  that  any  man  hath  seen  the  Father, 

save  he  which  is  of  God,  he  hath  seen  the  Father,"  and  of  his  apostle, 

John  i.  18,  "  No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time  ;  the  only  begotten 

Son,  which  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  he  hath  declared  him." 

The  meaning  of  this  passage  extends  to  the  former  declarations  of 

God  under  the  Old  Testament.     For  it  is  remarkable,  that  it  is  not 

the  preterperfect  tense  which  is  used  in  the  original,  but  the  aorist, 

which  intimates  that  he,  "  who  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  hath 

declared  him"  also  in  times  past.     He  who  alone  was  qualified  to 

declare  God,  who  certahily  did  declare  him  by  the  Gospel,  and  who 

is  styled  by  the  apostle,  "the  image  of  the  invisible  God,"  as  the 

person  in  whom  the  glory  of  the  Godhead  appeared  to  man,  seems  to 

be  pointed  out  as  the  angel  who  was  called  by  the  name  of  God  in 

ancient  times. 

These  general  principles  receive  a  striking  illustration  when  we 
attend  to  the  detail  of  the  appearances  recorded  in  the  Old  Testament, 
because  we  find  upon  examination  that  all  the  divine  appearances 
made  in  a  succession  of  ages,  are  referred  to  one  person,  who  is  often 
called  in  the  same  passage,  both  Angel  and  Jehovah,  and  that  several 
incidental  expressions  in  the  New  Testament  mark  out  Christ  to  be 
this  person. 


Section  I. 

ALL     APPEARANCES     IN     THE     OLD     TESTAMENT     REFERRED     t6     ONE     PERSON,     CALLED 

ANGEL   AND    GOD. 

In  the  eighteenth  chapter  of  Genesis,  it  is  said  that  "  the  Lord," 
which,  when  written  in  capital  letters,  is  always  the  translation  of 
Jehovah,  that  '•'  Jehovah  appeared  unto  Abraham  in  the  plains  of 
Mamre  ;"  and  the  manner  of  the  appearance  is  very  particularly 
related.  "  Abraham  lifted  up  his  eyes,  and  three  men  stood  by  him." 
He  received  them  hospitably,  according  to  the  manners  of  the  times. 


284 


ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 


In  the  course  of  the  interview,  one  of  the  three  speaks  with  the 
authority  of  God,  promises  such  blessings  as  God  only  can  bestow, 
and  is  called  by  the  historian  Jehovah.     Two  of  the  men  departed 
and  "  went  toward  Sodom,  but  Abraham,"  it  is  said,  "  stood  yet  be- 
fore the  Lord."     He  inquires  of  him  respectfully  about  the  fate  of 
Sodoni ;  he  reasons  with  him  as  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth,  who  has 
it  in  his  power  to  save  and  to  destroy ;  and  we  may  judge  of  the 
impressions  which  he  now  has  of  the  nature  of  the  man,  whom  a 
little  before  he  had  received  in  his  tent,  when  he  says  to  him,  "  Be- 
hold now,  I  have  taken  upon  me  to  speak  unto  the  Lord,  who  am 
but  dust  and  ashes."     It  is  the  same  Lord,  whom  Abraham  saw  in 
this  manner,  that  appeared  to  him  at  other  times,  and,  after  his  death, 
to  his  son  Isaac;  for  a  reference  is  made  in  thg  future  appearances  to 
the  promise  that  had  been  made  at  this  time.   To  Jacob,  the  grandson 
of  Abraham,  the  Lord  appeared  upon  different  occasions,  under  the 
name  of  the  God  of  Abraham  and  Isaac,  i.  e.  the  God  who  had  bless- 
ed them  ;  he  repeats  to  Jacob   what  he  had  said  to  them,  that  his 
posterity  should  possess  the  land  of  Canaan,  and  become  a   great 
nation,  and  that  in  his  seed  all  the  families  of  the  earth  should  be 
blessed,     xxviii.  13,  14.     Jacob,  after  one  appearance,  said,  «  I  have 
seen  God  face  to  face,"  xxxii.  30  ;  after  another,  "  Surely  the  Lord 
is  in  this  place,  and  he  called  the  name  of  the  place  Bethel,"  i.  e.  the 
house  of  God,  xxvhi.  16—19.     He  raised  a  pillar;  he  vowed  a  vow 
to  the  God  whom  he  had  seen,  and  at  his  return  he  paid  the  vow. 
Yet  this  God,  to  whom  he  gave  these  divine  honours,  and  of  whom 
he  spoke  at  some  times  as  Jehovah  the  God  of  Abraham  and  Isaac, 
at  other  times  he  calls  an  angel.      "  The  angel  of  God,"  he  says, 
"spake  unto  me  in  a  dream,  saying,  I  am  the  God  of  Bethel,"  xxxi. 
11  — 13;  and  upon  his  death-bed  he  gives  in  the  same  sentence  the 
name   of  God   and  angel  to  this  person,  xlviii.  15.     "He   blessed 
Joseph,  and  said,  God,  before  whom  my  fathers  Abraham  and  Isaac 
did  walk,  the  God  which  fed  me  all  my  life  long  unto  this  day,  the 
Angel  which  redeemed  me  from  all  evil,  bless  the  lads."     The  pro- 
phet Hosea  refers  in  one  plaee  to  the  earnestness  with  which  Jacob 
begged  a  blessing  from  the  Lord  who  appeared  to  him,  which  is 
called  in  Genesis  his  wrestling  with  a  man  and  prevailing.     So  says 
Hosea,  xii.  2—S.     "  By  his  strength  he  had  power  with  God,  yea,  he 
had  power  over  the  angel,  and  prevailed  ;  he  found  him  in  Bethel, 
and  there  he  spake  with  us,  even  the  Lord  God  of  hosts,  the  Lord  is 
his  memorial."     The  same  person  is  called  in  this  passage  God,  the 
angel,  and  the  Lord  God  of  hosts. 

In  Exodus  iii.  we  read,  that  Avhen  Moses  came  to  Horeb,  "  the 
angel  of  the  Lord  appeared  to  him  in  a  flame  of  fire  out  of  the  midst 
of  a  bush.  Moses  turned  about  to  see  this  sight,  "And  when  the 
Lord  saw  that  he  turned  aside  to  see,  God  called  unto  him  out  of  the 
midst  of  the  bush,  and  said,  I  am  the  God  of  thy  father,  the  God  of 
Abraham,  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob.  And  Moses  hid 
his  face  ;  for  he  was  afraid  to  look  upon  God.  And  the  Lord  said,  I 
have  surely  seen  the  affliction  of  my  people  which  are  in  Egypt,  and 
I  am  come  down  to  deliver  them,  and  to  bring  them  up  out  of  that 
land  unto  a  good  land.  Come  now,  therefore,  and  I  will  se)id  thee 
unto  Pharaoh,  that  thou  mayest  bring  forth  my  people."     You  will 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  2S5 

observe  in  this  passage  an  interchange  of  the  names  angel  and  God, 
a  reference  to  the  former  appearances  which  the  patriarchs  had  seen, 
and  a  connexion  estabhshed  between  this  appearance  and  the  subse- 
quent manifestations  to  the  children  of  Israel;  so  that  the  person 
whom  Abraham  saw  in  the  plains  of  Mam-e,  and  who  brought  Israel 
out  of  Egypt,  is  declared  to  be  the  same.  Moses  asks  the  name  by 
which  he  should  call  the  God  who  had  thus  come  down  to  deliver  the 
children  of  Israel.  "  And  God  said,  I  am  that  I  am :  thou  shall  say  to  the 
children  of  Israel,  I  am  hath  sent  me  unto  you."  This  very  particular 
mode  of  expression  is  intended  to  be  the  interpretation  of  Jehovah, 
the  incommunicable  name  of  God,  implying  his  necessary,  eternal, 
and  unchangeable  existence.  Other  beings  may  be,  or  may  not  be. 
There  was  a  time  when  they  were  not :  the  will  of  him  who  called 
them  into  existence  may  annihilate  them ;  and  even  while  they  con- 
tinue to  exist,  there  may  be  such  alterations  upon  the  manner  of  their 
being,  as  to  make  them  appear  totally  difterent  from  what  they  once 
were.  But  God  always  was,  and  always  will  be,  that  which  he  now 
is :  and  the  name  which  distinguishes  him  from  every  other  being, 
and  is  truly  expressive  of  his  character,  is  this,  fycottpocoj-. 

It  is  very  remarkable  that  in  the  same  passage  in  which  the  person 
who  appeared  to  Moses  assumed  this  significant  phrase  as  his  name, 
he  is  called  by  the  historian,  the  angel  of  the  Lord;  and  Stephen, 
Acts  vii.  30,  35,  in  relating  this  history  before  the  Jewish  Sanhedrim, 
shows  the  sense  of  his  countrymen  upon  this  point,  by  repeating 
twice  the  word  an^el.  "  There  appeared  to  Moses  in  the  wilderness 
of  Mount  Sinai  anlmgel  of  the  Lord  in  a  flame  of  fire."  And  again, 
"  This  Moses  did  God  send  to  be  a  ruler  and  deliverer  by  the  hands 
of  the  angel  which  appeared  to  him  in  the  bush."  Stephen  says  most 
accurately  that  Moses  was  sent  to  be  a  ruler  and  deliverer  by  the 
hands  of  this  angel ;  for  it  was  the  same  angel  who  appeared  to  him 
in  the  bush ;  that  put  a  rod  in  his  hand  wherewith  to  do  wonders 
before  Pharaoh ;  that  brought  forth  the  people  with  an  out-stretched 
arm,  and  led  them  through  the  wilderness.  Accordingly,  Exod.  xiii. 
21,  we  read  "  The  Lord  went  before  them  by  day  in  a  pillar  of  a  cloud, 
and  by  night  in  a  pillar  of  fire."  In  the  next  chapter,  xiv.  19,  we 
read,  "  The  angel  of  God,  which  went  before  the  camp  of  Israel, 
removed  and  went  behind  them."  The  same  Jehovah  who  led  them 
out  of  Egypt  gave  them  the  law  from  Mount  Sinai ;  for  we  read, 
Exod.  XX.  'l,  2,  "  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God,  which  have  brought  thee 
out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage."  Our  atten- 
tion is  thus  carried  back  by  the  preface  of  the  law  to  that  appearance 
which  Moses  had  seen ;  and  accordingly  Stephen  says,  Acts  vii.  38, 
"  Moses  was  in  the  church  in  the  wilderness  with  the  angel  which 
spake  to  him  in  the  Mount  Sinai."  An  angel  then  spake  to  Moses  in 
Mount  Sinai,  yet  this  angel  in  giving  the  law  takes  to  himself  the 
name  of  Jehovah.  The  first  commandment  is,  "  Thou  shalt  have  no 
other  gods  before  me  :"  and  Moses  when  he  recites  in  Deuteronomy 
the  manner  of  giving  the  law,  says  expressly,  that  God  had  given  it ; 
iv.  33,  36,  39,  "  Did  ever  people  hear  the  voice  of  God  speaking  out 
of  the  midst  of  the  fire  as  thou  hast  heard,  and  live  ?  Out  of  heaven 
he  made  thee  to  hear  his  voice,  that  he  might  instruct  thee  ;  and  thou 
heardest  his  words  out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire.     Know,  therefore. 


286  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 

this  day,  and  considei"  it  in  thine  heart,  that  the  Lord  he  is  God  in 
heaven  above,  and  upon  the  earth  beneath,  there  is  none  else." 

All  the  interpositions  recorded  in  the  Pentateuch,  by  which  the 
enemies  of  the  children  of  Israel  were  put  to  flight,  and  the  people 
were  safely  conducted  to  the  land  of  Canaan,  are  referred  to  the  same 
person,  who  is  often  called  the  angel  of  the  Lord  that  went  before 
them.  Moses,  who  begins  the  blessing  which  he  pronounced  upon 
the  children  of  Israel  before  his  death  with  these  words,  Deut,  xxxiii. 
"  The  Lord  came  from  Mount  Sinai,"  seems  to  intend  to  connect  the 
lirst  appearance,  which  this  Lord  made  to  him  in  Horeb,  with  every 
subsequent  manifestation  of  divine  favour,  when,  in  speaking  of 
Joseph,  he  calls  the  blessing  of  God  for  which  he  prays,  "  the  good 
will  of  him  that  dwelt  in  the  bush."  During  a  succession  of  ages  all 
the  affairs  of  the  Jewish  nation  were  administered  with  the  attention 
and  tenderness  which  might  be  expected  from  a  tutelary  deity,  or 
guardian  angel,  to  whom  that  province  was  specially  committed  ;  and 
the  prophet  Isaiah  has  expressed  that  protection  amidst  danger,  that 
support  and  relief  in  all  their  distresses,  which  the  people  had 
experienced  from  his  guardianship,  in  these  beautiful  words,  Isaiah 
Ixiii.  7,  9  :  "I  will  mention  the  loving-kindnesses  of  the  Lord,  and 
the  praises  of  the  Lord,  according  to  all  the  great  goodness  towards 
the  house  of  Israel,  which  he  hath  bestowed  on  them.  In  all  their 
affliction  he  was  afflicted,  and  the  angel  of  his  presence  saved  them  : 
in  his  love  and  in  his  pity  he  redeemed  them,  and  he  bare  them  and 
carried  them  all  the  days  of  old."  Yet  we  are  guarded  in  other  places 
against  de2;radinsr  the  God  of  Israel  to  a  level  with  the  inferior  deities 
to  whom  the  nations  offered  their  worship.  "  Where  are  their  Gods," 
says  the  Lord  by  Moses,  Deut.  xxxii.  36 — 40,  "their  rock  in  whom 
they  trusted  ?  See  now  that  I,  even  I,  am  he,  and  there  is  no  God 
with  me :  For  I  lift  up  my  hand  to  heaven,  and  say  I  live  for  ever." 
And  Isaiah  xliv.  6.  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  the  King  of  Israel,  and 
his  Redeemer  the  Lord  of  hosts,  I  am  the  first,  and  I  am  the  last,  and 
besides  me  there  is  no  God."  This  is  the  language  in  which  the  God 
of  .Israel  speaks  of  himself,  and  in  which  he  is  addressed  by  the  people 
through  all  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament ;  and  in  the  long  address- 
es, several  of  which  are  recorded,  the  high  characters  which  distin- 
guish the  true  God  are  conjoined  with  the  manifestations  in  former 
times,  of  which  I  have  been  giving  the  history,  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  show  that  both  are  applied  to  the  same  Person.  One  of  the  most 
striking  examples  is  the  solemn  thanksgiving  and  prayer  olTered, 
Nehemiah,  ch.  ix.  by  all  the  congregation  of  Israel,  who  returned  from 
the  Babylonish  captivity,  in  consequence  of  the  edict  of  Cyrus  the 
Great.  "  Thou,  even  thou,  art  Lord  alone  ;  thou  hast  made  heaven, 
the  heaven  of  heavens,  with  all  their  host,  the  earth,  and  all  things 
that  are  therein,  the  sea,  and  all  that  is  therein,  and  thou  preservest 
them  all,  and  the  host  of  heaven  worshippeth  thee.  Thou  art  the 
Lord,  the  God  who  didst  choose  Abraham, — and  madest  a  covenant 
with  him, — and  didst  see  the  affliction  of  our  fathers  in  Egypt, — and 
didst  divide  the  sea  before  them, — and  leddest  them  in  the  day  by  a 
cloudy  pillar,  and  in  the  night  by  a  pillar  of  fire.  Thou  camest  down 
also  upon  Mount  Sinai,  and  spakest  with  them  from  heaven, — yea, 
forty  years  didst  thou  sustain  them  in  the  wilderness,"  &c.     There 


IN    HIS    PKE-EXISTENT    STATE.  287 

is  no  interruption,  no  change  of  person  in  the  progress  of  this  prayer, 
so  that  we  must  suppose  a  delusion  to  run  through  the  whole  of  the 
Old  Testament,  unless  the  Creator  of  heaven  and  earth  be  the  same 
Person  whom  Jacob,  and  Moses,  and  Isaiah,  and  Stephen  call  the 
Angel  of  the  Lord. 

In  order  to  connect  all  the  intimations  which  the  Old  Testament 
gives  concerning  the  God  of  Israel,  you  must  carry  this  along  with 
you,  that  the  person  who  appeared  to  Moses,  and  who  gave  the  law 
from  Mount  Sinai,  commanded  the  people  to  make  him  a  sanctuary, 
that  he  might  dwell  amongst  them.  The  command  was  given  to 
Moses  at  the  time  when  he  went  up  into  the  midst  of  the  cloud  that 
abode  upon  Mount  Sinai,  and  when  the  sight  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord 
was  like  devouring  fire  on  the  top  of  the  Mount  in  the  eyes  of  the 
children  of  Israel.  At  this  time  Moses  received  from  God  the  pattern 
of  the  ark  of  the  tabernacle,  and  of  the  mercy-seat  on  the  top  of  the 
ark,  having  cherubims  which  covered  the  mercy-seat  with  their  wings, 
and  looked  towards  one  another.  "  Thou  shalt  put,"  said  God,  "  the 
mercy-seat  above  upon  the  ark,  and  in  the  ark  thou  shalt  put  the 
testimony  that  I  shall  give  thee.  And  there  I  will  meet  with  thee, 
and  I  will  commune  with  thee  from  above  the  mercy-seat,  from  be- 
tween the  two  cherubims,  of  all  things  which  I  will  give  thee  in  com- 
mandment to  the  children  of  Israel."  Exod.  xxv.  21.  As  soon  as  the 
tabernacle  was  reared,  and  the  ark  with  these  appurtenances  was 
brought  into  it,  "  a  cloud  covered  the  tent  of  the  congregation,  and  the 
glory  of  the  Lord  filled  the  tabernacle."  This  cloud  was  the  guide 
of  the  children  of  Israel  in  their  journeyings.  When  the  cloud  was 
taken  up  from  the  tabernacle,  they  went  on ;  when  it  was  not  taken 
up,  they  rested;  and  you  may  judge  how  intimately  they  connected 
the  appearance  of  the  ark  with  the  presence  of  God,  from  the  words 
recorded.  Numb.  x.  35,  36,  as  used  by  Moses  in  the  name  of  the  con- 
gregation. The  ark  of  the  Lord,  it  is  said,  went  before  them.  "  And 
when  it  set  forward,  Moses  said.  Rise  np.  Lord,  and  let  thine  enemies 
be  scattered;  and  let  them  that  hate  thee,  flee  before  thee.  And 
when  it  rested,  he  said,  "  Return,  0  Lord,  unto  the  many  thousands 
of  Israel."  Wheresoever  the  ark  was,  the  God  of  Israel  was  con- 
ceived to  be.  In  that  place,  he  met  with  his  people.  There  they 
consulted  him  in  all  their  exigencies ;  and  the  glory  which  filled  the 
tabernacle,  called  the  Schechinah,  was  the  visible  symbol  of  the  pre- 
sence of  the  God  of  Israel.  When  Solomon  built  a  temple,  he  intro- 
duced into  it  the  ark  and  the  tabernacle.  And  the  joy  which  he  felt 
in  accomplishing  that  work,  arose  from  his  having  found  a  fixed 
habitation  for  that  sacred  pledge  of  the  divine  favour  which  had  often 
been  exposed  to  danger,  which  had  for  some  time  been  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  enemy,  but  which  every  devout  Israelite  regarded  as 
the  glory  and  the  security  of  his  nation.  In  Psalm  cxxxii.  which 
appears  to  have  been  composed  to  celebrate  the  introduction  of  the 
ark  into  the  temple,  you  find  these  words:  "  Arise,  0  Lord,  into  thy 
rest,  thou,  and  the  ark  of  thy  strength.  The  Lord  hath  chosen  Zion  ; 
he  hath  desired  it  for  his  habitation.  This  is  my  rest  for  ever;  here  will 
I  dwell."  In  the  solemn  prayer  of  Solomon,  at  the  dedication  of  the 
temple,  1  Kings  vi.  it  is  declared  to  be  a  house  built  for  the  Lord 
God  of  Israel,  who  had  made  a  covenant  with  their  fathers,  when  he 


288  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 

brought  them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt.  As  soon  as  the  ark  was 
brought  mto  its  place  in  the  temple,  the  glory  of  the  Lord  filled  the 
house  of  the  Lord.  To  this  place  all  the  prayers  and  services  of  the 
people  in  succeeding  generations  were  directed.  The  Lord  was 
known  by  this  name,  Jehovah  the  God  of  Israel,  who  dwelleth  be- 
tween the  cherubims.  And  hence  arises  the  significancy  of  that 
prayer  of  the  good  king  Jehoshaphat,  when  he  stood  in  the  house  of 
the  Lord  before  the  new  court,  2  Chron.  xx.  7,  8.  "  0  Lord  God  of 
our  fathers,  art  not  thou  our  God  who  didst  drive  out  the  inhabitants 
of  this  land  before  thy  people  Israel,  and  gavest  it  to  the  seed  of 
Abraham  thy  friend  for  ever  ?  and  they  dwelt  therein,  and  have 
built  thee  a  sanctuary  therein,  for  thy  name." 

These  circumstances  also  explain  to  us  various  expressions  in  the 
book  of  Psalms,  which,  without  attending  to  them,  appear  unintelli- 
gible. The  Psalms  were  the  hymns  composed  for  the  service  of  the 
temple.  The  particular  occasions  upon  which  several  of  them  were 
composed,  are  mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament  history.  And  many 
of  them  have  a  special  reference  to  that  principle  which  was  incor- 
porated into  the  very  constitution  of  the  Jewish  state,  that  the  peculiar 
residence  of  the  God  of  Israel  was  in  the  ark,  and  that  his  presence 
was  manifested  by  a  visible  glory  encompassed  with  clouds,  and 
shining  sometimes  with  a  dazzling  splendour  which  none  could  ap- 
proach ;  sometimes  with  a  milder  lustre  which  encouraged  the  ser- 
vants of  the  sanctuary  to  draw  nigh.  Ps.  Ixxvi.  1.  ''  In  Judah  is 
God  known  :  his  name  is  great  in  Israel.  In  Salem  also  is  his 
tabernacle,  and  his  dwelling  in  Zion."  Ps.  xcix.  1.  "The  Lord 
reigneth,  let  the  people  tremble  :  He  sitteth  between  the  cherubims, 
let  the  earth  be  moved."  Many  of  the  Psalms,  by  their  reference  to 
events  in  the  history  of  the  Jewish  nation,  show  us  that  the  God  who 
was  worshipped  in  the  sanctuary,  is  the  same  who  made  a  covenant 
with  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  who  appeared  on  Mount  Sinai,  and 
led  his  people  like  a  tlock  by  the  hand  of  Moses  and  Aaron.  Psalms 
Ixxviii.  cv.  and  cvi.  contain  an  historical  detail,  and  Psalm  Ixviii. 
confirms  in  a  striking  manner  the  glory  in  which  God  appeared  in  the 
sanctuary  with  his  former  manifestations  to  Israel.  "  0  God,  when 
thou  wentest  forth  before  thy  people  ;  when  thou  didst  march  through 
the  wilderness,  the  earth  shook,  the  heavens  also  dropped  at  the 
presence  of  God :  Even  Sinai  itself  was  moved  at  the  presence  of 
God,  the  God  of  Israel.  They  have  seen  thy  goings,  0  God, 
my  king,  in  the  sanctuary.  Because  of  thy  temple  at  Jerusalem, 
shall  kings  bring  presents  to  thee.  0  God,  thou  art  terrible  out  of 
thy  holy  places."  While  the  Psalms  thus  bring  together  the  former 
events  in  the  history  of  Israel,  and  the  glory  of  their  God  in  the 
sanctuary,  they  address  this  person  as  Jehovah,  the  Lord  of  hosts, 
who  made  the  world  and  the  fulness  thereof,  the  mighty  God,  the 
king  and  judge  of  all  the  earth,  whom  the  angels  worship,  and  who 
alone  is  to  be  feared. 

The  view  of  the  information  contained  in  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old 
Testament  concerning  the  person  by  whom  the  law  was  given,  will 
be  complete  when  it  is  added,  in  the  last  place,  that  the  writings  of 
the  later  prophets  represent  him  also  as  the  Saviour  of  Israel,  and  the 
author  of  a  new  dispensation,  which  was  to  be  introduced  in  the  last 


IN    HIS   PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  289 

days.  The  interposition  of  the  God  of  Israel,  to  deliver  them  out  of 
the  many  national  calamities  which  mark  their  history,  do  by  no 
means  exhaust  the  meaning  of  the  prophecies  and  thanksgivings, 
which  abound  in  the  sacred  books  of  the  Jews.  The  expressions 
even  of  the  earlier  writers  bear  a  more  exalted  sense,  than  is  attained 
by  explaining  them  of  any  temporal  mercies.  And  about  the  time  of 
the  captivity  of  the  nation,  and  of  their  return  to  their  own  land,  the 
prophets,  in  some  places,  speak  plainly  of  a  spiritual  deliverance,  and 
in  others  adopt  a  richness  of  imagery,  which  is  unmeaning  and  even 
ridiculous,  unless  it  be  understood  to  point  to  the  days  of  the  Messiah. 
But  the  clearest  intimations  of  the  future  glorious  dispensation  are 
always  conjoined  with  the  mention  of  its  being  accomplished  by  that 
very  person  who  was  the  God  of  Israel.  Isaiah  sometimes  represents 
the  Almighty  as  himself  the  Saviour  and  Redeemer  of  Israel ;  at  other 
times,  he  speaks  of  a  servant,  an  elect  of  God,  who  was  to  be  mighty 
to  save.  But  this  elect  is  distinguished  by  such  names,  Immanuel, 
i.  e.  God  with  us,  the  mighty  God,  the  Prince  of  peace ;  and  his 
character  and  appearance  are  described  with  such  majesty,  that  we 
soon  recognise  the  God  of  Israel,  for  whom  the  people  are  commanded 
to  wait.  Later  prophets  give  the  name  of  Jehovah  to  the  person  who 
was  to  be  employed  in  bringing  the  salvation.  Zech.  ii.  10,  11.  "  Sing 
and  rejoice,  0  daughter  of  Zion,  for  lo,  I  come,  and  I  will  dwell  in 
the  midst  of  thee,  saith  the  Lord.  And  thou  shalt  know  that  the  Lord 
of  hosts  hath  sent  me  unto  thee."  Here  is  one  Jehovah  sending 
another  to  dwell  in  Judah.  "  I  will  have  mercy  upon  the  house  of 
Judah,"  Hosea  i.  7, "and  will  save  them  by  the  Lord  their  God." 
Micah  V.  2,  foretells  a  "  ruler  in  Israel  that  was  to  come  out  of  Bethle- 
hem," not  a  new  person,  but  one  "  whose  goings  forth  have  been  of 
old,  from  everlasting."  Jeremiah  says  expressly  that  the  new 
covenant  with  Israel  was  to  be  made  by  the  same  person  who  had 
made  the  old.  Jer.  xxxi.  31.  "Behold  the  days  come,  saith  the 
Lord,  that  I  will  make  a  new  covenant  with  the  house  of  Israel,  and 
with  the  house  of  Judah ;  not  according  to  the  covenant  that  I  made 
with  their  fathers  in  the  day  that  I  took  them  by  the  hand  to  bring 
them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt.  But  this  shall  be  the  covenant  that  I 
will  make  with  the  house  of  Israel.  After  those  days  saith, the  Lord, 
I  will  put  my  law  in  their  inward  parts,  and  write  it  in  their  hearts, 
and  will  be  their  God,  and  they  shall  be  my  people."  In  reference 
to  the  covenant  mentioned  by  Jeremiah,  Malachi,  the  last  of  the  pro- 
phets, announces  the  coming  of  the  Messiah  in  these  words,  Mai.  iii. 
1 :  "  Behold  I  will  send  my  messenger,  and  he  shall  prepare  the  way 
before  me  :  And  the  Lord,  whom  ye  seek,  shall  suddenly  come  to  his 
temple,  even  the  messenger  of  the  covenant,  whom  ye  delight  in ; 
behold  he  shall  come,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts."  The  Lord  coming  to 
his  own  temple  is  the  God  of  Israel  returning  to  illuminate  and  glorify 
by  his  presence  that  Jewish  temple,  which  had  been  originally  built 
for  his  name,  but  which,  after  the  destruction  of  the  fabric  erected  by 
Solomon,  had  been  left  without  the  Shechinah,  the  visible  symbol  of 
his  presence.  By  his  coming,  the  glory  of  the  latter  house,  according 
to  the  prophecy  of  Haggai,*  was  made  greater  than  the  glory  of  the 

•  Hagg.  u.  9. 
27  2  R 


290  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 

former,  because  no  symbol,  however  sacred  or  splendid,  deserved  to 
be  compared  with  the  actual  presence,  and  inhabitation  of  the  Lord 
of  glory.  The  Lord  coming  to  his  own  temple  is  called  in  this  pro- 
phecy the  Angel  or  Messenger  of  the  covenant,  in  whom  the  Jews 
delighted,  i.  e.  a  person  sent  by  another  for  the  purpose  of  making  that 
new  covenant  with  the  house  of  Israel,  which  their  sacred  books 
taught  them  to  expect.  Here,  then,  we  are  brought  back,  at  the  end 
of  the  Old  Testament,  to  the  same  word  Angel  or  Messenger,  which 
we  found  at  the  beginning  of  it.  The  Angel,  who  had  appeared  to 
Abraham,  to  Jacob,  and  to  Moses,  who  had  made  the  old  covenant 
with  Israel,  who  had  been  worshipped  in  his  own  temple  at  Jerusa- 
lem, is  here  caMljd  the  Angel  of  the  covenant  which  was  to  be 
established  upon  better  promises.  The  conjunction  of  names  in  this 
concluding  prophecy  collects  all  the  information  concerning  this  per- 
son, which  we  have  found  scattered  through  the  Old  Testament,  and 
seems  to  be  introduced  on  purpose  to  teach  us,  that  he  who  had  con- 
ducted the  former  dispensation  was  to  open  the  new  ;  that  the  same 
person,  by  whom  the  whole  plan  of  Divine  Providence  respecting  the 
souls  of  men  had  been  carried  on  from  the  beginning  of  the  world, 
was  to  visit  the  Jewish  temple  before  it  was  demolished  a  second 
time ;  and  having  received  the  adoration  of  that  people  whom  he  had 
chosen  in  the  temple,  which  was  his  own  during  all  the  time  that  it 
stood,  was  to  be  entitled  by  another  manifestation,  and  a  fresh  dis- 
play of  his  love,  to  adorations  and  thanksgivings  corresponding  to  the 
nature  and  extent  of  the  blessings  conveyed  by  the  new  covenant. 

This  singular  prophecy,  which  collects  all  the  information  concern- 
ing the  person  of  whom  we  have  been  speaking,  is  found  in  the  con- 
clusion of  the  Old  Testament ;  and  in  the  beginning  of  the  New,  it  is 
applied  by  Mark  to  Jesus  Christ.  This  application  is  a  favourable 
omen  of  the  success  to  be  expected  in  the  second  part  of  this  discussion, 
in  which  I  propose  to  show,  that,  as  all  the  divine  appearances  made 
in  a  succession  of  ages  are  referred  in  the  Old  Testament  to  one 
person,  who  is  called  both  Angel  and  Jehovah,  so  many  incidental 
expressions  in  the  New  Testament  mark  out  Christ  to  be  this 
person. 


Section  II. 

There  is  no  passage  in  the  New  Testament  which  directly  affirms 
that  every  thing  said  in  the  Old  Testament  of  that  Person  who  is 
called  both  Angel  and  Jehovah  belongs  to  Christ.  But  this  is  not  the 
only  instance  in  which  the  intimate  connexion  between  the  two  dis- 
pensations is  left  to  be  gathered  by  those  who  inquire.  There  are 
many  parts  of  the  counsel  of  God,  with  respect  to  which,  as  the 
Apostle  speaks,  to  those  whose  minds  are  blinded,  the  veil  remains 
untaken  away  in  reading  the  Old  Testament.  And  it  does  not  appear 
unworthy  of  the  wisdom  of  God  to  have  provided  in  this  way  a 
reward  for  that  industry  which  is  directed  to  the  Scriptures,  a  satisfac- 
tion to  speculative  minds,  and  an  increase  of  the  evidence  of  Chris- 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  291 

tianity,  according  to  the  progress  which  men  make  in  sacred  know- 
ledge. 

In  the  progress  of  this  part  of  the  discussion,  you  will  have  a  speci- 
men of  what  the  Apostle  calls  "  comparing  spiritual  things  with 
spiritual,"  in  order  to  "know  the  things  that  are  freely  given  us  of 
God."  You  will  find  the  proof  consisting  of  a  number  of  detached 
circumstances.  But  you  will  not,  upon  that  account,  think  it  incom- 
plete. Circumstantial  evidence  is  often  resorted  to  in  human  affairs. 
There  are  many  occasions  upon  which  it  is  not  judged  worthy  of  less 
credit  than  the  most  direct  testimony  ;  and,  with  regard  to  the  parti- 
cular object  of  this  discussion,  if  we  are  attentive  and  patient  in  the 
interpretation  of  Scripture,  the  sentiments  of  the  apostles,  whose  writ- 
ings are  the  standard  of  our  faith,  may  be  as  certainly  known  from 
the  manner  in  which  they  have  expressed  themselves  at  many  differ- 
ent times,  as  if  any  of  them  had  judged  it  proper  formally  to  show 
that  Christ  is  the  Jehovah  who  appeared  to  the  patriarchs,  who  was 
worshipped  in  the  temple,  and  who  was  announced  as  the  author  of 
a  new  dispensation. 

In  collecting  the  evidence  of  this  whole  proposition,  it  is  natural  to 
invert  the  order  in  which  I  brought  forward  the  different  parts  of  it. 
For  Christ  is  known  in  the  New  Testament  as  the  author  of  the  new 
dispensation.  That  is  the  character  under  which  we  find  him  there. 
The  first  thing,  therefore,  to  be  derived  from  thence,  is  an  answer  to 
this  question,  whether  the  terms  in  which  the  author  of  the  new  dis- 
pensation was  announced  under  the  Old  Testament  are  applied  to 
Christ  in  the  New.  If  they  are,  we  should  be  warranted  to  infer,  from 
the  induction  of  particulars  formerly  stated,  that  he  was  also  worship- 
ped in  the  temple,  and  that  he  appeared  to  the  patriarchs.  But  our 
faith  in  the  whole  proposition  will  be  very  much  confirmed,  if,  inde- 
pendently of  proof  of  the  second  and  third  facts  which  necessarily 
arises  from  the  proof  of  the  third,  we  find  them  also  established  by 
separate  evidence. 

1.  It  appears  from  various  expressions  in  the  New  Testament,  that 
Christ  is  Jehovah,  the  Saviour  of  Israel,  who  was  announced  in  the 
Old  Testament  as  the  author  of  a  new  dispensation.  The  allusions 
that  occur  in  the  New  Testament  to  expressions  in  the  Old  respecting 
the  Saviour  of  Israel,  are  infinite  in  number,  and  constitute  a  striking 
illustration  of  this  part  of  the  general  proposition.  But  there  are  two 
heads  under  which  we  may  arrange  those  passages,  which  af!brd  the 
most  conclusive  proof  that  Christ  is  the  person  who  was  thus 
announced.  The  first  is  the  application  made  in  the  New  Testament 
of  the  prophecies  respecting  the  forerunner  of  Jehovah,  the  Saviour 
of  Israel ;  and  the  second  is  a  number  of  quotations,  from  a  long 
prophecy  of  Isaiah,  that  extends  from  the  seventh  to  the  twelfth 
chapter. 

1.  Application  of  the  prophecies  respecting  the  forerunner  of  Jeho- 
vah, the  Saviour  of  Israel.  The  first  two  verses  of  Mark's  Gospel 
are  these  ;  "  The  beginning  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God  ;  As  it  is  written  in  the  prophets,  Behold,  I  send  my  messenger 
before  thy  face,  which  shall  prepare  thy  way  before  thee;"  and  the 
same  prophecy  is  applied  in  Matthew  and  Luke  to  John  Baptist. 
The  words  are  taken,  with  a  small  variation,  from  Malachi  iii.  1. 


292  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 

III  the  prophet,  the  person  whose  messenger  was  to  prepare  the  way 
before  him  speaks,  "  Behold,  I  send  my  messenger,  and  he  shall  pre- 
pare the  way  before  me.''  In  the  gospels,  the  Almighty  speaks  to 
the  person,  whose  way  the  messenger  was  to  prepare.  "  I  send  my 
messenger  before  thy  face."  As  the  passage  is  literally  the  same  in 
all  three  gospels,  the  variation  from  the  present  reading  of  the  Old 
Testament  was  probably  occasioned  by  some  version  or  copy  of  the 
Hebrew,  different  from  any  now  extant.  The  amount  of  the  pro- 
phecy is  the  same,  and  the  fulfilment  equally  exact,  whether  you 
read  "  before  me,"  or  "before  thee;  "and  the  direct  application  to 
John  the  Baptist  of  the  first  part  of  the  verse  in  Malachi,  is  a  clear 
warrant  to  apply  the  second  part  of  the  verse  to  Jesus,  the  person 
before  whom  John  went,  i.  e.  to  consider  Jesus  as  Jehovah  coming  to 
his  own  temple,  the  messenger  of  the  covenant,  whom  the  Jews  were 
taught  by  the  later  prophets  to  expect.  This  inference,  legitimately 
drawn  from  the  use  made  of  the  first  part  of  the  verse  in  Malachi,  is 
established  by  that  quotation  which  immediately  follows  in  Mark, 
and  which  is  adopted  by  the  other  Evangelists  in  the  beginning  of 
the  gospels.  "  The  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness,  Prepare  ye 
the  way  of  the  Lord,  make  his  paths  straight.  This  is  the  account 
which  John  gave  of  himself  when  the  Jews  sent  to  him,  asking,  "  Who 
art  thou?  1  am  the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness,  Make 
straight  the  way  of  the  Lord,  as  said  the  prophet  Esaias."  The 
quotation  is  taken  from  the  fortieth  chapter  of  Isaiah,  the  first  eleven 
verses  of  which  are  an  account  of  the  nature  and  the  manner  of  that 
salvation  which  the  God  of  Israel  was  to  bring.  When  you  recollect 
the  language  which  John  uniformly  employed  with  regard  to  himself, 
"  I  am  not  the  Christ,  but  I  am  sent  before  him  ;  that  he  should  be 
made  manifest  to  Israel,  therefore  am  I  come,  baptizing  with  water ;" 
and  when  you  find  the  inspired  historians  agreeing  with  John  him- 
self in  applying  to  him  this  prophecy  of  Isaiah,  you  have  no  doubt 
that  Jesus  is  the  Lord,  whose  way  the  voice  was  to  prepare  ;  and  you 
are  directed  to  apply  to  Jesus  all  the  expressions  employed  in  that 
passage  to  characterize  the  person  before  whom  the  voice  went,  i.e. 
you  will  find,  upon  reading  these  eleven  verses  of  Isaiah,  that  you 
are  taught  by  this  application  of  one  of  them  to  consider  Jesus  as  Je- 
hovah, the  God  of  Israel,  who  came  himself,  with  a  strong  hand,  to 
be  their  Saviour,  and  their  Shepherd.  Accordingly,  the  angel,  in  the 
first  chapter  of  Luke's  gospel,  thus  announces  to  Zachariah  the  birth 
of  John  ;  "  Many  of  the  children  of  Israel  shall  he  turn  to  the  Lord 
their  God ;  and  he  shall  go  before  him  in  the  spirit  and  power  of 
Ellas,  to  make  ready  a  people  prepared  for  the  Lord,"  referring,  in 
this  annunciation,  to  the  prophecies,  both  of  Isaiah  and  Malachi :  and 
our  Lord,  by  taking  to  himself  the  name  of  the  good  shepherd,  and  by 
frequently  calling  his  disciples  his  flock,  his  sheep,  and  his  lambs, 
plainly  refers  to  these  words  of  the  fortieth  chapter  of  Isaiah,  "  He 
shall  feed  his  flock  like  a  shepherd ;  he  shall  gather  the  lambs  with 
his  arm."  But  as  all  the  parts  of  that  prophecy  mark  one  person 
whom  the  voice  was  to  announce,  if  this  expression  belong  to  him, 
the  rest  belong  also. 

II.  The  other  head,  under  which  I  proposed  to  arrange  those  ex- 
pressions, which  afford  the  most  conclusive  proof  that  Jesus  is  the 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  293 

person  who  was  announced  in  the  Old  Testament,  as  Jehovah,  the 
Saviour  of  Israel,  is  a  number  of  quotations  from  a  long  prophecy  in 
Isaiah,  that  extends  from  the  seventh  to  the  twelfth  chapter.  The 
kings  of  Syria  and  Israel  had  combined  against  the  kingdom  of  Judah, 
and  they  threatened  to  dethrone  Ahaz,the  king,  and  to  raise  a  stranger 
to  rule  over  the  house  of  David.  The  prophet  is  sent  to  comfort  the 
king  and  the  people,  by  giving  them  assurance  of  the  stability  of  tho 
kingdom  of  Judah,  and  of  deliverance  from  their  present  enemies. 
The  prophecy  has  an  immediate  reference  to  the  circumstances  of  the 
kingdom.  But  you  find,  upon  reading  it,  such  a  mixture  as  is  not 
uncommon  in  the  Old  Testament  prophecies.  You  meet  with  ex- 
pressions which  seem  to  look  far  beyond  the  events  of  which  the 
prophet  is  speaking,  names  and  epithets  which  cannot,  without  a 
striking  impropriety,  be  applied  to  any  person  born  about  that  time, 
but  which  are  a  natural  description  of  the  character  and  office  of  that 
illustrious  descendant  of  David,  whom  former  prophecies  had  an- 
nounced, and  whose  everlasting  dominion  is  introduced  into  this  pro- 
phecy of  a  temporal  deliverance,  as  the  most  entire  security  that  the 
designs  of  the  enemies  of  Judah  must  fail,  because  the  counsels  of 
heaven  did  not  admit  of  any  interruption  in  the  lineal  succession  to 
that  crown,  which  was  to  flourish  for  ever  upon  the  head  of  the  Mes- 
siah. This  is  the  train  of  thought  by  which  the  promises  of  temporal 
and  of  spiritual  deliverance  are  blended  together  in  this  message  to  the 
king  of  Judah.  It  is  not  easy  to  separate  them  from  one  another,  and 
some  of  the  expressions  are  so  dark,  that  in  order  to  form  a  just  con- 
ception of  their  meaning,  you  will  find  it  necessary  to  call  in  the 
assistance  of  some  of  the  many  authors  by  whom  they  have  been 
illustrated.  You  will  derive  particular  advantage  from  reading  one 
of  Bishop  Kurd's  Lectures,  in  which  a  part  of  this  prophecy  is  eluci- 
dated with  the  clearness  and  accuracy  which  distinguish  this  master 
of  sacred  criticism.  It  is  also  fully  illustrated  by  Macculloch.  Even 
although  you  should  not  follow  the  prophet  in  all  the  changes  of  sub- 
ject, or  assign  the  precise  meaning  of  every  expression,  you  are  led 
by  a  general  acquaintance  with  the  language  of  the  Old  Testament 
prophecies  to  consider  many  of  the  names  that  occur  in  this  prophecy 
as  descriptive  of  the  Messiah ;  and  you  find  the  apostles  of  our  Lord 
making  the  application  to  him.  Matthew,  in  relating  the  miraculous 
conception  of  our  Lord,  as  announced  by  the  angel  to  Mary,  says, 
"  Now  all  this  was  done,  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken 
of  the  Lord  by  the  prophet,  saying,  Behold,  a  virgin  shall  be  with 
child,  and  shall  bring  forth  a  Son,  and  they  shall  call  his  name  Em- 
manuel, which  being  interpreted  is,  God  with  us."  This  is  taken 
from  Isaiah  vii.  14,  and  being  applied  to  Jesus,  we  are  taught  that  he 
is  God  with  us,  the  Jehovah  of  Israel,  who,  according  to  the  promise 
by  Zechariah,  was  to  come  and  dwell  in  the  midst  of  them.*  The 
Word  was  God,  and  the  Word  was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt  amongst 
us.  The  angel  who  appeared  to  Mary  said,  hi  the  first  chapter  of 
Luke,  "  Thou  shalt  bring  forth  a  Son,  and  shalt  call  his  name  Jesus  : 
And  he  shall  be  great,  and  the  Lord  God  shall  give  unto  him  the 
throne  of  his  father  David  ;  and  he  shall  reign  over  the  house  of 

•  2echar.  ii.  10,  11. 
27* 


294  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 

Jacob  for  ever  and  ever :  and  of  his  kingdom  there  shall  be  no  end." 
There  is  a  reference  here  both  to  Isaiah  vii.  14,  and  also  to  Isaiah  ix. 
6,  "  Unto  us  a  child  is  born,  unto  us  a  Son  is  given ;  and  the  govern- 
ment shall  be  upon  his  shoulder  :  and  his  name  shall  be  called  Won- 
derful, Counsellor,  the  mighty  God,  the  everlasting  Father,  the  Prince 
of  peace.  Of  the  increase  of  his  government  and  peace  there  shall  be 
410  end,  upon  the  throne  of  David,  and  upon  his  kingdom, to  order 
and  to  establish  it  for  ever."  Jesus,  then,  being,  according  to  this 
application  of  the  prophecy, that  Son  of  David  who  was  to  sit  for  ever 
on  the  throne  of  his  Father,  is  also  the  mighty  God.  In  another  part 
of  this  prophecy,  Isaiah  calls  this  Son  "  a  rod  out  of  the  stem  of  Jesse," 
and  "  a  branch  out  of  his  roots,  which  should  stand  as  an  ensign  to 
the  people,  and  to  which  the  Gentiles  should  seek."  And  the 
Apostle  Paul,  in  the  course  of  an  argument  to  show  that  Jesus 
Christ  not  only  fulfilled  the  promises  made  to  the  fathers,  but  was 
given  also  that  the  Gentiles  might  glorify  God  for  his  mercy,  applies 
these  words  to  him,  Rom.  xv.  12  :  "And  again  Esaias  saith.  There 
shall  be  a  root  of  Jesse,  and  he  that  shall  rise  to  reign  over  the  Gen- 
ti\es,  in  him  shall  the  Gentiles  trust."  Allusions  to  other  expressions 
of  this  prophecy  are  to  be  found  in  the  writings  of  the  apostles.  But 
the  direct  quotations  which  have  been  made  are  sufficient  to  show 
that,  in  their  eyes,  Jesus  Christ  is  that  Saviour  of  Israel  whom  the 
prophet,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  spiritual  part  of  the 
prophecy,  announces.  That  Person,  according  to  the  prophet,  is  Je- 
hovah the  God  of  Israel.  Therefore  we  have  the  authority  of  the 
inspired  books  of  the  New  Testament  for  the  truth  of  the  third  part 
of  our  general  proposition. 

It  is  true  that  he  is  often  styled  in  the  New  Testament  a  man  sent, 
given,  raised  up  by  God  to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  It  is  said 
that  he  received  power  of  God;  that  the  Spirit  was  given  him;  that 
he  came  to  do  his  Father's  will.  And  this  language  may  seem  to  be 
inconsistent  with  his  being  Jehovah.  But  you  will  recollect  that  we 
meet  with  the  same  inconsistency  in  the  Old  Testament.  The  ancient 
Scriptures  speak  of  the  Saviour  of  Israel  as  Jehovah  sent  by  Jehovah, 
himself  the  mighty  God,  the  everlasting  Father,  and  as  a  Son  born  of 
a  virgin.  It  is  by  this  peculiar  manner  of  designation  that  we  dis- 
tinguish him  in  the  Old  Testament  from  God  the  Father.  When  we 
find  the  same  peculiarity  in  the  New  Testament,  we  are  confirmed  in 
the  application  which  we  have  made ;  and  Jesus  the  Saviour  must  be 
the  Jehovah,  who  was  to  come  and  save  Israel,  because,  like  him,  he 
is  called  both  the  messenger  of  God,  and  God. 

II.  The  second  part  of  the  general  proposition  is,  that  Jesus  is  the 
Person  who  was  worshipped  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  and  whose 
glory  filled  the  tabernacle.  It  might  be  sufficient  to  rest  the  proof  of 
this  upon  the  prophecy  of  Malachi.  The  same  Person  is  there  called 
the  Lord  coming  to  his  own  temple,  and  the  messenger  of  the  covenant. 
But  Jesus  is  unquestionably  the  messenger  of  the  covenant.  There- 
fore the  temple  to  which  he  came  was  his,  and  it  could  not  without 
impiety  be  called  his,  unless  he  was  worshipped  there.  This  proof 
is  confirmed  by  many  analogies,  and  by  some  express  intimations  in 
the  New  Testament. 

The  analogies  are  of  this  kind.     Jesus  is  called  the  effulgence  of 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  295 

the  Father's  glory.  John  says, isxrivu,rssv,  he  tabernacled  amongst  us, 
and  iOio-saniOa  Solov  avfov,  we  Contemplated  his  glory ;  a  phraseology 
most  natural  in  a  Jew,  who  considered  the  Shechinah  as  the  visible 
symbol  of  the  divine  presence,  if  he  also  believed  that  the  Person, 
who  had  exhibited  that  symbol  for  many  ages  in  the  temple,  became 
by  his  incarnation  an  inhabitant  of  earth.  His  body  was  a  tabernacle 
which  veiled  the  glory  of  his  presence  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  it 
safe  for  mortals,  emrsaoOai,  to  look  steadily  for  some  time  upon  it. 
There  is  one  occasion,  indeed,  recorded  in  the  gospels,  when  this 
glory  burst  forth  so  as  to  overpower  the  beholders.  Upon  a  mount 
to  which  Jesus  led  three  of  his  disciples,  "  he  was  transfigured  before 
them,  and  his  face  did  shine  as  the  sun,  and  his  raiment  was  white  as 
snow,  and  a  bright  cloud  overshadowed  them,"  This  is  called  by 
Peter,  when  relating  this  vision,  ,uf yoxort^frt*-?  So^a,  the  transcendant 
glory.  The  veil  which  usually  concealed  the  majesty  of  the  God- 
head from  the  sight  of  the  disciples  was  for  a  moment  dropped,  and 
their  senses  were  astonished  with  an  effulgence,  such  as  filled  the 
tabernacle  at  those  times  when  it  was  unsafe  even  for  the  sons  of 
Aaron  to  enter.  This  appearance,  however  transitory,  was  fitted  to 
mark  out  Jesus  to  those  who  were  permitted  to  behold  it  as  the  Lord 
of  glory ;  and  it  is  stated  by  the  apostle  as  the  pledge  of  that  glory  in 
which  he  is  now  enthroned,  and  in  which  he  shall  come  to  judge  the 
world,  2  Peter  i.  16,  17.  "  We  have  not  followed  cunningly  devised 
fables,  when  we  made  known  to  you  the  power  and  coming  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  but  were  eye-witnesses  of  his  majesty.  For  he 
received  from  God  the  Father  honour  and  glor^^,  when  there  came 
such  a  voice  to  him  from  the  excellent  glory,  when  we  were  with 
him  in  the  holy  mount."  The  new  Jerusalem  is  thus  described  by 
John.  "  Behold  the  tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men,  and  he  will  dwell 
with  them.  The  glory  of  God  did  lighten  it,  and  the  Lamb  is  the 
light  thereof."  Rev.  xxi.  3,  23.  It  is  said  that  Jesus  shall  come  at 
the  last  day,  tv  rtv^t  ^-Koyoi :  And  that  he  shall  destroy  the  man  of  sin, 
Tf]  iTit^avsia  trii  ra^ovriiai  av-tov,  with  the  manifestation  of  his  presence,  2 
Thess.  ii.  S.  All  this  language  of  the  New  Testament  is  borrowed 
from  the  Shechinah.  And  it  will  appear  most  proper  and  significant, 
when  you  consider  Jesus,  whose  glory  enlightens  heaven,  whose 
brightness  dazzled  the  eyes  of  the  disciples  on  the  mount,  and  whose 
excellence  might  be  contemplated  when  it  shone  "'  full  of  grace  and 
truth"  through  the  veil  of  his  flesh,  as  the  Lord  of  the  temple,  whose 
presence  had  formed  both  the  more  awful  and  the  more  encouraging 
appearances  of  the  Shechinah.  Analogies  of  this  kind,  when  they 
are  frequent  and  striking,  constitute  a  very  satisfying  evidence  to  those 
who  are  capable  of  tracing  them.  But  as  they  may  be  abused,  it  is 
always  desirable  to  have  them  supported  by  some  direct  proofs  of 
which  the  judgment  may  lay  hold,  without  the  aid  of  imagination. 
The  direct  proofs  of  the  point  suggested  by  these  analogies,  are  of 
two  kinds.  The  first  consists  of  quotations  applied  to  Jesus  from 
those  Psalms  in  which  the  glory  of  the  Jehovah  of  Israel  in  his  temple 
is  described.     The  second  is  the  testimony  of  the  Apostle  John. 

1.  The  Psalms  were  hymns  composed  for  the  service  of  the  temple  ; 
and  several  of  them  were  mentioned  formerly  in  proof  of  this  position, 
that  the  Person  worshipped  in  the  temple  was  the  same  who  had 


296  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 

appeared  to  the  patriarchs.  But  several  expressions  in  these  very 
Psahns  are  applied  by  the  apostles  to  Christ.  We  read  in  Psalm 
Ixviii.  "  This  is  the  hill  which  God  desireth  to  dwell  in.  They  have 
seen  thy  goings,  0  God,  my  king,  in  thy  sanctuary."  But  the  apostle, 
Eph.  iv,  8,  when  speaking  of  the  gift  of  Christ,  quotes  in  proof  of  it, 
the  18th  verse  of  this  Psalm :  "  Wherefore  he  saitli,  when  he  ascended 
up  on  high,  he  led  captivity  captive,  and  gave  gifts  unto  men  ;  and 
he  argues  that  the  propriety  of  the  expression,  "  he  ascended,"  arises 
from  this,  that  the  same  person  who  ascended  had  first  descended. 
Now  one  person  is  addressed  or  spoken  of  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end  of  the  Psalm.  It  is  impossible  that  at  the  18th  verse  there  can 
be  an  abrupt  address  to  Christ,  without  any  intimation  that  the  per- 
son addressed  is  different  from  him  mentioned  in  the  17th  verse,  and 
spoken  of  in  the  sequel.  We  have,  therefore,  the  authority  of  the 
Apostle  Paul  for  applying  the  whole  of  Psalm  Ixviii.  to  Jesus,  so  that 
we  may  say  of  him,  as  in  the  29th  verse, "  Because  of  thy  temple  at 
Jerusalem  shall  kings  bring  presents  to  thee."  Again,  the  apostle  to 
the  Hebrews  derived  one  proof  that  Jesus  was  originally  superior  to 
angels  from  the  command  given  them  to  worship  him.  But  this 
command  is  found  in  Psalm  xcvii.  where  the  majesty  of  the  God  of 
Israel  is  described  in  his  temple.  "  The  Lord  reigneth.  Clouds  and 
darkness  are  round  about  him.  A  fire  goeth  before  him.  Con- 
founded be  all  they  that  serve  graven  images ;  worship  him,  all  ye 
gods,  or  angels.  Zion  heard,  and  was  glad."  The  command  is 
introduced  in  a  manner  which  plainly  distinguishes  the  person  to  be 
worshipped  from  idols,  and  marks  him  to  be  the  God  of  Israel.  He 
then,  whom  the  apostle  to  the  Hebrews  calls  the  first  begotten,  is  the 
same  who  in  Judah  "  was  high  above  all  the  earth."  Once  more, 
the  apostle  derives  his  proof  that  Christ  created  the  world  from  a 
passage  in  Psalm  cii.  But  we  cannot  consider  these  words  as 
addressed  by  the  Psalmist  to  Christ,  without  admitting  that  he  is  the 
person  mentioned  in  the  former  part  of  the  psalm.  And  the  reasoning 
of  the  apostle  is  inconclusive  and  sophistical,  unless  the  person  of 
whom  he  is  speaking  in  that  chapter  be  the  same  of  whom  the 
Psalmist  is  speaking  in  that  psalm,  i.  e.  the  God  who  was  worshipped 
in  Zion,  the  Saviour  of  Israel,  who  was  to  appear  in  his  glory,  and 
whose  praise  was  to  be  declared  in  Jerusalem,  when  he  built  up 
Zion. 

2.  The  argument  founded  upon  these  quotations  is  confirmed  by 
the  express  testimony  of  John  xii.  41.  The  evangelist,  speaking  of 
the  many  miracles  which  were  performed  by  Jesus  before  the  Jews, 
but  which  had  not  the  effect  of  leading  them  to  believe  on  him, 
quotes  a  passage  from  the  sixth  chapter  of  Isaiah,  in  which  the 
unbelief  of  the  Jews  is  foretold  ;  and  then  he  subjoins, — "  These 
things  said  Esaias,  when  he  saw  his  glory  and  spake  of  him."  When 
you  read  that  chapter  of  Isaiah,  you  will  find  a  most  awful  and  ma- 
jestic description  of  the  glory  of  the  Almighty  in  the  temple,  not  that 
cloud  which  encouraged  the  priests  to  draw  near,  but  that  bright 
refulgent  glory  which  no  man  could  see  and  live.  "  I  saw,"  says 
Isaiah,  "  the  Lord  sitting  upon  a  throne,  liigh  and  lifted  up  ;  and  his 
train  filled  the  temple."  The  expression  in  the  Septuagint  is,  Ttxri^rii 
I  ciKoj  tjjj  fiolrj  aui'ov.    This  was  shown  in  the  vision  to  Isaiah  before 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  297 

the  date  of  the  long  prophecy  to  which  I  formerly  referred,  as  if  to 
qualify  the  prophet  for  receiving  that  extraordinary  communication 
of  the  spiritual  deliverance  prepared  for  his  people.  But  he  felt  the 
weakness  of  humanity  in  this  manifestation  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord. 
"  Wo  is  me,"  he  said,  "  for  I  am  undone  ;  for  mine  eyes  have  seen 
the  king,  the  Lord  of  hosts."  Now  that  which  Isaiah  saw  is  called 
by  John  his  glory,  i.  e.  according  to  the  context,  the  glory  of  Christ. 
Therefore  Christ  is  the  Lord  of  hosts,  whose  glory  filled  the  temple. 
In  order  to  evade  the  force  of  this  evident  conclusion,  those  who 
deny  the  pre-existence  and  the  divinity  of  Christ  have  adopted  the 
paraphrase  of  Dr.  Clarke.  "  The  true  meaning,-""  he  says,  "  is,  when 
Esaias  saw  the  glory  of  God  the  Father  revealing  to  him  the  coming 
of  Christ,  he  then  saw  the  glory  of  him  wiio  was  to  come  in  the  glory 
of  his  Father.  Esaias  in  beholding  the  glory  of  God,  and  in  receiving 
from  him  a  revelation  of  the  coming  of  Christ,  saw,  that  is,  foresaw 
the  glory  of  Christ  just  as  Abraham  saw,  i.  e.  foresaw  his  day  and 
was  glad."*  You  may  judge  of  the  influence  which  attachment  to 
system  has  upon  the  most  acute  and  enlightened  minds,  when  such  a 
man  as  Dr.  Clarke  could  do  such  violence  to  words  in  this  short 
sentence  of  John.  He  considers  saw  as  equivalent  to  foresaic, 
although  neither  Isaiah  nor  John  intimate  that  the  objects  presented 
to  the  prophet's  sight  were  a  prophecy  of  future  events ;  and  he  con- 
siders his  glory,  i.  e.  the  glory  of  Christ,  as  equivalent  to  the  glory  of 
God  revealing  to  him  the  coming  of  Christ  at  the  end  of  the  world. 
I  should  rather  say  that  his  interpretation  gives  a  double  meaning  to 
each  of  the  words,  "8f  triv  ho^av  avtov.  He  saw  the  glory  of  God,  and 
he  foresaw  the  glory  of  Christ. 

III.  One  part  of  the  general  proposition  still  remains.     That  Christ 
is  the  person  who  appeared  to  the  patriarchs,  and  gave  the  law. 

We  are  entitled  to  consider  this  as  an  inference  from  the  points 
already  proved.  For  Christ  having  been  found  to  be  the  Saviour  of 
Israel,  who  was  worshipped  in  the  temple,  he  must,  according  to  the 
induction  stated  in  the  former  section,  be  the  same  who  appeared  to 
the  patriarchs,  and  who  gave  the  law  from  Mount  Sinai.  But  we 
are  not  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  this  mode  of  proof.  Even  of  this 
last  point,  seemingly  the  most  remote  from  the  gospel,  the  New  Testa- 
ment contains  separate  evidence ;  for  there  are  many  expressions  in 
the  New  Testament,  af  which  this  part  of  the  proposition  gives  the 
most  natural  interpretation,  and  there  are  others  which  require  the 
belief  of  it.  Of  the  first  kind  are  the  following  :  When  our  Lord  says, 
John  viii.  59,  "Abraham  saw  my  day,  and  was  glad;"  the  words 
will  appear  most  significant,  if  Christ  was  the  person  who  appeared 
to  Abraham.  When  Peter  says,  1  Pet.  i.  10,.  11,  "The  prophets 
prophesied  of  the  grace  which  should  come,  searching  what  the  Spirit 
of  Christ,  which  was  in  them,  did  signify,"  he  seems  to  say  that 
Christ  spake  by  the  prophets ;  and  when  he  says,  in  the  same  Epistle, 
"  Christ  was  quickened,"  /.  e.  raised  from  the  dead  "in  the  spirit,  by 
which  also  he  went  and  preached  unto  the  spirits  in  prison,  which 
sometimes  were  disobedient,  when  once  the  long-suffering  of  God 
waited  in  the  days  of  Noah,  while  the  ark  was  preparing,"  all  the 

•  Clarke's  Works,  vol.  iv.  No.  597. 
2  S 


298  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 

Other  meanings  which  have  been  affixed  to  these  obscure  words, 
appear  forced  and  unnatural,  when  compared  with  this,  that  Christ 
is  Jehovah,  who  said  before  the  flood,  "  My  spirit  shall  not  always 
strive  with  man,  yet  his  days  shall  be  one  hundred  and  twenty 
years,"  and  who,  during  this  time  of  forbearance,  raised  up  Noah,  a 
preacher  of  righteousness.  Once  more,  when  our  Lord  says,  Matth. 
xxni.  37,  "  0  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  thou  that  killest  the  prophets, 
and  stonest  them  which  are  sent  unto  thee,  how  often  would  1  have 
gathered  thy  children  together,  even  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens 
under  her  wings,  and  ye  would  not!"  if  you  consider  our  Lord  as 
the  person  who  had  carried  the  Jews  in  the  days  of  old,  who  had 
sent  prophets,  and  by  a  mixture  of  mercies  and  chastisements,  had 
called  them  to  repentance,  this  lamentation  over  Jerusalem  has  a  con- 
sistency, a  beauty,  and  an  energy,  which  are  very  much  lost,  by  sup- 
posing that  his  peculiar  care  of  them  only  began  with  his  manifesta- 
tion in  the  flesh. 

It  is  plain  that  all  these  passages  derive  much  light  and  improve- 
ment from  admitting  that  Jesus  is  the  person  who  appeared  to  the 
patriarchs  and  gave  the  law.  But  there  are  other  passages  in  the 
New  Testament,  the  sense  of  which  obviously  requires  the  truth  of 
this  part  of  the  proposition.  The  Apostle,  1  Cor.  x.  4,  in  applying 
the  history  of  the  children  of  Israel  as  an  example  and  warning  to 
Christians,  has  these  words:  "They  drank  of  that  spiritual  rock  that 
fallowed  them,  and  that  rock  was  Christ."  The  part  of  Jewish  his- 
tory to  which  the  Apostle  refers,  is  thus  related.  Psalm  Ixxviii.  15, 
16,  "He  clave  the  rocks  in  the  wilderness,  and  gave  them  drink  as 
out  of  the  great  depths.  He  brought  streams  also  out  of  the  rock." 
In  grateful  remembrance  of  this  seasonable  exertion  of  divine  power, 
God  is  often  called  in  the  Old  Testament  the  Rock  of  Israel ;  so 
Psalm  Ixxviii.  35,  it  is  said,  "  They  remembered  that  God  was  their 
rock,  and  the  High  God  their  Redeemer."  Now  the  Apostle  says, 
that  the  spiritual  rock  that  followed,  i.  e.  went  along  with  them  in 
their  journey,  was  Christ.  His  power  brought  water  out  of  the  rock, 
and  the  same  power  continued  to  defend  and  guide  them.  Again,  1 
Cor.  X.  9,  the  Apostle,  continuing  to  draw  a  lesson  to  Christians  from 
the  history  of  the  Israelites,  says,  "  Neither  let  us  tempt  Christ  as 
some  of  them  also  tempted,  and  were  destroyed  of  serpents."  We 
read,  Deut.  vi.  16,  "Ye  shall  not  tempt  the  Lord  your  God,  as  ye 
tempted  him  in  Massah."  And  here  the  Apostle  substitutes  Christ 
in  place  of  the  Lord  their  God.  The  Greek  runs  thus,  Mj^Ss  sxrtst^a^co^Ev 
'iov'K^ia'tov,xo,9i^i  XM  tivti  avtwiHiie.a-'ia.v.  It  has  been  well  observed  that 
the  particles  xa^uj  xat,  require  us  to  repeat  after  fTtn^acrav  the  same 
accusatives  which  had  followed  «xrt£i^afw,ii£v:  and  almost  all  the  MSS. 
and  the  most  ancient  versions  agree  with  the  earliest  writers  who 
quote  this  passage  in  reading  x^wfoi'  as  the  first  accusative.  The 
18th  verse  of  Psalm  Ixviii.  which  I  mentioned  formerly  as  quoted  by 
the  apostle  to  the  Ephesians,  and  applied  to  Christ,  immediately  fol- 
lows another  verse  of  that  Psalm,  in  which  are  these  words, — "  The 
Lord  is  among  them  in  the  holy  place,  as  in  Sinai ;"  so  that  the  same 
person  who  ascended  on  high  was  in  Sinai :  and  accordingly  the 
apostle  to  the  Hebrews  xii.  25,  26,  has  taught  us  that  it  was  the  voice 
of  Christ  which  shook  Mount  Sinai.     "  See  that  ye  refuse  not  him  that 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  299 

speaketh  from  heaven;  for  if  they  escaped  not  who  refused  liim  that 
spake  on  earth,  much  more  shall  not  we  escape,  if  we  turn  away 
from  him  that  speaketli  from  heaven.  Whose  voice  then  shook  the 
earth."  It  is  not  easy  for  one  who  is  acquainted  with  the  phraseology 
of  the  New  Testament,  to  understand  any  other  by  "  him  that 
speaketh  from  heaven"  than  Jesus  Christ.  But  this  is  the  immediate 
antecedent  to  the  relative,  which  begins  the  next  clause,  "  Whose 
voice ;"  and  the  time  marked  by  "  then"  is  suiTiciently  determined 
by  the  context  to  be  the  time  of  giving  the  law  from  Mount  Sinai. 

All  these  particulars  laid  together  constitute  an  evidence  which 
appears  to  be  satisfactory,  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  person  who  appear- 
ed to  the  patriarchs,  and  gave  the  law  from  Mount  Sinai,  who  was 
worshipped  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  and  who  was  announced  by 
the  prophets  as  the  author  of  a  new  dispensation. 


Section  III. 

There  are  some  objections  to  the  conclusiveness  of  the  evidence 
now  adduced,  and  there  is  a  difference  of  opinion  with  regard  to  the 
amount  of  the  proposition,  supposing  it  to  be  proved.  It  is  proper 
that  you  should  be  acquainted  both  with  the  objections  and  Avith  the 
dift'erent  opinions.  In  following  out  this  discussion,  I  was  led  to  con- 
sult a  variety  of  authors,  many  of  whom  repeat  the  same  things,  with 
a  small  change  of  expression.  By  comparing  them  together,  I  shall 
be  able  to  state  the  objections  and  the  different  opinions  clearly  ;  and 
it  may  be  both  agreeable  and  useful  to  you  to  know  the  names,  and 
to  receive  a  specimen  of  the  manner  of  those  writers  who  have  entered 
most  deeply  into  this  controversy.  In  the  quotations  which  follow,  I 
shall  have  occasion  to  oppose  Socinian,  Arian,  and  Athanasian 
writers  to  one  another.  For  the  objections  which  the  Socinians  make 
to  the  evidence  of  the  proposition,  are  answered  not  only  by  the 
Athanasians,  but  by  the  Arians  also  ;  and  the  futility  of  the  inference 
which  the  Arians  draw  from  the  proposition  is  exposed  by  the 
Socinians,  as  well  as  by  the  Athanasians.  So  that  those  who  hold 
the  third  opinion  concerning  the  Person  of  Christ,  have  for  their  allies, 
in  one  part  of  this  discussion,  those  who  hold  the  second  opinion,  and 
in  another  part  of  it,  those  who  hold  the  first. 

The  Socinians  are  obliged,  in  consistency  with  their  principles,  to 
combat  the  whole  of  that  proposition  which  we  have  been  endeavour- 
ing to  establish,  because,  if  it  be  true,  it  leaves  no  doubt  with  regard 
to  the  pre-existence  of  Jesus.  I  will  not  follow  them  in  their  attempts 
to  give  another  interpretation  to  those  texts  which  constitute  the 
evidence  of  the  proposition,  but  will  leave  you  to  judge  from  review- 
ing them,  whether  that  interpretation  by  which  the  proposition  is 
supported  be  not  agreeable  to  the  natural  sense  of  the  words  in  every 
particular  passage,  and  to  the  analogy  of  all  of  them  taken  together 
In  stating  the  objections  to  the  evidence,  I  have  two  things  to  lay 
before  you. — 1.  The  Socinian  solution  of  that  expression  in  the  Old 
Testament,  an  Angel  of  Jehovah,  which  furnishes  one  of  the  general 
grounds   of  the  proposition.      2.  A  plausible  argument  against  it, 


300  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 

drawn  from  a  mode  of  expression  which  occurs  in  different  places  of 
the  New  Testament. 

1.  The  person  whom  we  traced  through  the  Old  Testament  is  often 
called  an  angel,  the  angel  of  the  Lord,  from  whence  it  has  been 
inferred  that  he  cannot  be  God  the  Father.  But  Mr.  Lindsey,  one  of 
the  latest  and  ablest  defenders  of  pure  Socinianism,  in  the  Sequel  to 
his  Apology,  furnishes  the  following  solution  of  that  expression  :  "  In 
the  account  which  is  given  of  the  divine  appearances  in  the  Scriptures, 
it  is  sometimes  related  in  what  form  and  manner  they  were  notified 
and  made,  viz.  by  an  extraordinary  light,  fire,  cloud,  audible  voice, 
&c.  At  all  other  times  it  cannot  be  doubted  but  there  was  some 
sensible  sign  given,  though  it  be  not  always  mentioned.  Now  this 
outward  token  of  the  presence  of  God  is  what  is  meant  generally  by 
tha  angel  of  God,  where  not  particularly  specified  and  appropriated 
otherwise  ;  that  which  manifested  his  appearance,  whatever  it  was." 
He  considers  the  Shechinah,  or  material  symbol  of  glory,  and  the 
audible  voice  of  the  oracle  from  thence,  as  angels  of  the  Lord,  the 
true  God  acting  upon  them,  and  manifesting  himself  by  them;  and 
therefore  he  concludes  that  it  was  not  any  great  angel  or  separate 
spirit  who  was  seen  and  heard  in  the  instances  quoted  from  the  Old 
Testament,  but  God  himself  appearing  in  the  only  way  in  which  a 
spiritual  being  can  appear,  by  sensible  tokens  and  actions,  exhibited 
for  the  end  proposed,  such  as  an  extraordinary  light,  a  particular 
shape  or  figure,  an  articulate  voice,  &c.  &c.*  The  solution  proceeds 
upon  this  sound  principle  of  theism,  that  all  the  creatures  of  God  may 
be  employed  to  execute  his  purposes.  He  maketh  the  winds  his 
messengers,  and  fire,  pestilence,  and  sword,  receiving  their  destination 
from  him,  may  be  called  his  angels.  But  this  principle,  however  true, 
does  not  give  a  satisfactory  explication  of  the  subject  to  which  it  is 
applied.  For  the  appearances  to  be  accounted  for  are  not  occasional, 
unconnected,  and  varying.  We  have  found  one  angel  of  God  stand- 
ing forth  through  all  the  Scriptures,  bearing  a  certain  character,  and 
employed  in  offices  and  actions  which  are  described  with  every 
circumstance  of  time  and  place  that  can  serve  to  mark  a  person,  and 
often  with  a  reference  to  former  offices  and  actions  of  the  same  person. 
I  shall  give  you  this  answer  to  the  Socinian  solution,  in  the  words  of 
Mr.  Taylor,  an  English  clergyman,  who  published,  some  years  ago, 
a  book  entitled.  The  Apology  of  Ben  Mordecai  to  his  friends  for 
embracing  Christianity.  Under  the  assumed  appearance  of  a  Jew, 
stating  the  reasons  which  made  him  think  the  Christian  faith  not 
inconsistent  with  the  law  of  Moses,  Mr.  Taylor  artfully  introduces, 
and  defends  with  learning  and  ingenuity,  his  own  views  of  the  pecu- 
liar doctrines  of  Christianity.  He  considers  Jesus  as  the  first  of  the 
creatures  of  God,  an  angel  distinguished  above  every  other,  who 
conducted  the  dispensation  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  who  completed 
the  scheme  for  the  redemption  of  the  human  race,  by  assuming  a 
body  at  the  time  when  the  Gospel  was  preached.  This  part  of  his 
creed  leads  him  to  defend  the  pre-existence  of  Jesus  against  the 
attacks  of  the  Socinians  ;  and  in  answer  to  their  hypothesis,  that  Jl 
the  appearances  which  we  have  ascribed  to  one  person  are  nothing 

*  Sequel  to  Lindsey's  Apol.  p.  324,  336. 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  301 

more  than  the  appearance  of  the  invisible  Jehovah  by  symbol,  he 
thus  reasons  :  "  The  accounts  of  many  of  these  appearances  are  given 
in  so  plain  and  historical  a  manner,  and  with  so  many  circumstances, 
which  cannot  be  accounted  for  either  by  vision  or  figurative  expres- 
sion, that  both  the  Jews  and  Christians  of  former  ages  have  looked 
upon  them  to  be  literal ;  and  if  they  are  not  historical  facts,  there  is 
no  dependence  upon  the  literal  sense  of  any  one  action  recorded  in 
Scripture.  ""  A  plague  or  an  earthquake  may  be  called  a  messenger 
of  Jehovah,  though  it  be  no  person.  But  it  is  never  called  Jehovah  : 
and  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  how  an  angel  called  Jehovah,  who 
was  visible  to  several  people  at  the  same  time,  and  conversed  with 
them  personally,  can  be  considered  merely  as  a  symbol,  or  as  any 
other  than  a  real  person,"* 

2.  The  second  objection  against  the  proposition  which  we  have 
been  illustrating,  is  a  plausible  argument  drawn  from  a  mode  of 
expression  that  occurs  in  different  places  of  the  New  Testament.  It 
is  said  in  the  first  verse  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  "  God,  who  at 
sundry  times,  and  in  divers  manners,  spake  in  time  past  unto  the 
fathers  by  the  prophets,  hath  in  these  last  days  spoken  unto  us  by  his 
Son."  And  there  are  many  other  expressions  to  the  same  purport, 
which  seem  to  imply  that  God  had  not  spoken  by  his  Son  till  the  last 
days  ;  and  undoubtedly,  if  we  knew  nothing  more  of  the  divine  dis- 
pensations than  these  words  contain,  this  is  the  interpretation  we 
should  give  them.  But  every  author  is  to  be  explained  in  a  manner 
which  renders  his  meaning  in  one  place  consistent  with  his  meaning 
in  another ;  and  every  author,  supposing  that  his  readers  will  ob- 
serve this  rule,  is  not  accustomed  to  say  in  one  place  every  thing  that 
may  be  said  upon  a  subject,  but  leaves  much  to  be  supplied  from 
other  places.  When  we  take  into  view  what  we  may  learn  from  the 
rest  of  Scripture  concerning  the  character  and  offices  of  the  Son,  it  is 
easy  to  interpret  the  words  of  the  apostle  in  this  manner.  God  spake 
formerly  by  the  prophets,  the  messengers  of  his  will  to  the  fathers. 
The  Son  did  not  appear.  It  was  not  known  to  the  world  or  to  the 
prophets  that  they  were  inspired  by  the  ministry  of  the  Son ;  and  no 
inconvenience  arose  from  this  circumstance  not  being  made  known, 
because  the  message  was  equally  divine,  and  claimed  the  same 
reverence,  whether  the  prophets  received  it  from  God,  or  from  the 
Son  of  God.  But  now  the  Son  hath  been  made  manifest.  A  person 
assuming  that  name,  and  conversing  freely  with  men,  hath  declared 
God,  not  in  vision  to  prophets,  but  openly  to  the  people.  Now, 
therefore,  it  is  fit  to  reveal  the  original  dignity  of  this  Person,  in  order 
that  respect  for  the  messenger  may  procure  attention  and  obedience 
to  the  message.  The  earliest  Christian  writers  furnish  the  answer 
which  I  have  now  given.  "  The  Lord  was  truly  the  instructor  of 
the  ancient  people,  first  by  Moses,  afterwards  by  the  prophets.  But 
he  is  the  guide  of  the  new  people,  by  himself  face  to  face."t  And 
the  atiswer  has  been  adopted  by  those  who  hold  the  second  and  third 
opinions  concerning  the  Person  of  Christ,  as  sufficient  to  repel  this 
part  of  the  Socinian  objection.     "  The  plain  sense  of  the  word,"  says 

•  Ben  Mordecai,  p.  228,  256. 

■J-    Clem.  Alex.  Pjedag.  L.  I.  c.  8,  11. 

28 


302  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 

Mr.  Taylor,  "  appears  to  me  to  be  this :  God  spake  formerly  to  our 
fathers  by  the  mediation  or  ministry  of  the  prophets,  bnt  now  speaks 
to  ns  by  the  Son  liimself,  without  any  such  mediation."*  But  there 
is  another  part  of  this  objection  arising  from  those  expressions  in  the 
New  Testament  where  the  law  seems  to  be  ascribed  to  angels.  "  Our 
fathers,"  says  Stephen,  Acts  vii.  53,  "  received  the  law  by  the  disposi- 
tion of  angels."  And  the  apostle  to  the  Hebrews  argues  upon  this 
ground,  that  the  gospel  is  superior  to  the  law.  "  If  the  word  spoken 
by  angels  was  steadfast,  and  every  transgression  and  disobedience 
received  a  just  recompense  of  reward,  how  shall  we  escape  if  we 
neglect  so  great  salvation,  which  began  to  be  spoken  by  the  Lord  ?" 
It  is  impossible,  then,  say  the  Socinians  to  other  Christians,  that  the 
Son,  whom  you  account  a  being  superior  to  angels,  was  the  Author 
of  the  law,  for  the  excellence  of  the  gospel  is  made  to  consist  in  this, 
that  it  was  given  by  him.  Tlie  answer  to  this  objection  is,  in  part, 
the  same  as  to  the  former.  It  is  implied  in  some  passages  of  the  Old 
Testament,  that  the  giver  of  the  law  was  attended  upon  Mount  Sinai 
by  a  multitude  of  the  heavenly  host. — "  The  Lord,"  says  Moses, 
Deut.  xxxiii.  2,  "came  from  Sinai:  He  shined  forth  from  Mount 
Paran,  and  he  came  with  ten  thousand  of  his  saints  ;  from  his  right 
hand  went  a  fiery  law  for  them."  The  Son  of  God  was  not  then 
revealed.  His  superiority  to  the  retinue  of  angels  was  not  known  ; 
and  no  particular  mention  being  made  of  him,  it  is  said  accurately  by 
Stephen  that  the  fathers  received  the  law  «?  Siaraya?  ayytxcov,  inter 
turmas  angelorum.  Whereas  the  gospel  was  spoken  by  the  Lord 
himself,  without  that  attendance  of  the  heavenly  host  which  consti- 
tuted part  of  the  awful  scene  upon  Mount  Sinai,  but  with  a  mani- 
festation of  his  own  original  glory.  In  this  respect  the  manner  of 
giving  the  law  is  clearly  distinguished  from  the  manner  of  giving  the 
gospel,  without  our  being  obliged  to  infer  from  the  expressions  used 
that  an  angel  was  the  author  of  the  law.  But  in  order  to  perceive 
the  full  force  of  the  answer  to  this  objection,  you  must  recollect  that 
the  ten  commandments  are  not  included  under  "  the  word  spoken  by 
angels ;"  for  the  history  of  Moses  requires  us  to  make  a  distinction 
between  the  decalogue  and  the  rest  of  the  law.  The  ten  command- 
ments were  spoken  by  God  himself  "  God  spake  these  words,  say- 
ing, I  am  Jehovah."  But  the  majesty  with  which  they  were  delivered 
was  so  terrible,  that  the  people  entreated  God  would  not  speak  to 
them  any  more.  "  Speak  thou  with  us,"  they  said  to  Moses,  "  and 
we  will  hear,  but  let  not  God  speak  with  us,  lest  we  die."  Accord- 
ingly Moses  says,  Deut.  v.  22,  "  These  words,"  the  decalogue,  "  the 
Lord  spake  unto  all  your  assembly  in  the  mount  out  of  the  midst  of 
fire,  with  a  great  voice,  and  he  added  no  more."  "  The  rest," 
says  Dr.  Randolph,  "both  the  judicial  and  the  ceremonial  law,  was 
delivered,  and  tlie  covenant  was  made,  by  the  mediation  of  Moses; 
and  therefore  the  apostle  says,  Gal.  iii,  19, 'The  law  was  ordained 
by  angels  in  the  hand  of  a  Mediator  :'  hence  it  is  called  the  law  of 
Moses.  And  the  character  given  of  it  in  the  Pentateuch  is  this — 
tliese  are  the  statutes,  and  judgments,  and  laws,  which  the  Lord  made 
between  him  and  the  children  of  Israel  in  Mount  Sinai,  by  the  hand 

*   Ben  Mordecai,  p.  317. 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  303 

of  Moses.  In  like  manner,  after  the  tabernacle  was  reared,  God 
communed  with  Moses  from  between  the  chcrubims  on  the  mercy 
seat,  who  represented  angels,  and  with  the  priests  who  entered  the 
tabernacle.  But  the  people  were  not  permitted  to  approach."*  So 
far  Dr.  Randolph,  formerly  Professor  of  Divinity  in  Oxford,  whose 
writings,  one  entitled  a  Vindication  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity, 
and  another,  Prcelectiones  Theological,  chiefly  upon  the  divinity  of 
our  Saviour,  I  have  found  very  useful,  composed  with  sound  judg- 
ment, and  with  much  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures.  You  will  attend 
to  the  force  of  the  distinction  which  he  has  mentioned.  The  ten 
commandments,  which  are  of  perpetual  and  universal  obligation,  and 
which  are  incorporated  as  part  of  the  gospel,  so  that  the  moral  law 
is  established  by  faith,  were  spoken  by  God  himself.  But  the  judicial 
and  ceremonial  law,  which  were  local  temporary  institutions,  not  ex- 
tending beyond  the  boundaries  and  the  duration  of  the  Jewish  state, 
were  ordained  by  angels  in  the  hand  of  a  Mediator.  The  divine 
Author  of  them  was  withdrawn  from  the  eyes  of  the  people,  for 
Moses  stood  between  him  and  them :  but  there  was  no  intervention 
of  this  kind  in  the  delivery  of  the  gospel.  Instead  of  that  terrible 
majesty  which  had  accompanied  the  giving  of  the  ten  commandments, 
which  made  the  people  request  that  God  would  not  speak  any  more, 
there  was  in  the  appearance  of  Jesus  a  grace  which  invited  men  to 
draw  near  ;  and  he  himself  spoke  the  words  of  eternal  life. 

Considering,  then,  the  Socinian  objections  as  not  sufficient  to  inva- 
lidate the  evidence  that  has  been  adduced,  I  shall  now  direct  your 
attention  to  the  different  opinions  that  have  been  held  concerning  the 
amount  of  the  general  proposition.  If  Jesus  appeared  to  the 
patriarchs,  gave  the  law,  and  was  worshipped  in  the  temple,  it  is 
plain  that  he  existed  before  he  was  born  of  Mary.  But  it  is  not  self- 
evident  whether  he  be  an  exalted  creature,  or  essentially  God.  And 
many  of  those  who  consider  him  as  the  first  of  the  creatures  of  God, 
while  they  defend  his  pre-existence  against  the  Socinians,  endeavour 
to  reconcile  this  proposition  with  their  own  system.  You  will  judge 
of  the  nature  of  the  attempt,  from  two  books  in  which  it  is  formally 
made.  The  one  is  entitled,  Essay  on  Spirit,  by  Dr.  Clayton,  formerly 
Bishop  of  Clogher,  in  Ireland.  The  principles  of  his  book  are  these. 
The  whole  expanse  is  full  of  spirits  of  different  ranks  and  degrees. 
God  may  communicate  what  proportions  of  his  attributes  he  pleases 
to  the  different  gradations  of  created  beings  :  and,  according  to  an 
ancient  opinion,  he  may  employ  those  upon  whom  he  has  conferred 
more  exalted  powers,  to  act  in  a  middle  station  between  him  and  the 
lower  productions  of  his  Almighty  hand.  Now,  while  inferior  angels 
were  appointed  to  preside  over  other  people  and  nations  upon  earth, 
one  angel,  who  is  called  by  Moses  Jehovah,  had  Israel  assigned  to 
him  by  the  Most  High  as  the  portion  of  his  inheritance.  He  Avas  the 
guardian  angel  of  the  posterity  of  Abraham  ;  and  the  peculiar  dis- 
tinction conferred  upon  him  was  this,  that  he  was  authorized  to  ap- 
pear in  the  name  and  person  of  Jehovah,  as  his  image  and  represen- 
tative.    Hence,  although  in  some  places  he  is  distinguished  from  the 

•  Prtel.  Theolog.  vol.  iii.  p.  397. 


304  ACTIONS  ASCRIBED  TO  JESUS 

Almighty  who  sent  him,  yet,  in  others,  he  takes  the  name  of  Jehovali, 
and  claims  and  receives  the  honours  due  to  God. 

The  other  book  is  the  apology  of  Ben  Mordecai,  one  great  object 
of  which  is  to  elucidate  and  support  the  opinion  that  had  been 
delivered  in  the  Essay  on  Spirit.  Mr.  Taylor  lays  down  this  principle, 
that  as  it  is  said  in  the  Jewish  Scriptures  that  Jehovah  often  appeared 
and  conversed  with  men  ;  and  as  the  supreme  God  and  Father  never 
was  seen  by  any  one,  there  must  be  some  other  person  besides  him 
who  is  called  by  that  name.  He  illustrates  the  truth  of  this  principle 
by  most  of  the  passages  in  the  Old  Testament,  to  which  I  have  re- 
ferred in  Section  First ;  and  then  he  concludes  from  them : — "  Thus 
we  see  that  the  sacred  writers  attribute  to  the  angel  who  acts  in  the 
name,  and  authority,  and  moral  character  of  God,  the  name  Jehovah. 
And  this  angel,  speaking  in  the  name  of  God  that  sent  him,  uses  the 
first  person ;  and  whatever  is  performed  by  this  angel  is  said  to  be 
performed  by  God  himself.  So  the  angel  who  appeared  to  Moses  in 
the  bush,  said,  *  I  am  that  I  am.  Thus  shalt  thou  say  to  the  children 
of  Israel,  I  am  hath  sent  me  unto  you.'  All  this  is  agreeable  to  the 
received  customs  of  mankind,  and  well  understood.  The  angel  takes 
the  name  of  Jehovah,  because  it  is  a  common  maxim,  loquitur  legatus 
sermone  tnittentis  eum,  as  an  ambassador  in  the  name  of  his  king, 
or  the  fecialis  when  he  denounced  war  in  the  name  of  the  Roman 
people :  and  what  is  done  by  the  angel,  is  said  to  be  done  by  God, 
according  to  another  maxim.     Qui facit per  cdium, facit  per  se* 

From  these  two  writers  you  may  learn  the  Arian  opinion  with  re- 
gard to  the  amoimt  of  the  proposition  which  we  have  been  consider- 
ing. That  person,  they  say,  whom  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment call  both  angel  and  Jehovah,  is  a  created  spirit,  who  was 
allowed  to  personate  the  Almighty,  not  only  speaking  by  his  authority, 
but  appearing  in  his  person,  and  bearing  his  name,  who  having,  in 
the  name  of  Jehovah,  conversed  with  the  patriarchs,  and  given  the 
law,  came  in  the  last  days  in  his  own  person  to  preach  the  gospel. 

To  this  opinion  I  shall  oppose  the  words  of  Mr.  Lindsey  and  of 
Dr.  Randolph. 

It  is  an  opinion  which  the  Socinians  cannot  admit,  because  it 
establishes  the  pre-existence  of  Jesus :  and  as  this  opinion  appears  to 
remove  some  of  the  difficulties  which  attend  the  third  opinion  con- 
cerning the  person  of  Christ,  and  has  been  adopted  by  many  as  a 
middle  system  between  that  which  degrades  the  Saviour  of  the  world 
to  the  rank  of  a  man,  and  that  which  exalts  him  to  be  equal  with  God 
the  Father,  the  Socinians  consider  it  as  peculiarly  formidable  to  their 
tenets,  and  they  attack  it  with  much  vigour,  and  often  with  sound 
argument.  Mr.  Lindsey,  after  quoting  the  manner  in  which  the  Lord 
passed  by  and  proclaimed  his  name  before  Moses,  says,  "  If  this  be 
not  a  description  and  peculiar  character  of  God,  where  shall  we  meet 
with  it  ?  An  angel  ever  so  great,  ever  so  ancient,  is  still  a  creature  ; 
and  can  never  be  clothed,  nor  ought  to  be  clothed  with  these  divine 
attributes  upon  any  occasion."  "  The  whole  transaction  at  Mount 
Sinai  shows  that  Jehovah  was  present,  and  acted,  and  not  another 

*  Ben  Mordecai,  p.  245,  233. 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  305 

for  him.  It  is  the  God  that  had  delivered  them  out  of  Egypt,  with 
whom  they  were  to  enter  into  covenant,  as  their  God,  and  who  there- 
upon accepted  them  as  his  people,  and  who  was  the  author  of  their 
religion  and  laws,  and  who  himself  delivered  to  them  those  ten  com- 
mands, the  most  sacred  part.  There  is  nothing  to  lead  us  to  imagine 
that  the  person  who  was  their  God,  did  not  speak  in  his  own 
name  ;  not  the  least  intimation  that  here  was  another  representing 
him."* 

The  author  of  the  Essay  on  Spirit  is  aware  of  the  force  of  these 
objections  to  his  system.  "  The  only  difficulty  in  this  case,"  he  says, 
"  is  that  the  Jehovah  of  Zion  does  not  always  declare  that  he  is 
deputed,  but  actually  and  literally  speaks  in  his  own  name,  calls  him- 
self Jehovah,  and  positively  prohibits  the  worship  of  any  God  but 
himself  Thou  shalt  have  none  other  Gods  before  me  ;  thereby 
seeming  to  forbid  even  the  worship  of  the  Supreme  Jehovah."  His 
answer  to  this  difficulty  is,  that  the  Hebrews  were  far  from  being 
explicit  and  accurate  in  their  style ;  and  that  it  was  customary  for 
prophets  and  angels  to  speak  in  the  name  and  character  of  God.f 

You  will  judge  how  far  this  answer  removes  the  difficulty,  from 
the  following  extract  out  of  the  writings  of  Dr.  Randolph,  who,  in  his 
vindication  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Trinity,  has  given  a  formal  answer 
to  the  Essay  on  Spirit ;  and  in  other  parts  of  his  works  also,  employs 
much  pains  to  establish  this  point,  that  the  angel  who  is  called 
Jehovah  in  the  Old  Testament  is  not  a  creature,  but  truly  God. 
"  Some,  to  evade  these  strong  proofs  of  our  Lord's  divinity,  have 
asserted  that  this  was  only  a  created  angel,  appearing  in  the  name 
or  person  of  the  Father ;  it  being  customary  in  Scripture  for  one 
person  to  sustain  the  character,  and  act  and  speak  in  the  name  of 
another.  But  these  assertions  want  proof  I  find  no  instances  of 
one  person  acting  and  speaking  in  the  name  of  another,  without  first 
declaring  in  whose  name  he  acts  and  speaks.  The  instances  usually 
alleged  are  nothing  to  the  purpose.  If  we  sometimes  find  an  angel 
in  the  book  of  revelation  speaking  in  the  name  of  God,  yet  from  the 
context  it  will  be  easy  to  show  that  this  angel  was  the  great  angel, 
the  angel  of  the  covenant.  But  if  there  should  be  some  instances  in 
the  prophetical  or  poetical  parts  of  Scripture,  of  an  abrupt  change  of 
persons,  where  the  person  speaking  is  not  particularly  specified,  this 
will  by  no  means  come  up  to  the  case  before  us.  Here  is  a  person 
sustaining  the  name  and  character  of  the  most  High  God  from  one 
end  of  the  Bible  to  the  other ;  bearing  his  glorious  and  fearful  name, 
the  incommunicable  name  Jehovah,  expressive  of  his  necessary 
existence  ;  sitting  in  the  throne  of  God ;  dwelling  and  presiding  in 
his  temple ;  delivering  laws  in  his  own  name  ;  giving  out  oracles ; 
hearing  prayers ;  forgiving  sins.  And  yet  these  writers  would 
persuade  us  that  this  was  only  a  tutelary  angel ;  that  a  creature  was 
the  God  of  Israel,  and  that  to  this  creature  all  their  service  and  wor- 
ship was  directed  ;  that  the  great  God, '  whose  name  is  jealous,'  was 
pleased  to  give  his  glory,  his  worship,  his  throne,  to  a  creature.  What 
is  this  but  to  make  the  law  of  God  himself  introductory  of  the  same 
idolatry  that  was  practised  by  all  the  nations  of  the  heathen?     But 

*  Lindsey,  p.  .313—339.  +  Essay  on  Spirit,  p.  65. 

28*  2  T 


306  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS 

we  are  told,  that  bold  figures  of  speech  are  common  in  the  Hebrew- 
language,  which  is  not  to  be  tied  down  in  its  interpretation  to  the 
severer  rules  of  modern  criticism.  We  may  be  assured  that  those 
opinions  are  indefensible,  which  cannot  be  supported  without  charging 
the  word  of  God  with  want  of  propriety  or  perspicuity.  Such  pre- 
tences might  be  borne  with,  if  the  question  were  about  a  phrase  or 
two  in  the  poetical  or  prophetical  parts  of  Scripture.  But  this,  if  it 
be  a  figure,  is  a  figure  which  runs  through  the  whole  Scripture.  And 
a  bold  interpreter  must  he  be,  who  supposes  that  such  figures  are 
perpetually  and  uniformly  made  use  of  in  a  point  of  such  importance, 
without  any  meaning  at  all.  This  is  to  confound  the  use  of  language, 
to  make  the  Holy  Scripture  a  mysterious  unintelligible  book,  sufficient 
to  prove  nothing,  or  rather  to  prove  any  thing,  which  a  wild  imagi- 
nation shall  suggest."* 

I  have  not  been  willing  to  interrupt  the  impression  which  this 
whole  passage  is  fitted  to  make.  The  three  great  circumstances  con- 
tained in  it,  and  which  constitute  the  whole  argument  upon  this 
subject,  are  these.  1.  The  uniformity  with  which  the  angel  appears 
in  the  person  of  Jehovah.  It  is  not  upon  a  few  particular  occasions, 
when  an  abrupt  change  of  persons  might  be  dictated  by  strong 
emotions,  or  interpreted  by  interesting  situations.  But  throughout 
the  whole  Bible,  at  the  delivery  of  laws,  in  plain  historical  narration, 
as  well  as  in  impassioned  poetry,  the  angel,  without  any  intimation  of 
a  figure,  speaks  as  God.  But,  as  has  been  well  said,  even  an  ambas- 
sador, when  he  declares  the  commands  of  his  prince,  speaks  in  the 
third  person, — The  King  my  master.  The  prophets  commonly 
introduced  their  revelations  with  this  exordium.  Thus  saith  the  Lord, 
before  they  presumed  to  speak  in  his  name.  Angels,  when  they 
appeared  in  vision,  declared  that  they  were  sent  by  the  God  of 
heaven  ;  and  there  appears  the  grossest  impiety  in  supposing  that  a 
creature  during  a  succession  of  ages,  histrioniarn  exercidsse,  in  qua 
Dei  nomen  assumat,  et  omnia,  quse  Dei  sunt,  sibi  attribuat.\  2. 
The  second  circumstance  is,  that  this  angel  not  only  takes  the  other 
names  by  which  the  Almighty  is  known,  but  calls  himself  Jehovah, 
although  that  word,  both  by  its  natural  import,  and  by  the  manner  in 
which  the  Scriptures  introduce  it,  appears  to  be  the  proper  distinguish- 
ing name  of  the  Supreme  God.  Eyu  «^i  6  wv,  is  the  exposition  which 
the  Septuagint  give  of  this  name.  Now  ■to  ov  was  the  name  given  by 
Plato  to  the  Supreme  Being.  'Et,  Thou  art,  was  the  single  word 
written  upon  the  entrance  of  the  temple  at  Delphos;  and  Plutarch 
says  that  this  name  is  solely  applicable  to  God,  since  that  which  truly 
is  must  be  sempiternal.  The  Scripture  use  of  the  name  Jehovah 
corresponds  to  the  import  of  this  exposition.  "  Thou  whose  name 
alone  is  Jehovah."  "  Jehovah  is  my  name,  and  my  glory  will  I  not 
give  to  another."^  Yet  this  word  the  angel  takes  to  himself;  and 
when  Moses  asked  him,  if  "  they  shall  say  unto  me,  what  is  his  name  ? 
What  shall  I  say  unto  them  ?"  this  is  the  name  which  he  desires 
Moses  to  carry  to  the  children  of  Israel  as  his.§  3.  The  third 
circumstance  is,  that  the  angel  not  only  demands  worship,  but  claims 

*  Randolph's  View,  vol.  ii.  p.  129.  f  Bull.  p.  10. 

+  Ps.lxxxiii.  18.  §  Exod.  iii.  13,  15, 


IN    HIS    PRE-EXISTENT    STATE.  307 

it  as  his  to  the  exclusion  of  every  other  being.  The  professed  object 
of  the  law  of  Moses  was  to  preserve  the  Jews  from  the  idolatry  of 
the  surrounding  nations.  But  if  the  author  of  their  law  was  only  a 
creature  of  a  higher  rank  than  the  angels  who  presided  over  otlier 
kingdoms,  and  if  the  continued  use  of  a  figure  of  speech,  which  was 
never  properly  explained,  led  them  to  consider  this  creature  as  God, 
then  did  the  Almighty  lend  his  name  to  establish  in  the  land  of 
Israel  the  worship  of  a  creature  ;  and  all  the  preparation  and  splen- 
dour of  the  law  were  insignificant,  since  it  only  taught  the  Jews 
to  worship  one  creature,  while  their  neighbours  were  worshipping 
another. 

These  reasons  appear  to  show,  that  without  supposing  an  inextri- 
cable delusion  to  run  through  all  the  Scriptures,  we  must  admit  that 
the  person  whom  we  have  traced  in  the  Old  and  New  Testament  is 
not  a  creature,  but  that  the  name  which  he  uniformly  takes  to  him- 
self, belongs  to  him  by  nature. 

It  may  perhaps  occur  to  you,  that  by  ascribing  that  intercourse 
with  mankind  which  is  recorded  in  the  Old  Testament  to  a  person 
who  is  himself  truly  God,  we  remove  God  the  Father  from  all  care  of 
the  children  of  men,  and  detract  from  the  honour  due  to  him.  But 
we  may  find,  as  we  advance  in  this  subject,  that  the  Scriptures  have 
obviated  this  difficulty,  by  intimating  that  perfect  union  between  the 
Father  and  the  Son,  which  was  just  mentioned  in  summing  up  the 
argument  from  creation.  Although  God  made  the  world  by  his 
Son,  yet  he  is  also  the  Creator  of  all,  because  the  Father  and  the  Son 
are  one ;  and  although  God  from  the  beginning  manifested  himself 
by  his  Son,  "  who  is  the  image  of  the  invisible  God,"  yet  the  glory 
of  the  Father  and  the  Son  are  the  same.  It  was  the  power  of  the 
undivided  Godhead  which  was  exerted  by  the  Son  at  creation;  it 
was  the  majesty  of  the  undivided  Godhead  which  appeared  in  the 
Son  upon  Mount  Sinai ;  and  all  the  adorations  offered  through  ages 
to  the  giver  of  the  law  were  the  tribute  which  the  one  true  God  is 
alone  worthy  to  receive.  We  may  find  that  this  system  is  revealed 
in  Scripture  ;  and  that  it  reconciles  all  the  discoveries  made  concern- 
ing the  person  of  the  Son  of  God.  At  present  we  are  employed  in 
collecting  the  facts  upon  which  this  system  rests ;  and  without  pre- 
tending to  speculate  as  to  the  probability  of  any  particular  fact,  we 
receive  the  information  which  the  Scripture  affords. 

One  great  advantage  we  derive  from  the  proposition  which  has 
lately  engaged  our  attention.  It  connects  in  the  closest  manner  the 
Old  and  the  New  Testament.  They  not  only  point  to  one  great 
object,  but  they  were  conducted  by  one  person,  who,  as  Justin  Mar- 
tyr speaks,  although  he  did  at  length  for  good  reasons  take  to  himself 
a  body,  yet  had  always  been  doing  good  to  the  human  race  :  for  no 
excellent  thing  was  ever  performed  by  men  without  the  presence  of 
this  Divine  Person.  You  may  expect  then  to  find  in  the  Old  and 
New  Testament,  that  unity  of  design,  that  correspondence  and 
analogy  of  parts  which  mark  all  the  schemes  of  a  superior  enlightened 
mind.  According  to  this  proposition,  the  glorious  person  who  had 
established  the  dispensation  of  the  Old  Testament,  is  not  made  to 
withdraw  as  soon  as  it  comes  to  an  end.  But  he  appears  in  the  New 
Testament  under  another  character,  with  a  display  of  more  conde- 


308  ACTIONS    ASCRIBED    TO    JESUS,    ETC. 

scending  and  more  universal  love,  to  complete  the  work  which  he  had 
begun,  and  to  fulfil  the  words  of  his  prophets.  Every  thing  said  by 
them  concerning  the  person  who  had  sent  them  is  applied  by  this 
proposition  to  the  person  whom  they  announced ;  and  there  is  a 
depth  and  perfection  of  wisdom  in  the  manner  of  the  application.  As 
it  was  not  necessary  that  the  Son  of  God  should  be  known  while  the 
Old  Testament  dispensation  existed,  we  find  that  the  ancient  Jews 
had  very  imperfect  conceptions  of  his  nature.  But  when  he  came  in 
the  flesh,  he  took  off  the  veil  from  the  ancient  Scriptures.  The  Old 
Testament  now  appears  to  be  full  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  all  the  reve- 
lations, from  the  beginning  of  the  world,  collected  and  interpreted  by 
their  application  to  him,  redound  to  the  honour,  and  illustrate  the 
original  dignity  of  the  angel  of  the  covenant. 


DOCTRINE    CONCERNING    CHRIST'S    PERSON,  ETC.  309 


CHAPTER  VI. 


DOCTRINE   CONCERNING    THE    PERSON  OF  CHRIST  TAUGHT    DURING    HIS 

LIFE. 


T  HAVE  considered  both  those  passages  of  Scripture,  which  teach 
plainly  that  Jesus  existed  before  he  was  born  of  Mary,  and  those 
which  ascribe  certain  actions  to  him  in  his  pre-existent  state.  The 
manner  in  which  these  actions  are  described,  not  only  contains  a  clear 
refutation  of  the  first  opinion  concerning  the  person  of  Christ,  but 
seems  intended  to  convey  an  impression  that  he  is  not  a  creature ; 
and  with  the  prejudice  arising  from  this  impression,  we  now  proceed 
to  attend  to  those  passages  of  Scripture  which  are  to  direct  us  in 
forming  a  conception  of  his  original  dignity. 

Dr.  Clarke,  in  his  Introduction  to  the  Scripture  Doctrine  of  the 
Trinity,  expresses  himself  thus :  "  'Tis  a  thing  very  destructive  of 
religion,  and  the  cause  of  almost  all  divisions  amongst  Christians, 
when  young  persons,  at  their  first  entering  upon  the  study  of  divinity, 
look  upon  human  and  perhaps  modern  forms  of  speaking,  as  the  rule 
of  their  faith ;  understanding  those  also  according  to  the  accidental 
sound  of  the  words,  or  according  to  the  notions  which  happen  at  any 
particular  time  to  prevail  in  the  world,  and  then  picking  out,  as 
proofs,  some  few  single  texts  of  Scripture,  which,  to  minds  already 
strongly  prejudiced,  must  needs  seem  to  sound,  or  may  easily  be  ac- 
commodated, the  same  way ;  while  they  attend  not  impartially  to  the 
whole  scope  and  general  tenor  of  Scripture.  Whereas  on  the  con- 
trary were  the  whole  Scriptures  first  thoroughly  studied,  and  seriously 
considered,  as  the  rule  and  only  rule  of  truth  in  matters  of  religion; 
and  the  sense  of  all  human  forms  and  expressions  deduced  from 
thence,  the  greatest  part  of  errors,  at  least  of  uncharitable  divisions, 
might  in  all  probability  have  been  prevented." 

Dr.  Clarke  speaks  the  language  of  all  true  Protestants,  when  he 
says  that  the  Scriptures,  thoroughly  studied  and  seriously  considered, 
are  the  rule,  and  the  only  rule  of  truth  in  matters  of  religion.  He 
speaks  like  a  sound  critic,  when  he  says  that  texts  ought  not  to  be 
understood  according  to  the  accidental  sound  of  the  words,  or  accord- 
ing to  the  notions  which  happen  at  any  particular  time  to  prevail. 
But  it  does  not  appear  to  me  how  we  can  attain  a  certain  knowledge 
of  the  whole  scope  and  general  tenor  of  Scripture,  without  a  close 
examination  of  particular  texts.  In  every  inquiry  we  find  it  neces- 
sary to  guard  against  the  errors  which  arise  from  partial  views,  by 
comparing  different  parts  of  the  subject,  and  by  correcting  the  conclu- 
sions which  had  been  too  hastily  formed.     But  still,  notwithstanding 


310  DOCTRINE   CONCERNING   CHRIST's    PERSON 

this  danger,  the  scientific  method  of  arriving  at  truth  in  all  subjects  is 
to  proceed  by  an  induction  of  particulars  to  an  apprehension  of  the 
whole ;  and  in  the  study  of  theology,  which  is  in  truth  the  study  of 
the  Scriptures,  any  notions  formed  of  the  doctrine  contained  in  them 
must  be  loose  and  precarious,  unless  you  investigate  by  sound 
criticism  the  amount  of  words  and  phrases.  Although  therefore  I 
consider  the  collection  of  texts  from  the  New  Testament  relative  to 
the  doctrhie  of  the  Trinity,  which  Dr.  Clarke  has  made  the  ground- 
work of  his  propositions,  as  a  most  useful  help  to  any  one  who  sets 
himself  to  examine  the  subject,  I  do  think  that  by  following  the 
method  of  studying  it  which  he  recommends,  there  is  a  danger  of 
being  prevented,  by  a  phraseology  which  runs  through  many  of  the 
texts,  from  receiving  the  obvious  sense  of  others.  If,  because  it  is 
said  in  numberless  places  that  the  Son  is  sent  by  the  Father,  and  came 
to  do  the  will  of  the  Father,  and  that  all  things  are  given  him  by  God, 
we  infer  that  there  is  an  inferiority  to  God  in  his  nature,  and  after- 
wards find  this  inference  in  direct  opposition  to  those  texts,  which 
teach  that  there  is  an  equality,  we  have  reason  to  presume  that  we 
have  committed  a  mistake ;  and  we  are  reminded,  that  the  proper 
method  of  proceeding  was  not  to  draw  a  conclusion  from  a  general 
impression,  but  to  begin  with  ascertaining  the  sense  of  particular 
texts,  and  to  rest  in  that  conclusion  which  affords  a  consistent  inter- 
pretation of  all  the  passages  that  relate  to  the  same  subject. 

I  said,  indeed,  that  we  bring  with  us  to  the  part  of  the  subject  upon 
which  we  are  now  entering,  an  impression  that  Jesus  is  not  a  creature. 
But  this  is  an  impression  suggested  by  a  careful  and  patient  examina- 
tion of  those  texts  in  which  he  is  described  as  the  Creator  of  the 
world,  and  by  the  whole  tenor  of  those  parts  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testament,  in  which  he  is  described  as  the  Person  by  whom  all  inter- 
course between  the  Deity  and  the  human  race  has  been  conducted. 
It  is  impossible  to  make  progress  in  any  subject  without  forming  some 
opinion  as  we  advance.  If  that  opinion  receive  no  support  in  the 
further  prosecution  of  the  subject,  it  rests  upon  its  original  foundation. 
If  it  be  contradicted,  we  ought  to  revise  the  grounds  of  it,  that  we 
may  discover  where  the  mistake  lies :  but  if  it  be  found  to  coincide 
with  the  amount  of  future  researches,  it  receives  light  and  confirma- 
tion from  this  concurrence  of  evidence. 

These  are  the  principles  upon  which  I  am  to  proceed  in  a  critical 
examination  of  those  texts  of  the  New  Testament,  the  true  meaning 
of  which  must  decide  the  question  between  the  second  and  third 
opinions  concerning  the  person  of  Christ.  But  as  the  texts  are  found 
chiefly  in  the  Epistles,  which  were  not  written  for  twenty  years  after 
our  Lord's  death,  I  think  it  proper  to  begin  with  an  historical  view 
of  the  manner  in  which  the  doctrine  concerning  his  person  was  taught 
during  his  life, 

It  is  manifest  to  any  one  who  reads  the  gospels,  that  our  Lord  did 
not  untold  all  the  truths  of  his  religion  at  once  to  his  disciples.  In 
condescension  to  the  narrowness  of  their  views,  and  the  strength  of 
their  prejudices,  there  was  a  preparation  by  which  he  led  them  on,  as 
they  were  able  to  bear  it,  to  points  of  difficult  apprehension.  When 
we  observe  that  he  never  spoke  plainly  of  his  sufferings,  till  they  had 
declared  their  faith  in  him  as  the  Messiah — that  the  future  extension 


TAUGHT    DURING    HIS    LIFE,  311 

of  his  religion  was  intimated  to  them  in  parables — that  they  were  not 
permitted  before  his  death  to  preach  the  gospel  to  any  but  Jews — and 
that  their  expectations  of  a  temporal  kingdom  continued  till  his  ascen- 
sion, we  cannot  doubt  that  some  of  the  fundamental  doctrines  of 
Christianity  were  very  imperfectly  known  by  the  apostles  while  our 
Lord  was  with  them  ;  and  we  are  not  surprised  to  find  these  words  in 
his  last  discourse  to  them,  "  I  have  yet  many  things  to  say  unto  you, 
but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now."*  If  he  was  truly  God,  there  was  a  pecu- 
liar fitness  in  the  reserve  with  which  he  chose  to  reveal  the  dignity 
of  his  person.  He  appeared  as  a  man,  that  he  might  converse 
familiarly  with  his  brethren — that,  by  leading  a  life  of  sorrow,  he 
might  go  before  his  companions  in  the  practice  of  those  virtues 
which  they  also  were  to  be  required  to  exercise — and  that,  by  falling 
in  due  time  a  victim  to  the  malice  of  his  enemies,  he  might  accomplish 
the  salvation  of  the  world.  For  these  purposes,  the  veil  of  humanity 
was  assumed  ;  and  if  it  was  indeed  the  Godhead  which  that  veil  con- 
cealed from  the  eyes  of  ordinary  beholders,  the  same  purposes  re- 
quired that  those  persons  who  were  continually  around  tlie  person  of 
Jesus,  should  have,  during  his  life,  only  an  indistinct  impression  of 
the  glory  and  majesty  of  him  with  whom  they  conversed — and  that 
the  clear  knowledge  that  he  was  God,  should  be  conveyed  to  their 
minds  after  his  death,  by  that  recollection  and  explication  of  his  words, 
which  they  were  to  derive  from  the  illumination  of  his  Spirit.  After 
he  had  ascended  to  heaven,  they  could  not  think  too  highly  of  his 
character ;  and  their  conceptions  of  the  wisdom  and  grace  of  their 
Master  would  be  very  much  raised,  when  they  found  that  those 
words,  the  full  force  of  which  they  understood  not  at  the  time  when 
they  were  spoken,  admitted  of  an  interpretation  every  way  suited  to 
the  exalted  notions  which  they  were  taught  by  the  Spirit  to  enter- 
tain concerning  the  dignity  of  him  from  whom  they  had  proceeded. 

This  appears  to  be  the  plan  which  the  wisdom  of  God  followed  in 
revealing  this  subject.  We  find,  during  the  life  of  Jesus,  intimations 
of  the  superiority  of  his  character,  such  as  are  not  only  perfectly  con- 
sistent with  the  future  revelation  that  he  is  God,  but  such  as  nothing 
less  than  that  revelation  can  fully  explain.  At  the  same  time,  we 
find  both  the  apostles  and  Jews  rather  confounded  than  enlightened 
by  these  intimations;  and  it  is  not  in  the  conversations  recorded  in 
the  Gospels,  but  in  the  expressions  used  by  the  authors  of  them,  or  by 
the  other  apostles  after  the  day  of  Pentecost,  tliat  we  discern  their 
knowledge  of  the  character  of  their  Master.  By  giving  a  short  con- 
nected view  of  these  previous  intimations,  I  shall  follow  the  prepara- 
tion which  our  Lord  used  in  showing  himself  to  his  disciples. 

All  the  circumstances  which  attended  the  birth  of  Jesus,  n)arked 
him  out  as  an  extraordinary  person.  The  annunciation  by  the  angel 
of  the  Lord,  first  to  Mary,  and  afterwards  to  Joseph — the  reference 
to  ancient  prophecy,  in  the  language  which  the  angel  used — the  glory 
which  shone  around  the  shepherds  of  Bethlehem  at  the  time  of  the 
birth — and  the  song  of  the  multitude  of  the  heavenly  host  which  was 
with  the  angel  that  spake — together  Mnth  the  visit  of  the  wise  men, 
who,  led  by  a  star  in  the  East,  "  came  to  Jerusalem  to  worship  him 

•  John  xvj.  12. 


312  DOCTRINE    CONCERNING    CHRISt's   PERSON 

that  was  born  King  of  the  Jews," — all  these  things  could  not  fail  to 
be  noised  abroad ;  they  were  matter  of  wonder  to  those  that  heard 
them,  and  Mary,  not  understanding  what  they  meant, "kept  all  these 
things,"  we  are  told,  "  and  pondered  them  in  her  heart."  The  first 
direct  explication  of  them  was  at  the  baptism  of  Jesus.  John,  whose 
mother  Elizabeth  was  a  relation  of  Mary,  had  been  born  a  few 
months  before  Jesus.  The  Angel,  who  appeared  to  his  father 
Zacharias  the  priest,  had  said  that  the  son  who  was  to  be  born 
"should  go  before  the  Lord  God  of  Israel  in  the  spirit  and  power  of 
Elias :"  and  Zacharias,  instructed  by  the  temporary  dumbness,  which 
had  been  the  punishment  of  his  unbelief,  to  repose  entire  confidence 
in  the  words  of  the  angel,  said,  after  John  was  born,  "  Thou,  child, 
shalt  be  called  the  Prophet  of  the  Highest ;  for  thou  shalt  go  before 
the  face  of  the  Lord  to  prepare  his  ways."*  When  John  was  about 
thirty, "  the  word  of  God  came  unto  him,"  and  he  appeared,  accord- 
ing to  the  destination  of  ancient  prophecy  applied  to  him  at  his  birth, 
"  the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness,  Prepare  ye  the  way  of 
the  Lord."t  Although  personally  acquainted  with  Jesus,  John  knew 
not  that  he  was  the  Messiah,  till  taught  by  these  words,  in  what 
manner  he  was  to  be  distinguished  from  others  :  "  Upon  whom  thou 
shalt  see  the  Spirit  descending  and  remaining  on  him,  the  same  is  he 
which  baptizeth  with  the  Holy  Ghost."t  Soon  after  this  revelation 
was  made  to  John,  Jesus  came  with  the  multitude  to  be  baptized  of 
John,  who  preached  the  baptism  of  repentance  ;  and  as  he  went  up 
out  of  the  water,  the  heavens  were  opened,  and  the  Spirit  of  God 
descended,  either  in  the  shape  of  a  dove,  or  in  the  manner  in  which 
a  dove  descends,  and  lighted  upon  him.  "  And  lo,  a  voice  from 
heaven,  saying,  This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased." 
Instantly  John  recognized  Jesus  as  the  person  to  whom  he  was  sent 
to  bear  witness.  Having  seen,  he  "  bare  record,  that  this  is  the  Son 
of  God,"  and  pointed  out  Jesus  as  such  to  the  Jews.§ 

It  appears  impossible  to  me,  that  any  person,  who,  to  all  the 
circumstances  that  had  conspired  to  raise  the  highest  expectations 
concerning  Jesus,  joins  the  solemnity  and  splendor  of  that  appearance 
by  which  he  is  made  known  to  John,  his  forerunner,  can  interpret  the 
words  uttered  by  the  voice  from  heaven  in  an  inferior  metaphorical 
sense,  or  can  give  them  any  other  than  that  exalted  import  which 
they  naturally  bear,  and  which  is  suggested  by  the  use  of  them  in 
ancient  prophecy.  This  opinion  founded  upon  the  circumstances  of 
the  case  is  confirmed  by  two  critical  remarks  which  deserve  attention. 
The  one  is,  that  in  all  the  three  Evangelists  who  record  them,  the 
article  is  prefixed  both  to  the  substantive  and  the  adjective.  Matt.  iii. 
17,  oitoi  ootw  s  vto;  (xov  6  ayartt]toi ;  the  most  discriminating  mode  of  expres- 
sion that  could  be  employed,  as  if  to  separate  Jesus  from  every  other 
who  at  any  time  had  received  the  appellation  of  the  Son  of  God,  and 
to  lead  back  the  thoughts  of  the  hearers  to  the  prophecies  in  which  the 
Messiah  had  been  announced  under  that  name.  This  is  that  Son  of 
mine  who  is  the  beloved.  The  other  critical  remark  is,  that,  in  all 
the  three  Evangelists,  the  verb  of  the  second  clause,  in  whom  I  cm 

*  Luke  ch.  i.  j-  Luke  iii.  3 — 6. 

4  John  i.  33.  §  Mat.  iii.  16,  17.     John  i.  34. 


TAUGHT    DURING    HIS    LIFE.  313 

well  pleased,  is  in  the  first  aorist,  c^  9  sv8oxr;M.  Now,  although  we 
often  render  the  Greek  aorist  by  the  English  present,  yet  this  can  be 
done  with  propriety  only  when  the  proposition  is  equally  true  whether 
it  be  stated  in  the  present,  in  the  past,  or  in  the  future  time.  T«5  f^ev 
tiov  tavxw  awr^OeMi  oxtyoj  x^o^oi  Siixvssv.  It  matters  nothing  to  the  truth  or 
significancy  of  this  proposition,  in  what  time  you  translate  Sic^-var,  for 
a  short  space  of  time  has  dissolved  the  connexions  of  the  wicked  in 
past  ages,  does  dissolve  them  in  our  days,  and  will  dissolve  them  in 
the  days  of  our  posterity.  This  force  of  the  Greek  indefinite  tense  is 
preserved  in  English  by  introducing  the  adverb  always.  A  short 
space  of  time  always  dissolves  the  connexions  of  the  wicked.*  And 
tlius  the  analogy  of  the  Greek  language  requires  us  not  only  to  con- 
sider the  name.  Son  of  God,  as  applied  in  a  peculiar  sense  to  Jesus, 
but  also  to  refer  to  the  expression  used  at  his  baptism,  to  that  inter- 
course which  had  subsisted  between  the  Father  and  the  Son,  before 
this  name  was  announced  to  men. 

This  voice  from  heaven  which  John  heard  appeared  to  have  con- 
veyed to  his  mind  the  most  exalted  apprehensions  of  that  Person 
whom  it  marked  out  to  him.  For  the  words  in  which  he  afterwards 
speaks  of  Jesus  correspond  to  the  third  opinion  concerning  his  Person, 
rather  than  to  the  second.  "  He  that  cometh  from  above  is  above  all. 
And  what  he  hath  seen  and  heard,  that  he  testifieth.  The  Father 
loveth  the  Son,  and  hath  given  all  things  into  his  hand."t  We  can- 
not say  that  the  full  meaning  of  the  expression  was  known  to  the 
apostles,  and  that  they  could  not  consider  a  man,  to  whom  such  a 
name  had  been  given  in  such  a  manner,  as  merely  a  man  whom  God 
had  sent.  And  yet,  when  we  find  them  introducing  at  different  times 
into  declarations  of  their  faith,  this  expression.  Thou  art  the  Son  of 
the  living  God,  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  they  referred  to  the  voice 
heard  at  his  baptism.  There  is  one  place  in  John's  Gospel,  where 
our  Lord  appears  to  found  an  argument  for  his  divine  mission  upon 
this  voice.  John  v.  37,  38.  He  had  spoken  of  the  Witness  which 
he  received  from  John,  and  of  the  works  that  he  did,  which  bare 
witness  that  the  Father  had  sent  him  :  and  he  adds,  according  to  our 
translation,  "  And  the  Father  himself,  which  hath  sent  me,  hath  borne 
witness  of  me.  Ye  have  neither  heard  his  voice  at  any  time,  nor 
seen  his  shape.  And  ye  have  not  his  word  abiding  in  you  ;  for  whom 
he  hath  sent,  him  ye  believe  not.  "A  different  translation  of  these 
verses,  which  had  been  suggested  by  others,  and  which  always 
appeared  to  me  probable,  is  adopted  and  ably  defended  by  Dr. 
Campbell.  His  translation  is,  "  Nay,  the  Father  who  sent  me,  hath 
himself  attested  me.  Did  ye  never  hear  his  voice,  or  see  his  form  ? 
Or  have  ye  forgotten  his  declarations,  that  ye  believe  not  him  whom 
he  hath  commissioned  ?"  The  reader  will  observe,  says  Dr.  Camp- 
bell, in  a  note,  that  the  two  clauses  which  are  rendered  in  the  English 
Bible  as  declarations,  are  in  this  version  translated  as  questions.  The 
difference  in  the  original  is  only  in  the  pointing.  That  they  ought  to 
be  so  read,  we  need  not,  in  my  opinion,  stronger  evidence,  than  that 
they  throw  much  light  upon  the  whole  passage,  which,  read  in  the 

»  Dalzel's  Coll.    Gracca  Majora,  Nota:  in  Herod.     19,  6.  Ed.  1808. 
t  Johniii.  31,  32,35. 
29  2U 


314  DOCTRINE    CONCERNING    CHRISt's    PERSON 

common  way,  is  both  dark  and  ill-connected.  Our  Lord  here  refers 
them  to  the  testimony  given  of  him  at  his  baptism ;  and,  when  you 
read  the  two  clauses  as  questions,  all  the  chief  circumstances  attend- 
ing that  memorable  testimony  are  exactly  pointed  out.  Have  ye 
never  heard  his  voice,  i|>wf»?  ix  rwi/  ov^avcov,  nor  seen  his  form — the 
aufiatixov evSoi,  in  which  Luke  says  the  Holy  Ghost  descended?  And 
have  ye  not  his  declaration  abiding  in  you,  tov  -Koyov,  the  words  which 
were  spoken  at  that  time  ? 

There  appears  to  me  very  strong  internal  evidence  for  the  correction 
proposed  by  Dr.  Campbell,  according  to  which  our  Lord  here  refers 
to  the  ^oyoj,  the  words  uttered  at  his  baptism,  as  his  warrant  for  calling 
himself  the  Son  of  God.  There  is  no  doubt  that  he  takes  that  name 
to  himself  in  an  eminent  sense,  both  in  his  discourses  with  his  disciples, 
with  Nicodemus,  a  master  in  Israel,  with  the  people  of  the  Jews,  and 
at  his  trial,  when,  being  asked  by  the  High  Priest,  "  Art  thou  the  Son 
of  God  ?"  he  acknowledged  that  he  was :  a  confession  which, 
according  to  the  sense  affixed  to  the  question  by  those  who  put  it, 
was  direct  blasphemy.  "  What  need  we  any  further  witnesses,"  said 
the  High  Priest :  "  ye  have  heard  the  blasphemy."  It  is  very  remark- 
able, that  although  our  Lord  seems  to  delight  in  calling  the  Almighty, 
when  he  is  speaking  of  him  to  the  disciples,  your  Father,  your 
heavenly  Father,  a  gracious  name  most  suitable  to  the  discoveries  of 
liis  religion ;  and  although,  in  the  prayer  which  he  taught  them  to 
use,  the  address  is,  "  Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven,"  yet  he  never 
uses  the  expression  our  Father  in  such  a  manner  as  to  include  him- 
self with  them.  All  his  discourse  implies  that  God  is  his  Father,  in  a 
sense  different  from  that  in  which  he  is  the  Father  of  all  mankind  ; 
and  the  form  of  his  expression  in  one  place  seems  chosen  to  mark  the 
distinction,  John  xx.  17,  "  Go  tell  my  brethren,  I  ascend  unto  my 
Father  and  your  Father,  and  to  my  God,  and  your  God."  Indeed 
the  strongest  proofs  of  the  divinity  of  Jesus,  that  "are  found  in  his  own 
words,  arise  from  the  manner  in  which  he  speaks  of  the  connexion 
between  his  Father  and  him.  «  All  things  are  delivered  unto  me  of 
my  Father;  and  no  man  knoweth  the  Son  but  the  Father:  neither 
knoweth  any  man  the  Father  but  the  Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the 
Son  will  reveal  him."*  Here  the  Father  and  the  Son  are  held  forth 
as  alike  incomprehensible  to  mortals.  "What  things  soever  the 
Father  doth,  these  doth  the  Son  likewise."!  Here  is  an  exact  like- 
ness in  their  works.  Eyo  xm  o  rtatrje^  Iv  Bafx.iv.  "  I  and  the  Father  are 
one."f  The  argument  arising  from  the  two  last  passages  becomes 
much  stronger  than  it  appears  at  the  first  hearing  them,  when  you 
attend  to  the  circumstances  in  which  the  declarations  were  made.  In 
the  fifth  chapter  of  John,  our  Lord,  being  accused  of  breaking  the 
Sabbath,  because  upon  that  day  he  made  a  man  whole,  makes  this 
apology,  V.  17  :  'o  jtatT]^  /xov  Iw?  a^tt,  e^ya^stai,  xayio  f^ya^o^uat.  "  My  Father 
worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work,"  ?.  e.  My  Father,  who  rested  on  the 
seventh  day  from  the  work  of  creation,  never  rests  from  the  work  of 
preserving  and  blessing  his  creatures  ;  and  I,  after  his  example,  do 
works  of  mercy  on  the  Sabbath  day.  The  Jews  were  offended  w-th 
this  saying,  because  they  conceived  it  to  imply  that  Jesus  called  God 

*  Mat.  xi.  27.  f  John  v.  19.  +  John  x.  30. 


TAUGHT    DURING    HIS    LIFE.  315 

Ha^f^a  iSiov,  which  means  much  more  than  our  translation  has  express- 
ed, "  said  that  God  was  his  Father."  U^ou  natt^a,  means  his  Father,  in 
a  sense  appropriated  to  him.  I5w5  is  opposed  to  xolvq^.  And  I  call 
him  iSioj  rtat>7^,  who  is  not  the  Father  of  others  as  well  as  of  me,  but 
who  is  the  Father  of  me  only.  From  his  calling  God  peculiarly  his 
Father,  they  inferred  that  he  made  himself  equal  with  God  ;  and 
therefore  they  sought  to  kill  him.  Attempts  have  been  made  to  give 
a  different  interpretation  to  the  18th  verse.  But  they  appear  to  me 
so  forced  that  I  will  not  recite  them.  What  the  verse  conveys  to 
every  plain  reader  is  this,  that  the  Jews,  although  they  looked  up  to 
God  as  the  father  of  their  nation,  considered  it  as  blasphemy  in  any 
individual  to  call  God  in  a  peculiar  manner  his  Father,  because  this 
was  putting  in  a  claim  to  that  title,  the  Son  of  God,  which  seems  to 
imply  a  sameness  or  equality  of  nature  with  the  Supreme  Being,  and 
which  they  were  taught  by  their  Scriptures  to  regard  with  the  high- 
est reverence.  But  our  Lord,  instead  of  giving  such  an  explication  of 
his  words  as  might  exculpate  him  from  this  charge  of  blasphemy, 
subjoins  in  his  answer,  other  expressions  which  appear  to  be  a  direct 
assertion  of  that  equality  with  God,  which  the  Jews  conceived  to  be 
implied  in  his  calling  God  peculiarly  his  Father.  He  says,  "  What 
things  soever  the  Father  doth,  these  also  doth  the  Son  likewise," 
assuming  the  omnipotence  of  God.  He  says,  "  The  Father  showeth 
the  Son  all  things  that  himself  doth,"  making  his  knowledge  com- 
mensurate with  the  works  of  God.  He  says,  "  The  Son  quickeneth 
whom  he  will.  As  the  Father  hath  life  in  himself,  so  hath  he  given 
to  the  Son  to  have  life  in  himself."  It  is  acknowledged  in  all  these 
expressions,  that  whatsoever  the  Son  has  is  communicated  to  him  by 
the  Father;  and  this  is  implied  in  the  very  name  the  Son  of  God. 
But  if  this  communication  be  not  of  so  peculiar  a  kind  as  to  imply  an 
equality  with  God,  a  sameness  of  nature  and  perfections,  there  is  not 
only  an  unwarrantable  presumption  in  the  words  of  our  Lord,  but  in 
the  circumstances  in  which  they  were  uttered,  there  is  an  equivoca- 
tion inconsistent  with  the  sincerity  of  an  honest  man. 

This  argument  is  confirmed  by  attending  to  a  similar  passage  in  the 
10th  chapter  of  John.  Our  Lord,  speaking  of  that  assurance  of  eternal 
life  which  his  religion  conveys  to  his  disciples,  says,  x.  29,  30,  "  They 
shall  never  perish.  My  Father  which  gave  them  me  is  greater  than 
all ;  and  none  is  able  to  pluck  them  out  of  my  Father's  hand.  1 
and  my  Father  are  one.  Then  the  Jews  took  up  stones  to  stone 
him."  And  they  assign  as  the  reason  for  so  doing,  the  very  same 
which  John  had  mentioned  in  the  fifth  chapter:  "We  stone  thee  for 
blasphemy,  because  that  thou,  being  a  man,  makest  thyself  God." 
Our  Lord's  answer  is,  "  Is  it  not  written  in  your  law,  I  said,  ye  are 
gods  ?  If  he  called  them  gods  unto  whom  the  word  of  God  came, 
and  the  Scriptures  cannot  be  broken,  i.  e.  if  the  language  of  Scripture 
be  unexceptionable,  say  ye  of  him  whom  the  Father  hath  sanctified 
and  sent  into  the  world,  thou  blasphemest,  because  I  said,  I  am  the 
Son  of  God?"  These  words  are  quoted  in  support  of  their  opinion, 
by  those  who  hold  that  our  Saviour  is  called  the  Son  of  God,  purely 
upon  account  of  the  commission  which  he  received.  But  the  force 
of  the  argument,  and  the  consistency  of  the  discourses,  require  us  to 
affix  a  much  higher  meaning  to  that  expression.     Our  Lord  is  reason- 


316  DOCTRINE    CONCERNING    CHRISt's    PERSON 

ing  a  fortiori.  He  vindicates  himself  from  the  charge  of  blasphemy, 
in  calling  himself  the  Son  of  God,  because  even  those  who  hold  civil 
offices  upon  earth,  are  called  in  Scripture  gods.  But  that  he  might 
not  appear  to  put  himself  upon  a  level  with  them,  and  to  retract  his 
former  assertion,  "  I  and  the  Father  are  one,"  he  not  only  calls  him- 
self, "  him  whom  the  Father  hath  sanctified  and  sent  into  the  world," 
which  implies  that  he  had  a  being,  and  that  God  was  his  Father  before 
he  was  sent ;  but  he  subjoins, "  If  I  do  not  the  works  of  my  Father  be- 
lieve me  not.  But  if  I  do,  though  ye  believe  not  me,  believe  the  works, 
that  ye  may  know  and  believe  that  the  Father  is  in  me,  and  I  in  him ;" 
expressions  which  appear  to  be  equivalent  to  his  former  assertion,  "  I 
and  the  Father  are  one,"  and  which  were  certainly  understood  by  the 
Jews  in  that  sense  ;  for,  as  soon  as  he  had  uttered  them,  "  they  sought 
again  to  take  him."  The  full  argument  of  our  Lord  is,  that  the 
union  between  the  Father  and  him  gives  him  a  much  better  title  to 
the  name  of  the  Son  of  God  than  any  office  can  give  men  to  the  name 
gods :  and  thus  at  the  very  time  that  he  shelters  himself  from  the 
charge  of  blasphemy  under  this  Scripture  expression,  he  intimates 
repeatedly,  in  the  hearing  of  those  who  accused  him  of  blasphemy 
for  what  he  said,  the  superior  dignity  of  his  person. 

As  our  Lord,  in  this  emphatical  manner,  took  to  himself  the  name 
of  the  Son  of  God,  so  there  is  a  remarkable  passage  in  which  he 
guards  those  with  whom  he  conversed,  against  supposing  that  his 
being  called  the  Son  of  David,  implied  a  sameness  of  nature,  or  an 
equality  in  point  of  dignity  with  his  earthly  progenitor.  "  While  the 
Pharisees  were  gathered  together,  Jesus  asked  them.  What  think  ye 
of  Christ  ?  Whose  son  is  he  ?  They  say  unto  him,  the  son  of  David. 
He  saith  unto  them.  How  then  doth  David  in  spirit  call  him  Lord, 
saying,  The  Lord  said  unto  my  Lord,  sit  thou  on  my  right  hand,  till 
I  make  thine  enemies  thy  footstool.  If  David  then  call  him  Lord, 
how  is  he  his  son  ?  And  no  man  was  able  to  answer  him  a  word."* 
It  is  known  to  those  who  have  read  psalm  ex.  in  the  original,  that 
although  the  Septuagint  version  be  ftrtfv  6  Kr^wj  ^9  Kv^t9  ;uov,  and  our 
English  translation  be  "  The  Lord  said  unto  my  Lord ;"  yet  the  word 
in  the  nominative  is  different  from  that  which  is  in  the  dative.  The 
nominative  is  Jehovah,  the  incommunicable  name  of  God  expressing 
his  necessary  existence.  The  dative  is  Adonai,  a  word  expressing 
dominion  or  sovereignty.  It  admits,  therefore,  of  being  construed 
with  a  possessive  pronoun,  my  Lord ;  and  it  may  denote  different 
kinds  and  degrees  of  dominion.  The  difficulty,  then,  is  not  what  our 
translations  might  suggest,  that  the  same  name  Lord  is  applied  to  the 
Messiah  as  to  the  Supreme  Being.  But  it  lies  here.  David,  a 
Sovereign  Prince,  who  had  no  earthly  superior,  who  was  taught  by 
the  promise  of  God  to  consider  the  Messiah  as  his  descendant,  yet 
many  ages  before  the  Messiah  was  born,  calls  him  "  My  Lord  ;"  an 
expression  which  is  a  direct  acknowledgment  of  his  inferiority  to  his 
own  descendant,  and  which  implies  that  the  Messiah  existed  in  a 
superior  nature  before  he  descended  from  him.  Our  Lord  draws  the 
attention  of  the  Pharisees  to  this  difficulty  in  their  own  Scriptures, 
which  they  seem  to  have  overlooked,  and  which  they  were  unable 

*  Matth.  xxii.  41—46. 


TAUGHT    DURING    PIS   LIFE.  317 

to  solve.  He  could  not  solve  it,  without  unfolding  to  them  what  he 
chose  at  present  only  obscurely  to  intimate.  But  he  leaves  it  with 
them  as  a  proof  drawn  from  an  authority  which  they  did  not  ques- 
tion, that  if  they  considered  the  Messiah  as  of  no  higher  extraction 
than  a  son  of  David,  they  were  mistaken. 

The  whole  conduct  of  our  Lord  tended  to  confirm  the  impression 
arising  from  this  manner  in  which  he  spake  of  himself.  Amidst  all 
the  simplicity,  the  humility,  and  condescension  of  his  life,  there  was 
an  unaffected  dignity  uniformly  supported  in  his  words  and  actions, 
which  mark  him,  to  an  unprejudiced  observer,  as  more  than  man. 
He  discovered,  upon  many  occasions,  that  knowledge  of  the  secret 
workings  of  the  heart,  and  that  acquaintance  with  transactions  the 
most  retired  from  the  eyes  of  men,  which  constitute  a  large  part  of 
the  divine  omniscience.  And  you  cannot  suppose,  that  repeated  dis- 
plays of  this  omniscience  would  be  overlooked  by  those  who  were 
continually  with  him,  when  you  observe  the  effect  which  one  instance 
produced  ;  John  i.  47,  "  Jesus  saw  Nathanael  coming  to  him,  and 
saith  of  him,  behold  an  Israelite  indeed,  in  whom  is  no  guile.  Na- 
thanael saith,  whence  knowest  thou  me  ?  Jesus  answered,  before 
that  Philip  called  thee,  when  thou  wast  under  the  fig-tree,  I  saw 
thee  ;"  referring  probably  to  some  act  of  secret  devotion,  or  of  private 
beneficence.  Nathanael,  finding  that  this  stranger  knew  a  transaction 
which  no  eye  had  seen,  and  no  ear  had  heard  from  him,  immediately 
exclaims,  "  Rabbi,  thou  art  the  Son  of  God ;  thou  art  the  King  of 
Israel."  In  our  Lord's  miracles  there  was  an  ease  and  readiness 
which  showed  that  he  exerted  inherent  powers,  and  a  command  over 
nature  which  indicates  its  Lord.  Upon  some  occasions  he  chose,  for 
the  instruction  of  the  spectators,  to  direct  their  attention  to  his  Father, 
from  whom  he  acknowledged  that  he  received  all  power;  but  at 
other  times,  he  healed  diseases,  or  raised  the  dead  by  a  word.  "  I 
will,  be  thou  clean."  "Young  man,"  speaking  to  him  that  was 
dead,  "  I  say  unto  thee,  arise."  He  taught  men  to  infer  from  all  his 
works,  the  union  between  his  Father  and  him :  and  he  interprets  one 
of  his  miracles  as  a  direct  proof  of  his  having  power  to  do  what  be- 
longs to  God  alone.  Mark  ii.  Knowing,  probably,  that  the  sick  of  the 
palsy  who  was  brought  to  him  was  humbled  by  disease,  and  prepared 
to  receive  with  contrition  the  Lord's  Christ,  he  said  to  him,  "  Son, 
thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee."  The  scribes,  who  were  sitting  by,  reasoned 
in  their  hearts,  "  Why  doth  this  man  thus  speak  blasphemies  ?  Who 
can  forgive  sins  but  God  only  ?"  He  discerned  their  reasonings,  and 
lie  answered  them  by  saying,  "  Whether  is  it  easier  to  say,  thy  sins 
be  forgiven  thee,  or  to  say,  arise,  and  take  up  thy  bed  and  walk  ?" 
The  same  divine  power  which  would  have  rendered  the  one  of  these 
sayings,  when  pronounced  by  me,  effectual,  entitles  me  to  use  the 
other :  "  And  therefore,  that  ye  may  know  that  the  Son  of  man  hath 
power  on  earth  to  forgive  sins,  I  say  unto  thee,  arise."  Here,  then, 
Jesus  takes  to  himself  a  right  to  forgive  sins  ;  that  prerogative  which 
the  scribes,  both  by  reason,  and  by  express  declarations  of  their  own 
scriptures,  were  taught  to  consider  as  belonging  exclusively  to  God. 

Such  are  the  proofs  of  the  superior  nature  of  Jesus,  which  were 
laid  before  the  world  during  his  abode  upon  earth.  The  ablest  critics 
on  the  New  Testament  have  not  agreed  as  to  the  inference  which 
29* 


318  DOCTRINE    CONCERNING    CHRIST's    PERSON,    ETC. 

the  apostles  drew  from  these  proofs,  whether  a  belief  of  the  divinity 
of  Jesus  accompanied  their  belief  of  his  being  the  Messiah.  The 
question  appears  to  me  problematical,  and  I  do  not  think  that  the 
New  Testament  contains  sufiicient  evidence  to  decide  the  point.  But 
it  is  not  of  great  importance,  I  observed,  that  the  intimations  of  the 
divinity  of  our  Lord,  given  during  his  life,  were  purposely  obscure; 
and  the  apostles  brought  with  them  such  prejudices,  and  met  with 
such  disappointment  in  their  expectations,  that  it  is  no  wonder  if  they 
did  not  reason  from  these  intimations  as  they  might  have  done.  But 
there  is  recorded  in  the  conclusion  of  the  Gospel  of  John  a  declaration 
made  by  one  of  the  apostles,  after  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  of  his 
having  then  attained  the  knowledge  of  that  doctrine,  which  all  these 
intimations  seem  intended  to  prepare  them  for  receiving.  Thomas, 
after  his  scruples  were  removed,  answered  and  said  to  Jesus,  John 
XX.  28,  o  Kv^toj  fiov,  xat,  6  0foj  fiov ;  a  Conjunction  of  words  probably  from 
Ps.  XXXV.  23,  "Awake  to  my  judgment,  my  God,  and  my  Lord." 
The  Socinians  consider  the  words  of  Thomas  as  an  exclamation  of 
surprise  upon  seeing  Jesus  alive,  or  of  gratitude  to  God  who  had 
raised  him :  My  God  and  my  Lord  hath  done  this.  But  you  will 
observe,  it  is  expressly  said  that  these  words  are  addressed  to  Jesus, 
as  an  answer  to  what  he  had  spoken,  artsx^ie*}  xm  eirttv  avt(i>;  and  our 
Lord,  in  his  reply,  considers  them  as  a  confession  of  Thomas's  faith  ; 
"  Because  thou  hast  seen  me,  thou  hast  believed  :  Blessed  are  they 
that  have  not  seen,  and  yet  have  believed."  Either,  therefore,  the 
nominative  is  here  as  in  many  other  places  equivalent  to  the  vocative, 
or  the  ellipsis  is  to  be  supplied  by  «  ov.  It  is  so  natural  to  interpret 
these  words  as  a  declaration  of  Thomas's  believing  Jesus  to  be  his 
God,  that  if  our  Lord  had  wished  them  not  to  be  so  understood,  the 
ambiguity  required  a  correction  from  him.  But  by  accepting  this 
declaration,  and  pronouncing  his  blessing  upon  those  who,  without 
the  same  evidence  of  sense,  should  make  the  same  declaration,  he 
approves  of  what  Thomas  had  said,  according  to  the  obvious  sense  of 
the  words,  and  teaches  his  followers,  in  succeeding  ages,  to  acknow 
ledge  him  not  only  as  their  Master  or  Lord,  but  as  their  God. 


DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD.  319 


CHAPTER  VII. 


DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD. 


The  confession  made  by  the  apostle  Thomas  may  be  considered  as 
an  introduction  to  those  plain  assertions  of  the  divinity  of  Jesus, 
which  are  found  in  the  writings  of  the  apostles  after  the  ascension  of 
their  Master  :  and  the  words  of  that  confession  direct  us  to  attend,  in 
the  first  place,  to  those  passages  in  which  Jesus  Christ  is  called  God. 
But,  before  we  begin  to  examine  them  particularly,  it  is  proper  to 
advert  to  a  difficulty  attending  the  argument  that  is  founded  upon 
them. 


Section  I. 

If  the  name,  God,  were  in  Scripture  appropriated  exclusively  to 
the  Supreme  Being,  those  passages  of  the  New  Testament  in  which 
it  is  applied  to  Jesus  Christ,  would  afford  an  unequivocal  proof  that 
he  is  not  a  creature.  But  the  fact  is,  that  although  God,  in  the  strict 
and  proper  sense  of  that  word,  is  the  name  of  the  Almighty,  there 
is  a  loose  or  figurative  sense,  in  which  the  use  of  it  is  very 
much  extended.  Admiration,  which  delights  in  magnifying  its  ob- 
jects, has  often  prompted  men  to  speak  of  their  fellow-creatures  in 
language  to  which  no  mortal  is  entitled.  The  expression  in  Homer, 
t3o9fo;  ^wf,  we  have  copied  in  the  epithets  god-like  and  divine.  By 
frequent  use  and  by  the  progress  of  science  these  epithets  have  come 
to  be  regarded  as  figures  of  speech.  But  they  were  originally  dictated 
by  a  principle  which  is  most  observable  in  ruder  states  of  society,  a 
proneness  to  consider  all  who  discover  eminent  qualities,  or  extraor- 
dinary powers,  as  raised  above  the  condition  of  human  nature.  The 
supposed  existence  of  many  of  the  heathen  gods  may  be  traced  to  this 
principle.  The  protectors  and  benefactors  of  their  country,  who  had 
been  admired  during  their  life,  were  adored  after  their  death,  i.  e. 
were  enrolled  amongst  those  higher  orders  of  being,  to  whom  it  was 
conceived  they  had  always  been  assimilated.  Nay,  there  were  in- 
stances in  which  the  extravagance  of  flattery,  and  the  excess  of 
vanity  which  that  flattery  nourished,  conspired  in  ascribing  to 
a  mortal,  even  while  he  remained  upon  earth,  the  name  and 
honours  of  a  god.  The  Scriptures,  which  must  speak  according  to 
the  sentiments  and  usages  of  those  who  are  addressed,  have  adopted, 
in  numberless  places,  this  popular  extension  of  the  name  of  the  Su- 


320  DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD. 

preme  Being.  The  first  commandment  is,  Tiiou  shalt  have  no  other 
gods  before  me,  as  if  any  other  could  exist.  The  name,  gods,  is 
uniformly  given  in  the  Old  Testament  to  those  fictitious  objects  of 
worship  before  which  the  nations  bowed  ;  and  the  apostle  Paul,  1 
Cor.  viii.  5,  at  the  very  time  that  he  says,  "  An  idol  is  nothing  in 
the  world,  and  there  is  none  other  God  but  one,"  adds,  "  Though 
there  be  that  are  called  gods,  whether  in  heaven  or  in  earth,  as  there 
be  gods  many."  The  Hebrew  word  for  gods  is  applied  to  the  angels 
"who  excel  in  strength,"  and  who  "dwell  in  heaven."*  To  rulers, 
because  they  are  exalted  above  their  subjects,  it  is  said,  "  Ye  are 
gods."t  The  belly  of  the  sensualists,  to  the  service  of  which  they 
are  devoted,  is  called  their  god  :J  and  the  Almighty  himself  says  to 
Moses,  Exod.  vii.  1,  "  See,  I  have  made  thee  a  god  to  Pharaoh,  and 
Aaron  thy  brother  shall  be  thy  prophet,"  /.  e.  the  king  shall  be 
astonished  at  the  displays  of  thy  power  ;  and  the  orders  which  thou 
shalt  issue  to  him  shall  be  delivered  by  the  mouth  of  Aaron,  who  shall 
thus  be  thy  prophet  to  Pharaoh. 

This  extended  figurative  use  of  the  name  of  God  has  suggested,  to 
those  who  hold  Jesus  to  be  an  exalted  creature,  the  following  system, 
which  I  give  in  the  words  of  the  author  of  the  Essay  on  Spirit,  p.  89. 
"  As  the  self  existent  cause,  of  whom  are  all  things,  can  alone  be 
properly  called  God,  when  this  title  is  given  in  the  Scriptures  to  any 
other  being  but  the  Fatlier,  we  are  to  understand  it  only  as  expres- 
sive of  some  god-like  power  which  hath  been  given  or  communicated 
to  that  being  by  God  the  Father.     In  this  sense  the  application  may 
be  attributed  to  the  Son,  because,  when  all  power  in  heaven  and 
earth  was  given  to  him,  he  was  made  a  god  to  those  beings  over 
whom  that  power  was  given."     This  system  is  supported  by  a  remark 
borrowed  from   Sir   Isaac   Newton,   and    adopted  by   Dr.    Clarke. 
"  God,"  says  Sir  Isaac,  "  is  a  relative  term,  which  has  reference  to 
subjects ;  and  the  word  deity  denotes  the  dominion  of  God  over  sub- 
jects ;"  and  again, "  we  worship  and  adore  God  on  account  of  his 
dominion."     In  like  manner.  Dr.  Clarke,  having  laid  it  down  as  the 
25th  proposition  in  his  scripture-doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  "  The  reason 
why  the  Son,  in  the  Old  Testament,  is  sometimes  styled  God,  is  not 
upon  account  of  his  metaphysical  substance,  how  divine  soever,  but 
of  his  relative  attributes  and  divine  authority,  communicated  to  him 
from  the  Father  over  us" — supports  the  proposition  in  the  notes  by 
the  following  reason — "  The  word  God,  when  spoken  of  the  Father 
himself,  is  never  intended  in  Scripture  to  express  philosophically  his 
abstract  metaphysical  attributes,  but  to  raise  in  us  a  notion  of  his 
attributes  relative  to  us,  his  supreme  dominion,  authority,  power,  jus- 
tice, goodness,"  &c.     However  profound  the  respect  is  which  every 
one,  who  has  imbibed  the  rudiments  of  science,  must  entertain  for  the 
name  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  you  will  probably  find  reason  to  think, 
when  you  examine  his  writings  upon  subjects  not  capable  of  strict 
demonstration,  that  in  them,  according  to  the  expression  used  by 
Bishop   Horsley,  the  editor  of  his  mathematical  works,  the  great 
Newton  went  out  like  a  common  man.     It  has  been  shown  by  Dr. 
Waterland,  in  his  Vindication  of  Christ's  Divinity,  and  by  Dr.  Ran- 

*  Psalm  viii.  .5.  -j-  Psalm  Ixxxii.  6.  ^  Phil.  iii.  19. 


DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD.  321 

dolph,  in  his  Vindication  of  the  Trinity,  that  the  name  God,  when 
applied  in  Scripture  to  the  Supreme  Being,  involves  in  it  the  notion 
of  the  excellence  of  his  nature,  his  wisdom,  power,  eternity,  and  all- 
sufficiency.  I  need  not  mention  any  other  Scripture-proof  of  this, 
than  that  decisive  passage  in  Psalm  xc. — "  Before  the  mountains  were 
brought  forth,  or  ever  thou  hadst  formed  the  earth  and  the  world, 
even  from  everlasting  to  everlasting,  thou  art  God."  Dr.  Waterland 
observes,  that  although  dominion  enters  into  the  notion  of  God,  yet  it 
is  the  excellence  of  the  divine  nature  manifested  to  us  in  his  works, 
which  is  the  object  of  our  adoration,  and  the  foundation  of  his 
dominion  over  us :  so  that  the  whole  idea  of  God  is  that  of  an  eternal, 
unchangeable,  almighty  Ruler  and  Protector.  "  If,"  says  Dr.  Ran- 
dolph, p.  77,  "  God  be  only  a  relative  term,  which  has  reference  to 
subjects,  it  follows,  that  when  there  were  no  subjects,  there  was  no 
God;  and,  consequently,  either  the  creatures  must  have  been  some 
of  them  eternal,  or  there  must  have  been  a  time  when  there  was  no 
God.  Again, as  the  creatures  are  none  of  them  necessarily  existent,  it 
will  follow  that  God  himself  does  not  exist  necessarily;  and  if  we 
suppose  God  to  annihilate  all  creatures,  he  would  thereby  annihilate 
his  own  Deity,  and  cease  to  be  God." 

Although  this  reasoning  should  satisfy  you  that  the  word  God  is 
not  merely  a  relative  term,  but  that,  in  its  proper  sense,  it  implies  a 
transcendent  and  independent  excellence  of  nature,  yet,  at  the  same 
time,  you  will  perceive,  that  as  it  does  imply  dominion  founded  upon 
this  excellence  of  nature,  it  may  be  used  relatively.  My  God,  is  that 
being  whose  infinite  perfections  are  employed  in  my  protection,  and 
are  an  object  of  trust  and  submission  to  me.  You  will  perceive,  also, 
from  this  account  of  its  true  meaning,  how  it  may  be  applied  in  a 
loose  figurative  sense  to  those  who  resemble  the  Supreme  Being  in 
any  part  of  the  whole  idea  annexed  to  the  word ;  who  have  either 
attained  any  measure  of  the  excellence  of  his  nature,  or  who  are 
intrusted  by  him  with  the  exercise  of  any  portion  of  his  universal 
dominion. 

It  appears,  from  what  has  been  said,  that  much  circumspection  is 
necessary  in  drawing  an  argument  for  the  divinity  of  Jesus  from  those 
passages  in  which  he  is  styled  God  ;  but  it  does  not  follow  that  the 
argument  is  necessarily  inconclusive.  There  is  hardly  any  word 
which  is  not  occasionally  used  in  a  sense  somewhat  loose  and  figura- 
tive. It  is  one  of  the  offices  of  sound  criticism,  to  judge  whether  we 
are  to  interpret  words  and  phrases  more  or  less  strictly  ;  and  every 
accurate  composition  furnishes  some  discriminating  circumstances 
which  guide  us  in  making  this  judgment.  No  person  can  be  led  into 
so  gross  a  mistake  as  to  think  Moses  truly  a  god,  when  the  Almighty 
says  to  him, — "  See,  I  have  made  thee  a  god  to  Pharaoh ;"  or  civil 
magistrates  truly  partakers  of  a  divine  nature,  when  we  read,  "  I  said 
ye  are  gods ;  but  ye  shall  die  like  men ;"  or  the  angels,  however 
exalted  above  men,  really  like  to  God,  when  we  read  a  command 
given  them  to  worship  another  being ;  or  the  idols,  before  whom  the 
nations  bowed,  worthy  of  trust,  when  the  prophets,  at  the  same  time 
that  they  call  them  gods,  say  they  are  vanity,  the  work  of  errors,  and 
have  no  power  to  do  good  or  evil.  It  may  be  expected,  from  the 
analogy  of  these  instances,  that  if  this  name  be  given  in  an  improper 

2X 


322  DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD. 

figurative  sense  to  any  other  person,  more  especially  if  it  be  often  so 
given,  we  shall,  in  some  way,  be  efFectually  guarded  against  mistake. 
The  preservative,  indeed,  it  has  been  said,  against  applying  the  term 
God  in  the  highest  sense  to  that  person  who  is  often  called  God,  is  to 
be  found  in  those  general  declarations  of  Scripture  that  there  is  but 
one  God :  "  Hear,  0  Israel,  the  Lord  our  Lord  is  one  Lord."  "  There 
is  none  good  but  one,  that  is  God."  But  a  little  attention  will  satisfy 
you  that  this  preservative  is  not  sufficient ;  for  the  very  person  who 
is  often  called  God  in  the  New  Testament,  says,  "  I  and  the  Father 
are  one ;"  and  this  declaration,  taken  in  conjunction  with  the  expres- 
sions of  the  Divine  unity,  has  appeared  to  many  pious  Christians,  and 
to  many  of  the  most  able  and  inquisitive  men  in  all  ages,  to  teach 
this  system,  that  although  there  be  but  one  God,  the  Person  to  whom 
that  name  is  often  given  in  the  New  Testament,  is,  in  the  highest 
sense  of  the  word,  God.  The  general  preservative  being  thus  insuffi- 
cient to  guard  against  mistake,  if  the  highest  sense  of  the  word  does 
not  belong  to  that  Person,  there  was  much  occasion  for  some  marks 
of  inferiority  in  the  manner  of  its  being  applied  to  him  which  might 
suggest  a  lower  sense.  But  if,  instead  of  meeting  with  such  marks 
we  meet  with  circumstances  in  the  manner  of  his  being  called  God, 
which  imply  that  the  word,  in  the  strict  and  most  exalted  sense, 
belongs  to  him  ;  and  if  the  interpretation  which  we  are  thus  led  to 
give  to  the  name  correspond  with  other  scripture  proofs  of  the 
Divinity  of  the  Person  to  whom  it  is  applied,  we  cannot  avoid  con- 
cluding, that  the  Scriptures,  by  calling  Jesus  Christ  God,  meant  to 
teach  us  that  he  is  God. 

Let  your  examination  of  the  texts  which  are  commonly  alleged  for 
this  purpose  be  scrupulous  and  suspicious.  Every  point  of  import- 
ance ought  to  be  carefully  examined  ;  and  it  is  the  great  advantage 
which  accrues  from  diversity  of  opinion,  that  you  are  both  guarded 
against  that  supine  indolence  with  which  assent  is  yielded  to  points  in 
which  men  are  generally  agreed,  and  that  you  are  furnished  with  the 
best  means  of  attaining  the  truth,  by  having  an  opportunity  of 
opposing  to  one  another  the  arguments  which  very  able  mfen  have 
adduced  upon  either  side.  1  shall  not,  therefore,  barely  enumerate 
the  texts  in  which  Jesus  is  plainly  called  God,  but  I  shall  endeavour, 
in  canvassing  their  meaning,  to  exhibit  a  specimen  of  that  kind  of 
scripture-criticism,  without  the  continued  exercise  of  which  you  can 
neither  arrive  at  certainty,  nor  give  a  good  reason  of  your  own 
opinions  upon  any  of  the  disputed  questions  of  theology. 

1.  The  first  text  is  contained  in  that  passage  at  the  beginning  of 
John's  Gospel,  which  has  already  been  fully  explained.  The  whole 
passage  was  then  vindicated,  from  the  Sabellian  interpretation,  by 
showing  that  o  ^oyo?  is  a  distinct  person  from  the  Father,  the  same  who 
is  called  in  the  17th  verse  Jesus  Christ.  It  was  observed  that  in  the 
second  clause  of  the  first  verse,  o  Myo^  rjv  jt^o^  tov  ®eov,  the  word  ©foj  occurs 
in  the  highest  sense  ;  and  that,  as  the  form  of  the  apostle's  expression 
is  to  make  the  last  word  of  one  clause  the  first  word  of  the  succeeding, 
nothing  but  a  purpose  to  mislead  could  have  induced  him,  without 
any  warning,  to  apply  the  name  God  to  Jesus  Christ  in  the  beginning 
of  the  third  clause,  if  he  had  meant  it  to  be  understood  there  in  a 
sense  different  from  that  in  which  he  had  used  it  at  the  end  of  the 


DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD.  323 

second.  It  was  observed,  further,  that  the  want  of  the  article  makes 
no  essential  difference,  both  because  the  analogy  of  the  Greek 
language  requires  that  the  article  should  be  prefixed  to  the  subject 
rather  than  to  the  predicate  of  a  proposition  ;  and  also,  because  Qeoi, 
without  the  article,  in  the  following  verses  of  this  chapter,  and  in 
many  other  places,  is  used  in  the  highest  sense.  I  have  only  to  add 
to  these  observations,  that  ©foj  cannot  be  understood  here  merely  as 
a  relative  term,  because  it  is  not  said  ©£05  fyti/tro  6  xoyoi,  the  word 
became,  or  was  made  God  after  the  world  was  created ;  but  ©fo?  rjv  6 
^oyoj,  the  word  was  God  in  the  beginning,  /.  e.  before  he  proceeded  to 
make  any  thing,  when  there  were  no  creatures  and  no  subjects.  Even 
Dr.  Clarke,  therefore,  is  obliged  to  paraphrase  this  expression  thus  : 
"  Partaker  of  divine  power  and  glory  with  and  from  the  Father,  not 
only  before  he  was  made  flesh,  or  became  man,  but  also  before  the 
world  was."  Now,  if  the  manner  in  which  the  name  God  is  here 
given  to  Jesus  implies  that  the  excellencies  of  the  Divine  nature 
belonged  to  him  in  the  beginning  when  no  creatures  existed,  and  if 
there  is  no  limitation  of  the  degree  in  which  he  then  possessed  these 
excellencies,  we  seem  warranted,  by  fair  construction  of  the  apostle's 
words,  to  infer  from  his  being  called  God,  that  he  is  God. 

2.  The  second  passage  is  Acts  xx.  28.     u^osBx^'^f  °^^  tav-toi^,  xm  Tiavei 

tCji  }iocfivia>,  cv  9  I'^uaj  to  livsvfjLa  to  ayiov  sOsto  ertiaxortovi,  Hovfiaivsw  trjv  sxx'Krjraa.v  tov 
©£01),  i]V  ne^t,s7foirjrjato  Sia  tov  ifitov  alfiato^.      The    nominative    to    fte^iertoirjaato, 

which  is  not  expressed  in  the  Greek,  and  is  supplied  in  our  translation 
by  the  pronoun  he,  must  be  taken  from  the  nearest  substantive,  ©sou. 
There  is  no  other  noun  in  the  whole  verse  which  admits  of  being 
made  the  nominative.  But  ®eov  cannot  here  mean  the  Father  ;  for  the 
doctrine  of  the  gospel  is,  that  we  are  redeemed  or  purchased  by  the 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ.  This  is  an  action  appropriated  to  him  in  all 
the  descriptions  of  the  method  of  our  salvation.  He  took  a  body 
that  he  might  shed  his  blood  for  us  ;  and  the  phrase  •■Siov  alfia,  the 
blood  which  was  proper,  peculiar  to  him,  is  used  also  in  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews,  and  there  opposed  to  at;ua  ax-Kot^iov,  Heb.  ix.  12,  25,  to 
show  that  it  was  truly  the  blood  of  Christ,  and  of  no  other  person^ 
that  was  shed.  The  nominative  to  fte^iSTtoirieiato,  therefore,  whatever 
the  word  be,  must  mean  Jesus  Christ;  and  consequently  in  this  place 
he  is  called  God. 

But  it  is  proper  to  mention  that  the  MSS.  of  the  New  Testament 
do  not  agree  in  reading  ©ew.  Grotius  conjectures  that  the  original 
reading  was  x^t^roi^,  abbreviated  into  xov,  and  that  out  of  xw  came 
@ov,  for  ®eov.  But  this  conjecture  is  unsupported  by  any  autliority. 
Mr.  Mill,  who,  in  his  most  valuable  edition  of  the  Greek  Testament, 
has  collected  the  various  readings,  and  mentioned  the  authorities  by 
which  every  one  of  them  is  supported,  informs  us  that  some  read 
xv^Lov  ;  others  xv^wv  xat,  ®iov ;  others,  ©fou.  Mr.  Mill,  who  had  access  to 
judge  of  all  the  manuscripts,  versions,  and  quotations  in  favour  of 
each  of  the  three,  has  no  difficulty  in  preferring  Q(ov  as  the  best 
supported.  Griesbach,  the  latest  editor  of  the  New  Testament,  pre- 
fers xv^i.ov,  and  says  it  is  supported  by  the  best  and  most  ancient  manu- 
scripts, by  the  most  ancient  versions,  and  by  the  fathers.  There  is 
not  any  reason,  from  the  nature  of  the  thing,  for  giving  up  our  read- 
ing, fxxxrjmu.  ®(ov  ;  it  is  a  very  common  conjunction  of  words  in  the 


324  DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD. 

New  Testament,  and  God's  purchasing  the  church  with  his  own  blood 
is  an  expression  fully  justified  by  the  perfect  union  between  the  divine 
and  human  nature  of  Christ.  At  the  same  time,  as  xv^iov  appears  to 
be  a  very  ancient  reading,  which  may  be  traced  as  far  back  as  the 
time  of  Irenaeus,  in  the  second  century,  the  present  reading,  however 
probable,  cannot  be  certainly  known  to  have  been  that  which  pro- 
ceeded from  the  apostle ;  and  no  man  who  is  guided  purely  by  the 
love  of  truth,  would  choose  to  rest  the  divinity  of  our  Saviour  upon 
such  questionable  ground. 

3.  With  regard  to  the  next  passage,  Rom.  ix.  5,  there  is  no  diffi- 
culty of  this  kind.  Upon  the  authority  of  Mill,  I  say  that  all  the 
manuscripts,  and  all  the  ancient  versions  support  the  present  reading  ; 
and  Griesbach  does  not  propose  any  various  reading.  It  is  quoted 
by  the  fathers  both  before  and  after  the  Council  of  Nice,  as  clear 
proof  that  Christ  is  God.  And  there  does  not  appear  the  least  ground 
for  thinking  that  the  text  was  ever  read  in  any  other  manner.  We 
are  at  liberty,  therefore,  to  argue  from  the  words  as  they  now  stand ; 
and  the  only  question  is,  what  is  the  true  interpretation  of  them  ? 
Dr.  Clarke  says,  that  the  Greek  words,  being  of  ambiguous  construc- 
tion, admit  of  three  different  renderings ;  and  I  choose  to  quote  him, 
because  he  expresses  accurately  and  concisely  what  others  have  spread 
out  more  loosely.  "  They  may  signify  either,  of  whom,  as  concern- 
ing the  flesh,  Christ  came  :  God,  who  is  over  all,  be  blessed  for  ever. 
Amen :  or.  Of  whom,  as  concerning  the  flesh,  Christ  came,  who  is 
over  all :  God  be  blessed  for  ever.  Amen  :  or,  Of  whom,  as  concern- 
ing the  flesh,  Christ  came,  who  is  over  all  God  blessed  for  ever. 
Amen."  He  admits  that  the  third  rendering  is  the  most  obvious. 
But  he  inclines  to  prefer  to  it  either  the  first  or  second,  for  these  two 
reasons.  1.  ^v\oyy;-toi  is  applied  in  Scripture  to  God  the  Father,  and 
seems  to  have  been  used  by  the  Jews  as  his  proper  name ;  for  the 
High  Priest  said  to  Jesus  on  his  trial,  Sd  «6  x^wfoj,  6  wo;  *ov  iv%oyt^tov* 
2.  o  frti  rtav-tuv  ©£0f  was  generally  understood  to  be  a  title  so  peculiar 
to  God  the  Father,  that  it  could  not  be  applied  to  the  Son,  without 
danger  of  Sabellianism,  i.  e.  of  confounding  the  person  of  the  Father 
and  Son.  These  are  Dr.  Clarke's  reasons  for  preferring  either  of  the 
two  first  renderings  to  the  third.  But  you  will  observe  the  present 
question  is,  whether  these  two  titles  are  here  applied  to  Christ.  It  is 
not  an  answer  to  this  question,  to  say  that  they  are  commonly  applied 
to  the  Father.  For  it  is  possible,  and  there  may  be  very  good  rea- 
sons for  so  doing,  that  names  and  titles  which  are  generally  appro- 
priated to  the  Father,  should,  in  some  places,  be  given  to  the  Son. 
We  may  learn  from  such  occasional  applications  that  the  two  persons 
are  equal,  and  yet  by  attending  to  the  discriminating  marks  which 
the  Scriptures  furnish,  we  may  be  preserved  from  the  danger  of  con- 
founding them. 

It  remains,  then,  to  be  examined,  Avhether  the  construction  of  the 
words  warrants,  or  seems  to  require,  that  these  titles  be,  in  this  place, 
applied  to  Christ.  In  order  to  judge  of  this,  it  will  be  of  use  to  attend 
to  the  four  following  observations. 

1.  The  first  observation  respects  the  clause  to  xata  oa^xa.  The  apos- 

*  Mark  xiv.  61. 


DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD.  325 

tie,  having  expressed  in  the  preceding  verse  the  warmest  afFection  for 
the  Israehtes,  his  countrymen,  -Hf^v  Gvyyivu,v  ^ov  xata  <sa^xa,  enumerates  in 
the  4th  verse  many  privileges  which  distinguished  his  nation  from 
every  other ;  and  he  proceeds  in  his  enumeration  at  the  beginning  of 
the  5th,  ^v  ol  ria.tte,(i,  "■  Whose  are  the  Fathers,"/.e.Who  are  descended 
from  the  patriarchs,  those  venerable  names  that  are  found  in  Jewish 
history,  «i  wf  o  x^w^^oj,  "and  from  whom  is  descended  the  Christ." 
The  apostle  adds  a  limiting  clause,  to  xa/t a  aa^xa,  secundum  id  quod 
pertinet  ad  carnem,  which  implies  that  there  were  circumstances 
pertaining  to  the  Christ,  in  respect  of  which  he  did  not  descend  from 
the  Israelites.  Had  the  sentence  ended  here,  this  clause  would  have 
been  a  warning  to  the  reader  that  the  Christ  was  not  xata  rtaj/ra  t\  avnov; 
and  the  reader  would  have  been  left  to  supply,  by  his  knowledge  of 
the  subject  derived  from  other  sources,  what  the  respects  are  in  which 
the  Christ  did  not  descend  from  the  Israelites. 

2.  But  you  will  observe,  that  the  sentence  does  not  appear  to  end 
with  this  limiting  clause,  because  the  form  of  the  subsequent  clause 
refers  it  to  X^tcrroj.  o  wv  is  a  relative  expression,  which  carries  you 
back  to  the  preceding  nominative.  This  kind  of  reference  is  perfectly 
agreeable  to  the  analogy  of  the  Greek  language.  And  it  is  used  by 
this  apostle,  2  Cor.  xi.  31,  where  the  form  of  expression  is  very 
similar. 

3.  You  will  observe,  that  by  thus  referring  the  last  clause  to  x^irfros' 
you  obtain  an  antithesis  to  -to  xara  tro^xa,  and  you  discover  the  reason 
why  the  apostle  introduced  that  restricting  clause,  viz.  that  the  same 
person,  who  in  one  respect  was  descended  from  the  Israelites,  was 
also  God  over  all,  and  in  that  respect  certamly  was  not  of  human  ex- 
traction. It  is  a  most  satisfying  coincidence,  that  the  connection  of 
the  two  clauses,  which  we  have  seen  to  be  strictly  grammatical,  fur- 
nishes that  very  information  concerning  the  person  mentioned,  which, 
without  this  connexion,  you  would  be  obliged  to  derive  from  other 
sources  of  knowledge.  And  it  is  usual  with  the  apostle,  in  some  such 
manner  as  this,  to  complete  the  description  of  this  person,  Rom.  i.  3, 
4,  the  same  person  is  the  Son  of  God,  and  the  descendant  of  David. 
He  was  visibly  the  descendant  of  David,  by  the  manner  of  his  birth: 
He  was  demonstrated  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  by  that  attestation  which 
the  Holy  Spirit  gave  to  his  claim  when  he  was  raised  from  the  dead  ; 
and  thus,  in  that  passage,  as  well  as  in  this,  the  apostle  himself  fur- 
nishes the  antithesis  to  the  restricting  clause,  xafa  mt,xa.. 

4.  Observe,  that  the  complete  description  which  the  apostle,  accord- 
ing to  his  manner  in  other  places,  and  according  to  the  expectation 
raised  by  the  limiting  clause,  here  gives  of  Xgisroj,  is  perfectly  agree- 
able to  the  general  scope  of  his  discourse  in  this  place.  He  wishes 
to  magnify  the  honours  of  his  nation ;  he  has  enumerated  many  of 
their  privileges ;  and  he  concludes  by  crowning  all  of  them  with  the 
mention  of  this,  that  he  who  is  God  over  all,  when  he  assumed  the 
human  form,  took  a  body  from  the  seed  of  Israel. 

These  four  observations  seem  to  constitute  a  strong  internal  evidence 
in  favour  of  the  received  translation  ;  and  this  evidence  is  confirmed, 
when  you  attend  to  the  consequences  which  result  from  adopting 
either  of  the  other  two  renderings.  If  you  put  a  point  at  xara  ao^xa, 
you  obtain  the  first ;  "  Of  whom,  as  concernmg  the  flesh,  Christ  came  : 
30 


326  DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD. 

God,  who  is  over  all,  be  blessed  for  ever. — Amen."  By  this  rendering, 
the  information  concerning  X^iata  is  incomplete.  There  is  introduced 
most  abruptly  a  doxology  to  God  the  Father ;  and  the  form  of  ex- 
pression in  this  doxology  is  not  classical.  For  o  uv  being  a  relative 
expression,  which  leads  you  back  to  a  preceding  word,  the  participle 
"v  is  redundant  and  improper,  if  a  succeeding  word,  ©foj,  be  the  nomi- 
native that  agrees  with  it.  If  you  put  a  point  at  ytavtuv,  you  obtain 
what  Dr.  Clark  calls  the  second  rendering ;  "  Of  whom,  as  concerning 
the  flesh,  Christ  came,  who  is  over  all :  God  be  blessed  for  ever. 
Amen."  By  this  rendering,  the  information  concerning  x^taroj  is  more 
complete,  and  "«'  is  referred  to  a  preceding  nominative.  But  still  there 
is  the  abrupt  introduction  of  a  doxology  to  a  Person  who  had  not 
been  mentioned  in  the  preceding  clause ;  and  there  is  a  barrenness  in 
the  word  ©fo?,  which  in  this  situation  requires  to  be  clothed  with  an 
article,  »  ©fo;  f vxoyjjT-o^ .  It  is  further  to  be  added,  that  the  earliest 
Christian  writers  who  quote  this  passage  appear,  by  the  course  of  the 
argument,  to  understand  it  as  a  plain  declaration  that  Christ  is  God 
over  all,  blessed  for  ever.  It  is  so  rendered  in  the  most  ancient  ver- 
sions, and  the  possibility  of  another  interpretation  was  not  suggested 
till  the  sixteenth  century.  If  the  apostle,  then,  did  not  mean  to  give 
these  titles  to  Jesus,  he  employs  a  form  of  expression,  in  which  the 
natural  grammatical  construction  of  the  words  misled  the  whole 
Christian  church  for  1500  years.  If  he  did  mean  to  give  them  to 
Christ,  then  not  only  is  this  Person  called  God,  but  the  name  has  such 
accompaniments  that  it  must  be  understood  in  its  most  exalted  sense. 
It  is  not  said  that  he  was  appointed  God  to  a  particular  district,  but 
in  the  most  absolute  terms  that  he  is  God.  '  o  wv  cm.  rrai/Tuv  ©to? ,  as  it  is 
said  of  God  the  Father,  Eph.  iv.  6,  "?  ©foi;  scat  Ttatrj^  7tavtu,v,  6  cth,  jtavtav. 
To  him  is  ascribed  the  title  tvxoyrjtoi,  which  is  used  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment as  the  name  of  the  Most  High,  and  which  was  employed  by  the 
whole  congregation  of  the  Jews  in  their  adoration  of  the  God  of 
Israel,  1  Chron.  xxix.  10,  Ev%oyt;to(i  «,  Kv^ie,  6  ©to?  icr^ajyx.  We  can  place 
no  reliance  upon  the  language  of  Scripture,  if  there  be  an  inferiority 
of  nature  in  a  Being  thus  designed.  And  the  very  purpose  of  the 
expressions  here  used  seems  to  be,  to  teach  us  that  every  notion 
which  can  be  conceived  to  be  implied  under  the  name  of  God,  belongs 
to  this  Person  as  well  as  to  the  Father. 

4.  1  Tim.  iii.  16. — There  is  a  difference  of  opiiiion  with  regard  to 
the  reading  of  one  word  in  this  verse.  Two  of  the  most  ancient 
versions  of  the  Greek  Testament  render  the  verse  as  if  ©fo;  were  not 
there.  One  Greek  MS.  has  o  in  place  of  ©^o?  ;  another  has  o;  •  It  has 
hitherto  been  conjectured  that  ©«o?  is  an  interpolation  made  by  some 
zealous  Christian,  who  wished  to  add  this  verse  to  the  other  proofs  of 
the  divinity  of  our  Saviour.  But  you  will  observe,  that  if  the  word 
be  o,  the  neuter  of  the  relative,  the  antecedent  is  nvatrj^iov,  {.  e.  the  Gos- 
pel '■>  in  which  case,  the  sense  of  several  of  the  clauses  will  be  forced 
and  unnatural.  The  Gospel,  "  manifested  in  the  flesli,  seen  of  angels, 
received  up  into  glory."  If  the  word  be  o??  either  the  masculine  of 
the  relative,  or  the  pronoun  of  the  third  person,  it  is  not  manifest  who 
is  meant.  Jesus  Christ,  to  whom,  by  this  reading,  all  the  clauses  are 
referred,  had  not  been  mentioned  in  the  preceding  verse ;  and  it  is 
not  according  to  the  manner  of  a  perspicuous  or  grammatical  writer, 


DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD.  327 

to  oblige  his  readers  to  educe  an  antecedent  to  ^j,  out  of  the  amount 
of  the  preceding  clause  /"*y»  *<''''  *»  ■^»?5  fnatSfta;  nvattj^cov.  There  is,  thus, 
internal  evidence  that  some  substantive  noun,  marking  the  person 
spoken  of,  is  the  nominative  to  the  succession  of  verbs ;  and  all  the 
Greek  copies  of  tlie  New  Testament,  except  the  two  mentioned  above, 
concur  in  reading  ©to;  as  the  nominative.  It  is  true  that  we  do  not 
find  this  verse  formally  quoted  in  the  Arian  controversy  till  the  end 
of  the  fourth  century,  so  that  we  have  not  an  opportunity  of  judging 
by  early  quotations  what  was  the  original  reading.  But  besides  the 
authority  of  the  most  ancient  Greek  MSS.  in  support  of  the  word 
0fo;,  tliere  is  this  further  evidence  for  the  genuineness  of  that  reading, 
that  if  0£O5  be  the  nominative,  we  can  give  an  easy  explication  of 
every  one  of  the  clauses  in  perfect  agreement  with  the  analogy  of 
facts,  and  the  language  of  the  most  ancient  writers. 

Having  mentioned  the  MSS.  of  the  New  Testament,  I  shall  notice, 
as  a  matter  of  curiosity,  the  state  of  the  controverted  word  in  the 
Alexandrian,  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  respectable  of  these  MSS, 
There  has  been  some  controversy  with  regard  to  the  age  of  this  manu- 
script. But  there  appears  good  reason  to  believe  that  it  was  written 
in  the  fourth  century,  not  long  after  the  Council  of  Nice,  by  the  hand 
of  an  Egyptian  lady.  It  was  carried  from  Alexandria  to  Constanti- 
nople. It  was  given  by  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  to  Charles 
I.  of  England,  It  is  now  deposited  in  the  British  Museum;  and  a 
fac  simile,  i.  e.  an  edition  in  which  the  form  of  the  letter  is  an  exact 
representation  of  the  original,  has  been  published  by  Mr,  Woide.  To 
understand  his  description  of  the  controverted  word,  it  should  be 
known  that  abbreviations  of  such  words  as  frequently  occur  being 
common  in  the  ancient  MSS.  there  was  written,  instead  of  ©fos^  the 
Greek  capital  ©  and  «.  with  a  line  above  the  two  letters,  as  a  mark 
of  the  abbreviation.  Mr.  Woide  says,  "  While  I  am  writing,  and 
looking  at  this  place,  which  has  been  often  too  imprudently  touched 
by  the  finger,  I  can  hardly  distinguish  any  thing  but  the  short  line  of 
aiibreviation,  the  point  in  the  middle  of  the  ©  now  become  faint,  and 
some  small  remains  of  the  circle  round  the  point."  Bishop  Walton, 
who  published  a  Polyglott  edition  of  the  New  Testament,  who  has 
collected  the  various  readings  with  great  industry  and  fidelity,  and 
who  has  mentioned  the  change  upon  this  word  in  another  MS. 
appears,  by  expressing  no  doubt  with  regard  to  the  reading  of  ©fos  in 
the  Alexandrian  MS.  to  have  found  it  there  in  his  time.  Bishop 
Pearson,  the  very  learned  author  of  the  Exposition  of  the  Creed,  says, 
that  all  the  transverse  line  was  even  then  so  faint,  that  at  first  he 
thought  the  word  was  o?.  yet,  upon  a  narrower  inspection,  he  saw 
marks  which  satisfied  him,  that  there  had  been  such  a  line ;  and  Mr. 
Woide  says,  that,  on  first  inspecting  the  manuscript,  he  agreed  in 
opinion  with  Mill,  although,  as  the  ©  is  now  almost  wholly  effaced,  he 
cannot  affirm  the  same  from  the  present  state  of  the  MS.  From  this 
induction  of  particulars,  it  appears  to  be  the  opinion  of  the  most 
learned  men  who  have  examined  this  subject,  tliat  ©fos  is  the  genuine 
reading  of  the  Alexandrian  MS.  coeval  with  the  MS.  itself.  They 
think  that  the  reading  05,  arose  from  the  faintness  of  the  transverse 
line,  and  that  6;  was  changed  into  o,  because  the  neuter  antecedent 
nvattj^tov  did  not  admit  of  a  masculine  relative.     I  observe  that  Gries- 


328  DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD. 

bach  prefers  the  reading  oj,  and  has  mtroduced  it  into  the  text :  but  I 
adhere  to  the  opinion  of  former  editors  of  the  New  Testament,  sup- 
ported, as  they  say,  both  by  the  Alexandrian,  and  by  other  very 
ancient  MSS. ;  and  you  will  observe,  that  if  ®£os  be  the  genuine  read- 
ing in  this  passage,  it  affords  an  instance  not  only  of  the  name  being 
applied  to  Jesus,  but  of  its  being  applied  to  him,  when  it  is  the  subject, 
not  the  predicate  of  a  proposition.  This  is  an  advantage  in  the 
argument  for  the  divinity  of  Jesus,  because  those  who  contend  that 
he  is  called  God  only  in  an  inferior  sense  of  that  word,  affirm  that  the 
word  may  be  predicated  of  him,  but  that  when  it  is  the  subject  of  a 
proposition,  it  is  always  the  name  of  the  Father.  Dr.  Clarke's  11th 
Proposition  is,  "  The  Scripture,  when  it  mentions  God  absolutely  and 
by  way  of  eminence,  always  means  the  Person  of  the  Father,  particu- 
larly when  it  is  the  subject  of  a  proposition."  The  reason  of  the  rule 
is,  that  when  the  word  is  predicated  of  Jesus,  we  are  taught  by  this 
very  circumstance,  that  it  is  predicated  of  a  Person  different  from  the 
Supreme  Being,  to  give  it  certain  limitations ;  but  when  it  is  the  sub- 
ject of  a  proposition,  it  is  of  necessity  stated  absolutely,  without  any 
sign  of  limitation.  This  would  be  the  reason,  if  the  Scriptures  did 
make  such  a  distinction  in  the  use  of  this  word.  But  here  is  an 
instance  in  direct  opposition  to  Dr.  Clarke's  rule,  where  the  Father 
cannot  be  meant,  because  he  was  never  manifested  in  the  flesh,  where 
the  person  meant  is  Jesus  Christ,  and  God  is  stated  as  the  subject  of 
the  propositions  affirmed  concerning  this  person.  Dr.  Clarke,  indeed, 
aware  probably  that  the  present  reading  cannot  upon  any  sufficient 
grounds  be  rejected,  says  that  it  is,  in  reality,  of  no  importance  ;  for 
the  sense  is  evident,  that  that  Person  was  manifested  in  the  flesh 
whom  John,  in  the  beginning  of  his  Gospel,  styles  ©fos-  But  this  is 
giving  up  his  own  distinction  between  the  subject  and  the  predicate 
of  a  proposition.  For,  in  John,  ®ios  was  the  predicate  ;  here  ©fo;  is  the 
subject :  and,  therefore,  either  the  distinction  which  he  made  in  his 
11th  Proposition  is  of  no  importance,  or  something  more  decisive  with 
regard  to  the  divinity  of  our  Saviour  is  contained  in  this  passage  of 
Timothy  than  in  the  beginning  of  John's  Gospel. 

5.  1  John  V.  20.  In  some  manuscripts  and  versions,  ^eov  is  inserted 
after  axriOnov  in  this  verse.  This  is  of  no  importance  to  the  sense.  But 
there  is  a  controversy  with  regard  to  the  application  of  the  last  clause  ; 
and  that  you  may  judge  whether  it  is  most  natural  to  refer  it  to  the 
Father,  or  to  his  Son  Jesus  Christ,  T  shall  give  two  interpretations  of 
it,  in  the  words  of  Dr.  Clarke  and  Dr.  Randolph.  Dr.  Clarke's  is, 
"  The  Son  of  God  is  come,  and  has  enlightened  Ihe  eyes  of  our  under- 
standing, that  we  may  know  the  true  God ;  and  we  are  in  that  true 
God  by  or  through  his  Son  Jesus  Christ.  This  God,  whom  the  Son 
has  given  us  an  understanding  to  know,  is  the  true  God,  and  to  be  in 
him  by  his  Son  is  eternal  life.  This  is  the  worship  of  the  true  God, 
and  the  way  to  eternal  life."  Dr.  Randolph's  is.  This  Jesus  Christ, 
who  hath  "  given  us  an  understanding  to  know  him  that  is  true,  is 
the  true  God  and  eternal  life."  By  this  interpretation,  ovfojis  referred 
to  the  antecedent  immediately  preceding,  which  is  also  the  principal 
subject  of  the  whole  verse;  the  tautology  which  Dr.  Clarke's  para- 
phrase fixes  upon  the  apostle,  "  The  true  God  is  the  true  God,"  is 
avoided;  the  strongest  reason  is  given  for  our  being  in  the  true  God 


DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD.  329 

by  Jesus  Christ,  that  he  himself  is  the  true  God,  and  so  cannot  mislead 
us  :  and,  lastly,  no  more  is  affirmed  concerning  Jesus  Christ  than  may 
be  gathered  from  other  places  of  John's  writings.  He  is  elsewhere 
called  life.*  "Eternal  life,"  it  is  said,  "is  in  the  Son."t  He  is 
called  God;  he  is  called  i> o.xriOivoi.X  And  if  John  meant  to  teach  us 
tliat  he  who  is  called  God  is  truly  God,  it  was  most  natural  for  him 
to  join  this  adjective  to  the  substantive  when  speaking  of  the  Son,  in 
the  same  manner  as  when  speaking  of  the  Father.  This  text  was 
urged  in  the  Council  of  Nice  agahist  the  Arians ;  and  they  did  not 
deny  that  Jesus  Christ  is  here  called  the  true  God;  but  contented 
themselves  with  saying,  that  if  he  was  truly  made  God,  he  is  the  true 
God  :  an  evasion  which,  joined  to  many  others,  produced  the  inser- 
tion of  the  term  Voovawj  in  the  orthodox  creeds,  as  a  term  necessarily 
implying  that  the  Son  had  not  been  made  God,  but  is  essentially  God. 


Section  H. 

To  those  passages  in  which  the  name  of  God  is  given  to  Jesus 
Christ,  there  naturally  succeed  those  which  ascribe  to  him  attributes 
that  constitute  the  character  of  the  being  to  whom  that  name  belongs. 

The  passages  in  which  all  power  is  ascribed  to  Jesus  are  innumera- 
ble ;  and  they  are  various  and  strong  in  point  of  expression.     But  to 
the  argument  for  his  divinity  that  is  derived  from  the  extent  of  his 
power,  it  is  opposed  by  the  Arian  system,  that  the  Almighty  is  the 
sole  fountain  of  all  the  power  that  is  exerted  throughout  the  universe, 
that  we  behold    various  measures  of  power  conmmnicated  to  the 
creatures  with  whom  we  converse,  that  the   purposes  of  the  divine 
government  may  require  that  a  degree,  infinitely  beyond  any  which 
we  behold,  or  which  we  can  conceive,  may  be  imparted  to  that  being 
by  whom  God  made,  by  whom  he  saves,  and  by  whom  he  is  to  judge 
the  world ;  but  that  as  all  the  power  in  heaven  and  in  earth  which  is 
given  to  Jesus  Christ  was  derived  from  God,  it  redounds  to  the  honour 
of  Him  from  whom  it  proceeds,  and  does  not,  in  fair  argument,  prove 
the  divinity  of  him  by  whom  it  is  received.     This  argument  will  ap- 
pear to  many  to  be  counterbalanced  by  the  manner  in  which  the 
Scriptures  speak  of  the  power  of  Jesus.     They  will  think  it  not  likely 
that,  if  Jesus  were  a  creature,  any  exertion  which  he  was  enabled  to 
perform  would  be  described  in  language  by  which  they  are  assimilated, 
both  in  the  greatness  and  facility'  of  them,  to  those  of  the  Creator. 
But  as  this  language  may  not  make  the  same  impression  upon  every 
mind,  and  as  it  was  acknowledged  by  Jesus,  and  is  often  said  by  his 
apostles,  that  he  received  all  power  from  God,  we  require,  in  arguing 
from  the  attributes  of  Jesus  to  his  divinity,  some  attributes  which  do 
not  admit  of  the  same  communication  as  power  does,  some  which 
respect  rather  the  manner  of  his  being,  than  the  extent  of  his  exer- 
tions. 

You  may  attend,  first,  to  the  time  of  his  being.     If  Jesus  is  the 
Creator  of  all,  it  follows  that  he  existed  before  any  of  those  measures 

*  1  John  i.  2.  t  1  John  v.  11.  .  +  Rev.  iii.  7,  14. 

30*  2  Y 


330  DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD, 

of  time  which  are  deduced  from  the  motion  or  succession  of  created 
objects.  In  this  sense  the  Arians  allow  eternity  to  Jesus,  saying  that 
he  was  begotten  rt^oTtavrioj/attovwi'.  But  the  Scriptures  do  not  admit  of 
any  equivocation  with  regard  to  this  attribute  of  Jesus,  because  the 
very  same  terms  in  which  the  eternity  of  God  is  described  are  applied 
to  him ;  so  that  if  the  Scriptures  are  not  sufficient  to  prove  the 
eternity  of  the  Son,  neither  do  they  prove  the  eternity  of  the  Father. 
Tlie  ancients,  all  of  whom  applied  the  description  of  wisdom  in 
Proverbs  viii.  to  that  person  whom  John  calls  -Koyoi-,  argued  from  the 
similarity  between  Psalm  xc.  2,  "  Before  the  mountains  were  brought 
forth,  thou  art  God  ;"  and  a  part  of  that  chapter,  "  I  was  set  up  from 
everlasting,  from  the  begiiming,  or  ever  the  earth  was."  If  we  con- 
sider that  Christ  is  only  a  beautiful  personification  of  wisdom,  we 
shall  not  admit  the  force  of  this  argument.  But  there  are  plain  de- 
clarations to  the  same  purpose  in  the  book  of  the  Revelation.  And 
you  will  observe  the  reason  why  in  that  book  they  become  plain.  In 
the  conversations  with  the  apostles  which  the  gospels  record,  Jesus 
purposely  obscured  his  divinity,  because  he  was  with  them  in  the 
human  form.  But  when  Stephen,  before  his  martyrdom,  "  looked  up 
steadfastly  to  heaven, he  saw  the  glory  of  God,  and  Jesus  standing  at 
the  right  hand  of  God."  When  Jesus  appeared  to  Paul  after  his 
ascension,  "  there  was  at  mid-day  a  light  from  heaven  above  the 
brightness  of  the  sun  ;"  and  out  of  that  light  the  Lord  spake  to  Paul, 
saying,  "  I  am  Jesus  whom  thou  persecutest."  In  both  instances,  it 
was  tlie  full  efl^ulgence  of  the  Schechinah,  which  every  Jew  regarded 
as  the  visible  symbol  of  the  divine  presence.  In  like  manner,  in  the 
book  of  the  Revelation,  Jesus  speaks  to  his  servant  John  from  heaven 
in  his  glorified  state.  In  the  description  of  the  person  whom  John 
saw,  the  most  splendid  objects  in  nature  are  brought  together  to  con- 
vey some  conception  of  his  majesty.  The  brightness  of  the  sun  is  the 
image  of  his  countenance ;  his  eyes  are  like  a  flame  of  fire ;  in  his 
hand  he  wields  seven  stars ;  and  when  he  speaks,  it  is  not  the  weak 
sound  of  man's  voice  ;  it  is  as  the  sound  of  many  waters,  loud,  con- 
tinued, and  impetuous.  The  manner  in  which  Jesus  speaks  of  him- 
self. Rev.  i.  7,  8,  corresponds  most  properly  to  this  description  of  his 
Majesty.  It  has  been  doubted  whether  the  person  speaking  in  the 
8th  verse  is  the  Father  or  the  Son.  But  you  will  find  when  you  con- 
sider the  whole  passage,  that  by  applying  this  verse  to  the  Father 
there  is  a  most  abrupt  change  of  person ;  whereas  the  context  leads 
us  to  consider  Jesus  Christ,  the  person  who  is  described  in  the  7th 
verse,  and  who  begins  to  speak  to  John  at  the  11th,  as  giving  this 
account  of  himself  in  the  8th. 

The  only  reason  for  not  following  the  direction  of  the  context,  in 
applying  this  8th  verse  to  Jesus  Christ,  is  that  the  two  last  titles  here 
introduced  are  considered  as  peculiar  to  the  Father.  But  it  has  been 
clearly  shown  that  this  reason  proceeds  upon  a  mistake.  'Otov,  xato  ijv, 
xat  0  i^xo^ifvoi,  is  indeed  used  in  the  4th  verse,  as  the  distinguishing  cha- 
racter of  the  Father.  But  it  is  known  by  the  learned  that  the  amomit 
of  these  words  is  the  full  exposition  of  the  name  Jehovah.  Now  ve 
found,  by  comparing  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  many  places  in 
which  the  name  Jehovah  is  given  to  Jesus ;  and  our  Lord  seems  to 
take  it  to  himself  by  the  peculiarity  of  that  expression,  John  viii.  5S, 


DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD.  331 

rt^iv  A6^cm^i  yevsaeac,  not  fyw  jji"*  but«y""iUi'  Yiavtox^atu^,  a  word  express- 
ing the  most  exalted  power  and  the  most  universal  dominion,  the 
sovereign  and  proprietor  of  all,  is  used  occasionally  by  the  Septua- 
gint  as  the  translation  of  the  same  Hebrew  phrase  which  they  else- 
where render.  Lord  of  Hosts,  xv^ios  Swa^utuv.  But  there  are  many  places 
in  the  Old  Testament,  where  that  Hebrew  phrase  is  applied  to  the  an- 
gel of  the  covenant ;  and  we  learned  from  John  xii.  41,  that  the  glory 
of  the  Lord  of  hosts  which  Isaiah  saw  was  the  glory  of  Christ.  The 
application,  then,  of  the  two  last  titles  to  Jesus  does  not  atlbrd  any 
reason  for  transferring  tlie  whole  verse  from  the  Son  to  the  Father ; 
and  the  two  first  titles  are  elsewhere  assumed  by  the  Son  as  his.*  "  I 
am  the  first  and  the  last."  "  I  am  A  and  ^,  the  beginning  and  the 
end."  But  these  are  the  very  descriptions  which  the  Father  gives 
of  his  eternity.  Isaiah  xliv.  6,  "  I  am  the  first ;  and  I  am  the  last ; 
and  beside  me  there  is  no  God."  Isaiah  xliii.  10,  "  liefore  me  was 
there  no  God  formed,  neither  shall  there  be  after  me  ;"  titles  which, 
both  by  their  natural  import,  and  by  their  being  consecrated  as  the 
description  of  God  the  Father,  imply  that  a  being  to  whom  they  are 
applied  had  no  beginning,  and  shall  have  no  end. 

As  the  existence  of  Jesus  is  thus  affirmed  to  be  without  beginning, 
so  the  Scriptures  declare  that  it  is  not  susceptible  of  change.  An  un- 
changeable existence  is  the  character  of  Him  "  who  is,  who  was,  and 
who  is  to  come."  And  the  same  thing,  which  is  clearly  implied  in 
this  name,  is  directly  expressed  in  that  part  of  Psalm  cii.  which  we 
found  the  apostle  to  the  Hebrews  in  the  first  chapter  applying  to 
Jesus.  "  Thou  art  the  same,  and  thy  years  fail  not :"  and  to  this  cor- 
responds another  expression,  Heb.  xiii.  8,  l>?3oi>s  X^tcrroj  xOfs  xm  arjiAt^ov 
oavTos,  xat  £ts -r'ovs  atwraj.  For,  although  the  Ariaus  understand  these 
words  to  mean  nothing  more  than  this,  that  the  doctrine  of  Christ  is 
unchangeable,  yet  it  is  plain  that  this  is  a  figurative  sense  of  the  words; 
that,  according  to  the  literal  interpretation,  they  teach  that  the  person 
of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  same  in  all  times,  past,  present,  and  future;  that 
this  literal  meaning  is  the  only  sense  which  the  words  in  the  first 
chapter  will  bear ;  and  that  the  unchangeableness  of  his  person  is  the 
surest  foundation  of  the  michangeableness  of  his  doctrine.  It  is  not 
easy  for  any  one  who  attends  to  these  things  to  believe  that  the  apos- 
tle, in  commending  the  steadfastness  with  which  Christians  ought  to 
adhere  to  the  faith,  would  choose  to  introduce  an  expression  which 
so  naturally  leads  his  hearers  to  ascribe  immutability  to  the  author 
of  that  faith,  if  Jesus  were  not  truly  exempt  from  all  the  vicissitudes 
that  are  inseparable  from  created  beings. 

An  existence  thus  without  beginning,  and  continued  in  all  times 
without  change,  is  represented  also  as  extended  through  all  space. 
While  it  is  the  essential  condition  of  a  creature  to  inhabit  the  spot 
assigned  him,  or  to  change  his  habitation  according  to  the  will  of  his 
Creator,  and  thus  to  be  only  in  one  place  at  one  time,  Jesus  says  of 

llimself,  John  iii.  1  3,  o  fsc  tov  ov^avov  xata6asi  o  uio;  roD  avO^uirCov  o  cof  tv  ■ta  ot'^avoi : 

words  which,  according  to  their  most  natural  exposition,  imply  that 
he  who  came  down  from  heaven  is  in  heaven.     He  promises.  Matt. 

Xviii.  20,  ov  70^  fi3t  dvo  rj  t^iis    awr,yixii>oi.  ft;  to  ty.ov  ovofia,  ixit  etfit  iv  jwtff^  avtuv. 


•  Rev.  i.  17j  iii.  14;  xxii.  13. 


332  DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD. 

He  had  said,  that  his  gospel  was  to  be  preached  in  all  the  world* 
The  fact  has  corresponded  to  the  prophecy.  Yet  here  is  his  promise, 
that  in  every  place  where  his  disciples  are  assembled,  there  he  is ; 
and  in  like  manner  he  said  to  his  apostles,  when  he  was  just  about  to 

ascend,  Matt.  XXViii.  20,  tSov,  «y«  ficd''  vfiu>v  ttfii  Ttasas   ras  ^lUfgay,  £uj  T'jys  aw- 

ttuia-i  i-ov  atwi^os .  It  cauuot  be  said  by  any  one  who  understands  the 
terms  which  he  uses,  that  omnipresence,  like  power,  may  be  commu- 
nicated to  a  being  who,  in  some  former  period  of  his  existence,  did 
not  possess  it.  But  even  this  assertion  is  precluded  by  the  Scriptures, 
which  ascribe  this  essential  attribute  to  Jesus  from  the  beginning,  *» 
Tiavta  £v  avtai  avvestj^xi;  woi'ds  which  imply  that  his  existence,  since  the 
creation,  is  co-extended  with  his  works. 

This  extended  existence  is  connected  with  the  continued  exercise 
of  the  most  perfect  intelligence.  The  knowledge  possessed  by  the 
most  exalted  spirits  must  be  limited  in  proportion  to  the  bounds  of 
the  space  which  they  inhabit.  At  least,  their  knowledge  of  any  thing 
beyond  that  space  cannot  be  immediate,  but  must  be  communicated 
to  them  by  other  beings,  or  acquired  by  investigation.  But  of  Jesus 
Christ  it  is  said,  that  he  knoweth  all  things ;  that  he  knows  that  God 
who  is  incomprehensible  to  man;  that  he  knows  what  is  in  man.* 
His  knowledge  extends  to  that  region  which  is  removed  from  the 
eyes  of  mortals,  and  the  knowledge  and  judgment  of  which  the  Al- 
mighty reserves  to  himself  as  his  prerogative.  "  Thou,  even  thou 
only,"  says  Solomon,  1  Kings  viii.  39,  "knowest  the  hearts  of  all 
the  children  of  men."  "  I  the  Lord,"  says  the  Almighty,  Jer.  xvii. 
10,  "  search  the  heart,  I  try  the  reins."  But  Jesus,  who,  while  he 
was  upon  earth,  had  discovered  in  numberless  instances  his  know- 
ledge of  the  heart,  claims,  in  the  book  of  the  Revelation,  this  divine 
prerogative  as  his  own.  Rev.  ii.  23.  "All  the  churches  shall  know," 
tfosyui  c^fjiv  u  c^svvuv  vi^^ovs  xM  xa^Sias" — And  there  is  a  description  of 
o  xoyo^  tov  ©£ov,  Heb.  iv.  12,  13,  which  all  the  ancients  apply  to  Christ 
the  Word,  in  which  it  is  said  that  the  Word  is  "  a  discerner  of  the 
thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart :  and  that  there  is  no  creature  that 
is  not  manifest  in  his  sight." 

Thus  we  find  the  Scriptures  ascribing  to  Jesus  an  existence  with- 
out beginning,  without  change,  without  limitation,  and  connected,  in 
the  whole  extent  of  space  which  it  fills,  with  the  exercise  of  the  most 
perfect  intelligence.  These  are  the  essential  attributes  of  Deity. 
Measures  of  power  may  be  communicated  ;  degrees  of  wisdom  and 
goodness  may  be  imparted  to  created  spirits  :  but  our  conceptions  of 
God  are  confounded,  and  we  lose  sight  of  every  circumstance  by 
which  he  is  characterized,  if  such  a  manner  of  existence  as  we  have 
now  described  be  common  to  him  and  any  creature.  When  we 
recollect  that  the  Person  to  whom  this  manner  of  existence  is  ascribed 
is  the  Creator  of  the  world;  that  by  him  all  the  intercourse  between 
the  Deity  and  the  human  race  has  been  carried  on  from  the  begin- 
ning ;  that  in  the  Old  Testament  he  often  bears  the  incommunicable 
name  Jehovah,  and  that  in  the  New  Testament  he  is  called  God,  in 
the  proper  sense  of  that  word :  when  we  lay  together  these  tilings, 
which  are  the  premises  that  have  been  established,  the  conclusion 

•  Matt.  xi.  27.    John  ii.  24,  25. 


DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT  CHRIST    IS    GOD.  333 

appears  to  be  clear.  The  Scriptures  mean  to  teach  us  that  this 
Person  is  God  :  and  this  conclusion  will  be  confirmed  when  we  find 
that  in  Scripture  he  is  worshipped  as  God. 


Section  III. 

This  remaining  ground  of  argument  upon  the  subject  of  our 
Saviour's  divinity,  it  is  proper  that  I  should  state  fully,  on  account  of 
the  diiferent  opinions  to  which  it  has  given  occasion,  and  the  extent 
of  some  of  the  discussions  in  which  the  different  opinions  have  been 
supported. 

It  appears  to  be  agreeable  to  reason  that  worship,  which  is  the 
humblest  expression  of  entire  veneration,  and  of  a  sense  of  depend- 
ence, should  be  appropriated  to  the  Supreme  Being.  It  was  the 
character  of  heathen  idolatry  that  even  those,  who  believed  in  one 
Being,  far  exalted  in  power  and  dignity  above  every  other,  gave  to 
inferior  deities,  testimonies  of  respect  and  submission  the  same  in  kind 
with  those  which  he  received.  It  was  the  great  object  of  the  law  of 
Moses  to  form  a  people,  who,  instead  of  going  after  other  gods,  and 
bowing  down  before  them,  should  confine  their  worship  to  the  one 
Lord,  the  God  of  Israel.  Hence  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament 
abound  with  descriptions  of  the  vanity  of  idols  :  the  Almighty  is  there 
known  by  the  name  Jealous,  claiming  worship  as  his  incommunica- 
ble right ;  and  the  spirit  of  the  whole  institution  is  thus  expressed  by 
Isaiah  xlii.  8  :  "  I  am  the  Lord,  that  is  my  name,  and  my  glory  will 
I  not  give  to  another."  This  spirit  of  the  law  seems  to  be  incorporat- 
ed into  the  gospel,  since  our  Lord,  upon  being  tempted  by  the  devil 
to  worship  him,  says,  "  Get  thee  hence,  Satan  ;  for  it  is  written.  Thou 
shalt  worship  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  him  only  shalt  thou  serve."* 
And,  upon  being  asked.  Which  is  the  first  commandment  of  all  Pf  he 
began  his  answer  thus :  "  The  first  of  all  the  commandments  is,  Hear, 
0  Israel,  the  Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord." 

Upon  a  comparison  of  these  quotations,  it  seems  to  be  obvious  that 
our  Lord  meant  to  exclude  every  other  being  from  a  competition 
with  the  Lord  God,  either  in  the  affections  of  the  heart,  or  in  that 
expression  of  those  affections,  which  is  commonly  called  worship. 
Yet  the  Apostle  to  the  Hebrews,  i.  6,  applies  to  Jesus  Christ  these 
words  of  the  Psalmist,  "  let  all  the  angels  of  God  worship  him," 
Our  Lord  says,  John  v.  23,  "that  all  men  should  honour  the  Son, 
even  as  they  honour  the  Father ;"  words  which  may  imply  an 
equality  in  the  degree,  and  a  sameness  in  the  expressions  of  honour. 
The  Apostle  to  the  Philippians,  ii.  10,  says,  "that  at  the  name  of 
Jesus  every  knee  should  bow."  During  our  Lord's  intercourse  with 
his  apostles,  the  astonishment  excited  in  their  breasts  by  some  of 
his  works,  produced  expressions  of  reverence,  which  implied  at 
least  a  momentary  apprehension  of  his  divine  character ;  and  as  he 
was  carried  up  from  them  into  heaven,  "  they  worshipped  him."t 

♦  Mat.  iv.  10.  f  Mark  xii.  29.  t  Luke  xxiv.  52. 


334  DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD. 

The  last  words  of  the  martyr  Stephen  were,  "  Lord  Jesus,  receive 
my  spirit.     Lord,  lay  not  this  sin  to  their  charge."* 

The  Epistles  contain  many  petitions  which  are  directly  addressed 
to  Jesus,  and  in  which  his  name  is  conjoined  with  that  of  God  the 
Father.  In  the  book  of  the  Revelation,  Jesus  receives  the  adoration 
of  all  the  host  of  heaven.  The  twenty-four  elders,  who  fall  down 
before  him  that  sitteth  on  the  throne,  fall  down  before  the  Lamb 
also  ;  and  John  heard  every  creature  in  heaven  saying,"  Blessing  and 
glory  be  unto  him  that  sitteth  upon  the  throne,  and  to  the  Lamb,  for 
ever  and  ever."t 

The  Christian  church,  following  these  examples  in  Scripture, 
introduces  the  name  of  Jesus  into  the  earliest  doxologies  that  are 

recorded.      Mf^'  ov  ao<,  5o|a,  xai  Ha,  wyi,(^  Tivtvyiaii,  and  Sot  8o|a,  xai  7'9  (T9  rtotSt 

ijjtfou,  xat  to,  ayt9  rtviv^ati,  are  fomis  fouud  in  the  writings  of  Clemens 
Romanus,  one  of  the  apostolical  fathers ;  and  the  conclusion  of  the 
prayer  of  Polycarp,  Bishop  of  Smyrna,  which  is  preserved  in  a  letter 
from  the  church  of  Smyrna,  giving  an  account  of  his  suflerings  in  the 
second  century,  runs  thus  :  Ij^otd  x.^io-tov  -tov  ayarfjjfou  oov  rtatSoj-  hi  w  cou  cw 

avta  (V   rCvivixatv  ayto  6o|a  xai  vuv,  xa(,    stj  t'odj  jxtM-ovta^  andi'a$.      Aja-i^v.       Thcse 

doxologies  of  Clemens  and  Polycarp  were  not  peculiar  to  them,  but 
were  agreeable  to  the  practice  of  the  church  in  their  days  ;  and  from 
this  venerable  authority  is  derived  that  form  of  words  which  appears 
to  have  been  used  through  all  the  ages  of  the  Christian  church,  and 
is  often  repeated  in  the  English  liturgy,  "  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and 
to  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy  Ghost." 

This  account  of  the  early  doxologies  is  confirmed  by  Pliny,  in  his 
letter  to  Trajan,  about  the  beginning  of  the  second  century,  when, 
speaking  of  the  Christians,  he  says,  "Affirmabanthancfuissesummam 
vel  cnlpae  suae,  vel  erroris,  quod  essent  soliti  stato  die  ante  lucem 
convenire  ;  carmenque  Christo,  quasi  Deo,  dicere  secum  invicem."J 
And  Eusebius  appears  to  be  describing  this  carmen,  or  "  the  psalms, 
and  hymns,  and  spiritual  songs,"  of  which  the  Apostle  Paul  speaks, 
Eph.  V.  19,  when  he  says  in  the  fourth  century,  ■i.ox^oi  xm  uSm  a6t%^uv 

arCa^XV^  "^^o  rtitfT'coi/  y^a^f  tffat,  tov  T^oyov  tov  &eov,  tov  "K^iatov  i/A-vovei  dco%o-^'ovi>tei.§ 

Although  the  Christians,  in  the  earliest  times,  honoured  the  memory 
of  martyrs,  by  meeting  at  the  places  where  they  had  suffered,  by 
celebrating  the  anniversary  days  of  their  martyrdom,  and  by  recom- 
mending the  imitation  of  their  example,  they  distinguished  most 
scrupulously  the  honours  which  they  paid  to  mortals  from  the  worship 
which  is  due  to  God.  For  their  principle,  as  it  is  expressed  at  a  later 
period  by  Origen,  was  this,  "  God  only  is  to  be  worshipped :  other 

beings    may    be   tifir;;   a|ia,  ov  fnv  xcu  Tt^oaxwrjatics  xau  aiGasixov"      And    yet, 

notwithstanding  this  distinction,  the  tM''o  verbs  rc^ooxweiv  3.ndoi8eaeai.  are 
used  by  Justin  Martyr  in  the  second  century  to  express  the  homage 
which  belongs  to  the  Son  and  the  Spirit,  as  well  as  that  which  belongs 
to  the  Father.  When  the  Christians  were  charged  with  atheism, 
because  they  did  not  worship  idols,  Justin  Martyr  answered,  "  We 
acknowledge  that  we  are  atheists  in  respect  of  those  who  are  com- 
monly called  gods,  but  not  in  respect  to  the  true  God,  the  Father  of 

*    Acts  vii.  59,  60.  t  Rev.  v.  13. 

i  Plin.  Epist.  Lib.  X  97.  §  Eus.  Hist.  Ecc.  Lib.  V.  cap.  28. 


DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD.  335 

all ;  both  him,  and  the  Son  who  came  from  him,  and  the  prophetical 

Spirit,  OiSojXiOa,  xa.1  rc^oaxM'Ot'ixii',  ^.oy^  xai  aXrfida  •rtfttoi-rs;.    * 

The  particulars  which  I  have  mentioned  may  suffice  as  a  specimen 
of  the  sentiments  and  practice  of  the  first  tln-ee  centuries.  I  do  not 
propose  to  entangle  myself  in  that  controversy  with  regard  to  the 
meaning  of  particular  passages,  which  Dr.  Priestley's  hasty  and  super- 
ficial History  of  Early  Opinions  concerning  Jesus  Christ  has  occasioned. 
It  appears  to  me  that  this  inaccuracy  has  been  completely  exposed 
by  his  able  and  learned  antagonists,  and  that  the  more  carefully  any 
one  examines  the  records  which  are  preserved  in  the  earliest  Christian 
writers,  he  will  be  the  more  fully  satisfied  of  the  following  points  : 
that  although  a  few  individuals  had  begun,  even  then,  to  disseminate 
other  opinions  concerning  the  person  of  Christ,  yet  the  great  body  of 
the  Christian  church  considered  him  as  entitled  to  receive  the  same 
worship  with  the  Father,  and  were  accustomed,  in  ditferent  parts  of 
their  public  services  of  devotion,  to  ascribe  this  worship  to  him ;  that 
his  title  to  this  worship  was  in  their  minds  connected  with  the  divinity 
of  his  nature  ;  and  that  the  principle  upon  which  their  practice  rested 
was  the  same  wliich  is  expressed  in  the  fourth  century  by  Cyril,  who, 
when  the  Christians  were  accused  by  the  Emperor  Julian  of  worship- 
phig,  like  the  Heathen,  a  dead  man,  thus  answered:  "We  do  not 
make  a  god  of  a  man,  but  we  worship  him  who  is  essentially  God, 
and  on  that  account,  is  fit  to  be  worshipped."! 

This  being  the  principle  upon  which  the  Christian  church  from  the 
earliest  times  had  worshipped  our  Saviour,  when  the  Arians,  in  the 
fourth  century,  avowedly  taught  that  Jesus  Christ  is  a  creature,  and 
yet  joined  with  other  Christians  in  worshipping  him,  Athanasius,  and 
all  those  writers  who  held  the  received  opinion  concerning  his  Person, 
charged  them  with  idolatry,  the  same  in  kind  as  that  which  was 
practised  among  the  heathen.  Their  argument  was  this.  Heathen 
idolatry  did  not  consist  in  ascribing  the  same  dignity  and  rank  to  all 
the  multiplicity  of  gods  who  were  worshipped  ;  for  the  cosmogony  of 
the  philosophers,  which  always  exhibited  some  theory  of  the  gods  as 
a  branch  of  the  system  of  nature,  generally  proceeded  upon  the  sup- 
position of  there  being  d^  ayiwri-eosixa.!.  rtoVKoi  ytwri-tot,;  and  the  popular 
traditionary  theology  of  the  poets,  and  the  vulgar  exalted  the  Father 
of  gods  and  men  far  above  the  otlier  objects  of  worship.  i3ut  heathen 
idolatry  consisted  in  this,  that  the  same  kind  of  worship  was  paid  to 
deities  who  were  acknowledged  to  be  inferior  and  produced,  as  to  that 
Being  who  was  called  supreme ;  and  that  men,  proceeding  gradually 
in  this  prostitution  of  that  which  belongs  exclusively  to  one  unorigi- 
nate  Intelligence,  came  to  worship  animals  which  had  their  birth  upon 
earth,  and  even  inanimate  objects,  which,  however  splendid  or  useful, 
are  confessedly  the  workmanship  of  some  mind.  This  is  the  very 
account  of  the  idolatry  of  the  heathen  which  the  Apostle  Paul  gives, 

Rom.  i.  25,  when  he  says,  Eat6a59>;(7ai'  xai  fXar^fvaaf  t-Q  xnati.  Tia^a  rov  x-ei.rsa.vt a.', 

not  as  in  our  translation,  "  worshipped  and  served  the  creature  more 
than  the  Creator ;"  but,  "  by  the  side  of  the  Creator,  along  with  him." 
But  these  words,  in  which  the  ajiostle  most  accurately  describes  the 
practice  of  the  heathen,  may  be  literally  applied  to  the  Arians.     For 

•  Apol.  Prima,  p.  11.  \  Cyril,  cont.  Jul.  Lib.  VI.  p.  203.  Ed.  Lips. 


336  DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD. 

ill  their  zeal  to  maintain  the  honour  of  God  the  Father,  they  had 
represented  hiin  as  having,  by  an  act  of  his  will,  produced  out  of 
nothing  that  glorious  being  who  is  called  the  Son,  and  after  having 
thus  separated  the  Son  from  the  Father,  as  far  as  a  creature  is  neces- 
sarily separated  from  the  Creator,  they  worshipped  this  creature, 
t^at^Bvaav  ty  xtiati,  rta^a  tov  xtioavta.  It  is  truc  that  the  heathen  worshipped 
many  created  beings  in  conjunction  with  one  supreme,  whereas  the 
Arians  worshipped  only  one  :  but  this  circumstance  did  not  constitute 
any  essential  difference  between  them.  The  principle  upon  which 
the  Arians  worshipped  Christ  was  so  far  from  being  repugnant  to  the 
worship  of  other  created  beings,  that  it  naturally  led  to  this  extension 
of  worship.  For,  as  Athanasius  reasons,  if  Christ  is  worshipped  on 
account  of  the  superior  eminence  of  his  glory,  it  follows  that  every 
inferior  being  ought  to  worship  its  superior ;  au'  ovx  sativ  oitus-  xtisfiari. 

Such  was  the  reasoning  of  Athanasius  and  the  writers  of  his  day, 
when  they  accused  the  Arians  of  idolatry,  for  worshipping  a  being 
whom  they  considered  as  a  creature.  The  answer  which  was  then 
made  to  the  charge  is  not  extant,  for  almost  all  the  writings  of  the 
ancient  Arians  are  lost.  But  if  we  may  judge  of  their  answer  from 
the  replies  of  their  adversaries,  it  appears  to  have  been  the  same  with 
that  which  is  found  in  the  writings  of  those  who  in  later  times  have 
held  their  opinions. 

The  modern  Arians  attempt  to  vindicate  themselves  from  the  charge 
of  idolatry  by  making  a  distinction  between  the  worship  which  they 
pay  to  God  the  Father,  and  that  which  they  pay  to  the  Son :  the 
former  they  call  supreme  divine  worship,  the  latter  inferior  religious 
worship.  You  will  find  amongst  the  tracts  of  Mr.  Thomas  Emlyn,  a 
sincere  and  zealous  assertor  of  Arian  principles  in  the  beginning  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  a  treatise  entitled,  A  Vindication  of  the  wor- 
ship of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  on  Unitarian  principles.  The  plan  of 
the  treatise  is  to  show,  that  supreme  divine  worship  is,  in  Scripture, 
neither  given  nor  required  to  be  given  to  Jesus  Christ;  that  the 
inferior  religious  worship  of  him,  which  the  Scriptures  allow  and 
command,  does  not  intrench  upon  the  peculiar  prerogative  of  God ; 
and  that  as  this  mark  of  honour  to  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  which 
the  Scriptures  expressly  warrant,  cannot  be  called  will-worship,  so  it 
does  not  afford  any  sanction  to  Pagan  or  Popish  idolatry.  A  distinc- 
tion of  the  same  kind  is  the  subject  of  several  of  those  propositions  in 
which  Dr.  Clarke  sets  forth  what  he  calls  the  Scripture  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity ;  and  this  is  his  manner  of  stating  it.  "  Supreme  honour  or 
worship  is  due  to  the  person  of  the  Father  singly  ;  and  all  prayers  and 
praises  ought  primarily  or  ultimately  to  be  directed  to  the  person  of 
the  Father :  the  honour  which  the  Scriptures  direct  to  be  paid  to  the 
Son  is  upon  account  of  his  actions  and  attributes  relative  to  us,  in 
accomplishing  the  dispensation  of  God  towards  mankind,  and  must 
always  be  understood  as  redounding  ultimately  to  the  glory  of  God 
the  Father." 

The  Roman  Catholics  employ  the  same  distinction  between  supreme 
and  inferior  worship  in  vindication  of  their  worshipping  angels,  the 

*  Athan.  Orat.  II.  23. 


DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD.  337 

virgin  Mary,  and  departed  saints.  They  have  marked  the  distinction 
by  >.ar^aa,  and  fijvJma,  two  words  which  were  used  promiscuously  iu 
ancient  times,  but  which  are  carefully  separated  in  the  church 
of  Rome ;  the  first  being  employed  to  express  that  worship  which 
belongs  to  the  Supreme  Being,  the  Creator  and  Preserver  of  all ;  the 
second,  to  express  that  inferior  worship  which  it  appears  to  them 
lawful  and  fit  to  yield  to  beings  created  by  God.  Tiiey  admit,  that 
the  practice  of  the  heathen  deserves  the  severest  condemnation,  be- 
cause it  was  fiStoxoxat^fca,  i.  e.  idololatria,  giving  the  highest  worship 
to  idols  ;  but  they  contend  that  no  part  of  their  practice  deserves  the 
name  of  idolatry,  because  it  is  only  bovxna.  which  they  pay  to  any  of 
the  creatures  whom  they  worship. 

It  is  of  no  importance  in  the  present  argument,  to  investigate  at 
what  period  of  the  Christian  church  the  distinction  of  these  two  words 
was  invented.  It  is  manifest  that  the  distinction  was  unknown  to 
the  apostle  Paul ;  for  speaking  of  the  heathen,  he  says  in  one  place, 

iXaf^ivaav  trj  xti,6e(,  r'aga  tov  xtioavta.  '■,*  in  ailOtiier,  i?io\i%iv6a.ti   roij  ft>;  ^vcJf t  ov?t 

^fo.j.f  Athanasius  and  the  writers  of  his  day  appear  to  have  followed 
the  Scripture  in  the  promiscuous  use  of  the  two  words;  and  the 
whole  train  of  reasoning  which  they  employ  against  the  Arians  shows 
that  they  were  ignorant  of  that  distinction  betwixt  supreme  and  in- 
ferior worship,  which  the  two  words  have  been  employed  to  mark. 
The  fallacy  of  the  distinction  has  been  fully  exposed  by  the  learned 
Bishop  Stillingfleet,  in  several  places  of  his  works,  and  particularly  in 
his  Discourse  concerning  the  nature  of  Idolatry.  It  is  touched  upon 
occasionally  by  Dr.  Cudworth,  in  his  valuable  work,  entitled  The  In- 
tellectual System  of  the  Universe  :  and  it  is  stated  at  great  length  and 
with  much  perspicuity,  by  Dr.  Waterland,  in  his  reply  to  Dr.  Clarke, 
and  by  the  other  writers  whom  the  revival  of  the  Arian  controversy 
in  the  last  century  has  called  forth  in  defence  of  the  ancient  faith  of 
the  church. 

The  arguments,  opposed  by  the  Athanasian  writers  to  the  answers 
by  which  the  Arians  endeavour  to  exculpate  themselves  from  the 
charge  of  idolatry,  may  thus  be  stated  in  few  words.  There  is  no 
intimation  in  Scripture  of  any  distinction  between  supreme  or  ultimate, 
and  inferior  or  relative  worship.  On  the  other  hand,  worship,  which 
is  the  expression  of  that  veneration  and  submission  of  soul  that  is  due 
to  God,  is  represented  in  Scripture  as  consisting  of  certain  outward 
acts,  such  as  adoration,  prayer,  offering  sacrifice,  burning  incense,  and 
making  vows  ;  all  which  acts  are  cleaily  discriminated  from  expres- 
sions of  the  respect  due  to  creatures.  Instead  of  allowing  these  acts 
of  worship  to  be  performed  to  creatures  upon  this  provision  that  they 
ultimately  tend  to  his  glory,  the  Almighty  hath  chosen  to  guard  the 
honour  of  his  great  name  by  claiming  them  as  exclusively  his  own  ; 
and  we  are  not  left  to  distinguish  an  act  of  worship  performed  to  a 
creature,  from  the  same  act  performed  to  the  Creator,  by  the  difference 
of  intention,  the  different  degrees  of  esteem  which  accompany  the  act : 
but  we  are  required  to  follow  the  precise  rule  laid  down  in  Scripture, 
according  to  which  the  worship  of  a  creature  never  can  agree  with 
the  worship  of  the  Creator,  but  is  directly  opposite  to  it,  being  an  in- 

*  Rom.  i.  25.  f  Gal.  iv.  8. 

31  2  Z 


338  DIRECT    PROOFS   THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD. 

vasion  of  the  prerogative  of  the  Supreme  Being.  The  character 
which  Paul  gives  of  the  heathen,  is,  (dovuvcats  -fot?  htj  q>vai(,  moc  ^loii  ,■  and 
Christians,  says  one  Father,  return  to  heathenism,  ■?»  xtian  cwavanj^ixovtii 
■cov  fu(5£t  ©iov.  "  Either,  therefore,"  says  another, "  let  the  Arians  cease 
to  worship  him  whom  they  call  a  creature,  or  cease  to  call  him  a 
creature  whom  they  worship,  lest,  under  the  name  of  worship,  they 
be  found  to  commit  sacrilege." 

Such  is  the  state  of  the  argument  upon  both  sides,  in  the  Arian 
controversy  with  regard  to  the  worship  of  Christ.  I  have  now  to 
direct  your  attention  to  the  form  which  this  subject  has  assumed  in 
the  Socinian  controversy. 

When  Socinus,  about  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  revived  that 
opinion  which  had  been  broached  by  a  few  individuals  in  the  first 
century,  that  Christ  was  a  mere  man,  he  did  not  so  far  depart  from 
the  practice  of  the  Christian  church  as  to  deny  that  Christ  ought  to  be 
worshipped.  But  having  represented  the  title  of  Christ  to  worship, 
as  founded  upon  that  universal  dominion  with  which  he  was  invested 
after  the  resurrection,  Socinus  endeavoured  to  show,  that  there  is  no 
instance  in  Scripture  of  our  Saviour's  being  worshipped  prior  to  his 
resurrection,  and  that  all  the  instances  of  worship  paid  to  him  posterior 
to  that  period  have  a  reference  to  the  glory  and  power  to  which  he 
was  then  exalted  in  consequence  of  the  actions  which  he  had  done 
upon  earth;  and  he  maintained  that,  independently  of  any  positive 
precept,  the  kingdom  which  our  Lord  received,  and  the  authority 
which  he  continues  to  exercise  in  relation  to  us,  create  an  obligation 
upon  Christians  to  worship  him.  Several  of  those,  who  held  the 
same  opinion  with  Socinus  concerning  the  person  of  Christ,  did  not 
agree  with  him  in  this  speculation.  They  contended  that  if  Christ  be 
merely  a  man  he  never  can  be  entitled  to  any  other  kind  of  honour 
than  that  which  is  due  to  human  excellence,  and  that  no  degree  of 
exaltation  is  a  sufficient  warrant  to  his  disciples  for  ascribing  to  him 
that  worship  which  belongs  to  God.  Socinus  did  not  perceive  or  did 
not  choose  to  admit  that  this  was  a  consequence  which  flowed  from 
his  principles.  There  is  extant  in  his  works  a  dispute  between  him 
and  Franciscus  Davides  upon  this  subject.  The  dispute  ended,  like 
most  others,  without  changing  the  opinion  of  either  of  the  parties  : 
Socinus  continued  to  inveigh  against  those  who  refused  to  worship 
Christ ;  and  he  gave  his  consent  that  Franciscus  Davides  should  be 
suspended  from  his  public  ministry,  merely  for  his  teaching  that 
Christ  ought  not  to  be  worshipped. 

But  there  is  so  manifest  a  repugnancy  between  the  worship  of 
Christ  and  the  pure  principles  of  Socinianism,  that  it  was  impossible 
for  any  authority  to  preserve  this  branch  of  the  practice  of  Socinus 
amongst  those  who  received  and  followed  out  his  system.  Accord- 
ingly, Dr.  Priestley,  Mr.  Lindsey,  and  all  the  Socinians  of  the  last 
century,  who  call  themselves  Unitarians,  have  openly  disclaimed  the 
worship  of  Christ.  While  they  profess  the  highest  veneration  for  the 
name  of  Socinus,  they  consider  his  zeal  for  defending  the  worship  of 
Christ,  as  either  an  accommodation  to  established  opinion,  whicli  he 
judged  prudent  at  the  first  introduction  of  his  system,  or  as  a  degree 
of  prejudice  and  weakness  of  which  even  his  mind  was  unable  to 
divest  itself:  and  they  remove  what  they  call  an  imperfection  which 


DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD.  339 

adhered  to  the  first  sketch  of  the  Socinian  doctrine,  by  avowing  as 
their  principle,  that  religious  worship  is  to  be  otfered  to  one  God  the 
Father  only,  as  his  incommunicable  honour  and  prerogative.  Their 
chief  objections  to  the  liturgy  of  the  church  of  England  amount  to 
this,  that  it  contains  prayers  addressed  to  Jesus  Christ ;  and  their  prac- 
tice in  their  meetings  is  to  avoid  every  form  of  words  which  seems  to 
imply  that  he  is  an  object  of  worship. 

The  arguments  by  which  the  modern  Unitarians  vindicate  this 
practice,  appear  to  derive  considerable  advantage  from  the  different 
acceptations  of  n^o^xwiu,  the  word  which,  both  in  the  Septuagint  and 
in  the  New  Testament,  is  translated  worship.  It  sometimes  marks 
adoration,  and  sometimes  nothing  more  than  that  prostration  of  the 
body  which  was  common  in  eastern  countries  upon  the  appearance 
of  a  superior.  It  is  used  in  this  last  sense  by  Herodotus,*  and  even 
in  the  Old  Testament.  Thus,  1  Chron.  xxix.  20,  we  read,  "  that  all 
the  congregation  bowed  down  their  heads,  and  worshipped  the  Lord 
and  the  king,  /.  e.  they  bowed  their  bodies  in  testimony  of  reverence 
both  for  the  God  and  the  king  of  Israel.  Nay,  in  one  of  our  Lord's 
parables.  Matt,  xviii.  26,  it  is  said,  that  the  servant  falling  down  be- 
fore his  Master,  "  rt^o'^mwd  aira)."  But  the  advantage  which  the  Uni- 
tarians derive  from  this  ambiguous  use  of  the  Greek  word  is  more 
apparent  than  real.  For  besides  that  circumstances  will  almost  always 
clearly  indicate  whether  the  action  marked  by  ft^or^xweio  expresses,  in 
that  case,  religious  homage,  or  merely  the  highest  degree  of  civil  re- 
spect, we  derive  our  warrant  for  worshipping  Christ  not  simply  from 
the  application  of  that  word,  but  from  a  variety  of  acts  which,  al- 
though they  are  by  no  means  implied  in  the  literal  sense  of  rt^oaxwiu, 
go  to  make  up  the  general  notion  of  worship,  and  in  which  there  is 
nothing  equivocal.  We  say  that  there  are  in  Scripture  many  instances 
of  praise,  thanksgiving,  and  prayer,  being  addressed  to  Jesus,  all  of 
which  imply  a  conviction  in  the  worshippers  that  his  knowledge  and 
power  are  not  limited,  and  that  he  is  every  where  present :  and  from 
these  instances,  taken  in  conjunction  with  the  command  to  honour 
him  even  as  we  honour  the  Father,t  and  with  the  revelation  of  the 
glory  of  his  character,  and  his  relation  to  us,  we  infer  that  it  is  not 
only  lawful,  but  proper  for  Christians  to  worship  him. 

The  Unitarians  endeavour  to  invalidate  this  conclusion  by  a  labour- 
ed attempt  to  explain  the  Scriptures  in  a  consistency  with  their  own 
system.  They  say,  that  the  thanksgivings  which  we  quote  are  mere 
effusions  of  gratitude  ;  that  the  prayers  are  only  wishes ;  that  the  in- 
vocation of  Stephen  in  the  book  of  Acts,  and  the  doxologies  in  the 
book  of  the  Revelation  were  addressed  to  Jesus  when  he  was  pre- 
sent, and  do  not  warrant  us  to  pray  to  him  or  praise  him  when  he  is 
absent.  It  is  impossible  to  enter  into  the  detail  of  tiieir  criticisms. 
But  if  you  take  the  instances  of  worship  being  paid  to  Jesus,  which 
Dr.  Clarke  has  very  fairly  collected  in  his  Scripture  Doctrine  of  the 
Trinity,  and  read  at  the  same  time  the  commentaries  upon  these  texts, 
which  Mr.  Lindsey  has  inserted  in  the  sequel  to  his  Apology,  and  in 
a  separate  dissertation  upon  this  subject,  you  will  have  an  excellent 
specimen  of  that  kind  of  Scripture  criticism  which  the  Socinians  are 

*  Herod.  Polym.  136.  -j-  John  v.  23. 


340  DIRECT    PROOFS    THAT    CHRIST    IS    GOD. 

often  obliged  to  employ  in  defence  of  different  parts  of  their  system, 
and  which,  in  giving  a  sense  of  Scripture  far  from  being  obvious,  re- 
quires such  an  expense  of  ingenuity  as  has  always  appeared  to  me 
to  be  of  itself  a  sufficient  proof  that  their  opinions  are  not  founded 
in  Scripture. 

The  controversy  between  the  Athanasians,  the  Arians,  and  the  So- 
cinians,  upon  the  points  of  which  we  have  been  speaking,  may  be 
thus  shortly  stated.  The  Athanasian  syllogism  is,  none  but  God 
ought  to  be  worshipped :  Jesus  Christ  is  worshipped  in  Scripture ; 
therefore  he  is  God.  The  Arian  syllogism  is,  supreme  worship  is  due 
to  God,  but  inferior  worship  may  be  paid  to  a  creature  :  It  is  only 
inferior  worship  that  is  paid  to  Jesus  Christ  in  Scripture ;  therefore, 
although  he  be  worshipped,  he  is  a  creature.  The  Socinian  syllogism 
is,  none  but  God  ought  to  be  worshipped :  Christ  is  not  God ;  there- 
fore all  the  passages  of  Scripture,  which  seem  to  ascribe  worship  to 
him,  are  to  be  explained  in  such  a  sense  as  to  be  consistent  with  this 
conclusion.  The  Socinians  adopt  the  major  proposition  of  the  Atha- 
nasian syllogism,  that  Christ  is  not  to  be  worshipped.  The  Arians 
deny  it. 

The  manner  in  which  the  Arians  attempt  to  evade  the  force  of  the 
major  proposition  is  by  a  distinction  which,  we  say,  has  no  founda- 
tion in  Scripture.  The  manner  in  which  the  Socinians  attempt  to 
evade  the  force  of  the  minor  proposition  is  by  a  kind  of  criticism 
which,  we  say,  does  violence  to  Scripture,  If  it  shall  appear  to  you, 
upon  examining  the  subject,  that  we  are  right  in  saying  so,  you  will 
be  struck  with  the  simplicity  and  consistency  of  the  Athanasian  sys- 
tem. According  to  that  system,  the  Scriptures  having  ascribed  to 
Jesus  the  jiames,  the  attributes,  and  the  actions  of  God,  and  having 
expressly  declared  that  he  is  God,  give  us  a  practical  proof  that  those 
whom  the  Spirit  guided  into  all  truth,  considered  him  as  God,  by  their 
paying  him  that  Avorship  which  the  Scriptures  declare  to  be  the  in- 
communicable prerogative  of  the  Supreme  Being.  Here  is  a  chain 
of  argument  in  which  nothing  appears  to  be  wanting.  All  the  parts 
of  it  hang  together,  and  support  one  another.  It  produced  a  convic- 
tion of  the  divinity  of  our  Saviour  in  the  minds  of  those  to  whom  it 
was  first  proposed ;  and  the  authority  of  example,  the  respect  which 
it  is  natural  for  us  to  pay  to  the  opinions  of  those  who  were  placed 
in  a  most  favourable  situation  for  judging,  is  thus  superinduced  to 
warrant  that  conclusion  which  the  declarations  of  Scripture  appear 
to  us  to  establish,  that  Jesus  Christ  is  truly  and  essentially  God. 


UNION    OF    NATURES    IN    CHRIST.  341 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

UNION    OF    NATURES    IN    CHRIST. 

It  is  one  part  of  the  third  opinion  concerning  the  person  of  Christ, 
that  he  is  truly  God.  But  the  whole  history  of  his  life  exhibits  hun 
as  a  man;  and  the  constant  language  of  Scripture  upon  this  head, 
which  has  led  the  Socinians  to  consider  him  as  merely  a  man,  is  the 
ground  of  the  other  part  of  the  third  opinion  concermng  his  person, 
that  he  is  not  only  truly  God,  but  also  truly  man.  ^  .     ,     ^    . 

The  proofs  of  the  human  nature  of  Christ  found  in  the  Scriptures, 
are  obvious  to  the  plainest  understanding  ;  and  whatever  difficulties 
may  occur  to  those  who  attempt  to  speculate  upon  the  subject,  the 
opinion  itself  has  been  generally  held  in  the  Christian  church. 
Although  Jesus  upon  some  occasions  assumes  this  exalted  title,  tne 
Son  of  God,"  he  generally  calls  himself  by  a  name  most  significant 
of  his  humanity,  "  the  Son  of  man."  We  found  by  an  analysis  of  the 
beginning  of  John's  gospel,  that  "  the  Word,"  who  "  m  the  beginnmg 
was  with  God,  and  was  God,"  is  called  Jesus  Christ;  and  we  read 
elsewhere  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  he  was  "  wearied  with  his  journey, 
that  "  he  was  hungry,"t  that  "  he  ate  and  drank,"J  that  his  soul  was 
"  exceeding  sorroWful  even  unto  death,"§  that  "  he  gave  up  the 
ghost,  that  he  was  buried,  and  that  he  rose  from  the  grave.    1| 

These  propositions,  so  opposite  to  one  another,  imply  a  correspond- 
in'^  ditference  of  nature  in  the  person  concerning  whom  all  ot  them 
are  affirmed.  There  is  an  illusion  throughout  the  New  Testament, 
if  he  who  made  the  worlds,  and  he  who  "  was  an  hungered,  is  not 
the  same  person  ;  and  yet  we  have  seen  that  he  who  made  the  worlds 
was  God,  and  we  cannot  doubt  that  he  who  was  an  hungered  was 
man.  The  inference  thus  clearly  drawn,  from  laying  difterent 
passages  together,  is  confirmed  by  an  examination  of  those  places 
which  present  in  one  view  the  divine  and  the  human  nature  ot  the 
man  Christ  Jesus.     Of  this  kind  are  the  three  following. 

Johni  14  Kai  6  xoyo5  ao^l  .ya.'aT'o.  The  Socinians,  in  conformity  to 
their  interpretation  of  the  first  part  of  the  chapter,  understand  this 
phrase  to  mean  nothing  more  than  that  the  reason  or  wisdom  ot  God 
resided  in  the  man  Jesus  Christ,  and  might  thus  figuratively  be  said 
to  have  become  flesh.  But  all  those,  both  Athanasians  and  Arians, 
who  consider  J^oyo^  in  the  first  verse  as  denoting  a  person,  must  under- 
stand what  is  here  said  of  him  as  meaning,  "  this  person  became 

•  John  iv.  6.  t  Mark  xi.  12.  +  Mark  ii.  14. 

§  Matth.  xxvi.  38.  II  John  xix.  xx. 

31* 


342  UNION    OP    NATURES    IN    CHRIST. 

flesh,  or  was  incarnate."  And  all  that  is  said  of  the  ?-o-,o;  in  the 
former  verse  may  be  applied  to  the  person  who,  at  a  certain  time, 
became  flesh. 

Phil.  ii.  6,  7,  8.  The  apostle  is  recommending  to  Christians 
humility,  from  the  example  of  Jesus  Christ,  "  Let  this  mind  be  in  you 
which  was  in  Christ  Jesus."  In  order  to  explain  what  mind  was  in 
Christ,  or  what  degree  of  humility  he  exhibited,  the  apostle  describes 
two  different  states  of  Christ,  one  which  he  resigned,  and  another  to 
which  he  submitted  ;  and  his  humility  consisted  in  descending  from 
the  one  to  the  other.  The  first  state  is  expressed  by  this  phrase, 
oj  IP  fto^fyj  @iov  i^a^x^v.  The  Socinians,  who  do  not  admit  that  Jesus 
Christ  ever  was  in  any  state  more  dignified  than  that  of  a  man,  have 
no  other  mode  of  explaining  this  phrase,  but  by  applying  it  to  those 
extraordinary  displays  of  divine  wisdom  and  power  which  Jesus 
exhibited  upon  earth,  and  by  which  he  who  was  merely  a  man, 
appeared  to  the  eyes  of  the  beholders  to  be  a  God.  But  this 
interpretation,  besides  that  it  is  by  no  means  adequate  to  the  import 
of  the  phrase,  inverts  the  order,  and  impairs  the  force  of  the  whole 
passage.  It  represents  the  /uo^f?  ®«oi'  as  posterior  to  the  xivMoii,  and 
the  humility  of  Christ  as  consisting  purely  in  this,  that  he  did  not 
employ  his  extraordinary  powers  in  preserving  his  life.  Whereas 
the  fto^4"?  ®iov  appears  intended  by  the  apostle  to  represent  a  state 
prior  to  tlie  xsvcoac^,  by  which  means  the  whole  of  Christ's  appearance 
upon  earth  becomes  an  example  of  humility. 

The  Arians,  who  admit  that  Jesus  Christ  often  appeared  under  the 
Old  Testament,  in  the  person,  and  by  the  name  of  Jehovah,  employ 
these  appearances  to  explain  this  phrase,  "  Who,  being  before  his 
incarnation  in  the  form  of  God,  appeared  durhig  his  life  in  the  form 
of  a  man."  The  Athanasians,  who  believe  that  Jesus  is  essentially 
God,  understand  by  no^^r;  @cov,  not  a  character  which  he  occasionally 
personated,  but  those  glories  of  the  divine  nature  which  from  eternity 
belonged  to  him,  which,  in  reference  to  the  phrase  used  in  the  4th 
verse,  may  be  called  T'ttlor-fov,  and  which  correspond  to  the  concluding 
clause  of  the  6th  verse,  to  «mt  caa  ©f^.  Whether  the  Arian  or  Athana- 
sian  interpretation  of  ^o^t'?  0«ov  be  adopted,  Jesus  Christ  did  display 
great  humility  in  becoming  a  man.  But  the  Arians  find  it  difiicult  to 
reconcile  their  system  with  the  second  clause  of  the  6th  verse.  They 
cannot  adopt  our  translation,  « thought  it  not  robbery  to  be  equal 
with  God,"  because  that  clearly  implies  that  he  was  once  equal  with 
God,  and  that  he  considered  this  equality  as  his  right,  which  he  was 
not  under  any  obligation  to  resign.  They  translate  the  clause,  there- 
fore, thus,  "  He  did  not  look  upon  the  being  honoured  equally  with 
God,  as  a  prize  to  be  snatched,  eagerly  laid  hold  of.  He  did  not 
covet  it."  Dr.  Clarke  has  defended  this  translation  with  the  ability 
of  a  scholar ;  and,  in  my  opinion,  as  far  as  a^Hc^nov  ijytjcato  is  concerned, 
with  success.  For  whether  we  consider  these  two  words  in  them- 
selves, or  compare  the  few  places  of  other  authors  where  they  occur, 
it  appears  more  natural  to  render  them,  "  thought  a  prey  of  which  he 
Avas  eager  or  tenacious,"  than  "  thought  it  a  robbery."  But  if  you 
read  the  perspicuous  able  commentary  which  Bishop  Sherlock  has 
given  in  the  first  three  parts  of  his  discourse  on  this  text,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  fourth  volume  of  his  discourses,  vou  will  perceive 


UNION    OF    NATURES    IN    CHRIST.  343 

that,  althougli  the  Arians  are  deUvered  from  that  direct  contradiction 
to  their  system  which  the  translation  in  our  Bible  bears,  yet  even 
their  own  translation  does  not  give  any  essential  support  to  their 
system.  For  to  jhw  wa  esa>  refers  to  the  same  thing  with  ^o^t*?  ®^ov, 
and,  being  set  in  opposition  to  the  appearance  of  a  creature  which 
Christ  assumed,  implies  an  essential  equality  with  God.  But  if  he 
had  no  right  to  this  equality,  it  is  a  strange  instance  of  humility  in 
Christ,  that  he  had  not  the  presumption  to  lay  hold  of  it.  Whereas 
if  he  had  a  right,  his  not  eagerly  retaining  it,  but  laying  aside  the 
appearance  of  it,  was  the  greatest  humility.  So  that  the  apostle's 
argument  turns  upon  the  right  of  Christ  to  be  like  God  ;  and  the  only 
difference  created  by  the  two  translations  is  this — according  to  our 
translation,  the  last  clause  of  the  6th  verse  is  a  continuation  of  the 
description  of  the  prior  state  of  Christ :  according  to  Dr.  Clarke's,  it 
is  the  beginning  of  the  description  of  his  humiliation.  You  will  per- 
ceive the  course  of  the  apostle's  argument  in  the  following  paraphrase  : 
"Jesus  Christ,  who,  before  he  appeared  upon  earth,  was  in  the  form 
of  God,  i.  e.  possessed  all  the  glories  of  the  divine  nature,  was  not 
tenacious  of  this  equality  with  God,  did  not  consider  it  as  a  thing  to 
be  eagerly  grasped,  but  emptied  himself.  He  could  not  cease  to  be 
God,  but  he  divested  himselfof  those  glories  which  constitute  the  form 
of  God,  having  taken  the  form  of  a  servant.  Had  he  appeared  as  an 
angel,  this  would  have  been  taking,  in  respect  of  God,  the  form  of  a 
servant;  and  therefore  it  is  added  as  the  specific  description  of  that 
form  of  a  servant  which  he  took,  having  become  in  the  likeness  of 
men  •,  and  although  he  retained  the  nature  of  God,  yet,  as  to  outward 
appearance  or  fashion,  being  found  by  those  who  sought  to  take  away 
his  life,  such  as  man  is,  he  humbled  himself  so  far,  that,  when  he  had 
power  to  retain  his  life,  he  surrendered  it,  and  submitted  to  an  igno- 
minious death." 

By  this  natural  interpretation,  the  succession  of  propositions  con- 
tained in  this  passage  teaches  us  that  the  same  person  who  was  God 
became  man ;  and  since  he  who  was  once  God  must  be  always  God, 
the  nature  of  God  being  unchangeable,  it  follows  that  he  was  at  the 
same  time  both  God  and  man. 

The  same  thing  is  intimated  less  clearly,  but  with  a  little  attention 
it  will  appear,  not  less  exclusively,  in  the  third  passage,  Heb.  ii.  14, 
16.  The  apostle  is  giving  a  reason  why  the  Captain  of  Salvation 
took  part  of  flesh  and  blood.  The  reason  is,  that  he  might  have  it  in 
his  power  to  die,  because  his  death  was  to  be  the  instrument  of  our 
deliverance  from  death.  But  as  nobody  thinks  of  giving  a  reason 
why  a  man  should,  be  a  man,  the  apostle's  giving  a  reason  why  Christ 
took  part  of  flesh  and  blood,  implies  that  this  was  not  the  necessary 
condition  of  his  being,  but  that  it  was  a  matter  of  choice  ;  and  there- 
fore it  follows  not  only  that  he  existed  before  he  made  the  choice, 
but  that  he  had  it  in  his  power  to  make  a  difterent  choice,  i.  e.  that 
he  existed  in  a  state  which  admitted  of  his  choosing  a  more  splendid 
appearance,  had  he  so  inclined.  That  this  state  was  superior  to  the 
condition  of  angels,  is  made  plain  by  the  16th  verse,  the  most  literal 
and  proper  rendering  of  which  is,  "  For  truly  he  lays  not  hold  of 
angels,  but  he  lays  hold  of  the  seed  of  Abraham,"  oOiv,  upon  account 
of  his  making  which  choice,  it  was  necessary  that  he  should  in  all 


344  UNION    OP    NATURES    IN    CHRIST. 

things  be  made  like  his  brethren.  Now  whether  "  laying  hold  of 
angels"  implies,  as  the  Socinians  are  fond  of  interpreting  the  phrase, 
"  helping  angels,"  because  they  do  not  suppose  that  Christ  had  it  in 
his  power  to  be  like  an  angel ;  or  whether  it  means,  according  to  our 
translation,  laying  hold  of  them,  so  as  to  assume  their  nature  and 
form,  the  phrase  is  very  improper,  unless  the  Being  to  whom  it  is  ap- 
plied was  so  far  superior  to  angels,  that  he  had  it  in  his  power  to  pass 
by  them  or  not,  to  lay  hold  of  them  or  not,  as  he  pleased.  And  this 
Being,  who,  in  his  antecedent  state  of  existence  was  superior  to  an- 
gels, it  is  here  said,  took  part  of  flesh  and  blood,  which  are  the  cha- 
racteristics of  men ;  and  because  he  was  thus  made  in  all  things  like 
them,  they  are  called  his  brethren. 

The  review  of  these  three  passages  suggests  the  whole  of  the  argu- 
ment upon  this  subject,  which  may  be  thus  stated  in  a  few  words. 
The  names,  the  characters,  the  actions,  and  the  honours  of  God  are 
ascribed  to  Jesus  Christ :  the  affections,  the  infirmities,  and  the  suffer- 
ings of  man  are  also  ascribed  to  Jesus  Christ ;  therefore  in  him  the 
divine  and  human  natures  were  united,  or  the  same  Person  is  both 
God  and  man. 

It  would  seem  that  this  inference  should  be  admitted  by  all  those 
who  pay  a  due  regard  to  the  plain  declarations  of  Scripture ;  and, 
had  Christians  rested  in  this  inference,  there  could  not  have  been 
much  variety  of  opinion  upon  the  subject.  But  when  men  began  to 
speculate  concerning  the  manner  of  that  union  which  the  Scriptures 
teach  us  to  believe,  they  soon  went  far  beyond  the  measure  of  infor- 
mation which  the  Scriptures  afford.  They  multiplied  words  without 
having  clear  ideas ;  their  meaning  being,  in  this  way,  never  perfectly 
apprehended  by  themselves  was  readily  misunderstood  by  others ;  and 
the  controversies  upon  this  point,  which,  at  the  beginning,  involved  a 
fundamental  article  of  the  Christian  faith,  degenerated  at  last  into  a 
verbal  dispute,  conducted  with  mnch  acrimony,  in  the  mere  jargon 
of  metaphysics. 

Those  sects  who  considered  Jesus  as  merely  a  man,  whatever  was 
the  date  of  their  existence,  or  whatever  were  the  numbers  that  em- 
braced their  tenets,  escaped  by  the  simplicity  of  their  system  from 
this  controversy.  But  the  great  body  of  Christians,  who  learned  from 
Scripture  that  Jesus  Christ  was  more  than  man,  differed  widely  in 
their  speculations  as  to  the  manner  of  reconciling  the  opposite  descrip- 
tions of  his  Person ;  and,  in  the  early  ages  of  Christianity,  the  dis- 
pute was  of  much  importance,  because  it  turned  upon  the  reality  of 
the  two  natures,  or  the  permanency  of  their  union. 

In  the  history  of  this  controversy  our  attention  is  first  engaged  by 
the  opinion  of  the  Gnostics.  All  the  Gnostics  agreed  in  considering 
the  Christ  as  an  emanation  from  the  Supreme  Mind,  an  iEon  of  the 
highest  order  sent  from  the  Pleroma,  i.  e.  the  space  inhabited  by  those 
spirits  who  had  emanated  from  the  Supreme  Mind,  to  deliver  the  hu- 
man race.  But  as  the  fundamental  principle  of  their  system  was  the 
inherent  and  incorrigible  depravity  of  matter,  all  of  them  agreed  also 
in  thinking  it  impossible  that  so  exalted  a  spirit  was  truly  and  perma- 
nently united  to  a  gross  material  substance.  Some  of  them,  there- 
fore, supposed  that  Jesus,  although  made  in  the  likeness  of  men,  was 
not  really  a  man ;  that  the  body  which  the  Jews  saw  was  either  a 


UNION    OF    NATURES    IN    CHRIST.  345 

phantasm  that  played  upon  their  senses,  or,  if  it  had  a  real  existence, 
was  a  spiritual  substance,  not  formed  of  the  same  corruptible  mate- 
rials as  our  bodies,  standing  in  no  need  of  those  supplies  which  it 
seemed  to  receive,  and  incapable  of  those  sufferings  which  it  seemed 
to  endure.  Those  Gnostics,  who  considered  Jesus  as  a  man  only  in 
appearance,  are  known  by  the  name  ^oxr^tai.  Other  Gnostics,  who 
found  it  difficult  to  reconcile  the  mere  phantasm  of  a  body  with  the 
history  of  Jesus  Christ,  followed  the  more  substantial  system  of  Ce- 
rinthus,  who  held  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  a  man  born  like  other 
men,  and  not  distinguished  from  his  countrymen,  till  he  was  thirty 
years  of  age,  in  any  other  way  than  by  the  innocence  of  his  life ; 
that  when  he  came  to  John  to  be  baptized,  that  exalted  ^on  called 
the  Cln'ist,  descended  upon  him  in  the  form  of  a  dove,  or  in  the  man- 
ner in  which  a  dove  descends,  and  continued  to  inhabit  his  body 
during  the  period  of  his  ministry ;  that  the  person  called  Jesus  Christ 
was  a  man,  all  whose  actions  were  directed  by  the  ^Eon  who  dwelt 
within  him,  but  that  when  he  was  delivered  into  the  hands  of  the 
Jews,  the  Christ  returned  to  the  Pleroma,  and  Jesus  was  left  to  suffer 
and  to  die. 

It  is  a  tradition  derived  from  the  earliest  Christian  writers,  that  the 
Apostle  John  lived  to  witness  both  these  branches  of  the  Gnostic 
heresy,  and  that  he  wrote  his  gospel  and  his  epistles  on  purpose  to 
correct  their  errors ;  and  this  tradition  is  very  much  confirmed  by  our 
observing  that  by  means  of  the  continual  reference  which  his  writings 
bear  to  the  tenets  that  were  then  spreading  among  Christians,  we  are 
able  to  derive  from  them  the  clearest  proofs  both  of  the  divinity  and 
of  the  humanity  of  our  Saviour.  Thus,  in  his  gospel,  as  he  begins 
with  declaring  "the  word  was  God,"  so  he  says  at  the  14th  verse, 
"  the  word  was  made  flesh :"  and  in  his  1st  Epistle,  v.  20,  as  he  says 
of  Jesus  Christ,  "  This  is  the  true  God,"  so  he  bears  his  testimony 
both  against  the  Cerinthians,  who  separated  Jesus  from  Christ,  (ii.  22,) 
and  against  the  Docetse,  who  said  that  Jesus  Christ  was  not  truly  a 
man.  (iv.  2,  3.)  The  phrase  used  in  the  last  of  these  passages,  "  Jesus 
Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh,"  furnishes  an  argument  which  Dr.  Horsley 
has  urged  with  his  wonted  acuteness  against  the  modern  Unitarians. 
The  argument  is  this :  Unless  the  words  "  in  the  flesh"  are  mere  ex- 
pletives, they  limit  the  words  "  is  come"  to  some  particular  manner 
of  coming.  This  limitation  either  is  nugatory,  or  it  presumes  a  pos- 
sibility of  other  ways  of  coming.  But  it  was  not  possible  for  a  mere 
man  to  come  otherwise  than  in  the  flesh ;  therefore  Jesus  Christ  is  more 
than  man.  And  thus  in  this  proposition,  "  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the 
flesh,"  the  denial  of  which  John  makes  a  mark  of  Antichrist,  there  is 
an  allusion  both  to  the  divinity  and  to  the  incarnation  of  our  Saviour. 

While  the  general  principles  of  the  Gnostics  led  them  to  deny  the 
reality  of  Christ's  body,  it  is  the  character  of  that  system  which  is 
known  by  the  name  of  the  Apollinarian,  to  ascribe  to  our  Saviour  a 
true  body,  but  not  a  luiman  soul.  We  have  reason  to  believe  that 
the  ancient  Arians,  who  held  Christ  to  be  the  most  exalted  spirit  that 
had  proceeded  from  God,  considered  this  spirit  as  performing  the 
functions  of  a  human  soul  in  the  body  which  it  assumed,  so  that,  as 
in  all  mere  men,  there  is  the  union  of  a  body  with  a  human  soul,  there 
was  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ  the  union  of  a  body  with  an  angelical 

3  A 


346  UNION    OF    NATURES    IN    CHRIST. 

spirit.  Apollinaris  did  not  hold  the  distinguishing  tenet  of  Alius.  He 
was  the  friend  of  Athanasius,  himself  an  able  and  zealous  assertor  of 
the  divinity  of  Christ.  But  he  conceived  that  the  most  natiu'al  way  of 
explaining  the  incarnation  of  t?ie  Son  of  God  was  to  consider  the 
Godhead  as  supplying  the  place  of  a  soul,  and  the  body  which  the 
Godhead  animated,  as  in  all  respects  like  the  bodies  of  other  men ; 
and  as  this  system  appeared  to  degrade  the  Godhead,  by  subjecting 
it  to  all  the  sensations  of  a  human  soul,  Apollinaris  endeavoured  to 
obviate  the  objection  arising  from  this  degradation,  by  recurring  to  a 
distinction  well  known  in  the  ancient  Greek  philosophy  ;  a  distinction 
between  ■^vx^i,  the  sensitive  soul  which  man  has  in  common  with  the 
other  animals,  and  vov?,  the  rational  soul  by  which  he  is  raised  above 
them.  Apollinaris  held  that  Christ  assumed,  together  with  the  body, 
the  -^vxt],  or  principle  of  animal  life ;  but  that  he  did  not  assume  the 
vovi,  the  principle  of  thought  and  reason,  because  all  the  offices  which 
belong  to  this  higher  power  were  in  him  performed  by  the  Godhead. 

The  modern  Arians,  who,  in  the  last  century,  have  revived  the 
ancient  tenet,  that  Christ  the  Word  is  an  exalted  angel,  incline  to  adopt 
the  Apollinarian  system.  It  appears  to  them  superfluous  to  place  the 
spirit  of  an  angel  and  the  spirit  of  a  man  in  the  same  body  ;  and  they 
say,  that  the  easiest  explication  of  this  phrase,  "  the  Word  was  made 
flesh,"  that  which  preserves  the  most  proper  unity  of  person,  and 
renders  Jesus  Christ,  strictly  speaking,  one  intelligent  agent,  is  this, 
that  the  spirit  of  the  angel,  who  is  called  the  Word,  inhabited  and 
animated  a  human  body.  The  modern  Arians  defend  this  Apollina- 
rian system  by  the  following  arguments.  As  the  body  is  the  only 
part  of  human  nature  which  we  perceive,  and  as  we  are  entirely 
ignorant  of  the  manner  of  the  union  between  body  and  mind,  the 
name  man  is  properly  applied  to  every  being  which  possesses  a  human 
body,  performing  its  functions  under  the  guidance  of  a  spirit,  whatever 
the  origin  or  rank  of  that  spirit  be  :  and  accordingly  those  inhabitants 
of  heaven  who  appeared  frequently  under  the  Old  Testament,  and 
the  angels  who  appeared  at  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  are  called  men, 
because  they  had  the  appearance  of  men,  although  it  was  never  sup-' 
posed  that  they  had  a  human  soul.  The  Scriptures  speak  of  Christ's 
coming  in  the  flesh,  of  his  being  made  flesh,  of  his  taking  part  of  flesh 
and  blood  :  they  never  speak  of  his  taking  a  soul ;  and  all  the  phrases 
in  which  the  soul  and  spirit  of  Christ  are  mentioned,  do  not  denote 
different  parts  of  the  same  person,  but  are  Hebrew  idioms  which  mean 
nothing  more  than  Christ  himself. 

The  answers  to  these  arguments  of  the  modern  Arians  which 
readily  occur  are  the  following :  that  Jesus  Christ  was  not  truly  a 
man,  unless  he  assumed  that  kind  of  spirit  which  is  characteristical  of 
the  human  species ;  that  man  is  what  he  is,  by  his  mind  more  than 
by  his  body ;  and  that  if  our  Lord  stooped  to  the  external  form,  it  is 
not  likely  that  he  would  disdain  to  connect  himself  with  the  spiritual 
inhabitant ;  that  there  is  no  analogy  between  the  transient  appearances 
of  angels  recorded  in  Scripture,  and  the  permanent  complete  humanity 
manifested  in  the  words,  the  actions,  and  the  sufferings  of  him  who 
"  dwelt  among"  men  ;  and  that  the  expressions  of  Scripture  referring 
to  the  soul  of  Christ  are  so  many,  and  repeated  in  such  a  variety  of 
forms,  that  a  great  part  of  the  history  of  Jesus  is  enigmatical  and  illu- 


UNION    OF    NATURES    IN    CHRIST.  347 

sory,  unless  he  was  truly  a  man  in  respect  of  his  soul  as  well  as  in 
respect  of  his  body. 

Such  are  tlie  arguments  which  our  liabits  and  modes  of  thinking 
suggest,  and  which  the  Athanasians  and  Socinians  of  our  days  con- 
spire in  opposing  to  the  ApoUinarian  system.  But  there  is  another 
argument  whicli  was  considered  in  ancient  times  as  a  more  eifectual 
refutation  of  the  ApoUinarian  system  than  any  that  I  have  mentioned. 
It  was  universally  believed  in  the  first  ages  of  tlie  Christian  church, 
that  there  is  a  place  for  departed  spirits,  where  the  souls  of  the 
righteous  rest  in  joy  and  hope,  although  they  are  not  put  in  possession 
of  the  complete  happiness  of  heaven,  until  they  are  re-united  to  their 
bodies  at  the  last  day.  This  place  was  called  Hades,  hell,  a  word 
which,  in  ecclesiastical  writers,  denoted  originally  not  a  state  of  pun- 
ishment, but  merely  the  habitation  of  departed  spirits,  as  the  grave  is 
the  receptacle  of  the  body.  Of  this  place  David  was  supposed  to 
speak  in  Psalm  xvi.  "  For  thou  wilt  not  leave  my  soul  in  hell ;  neither 
wilt  thou  suffer  thine  Holy  One  to  see  corruption ;"  and,  as  the  Apostle 
Peter  expressly  applies  these  words  to  Jesus,  Acts  ii.  31,  when  he 
says,  "  David,  seeing  this  before,  spake  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ, 
that  his  soul  was  not  left  in  hell,  neither  did  his  flesh  see  corruption," 
it  was  believed  on  this  authority,  that  when  the  body  of  Christ  was 
committed  to  the  grave,  his  soul  went  to  the  place  of  departed  spirits, 
and  remained  there  till  his  resurrection.  But  if  the  soul  of  Christ 
went  to  the  place  of  departed  spirits,  it  follows  that  he  had  a  complete 
human  soul,  and  was  in  this  respect,  as  well  as  in  respect  of  his  body, 
made  like  his  brethren.  For  the  ^^xn,  the  sensitive  soul  of  animals, 
does  not  enter  that  place  :  the  Godhead  cannot  be  supposed  to  have 
been  confined  there ;  and  therefore  it  could  be  nothing  but  the  wuj, 
the  reasoning  soul,  which  the  ApoUinarian  system  denied  to  Christ, 
that  waited,  in  the  same  place  with  other  souls,  the  resurrection  of  his 
body. 

When  the  council  of  Constantinople,  in  tbe  end  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, the  second  of  those  which  are  called  general  councils,  condemned 
the  opinion  of  Apollinaris,  they  declared  that  they  considered  Christ  as 
being  ova  a.\vxov,  ovti  wow,  and  that  they  did  not  hold  o-tiXri  trjv  tri^  sa^xoi 
oixovo^iav,  i.  e.  that  they  believed  him  to  be  truly  and  completely  a 
man.  The  church  did  not  long  rest  in  this  acknowledgment  of  that 
truth  which  the  Scriptures  seem  to  teach  upon  this  subject,  but 
soon  began  to  speculate  concerning  the  manner  in  which  this  com- 
plete human  nature  is  united  with  the  Godhead,  and  from  their  specu- 
lations upon  this  incomprehensible  point  there  arose  different  sects, 
whose  peculiar  tenets  are  still  retained  in  some  parts  of  the  Christian 
church.  It  is  the  business  of  ecclesiastical  history  to  trace  the  origin 
and  the  progress  of  these  sects.  I  shall  content  myself  with  marking 
their  distinguishing  opinions,  and,  instead  of  attempting  to  follow 
them  through  the  labyrinth  of  metaphysics,  in  which  they  contended 
with  one  another,  I  shall  barely  suggest  the  general  views  upon 
which  the  different  opinions  proceeded. 

Nestorius,  who  had  been  taught  to  distinguish  accurately  between 
the  divine  and  human  nature  of  Christ,  was  offended  with  some  ex- 
pressions commonly  used  by  Christians  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth 
century,  which  seemed  to  destroy  that  distinction,  and  particularly 


348  UNION    OF    NATURES    IN    CHRIST. 

with  their  calling  the  virgin  Mary  ^foroxo?,  as  if  it  were  possible  for  the 
Godhead  to  be  born.  His  zeal  provoked  opposition ;  in  the  eager- 
ness of  controversy  he  was  led  to  use  unguarded  expressions ;  and  he 
was  condemned  by  the  third  of  the  general  councils,  the  council  of 
Ephesus,  in  the  year  431.  It  is  a  matter  of  doubt  whether  the 
opinions  of  Nestorius,  if  he  had  been  allowed  by  his  adversaries  fairly 
to  explain  them,  would  have  appeared  inconsistent  with  the  doctrine 
established  by  the  council  of  Ephesus,  that  Christ  is  one  person,  in 
whom  two  natures  were  most  closely  united.  But  whatever  was  the 
extent  of  the  error  of  Nestorius,  from  him  is  derived  that  system  con- 
cerning the  incarnation  of  Christ,  which  is  held  by  a  large  body  of 
Christians  in  Chaldea,  Assyria,  and  other  regions  of  the  east,  and 
which  is  known  in  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  west  by  the  name 
of  the  Nestorian  heresy.  The  object  of  the  Nestorians  is  to  avoid 
every  appearance  of  ascribing  to  the  divinity  of  Christ  the  weakness 
of  humanity  ;  and  therefore  they  distinguish  between  Christ,  and  God 
who  dwelt  in  Christ  as  in  a  temple.  They  say,  that  from  the  moment 
of  the  virgin's  conception,  there  commenced  an  intimate  and  indis- 
soluble union  between  Christ  and  God,  that  these  two  persons  pre- 
sented in  Jesus  Christ  one  rf^octuTtoi/,  or  aspect,  but  that  the  union  be- 
tween them  is  merely  an  union  of  will  and  affection,  such  in  kind  as 
that  which  subsists  between  two  friends,  although  much  closer  in 
degree. 

Opposite  to  the  Nestorian  opinion  is  the  Eutychian,  which  derives 
its  name  from  Eutyches,  an  abbot  of  Constantinople,  who,  about  tlie 
middle  of  the  fifth  century,  in  his  zeal  to  avoid  the  errors  of  Nestorius, 
was  carried  to  the  other  extreme.  Those  who  did  not  hold  the 
Nestorian  opinions  had  been  accustomed  to  speak  of  the  "  one  in- 
carnate nature"  of  Christ.  But  Eutyches  used  this  phrase  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  appear  to  teach  that  the  human  nature  of  Christ  was 
absorbed  in  the  divine,  and  that  his  body  had  no  real  existence.  This 
opinion  was  condemned  in  the  year  451,  by  the  council  of  Chalcedon, 
the  fourth  general  council,  which  declared,  as  the  faith  of  the  catholic 
church,  that  Christ  is  one  person  ;  that  in  this  unit}?-  of  person  there 
are  two  natures,  the  divine  and  the  human;  and  that  there  is  no 
change,  or  mixture,  or  confusion  of  these  two  natures,  but  that  each 
retains  its  distinguishing  properties.  The  decree  of  Chalcedon  was 
not  universally  submitted  to.  But  many  of  the  successors  of  Euty- 
ches, wishing  to  avoid  the  palpable  absurdity  which  was  ascribed  to 
him,  of  supposing  that  one  nature  was  absorbed  by  another,  and 
anxious  at  the  same  time  to  preserve  that  unity  which  the  Nestorians 
divided,  declared  their  faith  to  be,  that  in  Christ  there  is  one  nature, 
but  that  this  nature  is  twofold  or  compounded. 

From  this  tenet,  the  meaning  of  which  I  do  not  pretend  to  explain, 
the  successors  of  Eutyches  derive  the  name  of  Monophysites ;  and 
from  Jacob  Baradseus,  who  in  the  following  century  was  a  zealous 
and  successful  preacher  of  the  system  of  the  Monophysites,  they  are 
more  commonly  known  by  the  name  of  Jacobites.  The  Monophj^- 
sites  or  Jacobites  are  found  chiefly  near  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  ; 
they  are  much  less  numerous  than  the  Nestorians ;  and  although  the/ 
profess  to  have  corrected  the  errors  which  were  supposed  to  adhere 


UNION    OF    NATURES    IN    CHRIST.  349 

to  the  Eutychiaii  heresy,  they  may  be  considered  as  having  formed 
their  pecuUar  opinions  upon  the  general  principles  of  that  system. 

Tlie  MonotheUtes,  an  ancient  sect,  of  whom  a  remnant  is  found  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Mount  Libanus,  disclaim  any  connexion  with 
Eutyches,  and  agree  with  the  Catholics  in  ascribing  two  natures  to 
Christ ;  but  they  iiave  received  their  name  from  their  conceiving 
that  Christ,  being  one  Person,  can  have  only  one  will :  whereas  the 
Catholics,  considering  both  natures  as  complete,  think  it  essential  to 
each  to  have  a  will,  and  say  that  every  inconvenience  which  can  be 
supposed  to  arise  from  two  wills  in  one  person,  is  removed  by  the 
perfect  harmony  between  that  will  which  belongs  to  the  divine,  and 
that  which  belongs  to  the  human  nature  of  Christ. 

Only  one  circumstance  remains  to  be  stated,  in  order  to  complete 
the  view  of  the  doctrine  of  the  church,  concerning  the  incarnation  of 
the  Son  of  God.  It  is  what  is  called  the  miraculous  conception  of  our 
Saviour ;  by  which  is  meant  that  the  human  nature  of  Christ  was 
formed,  not  in  the  ordinary  method  of  generation,  but  out  of  the  sub- 
stance of  the  Virgin  Mary,  by  the  immediate  operation  of  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

The  evidence  upon  which  this  article  of  the  Christian  faith  rests,  is 
found  in  Matt.  i.  18 — 23,  and  in  the  more  particular  narration  which 
Luke  has  given  in  the  first  chapter  of  his  gospel.  If  we  admit  this 
evidence  of  the  fact,  we  can  discern  the  emphatical  meaning  of  the 
appellation  given  to  the  Saviour,  when  he  is  called  the  seed  of  the 
woman.  Gen.  iii.  15  ;  we  can  perceive  the  meaning  of  a  phrase  which 
Luke  has  introduced  into  the  genealogy  of  Jesus,  Luke  iii.  23,  and  of 
which  otherwise  it  is  not  possible  to  give  a  good  account ;  w,  wj  evoixi^sro, 
Dtoj  Iw5)7(|) ;  and  we  can  discover  a  peculiar  significancy  in  an  expression 
of  the  Apostle  Paul,  Gal.  iv.  4,  "  God  sent  forth  his  Son,  made  of  a 
woman." 

Some  sects  of  early  Christians,  whose  principles  did  not  allow  them 
to  admit  the  miraculous  conception,  got  rid  of  this  article  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith  by  rejecting  the  first  two  chapters  of  Matthew's  gospel,  the 
only  gospel  which  they  received  ;  and  Dr.  Priestley  has  spent  half  a 
volume  in  attempting  to  show  that  this  doctrine  may  be  false, 
although  it  is  delivered  by  two  Evangelists.  Upon  those  who  believe 
the  authenticity  and  inspiration  of  Scripture,  his  argument  will  make 
no  impression,  and  as  these  are  the  two  fundamental  principles  upon 
which  my  course  proceeds,  I  will  not,  at  this  stage  of  our  progress, 
spend  any  time  in  combating  the  reasons  which  Dr.  Priestley  pre- 
sumes to  oppose  to  the  authority  of  Scripture.  The  miraculous  con- 
ception, the  last  article,  as  Mr.  Gibbon  says,  which  Dr.  Priestley  has 
struck  out  of  his  scanty  creed,  has  been  the  uniform  faith  of  the 
Christian  church  :  it  is  the  foundation  of  several  questions  concerning 
ISIary,  more  curious  than  useful,  which  have  been  eagerly  discussed  ; 
and  it  is  implied  in  those  honours  which,  from  the  beginning,  have 
been  paid  to  her,  and  which,  in  the  church  of  Rome,  have  degene- 
rated into  idolatry.  The  conception  of  Jesus  is  the  point  from 
which  we  date  the  union  between  his  divine  and  human  nature  ; 
and,  this  conception  being  miraculous,  the  existence  of  the  Person 
in  whom  they  are  united  was  not  physically  derived  from  Adam. 
But,  as  Dr.  Horsley  speaks  in  his  sermon  on  the  incarnation,  union 
33 


350  UNION    OF    NATURES    IN    CHRIST. 

with  the  uncreated  Word  is  the  very  principle  of  personahty  nnd 
individual  existence  in  the  Son  of  Mary.  According  to  this  view 
of  the  matter,  the  miraculous  conception  gives  a  completeness  and 
consistency  to  the  revelation  concerning  Jesus  Christ.  Not  only  is 
he  the  Son  of  God,  hut,  as  the  Son  of  man,  he  is  exalted  above 
his  brethren,  while  he  is  made  like  them.  He  is  preserved  from 
the  contamination  adhering  to  the  race  whose  nature  he  assumed ; 
and  when  the  only  begotten  Son,  who  is  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Father,  was  made  flesh,  the  intercourse  which,  as  man,  he  had 
with  God  is  distinguished,  not  in  degree  only,  but  in  kind,  from 
that  which  any  prophet  ever  enjoyed,  and  is  infinitely  more 
intimate,  because  it  did  not  consist  in  communications  occasionally 
made  to  him,  but  arose  from  the  manner  in  which  his  human 
nature  had  its  existence. 

After  the  fact  is  admitted,  that  the  divine  and  human  natures  were 
united  in  Jesus  Christ,  all  speculations  concerning  the  manner  of  the 
fact  are  vague  and  unsatisfying  ;  all  disputes  upon  this  point  instantly 
degenerate  into  a  mere  verbal  controversy,  in  which  the  terms  of 
human  science  are  applied  to  a  subject  which  is  infinitely  exalted 
above  them,  and  words  are  multiplied  very  far  beyond  the  number 
and  clearness  of  the  ideas  entertained  by  those  who  use  them. 
There  are  no  disputes,  even  in  scholastic  theology,  which  are  more 
frivolous,  and  none  which,  in  the  present  state  of  science,  appear 
more  uninteresting,  than  those  that  respect  the  doctrine  of  the  in- 
carnation ;  and  there  is  a  danger  that  you  may  from  thence  conceive 
a  prejudice  against  the  importance  of  the  doctrine  itself.  I  mean, 
therefore,  to  lay  aside  all  consideration  of  the  different  opinions,  and 
to  take  hold  of  that  simple  proposition  which  the  Scriptures  declare, 
that  I  may  show  you  the  rank  which  it  holds  in  the  scheme  of  Chris- 
tianity— the  consequences  which  flow  from  it — and  the  influence 
which  it  sheds  over  other  articles  of  our  faith. 

We  have  learned  from  Scripture  that  Jesus  Christ  is  truly  God  :  we 
have  learned  from  Scripture  that  he  is  truly  man  ;  and  therefore  it  is 
unquestionably  the  doctrine  of  Scripture  that  he  is  both  God  and  man. 
This  union  of  the  nature  of  God  and  the  nature  of  man  in  his 
person,  is  called  by  divines  the  Hypostatical  or  Personal  Union,  of 
which  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  form  an  adequate  conception,  and 
upon  which  the  mind  soon  wanders  when  it  begins  to  speculate  ;  but 
which,  with  those  who  rest  in  the  declarations  of  Scripture,  is  under- 
stood to  mean,  that  the  same  person  is  both  God  and  man. 

Since  Jesus  Christ  is  both  God  and  man,  it  follows  that  each 
nature  in  him  is  complete,  and  that  the  two  are  distinct  from  one 
another.  If  the  divine  nature  were  incomplete,  he  would  not  be 
God  ;  if  the  human  nature  were  incomplete,  he  would  not  be  man  ; 
and  if  the  two  natures  were  confounded,  he  would  neither  be  truly 
God,  nor  truly  man,  but  something  arising  out  of  the  composition. 
In  this  respect  the  union  of  the  soul  and  body  of  a  man  is  a  very 
inadequate  representation  of  the  hypostatical  luiion.  Neither  the 
soul  nor  the  body  is  by  itself  complete.  The  soul  without  the  body 
has  no  instrument  of  its  operations :  the  body  without  the  soul  'S 
destitute  of  the  principle  of  life  ;  the  two  are  only  different  parts 
of  one  complex  nature.     But  Jesus  Christ  was  God  before  he  became 


UNION    OF    NATURES    IN    CHRIST.  351 

man,  and  there  was  nothing  deficient  in  his  humanity  ;  so  that  the 
hypostatical  union  was  the  union  of  two  distinct  natures,  each  of 
which  is  entire. 

The  hypostatical  union,  thus  understood,  is  the  key  which  opens  to 
us  a  great  part  of  the  phraseology  of  Scripture  concerning  Jesus 
Christ.  He  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  God  ;  He  is  sometimes 
spoken  of  as  man  ;  and  things  peculiar  to  each  nature  are  alhrmed 
concerning  him,  not  as  if  he  possessed  one  nature  to  the  exchision 
of  the  other,  but  because,  possessing  both,  the  characters  of  each 
may  with  equal  propriety  be  ascribed  to  him.  This  is  known  in  the 
Greek  theological  writers  by  the  name  of  avtiSoai?  tSitOjuatw,  which  the 
Latins  have  translated  comniiaiicatio  proprietatum,  the  communi- 
cation of  the  properties.  You  will  not  understand  them  to  mean  by 
this  phrase,  that  any  thing  peculiar  to  the  divine  nature  was  com- 
municated to  the  human,  or  vice  versa  ;  for  it  is  impossible  that  the 
Deity  can  share  in  the  weakness  of  humanity,  and  it  is  impossible 
that  humanity  could  be  exalted  to  a  participation  of  any  of  the  essen- 
tial perfections  of  the  God-head.  Although,  therefore,  the  Word  fills 
heaven  and  earth,  because  by  him  all  things  consist,  yet  as  it  is  of  the 
very  nature  of  body  to  occupy  a  certain  portion  of  space,  the  body  of 
Christ,  without  losing  that  nature  from  which  it  derives  its  name, 
cannot,  by  union  with  the  Word,  become  omnipresent,  but  during  our 
Lord's  ministry  was  upon  earth,  forty  days  after  his  resurrection 
ascended,  /.  e.  was  transferred  by  a  local  motion  from  earth  to  heaven, 
and  is  now  in  heaven.  I  have  chosen  this  example,  because  the 
Lutheran  church,  in  attempting  to  explain  the  words  used  by  our 
Lord  in  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  supper,  "  This  is  my  body," 
have  conceived  that  ubiquity  is  derived  to  the  body  of  Christ  from  its 
connexion  with  the  J^jyoj. 

This  error  our  church  justly  condemns,  li^ach  nature  we  conceive 
to  retain  its  own  properties,  and  there  is  said  to  be  a  communication 
of  properties  for  this  reason,  because  the  properties  of  both  natures 
are  ascribed  to  the  same  person,  in  so  much,  that  even  when  Jesus 
Christ  derives  his  name  from  his  divine  nature,  as  when  he  is  called 
the  Son  of  God,  things  peculiar  to  the  human  nature  are  affirmed  of 
him.  "  Christ,  in  the  work  of  mediation,  acteth  according  to  both 
natures,  by  each  nature  doing  that  which  is  proper  to  itself.  Yet,  by 
reason  of  the  unity  of  the  person,  that  which  is  proper  to  one  nature 
is  sometimes  in  Scripture  attributed  to  the  person  denominated  by  the 
other  nature."* 

Thus,  when  we  read  of  the  "  church  of  God  which  he  hath  pur- 
chased with  his  own  blood" — "  that  God  laid  down  his  life  for  us" — 
"that  the  Lord  of  glory  was  crucified," — we  do  not,  from  such  ex- 
pressions, infer  that  God  could  suffer :  but,  taking  the  passages  from 
which  we  had  inferred  the  union  of  two  natures  in  Christ  as  a  guide, 
we  consider  these  expressions  as  only  transferring,  in  consequence  of 
the  closeness  of  that  union,  to  him  who  is  called  God,  because  he 
is  God,  the  actions  and  passions  which  belong  to  him  because  he  is 
man.  In  like  manner,  when  we  read  that  all  things  were  made  by 
the  Word,  we  do  not  suppose  that  they  were  made  by  the  Word  after 

*   Confession  of  Faith,  viii.  7. 


352  UNION    OP    NATURES    IN    CHRIST. 

he  became  flesh ;  and  when  our  Lord  says,  "  the  Son  of  man  liath 
power  to  forgive  sins,"  we  recollect  that  the  Person  who  claims  this 
high  and  incommunicable  prerogative  of  the  Deity  is  the  Word  who 
"  in  the  beginning  was  with  God,  and  was  God ;"  and  the  truth  of 
the  proposition  does  not  appear  to  us  to  be  in  the  least  impaired  by 
his  condescending  to  remind  us,  at  the  very  time  when  he  claims  this 
prerogative,  that  he  is  also  the  Son  of  man. 

This  mode  of  speaking,  so  frequent  in  Scripture,  by  which  the  pro- 
perties of  both  God  and  man  are  applied  to  Jesus  Christ,  the  properties 
of  God  even  when  he  is  called  man,  and  the  properties  of  man  even 
when  he  is  called  God,  has  given  occasion  to  one  distinction  which  is 
used  by  the  ancient  theological  writers,  and  to  another  which  is  used 
by  the  modern.  Neither  distinction  is  expressed  in  the  words  of 
Scripture  :  but  both  are  warranted  by  the  authority  of  Scripture  ;  and 
both  are  employed  for  the  same  purpose,  to  explain  several  passages 
concerning  Jesus  Christ,  which,  without  attending  to  such  distinctions, 
appear  to  contradict  the  analogy  of  faith.  The  ancient  distinction  is 
thus  explained  by  Bishop  Bull,*  whose  words  I  shall  nearly  translate. 
"  The  whole  doctrine  concerning  Christ  was  divided  by  the  ancient 
doctors  of  the  church  into  two  parts,  which  they  called  ^foxoyia  and 
oixopofiia.  By  ^so7.oyca  they  meant  every  thing  that  related  to  the  divinity 
of  our  Saviour ;  his  being  the  Son  of  God,  begotten  of  the  Father 
before  all  ages,  and  the  world's  being  made  by  him.  By  owoi'0;uta  they 
meant  his  incarnation,  and  every  thing  that  he  did  in  the  flesh  to  pro- 
cure the  salvation  of  mankind.  Our  God  Jesus  Christ,  says  Ignatius, 
was  born  by  Mary  xat^  oixowfitav  @iov.  Christians,  says  Justin,  acknow- 
ledge Christ  the  Son  of  God,  who  was  before  the  morning  star,  and 
condescended  to  be  made  flesh  Iva  6ta  tr^  otxovoficai  tavtrji  the  serpent 
might  be  destroyed.  We  believe,  says  Irenaeus,  in  the  Son  of  God, 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  by  whom  are  all  things,  xau  hj  -ta;  oixovofiiai  avtov, 
by  which  the  Son  of  God  became  man.  These  three  primitive  writers, 
all  of  whom  lived  before  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  led  the 
way  to  their  successors  in  the  use  of  the  word  oixow/xia ;  and  the  ancient 
way  of  explaining  those  passages  which  seemed  to  be  inconsistent 
with  the  divinity  of  our  Saviour,  was  to  refer  them  to  the  oixovofiia. 

The  same  thing  is  meant  by  the  modern  distinction,  according  to 
which  some  things  are  said  to  be  spoken  of  our  Saviour  in  his  human 
nature,  and  others  in  his  divine.  It  is  allowed  that  the  words  divine 
and  human  nature  of  Christ  are  not  found  in  Scripture.  But  it  can- 
not be  denied  that  he  is  there  spoken  of  sometimes  as  God  and  some- 
times as  man,  and  that  some  propositions  which  would  appear  to  be 
false,  if  he  were  only  God,  and  others  which  would  appear  to  be  false, 
if  he  were  only  a  man,  are  affirmed  concerning  him  who  is  both  God 
and  man.  We  conceive,  therefore,  that  the  Scriptures,  although  they 
do  not  use  the  words,  aftbrd  us  a  sufficient  warrant  for  the  modern 
distinction :  and  we  learn  from  numberless  instances  in  which  the  dis- 
tinction is  clearly  implied,  to  exercise  our  judgment  in  interpreting 
those  passages  which  have  some  degree  of  obscurity,  according  to 
either  the  divine  or  the  human  nature  of  Christ,  as  may  best  preserve 
the  analogy  of  faith. 

*  Judicium  Ecc.  Cath.  cap.  v.  p.  45. 


UNION    OF    NATURES    IN    CHRIST.  353 

I  shall  give  you  a  specimen  of  this  use  of  the  ancient  and  modern 
distinctions,  by  applying  them  to  the  explication  of  passages  respecting 
the  three  following  subjects,  the  humiliation  of  Jesus,  his  exaltation, 
and  the  termination  of  that  khigdom  which  is  said  to  have  been  given 
him. 

1.  The  ancient  and  modern  distinction  suggested  by  the  doctrine  of 
Scripture  concerning  the  incarnation  of  Christ,  is  of  use  to  explain  the 
descriptions  that  are  given  of  his  humiliation.  It  is  said  that 
"  Christ  came  down  from  heaven  ;"  that  he  who  "  was  rich  became 
poor ;"  that  "  he  was  made  a  little  lower  than  the  angels ;"  that 
(xsvuxscv  tavtov,  wliicli  wc  rcudcr  "  made  himself  of  no  reputation,"  but 
which  properly  means,  emptied  himself  of  that  which  he  had.  Now 
it  has  been  asked  with  triumph  by  those  who  deny  the  original  dig- 
nity of  our  Saviour's  person,  how  a  God  could  leave  heaven ;  how  it 
is  consistent  with  the  character  of  the  Creator  and  Ruler  of  the  universe 
to  desert  his  station,  and  confine  himself  for  thirty  years  within  a 
human  body  ;  and  how  his  place  was  supplied  during  this  temporary 
relinquishment  of  the  care  of  all  things  ?  The  answer  to  these  ques- 
tions is  derived  from  the  distinction  of  which  we  are  speaking,  i.  e. 
the  expressions  now  quoted  are  to  be  referred  to  the  oixovo^iia.  They 
do  not  imply  any  change  upon  the  divine  nature  of  Christ,  which  by 
being  divine  is  incapable  of  change ;  they  do  not  mean  that  the 
powers  of  the  Godhead  were  impaired  or  suspended,  but  only  that 
the  exercise  of  them  was  concealed  from  the  eyes  of  mortals,  and  that 
the  form  of  God,  which  Jesus  had  before  the  worlds  were  made,  was 
veiled  by  the  humanity  which  he  assumed.  For,  as  Eusebius  speaks, 
(see  Bull,  275,)  "he  was  not  so  entangled  with  the  chains  of  flesh  as 
to  be  confined  to  that  place  where  his  body  was,  and  restrained  from 
being  in  any  other ;  but  at  the  very  time  when  he  dwelt  with  men, 
he  filled  all  things,  he  was  with  the  Father,  and  he  took  care  of  all 
things  which  are  in  heaven  and  which  are  in  earth."  And  all  this 
is  but  a  commentary  upon  these  words  of  our  Lord,  John  iii.  1 3, 
"  And  no  man  hath  ascended  up  to  heaven,  but  he  that  came  down 
from  heaven,  even  the  son  of  man  which  is  in  heaven  ;"  who  is  in 
heaven  at  the  very  time  when  the  body  with  which  he  has  united 
himself  is  upon  earth.  The  same  distinction  suggests  the  proper 
interpretation  of  those  phrases  in  which  our  Lord  speaks  of  himself 
according  to  the  language  of  the  prophet  Isaiah,  as  the  servant  of  God. 
"  As  the  Father  gave  me  commandment,  even  so  I  do.  As  my  Father 
hath  taught  me,  I  speak  these  things.  I  came  not  to  do  mine  own 
will,  but  the  will  of  him  who  sent  me."*  The  Apostle  to  the 
Hebrews,  v.  7,  8,  speaks  still  more  strongly.  Now  if  we  knew 
nothing  more  of  Jesus  than  these  passages  contain,  we  could  not  hesi- 
tate to  admit  all  that  inferiority  to  the  Supreme  Being  which  the 
Arians  or  even  the  Socinians  teach.  But  if  we  recollect  that  the 
attributes  and  names  of  God  are  elsewhere  applied  to  him,  then 
according  to  the  rules  of  sound  criticism,  which  teach  us  to  adopt 
that  interpretation  by  which  an  author  is  made  consistent  with  him- 
self, we  must  refer  the  passages  containing  that  strong  language  to 
the  otxoz'o,taa,  and  consider  them  as  spoken  of  the  man  Jesus  Christ, 

*  John  xiv.  31  ;  viii.  28 ;  vi.  38. 
32*  3B 


354  UNION    OF    NATURES    IN    CHRIST. 

who  at  his  incarnation  became  the  minister  of  his  Father's  will,  who, 
as  man,  prayed  and  gave  thanks  to  his  God,  and  whose  human 
nature  admitted  of  learning,  and  suffering,  and  strong  crying,  and 
fear. 

In  the  same  manner  we  are  accustomed  to  explain  that  remarkable 
expression  of  our  Lord,  Mark  xiii.  32  :  "  Of  that  day  knoweth  no 
man,  no,  not  the  angels,  neither  the  Son,  but  the  Father."  The  Son 
of  God  cannot  be  ignorant  of  the  day  of  judgment.  For  we  read, 
that  in  him  "  are  hid  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  know^ledge  ;" 
that  "  the  Father  showeth  the  Son  all  things  that  himself  doth  ;"  that 
"no  man  knoweth  the  Father,  save  the  Son."*  We  are  obliged, 
therefore,  to  have  recourse  to  the  distinction  between  the  divine  and 
human  nature  of  Christ :  and  as  the  expression,  Luke  ii.  52,  "  Jesus 
increased  in  wisdom  and  stature,"  unquestionably  means  that  the 
human  soul  which  animated  his  body  improved  as  his  body  grew, 
although  the  ^oyoi  united  to  the  soul  knew  all  things  from  the  begin- 
ning, so  here  the  Son,  considered  as  the  Son  of  man,  by  which  name 
our  Lord  had  spoken  of  himself  at  the  26th  verse,  is  said  to  be  igno- 
rant of  that  which  the  Son  of  God  certainly  knew. 

2.  We  avail  ourselves  of  the  same  distinction  to  explain  what  is 
said  in  Scripture  concerning  the  exaltation  of  Jesus.  You  read  in 
numberless  places  of  a  dominion  being  given  to  Jesus,  of  his  receiv- 
ing power  from  the  Father,  of  his  overcoming  and  entering  into  his 
glory.  You  find  the  connection  between  his  sufferings  and  his  ex- 
altation stated  explicitly,  Hcb.  ii.  9,  and  Phil.  ii.  8,  9,  10;  and  the 
words  of  our  Lord,  John  v.  26,  27,  appear  to  be  to  the  same  pur- 
pose. The  inference  obviously  drawn  from  such  passages  is  this,  that 
Jesus  Christ  received  from  God  the  Father  a  recompense  for  his  obe- 
dience and  sufferings  in  procuring  our  salvation ;  that  this  recompense 
was  not  only  the  highest  honour  and  felicity  conferred  on  himself, 
but  also  a  sovereignty  over  those  whom  he  had  redeemed ;  and  that 
thus  by  his  recompense  there  is  derived  to  him  from  God  a  right  to 
the  worship  and  service  of  the  human  race. 

It  is  so  agreeable  to  our  natural  sense  of  justice,  that  eminent  virtue 
should  be  crowned  with  an  illustrious  reward ;  it  is  so  flattering  to 
our  ideas  of  the  dignity  of  human  nature,  to  behold  a  man  raised  by 
the  excellence  of  his  character  to  the  government  of  the  universe, 
that  this  inference  constitutes  by  much  the  most  pleasing  part  of  the 
Socinian  system  :  and  as  it  may  be  stated  in  such  a  manner  as  to  be 
perfectly  consistent  with  that  doctrine  which  you  profess  to  teach, 
you  will  find  that  you  cannot  introduce  into  your  sermons  a  more 
popular  topic  of  exhortation,  and  of  encouragement  to  persevering 
exertion  in  the  discharge  of  our  duty. 

But  pleasing  and  useful  as  this  view  of  the  exaltation  of  Jesus  is, 
it  plainly  does  not  contain  the  whole  account  of  the  matter,  for  the 
following  reasons: — 1.  Some  of  the  very  passages  which  speak  of  a 
recompense  being  given  to  Jesus  had  declared,  a  little  before,  the  ori- 
ginal dignity  of  his  person.  He  had  been  styled  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews,  "  the  brightness  of  the  Father's  glory ;"  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Philippians,  "  he  who  was  in  the  form  of  God ;"  and  he  had  said 

*  Col.  ii.  3.     John  V.  20.     Matt,  xi.  27. 


UNION    OF    NATURES    IN    CHRIST.  355 

of  himself,  John  v.  1 9,  "  What  things  soever  the  Father  doth,  these 
also  doth  the  Son  likewise."  2.  Many  passages  of  Scripture,  by  de- 
claring that  Jesus  Christ  created  all  things,  teach  us  that  before  he 
obeyed  or  suffered  in  the  flesh,  he  possessed  a  clear  title  to  universal 
dominion.  And,  3.  This  original  dignity  of  person,  and  this  most 
ancient  title  to  dominion,  are  of  such  a  kind  that  it  was  impossible  for 
them  to  receive  any  accession.  He  who  is  the  image  of  the  invisible 
God  could  not  by  any  new  state  be  rendered  more  glorious  or  more 
happy;  and  no  gift  or  subsequent  appointment  could  constitute  a 
more  perfect  right,  or  a  more  complete  subjection  of  all  things  to 
Jesus  Christ,  than  that  which  arose  from  his  being  the  Word  by  whom 
all  things  were  made,  and  by  whom  they  consist. 

For  these  reasons  it  is  manifest  that  if  we  consider  Christ  only  as 
the  Son  of  God,  his  exaltation  can  mean  nothing  more  than  that  his 
original  title  to  dominion  was  published  by  the  preaching  of  the  gos- 
pel, and  universally  recognized,  and  that  to  this  original  title  there 
was  superadded  the  new  title  of  Redeemer  of  the  world.  But  this 
is  not  a  full  explication  of  all  the  places  in  which  his  exaltation  is 
spoken  of;  for  the  passages  quoted  from  the  Hebrews,  the  Philip- 
pians,  and  from  John,  lead  us  to  attend,  in  the  very  appointment  of 
this  dominion,  to  the  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God.  The  dominion 
is  said  to  be  given  him  because  he  is  the  Son  of  Man — for  the  suffer- 
ing of  death — because  he  humbled  himself;  and  we  are  thus  obliged, 
in  explaining  that  dominion,  to  have  recourse  to  the  ancient  and  mo- 
dern distinction  which  we  are  now  applying.  It  is  part  of  the  owovo^ia, 
which  the  Scriptures  teach,  that,  as  the  Son  of  God,  when  he  was 
made  flesh,  veiled  his  glory,  so  after  his  resurrection,  the  flesh  which 
he  had  assumed  was  exalted  to  partake  of  that  glory.  All  that  from 
the  beginning  had  appertained  to  the  Son  of  God,  is  now  declared  to 
belong  to  that  person  who  is  both  God  and  man :  and  he  is  invested 
with  the  office  of  Ruler  and  Judge,  in  the  execution  of  which  he 
completes  that  work  which  he  began,  when  he  was  made  flesh.  It 
is  not,  therefore,  in  respect  of  the  divine  nature  of  Christ,  which  does 
not  admit  of  a  recompense,  but  in  respect  of  his  human  nature,  that 
his  exaltation  is  stated  under  the  notion  of  a  reward :  the  scandal 
attending  his  humiliation  is  thereby  completely  removed :  and  the 
declaration  of  his  appointment  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  universe  is 
the  provision  which  God  hath  made,  that,  notwithstanding  his  humi- 
liation, "  all  men  should  honour  the  Son,  even  as  they  honour  the 
Father." 

3.  By  the  same  distinction  we  are  enabled  to  account  for  what  is 
said  in  Scripture  concerning  the  termination  of  the  dominion  given  to 
Christ.  The  words  of  the  Apostle  Paul  upon  this  subject,  1  Cor.  xv. 
24,  25,  28,  cannot  mean  that  the  dominion  of  Christ,  which  is  founded 
on  his  having  created  all  things,  shall  come  to  an  end  ;  for  this  must 
continue  as  long  as  any  creature  exists;  neither  can  they  mean  that 
the  gratitude  and  worship  of  those  whom  he  redeemed  by  his  blood, 
and  that  right  to  their  obedience  which  arises  from  his  interposition, 
shall  ever  cease  ;  for  this  is  an  obligation  which  must  co-exist  with 
the  souls  of  the  redeemed.  Accordingly,  John  heard  every  creature 
in  heaven  and  in  earth  saying,  "  Blessing,  and  honour,  and  glory,  and 
power  be  unto  Him  that  sitteth  upon  the  throne,  and  unto  the  Lamb 


356  UNION    OF    NATURES    IN    CHRIST. 

for  ever  and  ever  :"*  and  the  kingdom  of  Christ  is  represented,  both 
in  the  Old  and  in  the  New  Testament,  as  everlasting.  The  meaning, 
therefore,  of  the  words  of  the  Apostle  must  be,  that  the  office  with 
which  the  Son  of  Man  was  invested,  in  order  to  carry  into  full  effect 
the  purposes  of  his  incarnation,  which  divines  are  accustomed  to  call 
his  mediatorial  kingdom,  shall  cease  when  these  purposes  are  accom- 
plished. His  authority  to  execute  judgment  must  expire,  after  the 
quick  and  the  dead  have  received  according  to  their  works  :  and  he 
can  no  longer  rule  in  the  midst  of  his  enemies,  after  they  are  all  put 
under  his  feet.  Every  thing  which  the  ancient  theological  writers 
meant  by  oixovofiia  will  then  be  concluded  :  and  although  the  Son  of 
God  never  can  lay  aside  his  relation  to  those  whom  by  that  economy 
he  hath  brought  to  his  Father,  yet  the  office  implied  under  the 
character  of  Mediator,  which  had  a  reference  to  their  preparation  for 
heaven,  can  have  no  place  amongst  the  glorified  saints,  but  God  shall 
be  all  in  all,  and  the  Son  shall  reign  in  the  glory  which  he  had  with 
the  Father  before  the  world  was. 

In  this  manner,  from  the  union  between  the  divine  and  human 
natures  of  Christ,  and  the  communication  of  the  properties  of  the  two 
natures,  we  are  able  to  deduce  an  explication  of  several  passages  of 
Scripture  which  would  otherwise  appear  unintelligible.  There  is  one 
other  use  of  the  doctrine  concerning  the  incarnation,  which  is  clearly 
stated  in  Scripture,  and  with  which  I  close  all  that  relates  particularly 
to  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ. 

It  is  by  the  union  of  the  natures  in  one  person  that  Christ  is  quali- 
fied to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  He  became  mari,  that  with  the 
greatest  possible  advantage  to  those  whom  he  was  sent  to  instruct, 
he  might  teach  them  the  nature  and  the  will  of  God ;  that  his  life 
might  be  their  example ;  that  by  being  once  compassed  with  the 
infirmities  of  human  nature,  he  might  give  them  assurance  of  his  fel- 
low-feeling ;  that  by  suffering  on  the  cross  he  might  make  atonement 
for  their  sins ;  and  that  in  his  reward  they  might  behold  the  earnest 
and  the  pattern  of  theirs. 

But  had  Jesus  been  only  man,  or  had  he  been  one  of  the  spirits 
that  surround  the  throne  of  God,  he  could  not  have  accomplished  the 
work  which  he  undertook  ;  for  the  whole  obedience  of  every  creature 
being  due  to  the  Creator,  no  part  of  that  obedience  can  be  placed  to 
the  account  of  other  creatures,  so  as  to  supply  the  defects  of  their 
service,  or  to  rescue  them  from  the  punishment  which  they  deserve. 
The  Scriptures,  therefore,  reveal,  that  he  who  appeared  upon  earth  as 
man  is  also  God,  and,  as  God,  was  mighty  to  save ;  and  by  this  reve- 
lation they  teach  us  that  the  merit  of  our  Lord's  obedience,  and  the 
efficacy  of  his  interposition,  depend  upon  the  hypostatical  union.f 

All  modern  sects  of  Christians  agree  in  admitting  that  the  greatest 
benefits  arise  to  us  from  the  Saviour  of  the  world  being  man  ;  but  the 
Arians  and  Socinians  contend  earnestly,  that  his  sufferings  do  not 
derive  any  value  from  his  being  God ;  and  their  reasoning  is  specious. 

*Rev.  V.  13. 

rt^05  txath^ovi  oixsio-trj'to;  tij  ^lUav  xac  o^tovoiai/  tovi  aixfoft^ovi  utfayaytiv.     Ircn,  cont. 
HffiT.  lib.  iii.  cap.  187. 


UNION    OP    NATURES    IN    CHRIST.  357 

You  say,  they  argue,  that  Jesus  Christ  who  suffered  for  the  sins  of 
men,  is  botli  God  and  man.  You  must  either  say  that  God  suffered, 
or  that  he  did  not  suffer;  if  you  say  that  God  suffered,  you  do  indeed 
affix  an  infinite  value  to  the  sufferings,  but  you  affirm  that  the  God- 
head is  capable  of  suffering,  which  is  both  impious  and  absurd :  if 
you  say  that  God  did  not  suffer,  then,  although  the  person  that  suffered 
had  both  a  divine  and  a  human  nature,  the  sufferings  were  merely 
those  of  a  man,  for,  according  to  your  own  system,  the  two  natures 
are  distinct,  and  the  divine  is  impassible. 

In  answer  to  this  method  of  arguing,  we  admit  that  the  Godhead 
cannot  suffer,  and  we  do  not  pretend  to  explain  the  kind  of  support 
which  the  human  nature  derived  under  its  sufferings  from  the  divine, 
or  the  manner  in  which  the  two  were  united.  But  from  the  uniform 
language  of  Scripture,  which  magnifies  the  love  of  God  in  giving  his 
only  begotten  Son,  which  speaks  in  the  highest  terms  of  the  precious- 
ness  of  the  blood  of  Christ,  which  represents  him  as  coming  in  the 
body  that  was  prepared  for  him,  to  do  that  which  sacrifice  and  burnt- 
oftering  could  not  do — from  all  this  we  infer  that  there  was  a  value, 
a  merit,  in  the  sufferings  of  this  Person,  superior  to  that  which  be- 
longed to  the  sufferings  of  any  other :  and  as  the  same  Scriptures 
intimate  in  numberless  places  the  strictest  union  between  the  divine 
and  human  natures  of  Christ,  by  applying  to  him  promiscuously  the 
actions  which  belong  to  each  nature,  we  hold  that  it  is  impossible  for 
us  to  separate  in  our  imagination  this  peculiar  value  which  they  affix 
to  his  sufferings,  from  the  peculiar  dignity  of  his  person. 

The  hypostatical  union,  then,  is  the  corner-stone  of  our  religion. 
We  are  too  much  accustomed,  in  all  our  researches,  to  perceive  that 
things  are  united,  without  being  able  to  investigate  the  bond  which 
unites  them,  to  feel  any  degree  of  surprise  that  we  cannot  answer  all 
the  questions  which  ingenious  men  have  proposed  upon  this  subject: 
but  we  can  clearly  discern,  in  those  purposes  of  the  incarnation  of  the 
Son  of  God  which  the  Scriptures  declare,  the  reason  why  they  have 
dwelt  so  largely  upon  his  divinity ;  and  if  we  are  careful  to  take  into 
our  view  the  whole  of  that  description  which  they  give  of  the  person 
by  whom  the  remedy  in  the  gospel  was  brought ;  if,  in  our  specula- 
tions concerning  him,  we  neither  lose  sight  of  the  two  parts  which  are 
clearly  revealed,  nor  forget,  what  we  cannot  comprehend,  that  union 
between  the  two  parts  which  is  necessarily  implied  in  the  revelation 
of  them,  we  shall  perceive  in  the  character  of  the  Messiah,  a  com- 
pleteness, and  a  suitableness  to  the  design  of  his  coming,  which  of 
themselves  create  a  strong  presumption  that  we  have  rightly  inter- 
preted the  Scriptures. 


358  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE    SPIRIT. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE    SPIRIT. 


I  HAVE  now  given  a  view  of  the  different  opinions  that  have  been 
held  concerning  that  person,  by  whom  the  remedy  offered  in  the  gos- 
pel was  brought  to  the  world.  But  there  is  also  revealed  to  us 
another  person  by  whom  that  remedy  is  applied,  who  is  known  in 
Scripture  by  the  name  of  the  Spirit,  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
and  whom  our  Lord,  in  different  places  of  that  long  discourse  which 
John  has  recorded  in  chaps,  xiv.  xv.  and  xvi.  of  his  gospel,  calls 
Tta^axXf^toi.  When  you  read  John  xv.  26,  you  cannot  avoid  consider- 
ing o  Tia^axxtjtoi  as  the  samc  with  fo  nvsv^a,  and  as  a  person  distinct  from 
the  Father  and  the  Son.  iia^axxj^foj  is  derived  from  jra^axa'Kiu,  the  pre- 
cise meaning  of  which  is,  "  standing  by  the  side  of  a  person  1  call 
upon  him  to  do  something,"  and  which  is  commonly  translated,  "  I 
comfort  or  encourage."  Hence  the  word  T^a^axxrtoi  is  rendered  in  our 
Bibles  the  Comforter ;  but  if  you  attend  to  the  analogy  of  the  Greek 
language,  you  will  perceive  that  the  manner  in  which  it  is  formed 
from  the  verb,  suggests  as  the  more  literal  interpretation  of  the  noun 
advocatus,  advocate,  "  one  who,  being  called  in,  stands  by  the  side 
of  others  to  assist  them." 

Of  the  offices  of  this  person  I  shall  have  to  speak,  when  I  proceed 
in  the  progress  of  my  plan  to  the  application  of  the  remedy.  At  pre- 
sent I  have  only  to  state  the  information  which  the  Scriptures  afford, 
and  the  different  opinions  to  which  that  information  has  given  rise, 
concerning  the  character  of  this  person.  The  subject  lies  within  a 
much  narrower  compass  than  that  which  I  have  just  finished. 

Dr.  Clarke  has  collected,  in  his  Scripture  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity, 
all  the  passages  of  the  New  Testament  in  which  the  Spirit  is  men- 
tioned. They  are  very  numerous ;  they  have  been  differently  inter- 
preted ;  and  corresponding  to  this  difference  of  interpretation  is  the 
variety  of  opinions  which  have  been  held  concerning  this  person. 
The  simplest  method  in  which  I  can  state  the  progress  of  these 
opinions,  is  to  begin  with  directing  your  attention  to  the  form  of  bap- 
tism taught  by  our  Lord,  Matt,  xxviii.  19.  Baptism,  or  washing,  is 
found  in  the  religious  ceremonies  of  all  nations.  Among  the  heathen, 
the  initiated  after  having  been  instructed  in  certain  hidden  doctrines 
and  awful  rites  were  baptized  into  these  mysteries.  The  Israelites 
are  said  by  the  Apostle  Paul,  1  Cor.  x,  2,  to  have  been  baptized  into 
Moses,  at  the  time  when  they  followed  him  as  the  servant  of  God, 
sent  to  lead  them  through  the  Red  Sea. 

Proselytes  to  the  law  of  Moses  from  other  nations  were  received  by 


OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE    SPIRIT.  359 

baptism ;  and  all  the  people  who  went  out  to  hear  John,  the  forerun- 
ner of  Jesus,  were  baptized  by  him.  into  the  baptism  of  repentance. 
In  accommodation  to  this  general  practice,  Jesus,  having  employed 
his  apostles  to  baptize  those  who  came  to  him  during  his  ministry, 
sent  them  forth,  after  his  ascension,  to  make  disciples  of  all  nations  by 
baptizing  them.  But,  in  order  to  render  baptism  a  distinguishing 
rite,  by  which  his  followers  might  be  separated  from  the  followers  of 
any  other  teacher  who  chose  to  baptize,  he  added  these  words,  "  into 
the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 

The  earliest  Christian  writers  inform  us  that  this  solemn  form  of 
expression  was  uniformly  employed  from  the  beginning  of  the  Chris- 
tian church.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  the  Apostle  Peter  said  to  those 
who  were  converted  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  Acts  ii.  3S,  "  Repent 
and  be  baptized  every  one  of  you  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ ;"  and 
that,  in  different  places  of  the  book  of  Acts,  it  is  said  that  persons 
were  baptized  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus :  and  from  hence  those, 
who  deny  the  argument  which  I  am  about  to  draw  from  the  form  of 
baptism,  have  inferred  that,  in  the  days  of  the  apostles,  this  form  was 
not  rigorously  observed.  But  a  little  attention  will  satisfy  you  that 
the  inference  does  not  follow,  because  there  is  internal  evidence  from 
the  New  Testament  itself,  that  when  the  historian  says,  persons  were 
baptized  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  he  means  they  were  baptized 
according  to  the  form  prescribed  by  Jesus.  Thus  the  question  put  by 
Paul,  Acts  xix.  2,  3,  shows  that  he  did  not  suppose  it  possible  for  any 
person  who  administered  Christian  baptism  to  omit  the  mention  of 
the  Holy  Ghost;  and  even  after  this  question,  the  historian,  when  he 
informs  us  that  the  disciples  were  baptized,  is  not  solicitous  to  repeat 
the  whole  form,  but  says  in  his  usual  manner,  Acts  xix.  5, '•' when 
they  heard  this,  they  were  baptized  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus." 
There  is  another  question  put  by  the  Apostle  Paul,  1  Cor.  i.  13, 
which  shows  us  in  what  light  he  viewed  the  form  of  baptism.  The 
question  implies  his  considering  the  form  of  baptism  as  so  sacred,  that 
the  introducing  the  name  of  a  teacher  into  it  was  the  same  thing  as 
introducing  a  new  master  into  the  kingdom  of  Christ. 

There  is  nothing,  then,  in  the  New  Testament  contrary  to  the  clear 
information  which  we  derive  from  the  succession  of  Christian  writers, 
who  agree  in  declaring  that  the  form  of  baptism  originally  prescribed 
by  Jesus  was  from  the  beginning  observed  upon  every  occasion.  At 
a  time  when  Christianity  was  not  the  established  religion  of  the  state, 
but  was  spreading  rapidly  through  the  Roman  empire,  many  were 
daily  baptized  who  had  been  educated  in  the  knowledge  and  belief 
of  other  religions,  and  baptism  was  their  initiation  into  the  faith  of 
Christ.  In  order  to  prepare  them  for  this  solemn  act,  they  received 
instruction  for  many  days  in  the  principal  articles  of  the  Christian 
faith,  particularly  in  the  knowledge  of  the  three  Persons  into  whose 
name  they  were  to  be  baptized,  and  they  were  required  at  their 
baptism  to  declare  that  they  believed  what  they  had  been  taught. 
The  practice  of  connecting  instruction  with  the  administration  of 
baptism  rests  upon  apostolical  authority  ;*  and  upon  this  was  probably 
founded  the  following  practice,  which  we  learn  from  early  writers  to 

•  Acts  viii.  35—38.     Rom.  x.  10.     1  Pet.  iii.  21. 


360  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE    SPIRIT. 

have  been  universal.  Those  who  were  to  be  baptized  underwent  a 
preparation,  during  which  they  were  called,  in  the  Greek  church, 
xatrjxovi^ii'oi. ',  in  the  Latin  church,  competentes.  y<.o.irixoviiivoi  is  derived 
from  xa.trixi^->  a  compound  of  xara  and  nx^^-i  sono,  which  implies  that 
they  were  instructed  viva  voce  by  catechists,  whose  business  it  was 
to  deliver  to  them  in  the  most  familiar  manner  the  rudiments  of  tlie 
doctrine  of  Christ :  Competentes,  competitors,  or  candidates,  implies 
that  they  were  seeking  together  the  honour  of  being  initiated  into 
Christianity.  When  the  catechumens  or  competentes  were  judged  to 
have  attained  a  sufficient  measure  of  knowledge,  they  were  brought 
to  the  baptismal  font,  and  immediately  before  their  baptism  two 
things  were  required  of  them.  The  one  was  called  artofalij  tov  ^arwa, 
segregatio  a  Sat  ana ;  the  other,  owt'oIk  t^oj  X^ioroi',  aggregatio  ad 
Christum.  By  the  one  they  renounced,  in  a  form  of  words  that  was 
prescribed  to  them,  the  devil,  his  works,  liis  worship,  and  all  his 
pomp,  i.  e.  they  professed  their  resolution  to  forsake  both  vice  and 
idolatry  :  by  the  other,  they  declared  their  faith  in  those  articles  in 
which  they  had  been  instructed.  The  most  ancient  method  of 
declaring  this  faith  was  taken  from  the  form  of  baptism.  The  person 
to  be  baptized  said,  "  I  believe  in  God  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the 
Holy  Ghost."  By  these  words,  he  professed  that  his  faith  embraced 
that  whole  name  into  which  he  was  to  be  baptized  ;  and  the  creeds, 
which  came  to  be  used  in  different  churches,  appear  to  have  been 
only  enlargements  of  this  original  declaration,  the  substance  of  which 
was  retained  in  all  of  them,  but  was  extended  or  explained  by 
insertions  which  were  meant  to  oppose  errors  in  doctrine  as  they 
sprang  up,  and  which  consequently  varied  in  every  church  according 
to  the  nature  of  the  errors  that  prevailed  there,  and  the  light  in  which 
these  errors  were  viewed.  Every  church  required  its  catechumens 
to  repeat  its  own  creed  before  they  were  baptized,  so  that  the  repeti- 
tion of  the  creed  was  a  declaration  on  the  part  of  the  catechumens, 
that  their  faith  in  the  name  into  which  they  were  to  be  baptized  was 
the  same  with  that  of  the  church  from  which  they  were  to  receive 
baptism. 

It  appears  by  this  deduction,  that  faith  in  the  Holy  Ghost  was  a 
branch  of  the  rudiments  of  Christianity,  derived  from  that  form  by 
which  our  Lord  appointed  disciples  to  be  initiated  into  his  religion  ; 
and  in  this  form  you  will  observe  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  conjoined 
with  the  Father  and  the  Son,  in  such  a  manner  as  obviously  to  imply 
that  he  is  a  person  of  equal  rank  with  them.  When  you  recollect  the 
exalted  conceptions  which  the  gospel  gives  of  the  Father,  and  the 
full  revelation  which  it  has  made  of  the  dignity  of  the  Son  ;  when 
you  recollect  that  there  is  authority  in  the  New  Testament  for 
worshipping  the  Son  as  the  Father ;  and  when  you  consider  further 
that  the  persons  who  professed  their  faith  in  the  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost,  did  at  the  very  same  time  renounce  the  worship  of  idols, 
you  will  acknowledge  that  there  is  an  unaccountable  ambiguity  in 
tiie  expression  prescribed  by  our  Lord  ;  nay,  that  the  form  used  upon 
his  authority  has  a  necessary  tendency  to  lead  Christians  into  the 
practice  of  idolatry  which  they  then  renounced,  unless  the  Holy  Ghost 
be,  with  the  Father  and  the  Son,  an  object  of  worship.  This  clear 
inference  from  the  form  of  baptism  was  probably  confirmed  in  the 


OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE    SPIRIT.  361 

earliest  ages  by  its  being  observed,  that,  besides  all  those  places  of  the 
New  Testament  which  teach  us  to  reverence  the  Spirit,  there  is  one 
passage  where  the  Apostle  Paul  has  joined  the  three  persons  together 
in  such  a  manner  as  seems  intended  to  convey  to  his  readers  a  con- 
ception of  the  equality  of  their  rank."*  "  The  grace  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  the  love  of  God,  and  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
be  with  you  all." 

Upon  these  authorities  the  Christian  church,  from  the  very  begin- 
ning, worshipped  the  Holy  Ghost.  There  is  clear  evidence  of  this 
foct,  in  a  passage  from  Justin  Martyr,t  whom  we  are  accustomed  to 
quote  as  the  best  voucher  of  the  opinions  and  the  practices  of  early 
times.  The  succession  of  Christian  writers  from  Justin  say  the  same 
thing,  and  the  Spirit  is  conjoined  with  the  Father  and  the  Son  in  the 
most  ancient  doxologies.  But  it  was  a  principle  with  the  first 
Christians,  ■fov  Qiov  [j.ovov  8ev  rt^oaxweiv.  The  worship  of  any  creature  was 
in  their  eyes  idolatry ;  and  therefore  their  worshipping  the  Holy 
Ghost  was  expressing  by  their  practice  the  same  inference  which 
they  draw  in  their  writings  from  the  form  of  baptism,  viz.  that  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  a  person  of  the  same  rank  with  the  Father  and  the 
Son. 

If  this  uniform  testimony  of  the  Christian  writers  could  be  supposed 
to  require  any  support,  we  might  quote  a  dialogue  entitled  Philopatris, 
commonly  ascribed  to  Lucian,  and  certainly  written  either  by  him,  or 
by  some  contemporary  of  his,  about  the  middle  of  the  second  century. 
The  author  means  to  give  a  ludicrous  representation  of  the  manner  in 
which  the  catechumens  were  instructed,  and  amongst  other  circum- 
stances, he  introduces  the  following.^  The  scholar  asks  by  whom 
he  should  swear,  and  the  christian  instructor  answers  in  words  which 
imply  that  the  Christians,  in  the  days  of  Lucian,  were  accustomed  to 
swear  by  all  the  three  Persons  mentioned.  But  as  swearing  by  a 
Person  is  one  of  those  honours  which  are  most  properly  called  divine, 
Lucian  infers,  from  this  part  of  the  practice  of  the  Christians,  that  in 
their  estimation  every  one  of  the  three  Persons  was  Zsv^xaiQio;;  and 
thus  his  testimony  comes  to  be  a  voucher  of  both  the  opinions  and  the 
practice  of  the  great  body  of  Christians  with  regard  to  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

During  the  first  three  centuries,  there  was  not  any  particular  con- 
troversy upon  this  subject,  except  that  which  was  occasioned  by  the 
system  of  the  Gnostics.  The  numerous  sects  that  come  under  this 
description,  who  corrupted  the  simplicity  of  the  gospel  by  a  mixture 
of  the  tenets  of  oriental  philosophy,  held  both  Christ  and  the  Spirit 
to  be  jEons,  emanations  from  the  Supreme  Mind.  But  as  they  de- 
nied the  divine  original  of  the  books  of  Moses,  they  said  that  the 
Spirit,  which  had  inspired  him  and  the  prophets,  was  not  that  exalted 
iEon  whom  God  sent  forth  after  the  ascension  of  Christ,  but  an  ^on 


*   2  Cor.  xiii.  13. 

f  A'K'k'  ixiivov  T(  (rtaf f^a,)  xm  tov  ria^  av(ov  vlov  i>Sov'ta,  xai,  SiSa^avta  j;uaj  T'avra 
xat  "tov  T'coi'  a^XcJ^'  tTo^£i»uv  xav  i%o^otovfiivuiv  aya^wz'  (xyyiXt^v  at^a.tov,  jiviv^a  ti  to 
Tt^o^ritixov  OiSofitOa  xai.  rt^ofrxvvovixev,  'Koyct  xai,  aXtjOiva,  tifwocT'fj.     See  Bull,  Def.  70. 

+  See  Bull,  Def.  F.  N.  73,  and  Jud.  32. 

33  3C 


362  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE    SPIRIT. 

very  much  inferior,  and  removed  at  a  great  distance  from  the  Su- 
preme Being.  It  was,  on  the  other  hand,  the  general  beUef  of  the 
Christian  church,  that  the  same  Spirit  who  was  afterwards  sent  to  the 
apostles  had  operated  in  the  saints  from  the  beginning ;  and  the  cha- 
racter uniformly  given  of  the  Spirit  by  Justin  Martyr,  Irenaeus,  and 
the  other  primitive  writers,  was  in  siich  words  as  these  :  to  n^o^Yinxov 
Tivtvfxa — to  8m  tuiv  rt^o^j^i'toi/  xixr^^v^os  T'ay  oixopofiias  ®sov.  In  Order,  therefore 
to  oppose  the  errors  of  the  Gnostics,  there  came  to  be  introduced  into 
the  creed  of  the  church  of  Jerusalem,  which  Avas  honoured  through- 
out the  east  as  the  mother  of  all  the  churches,  in  addition  to  the  ori- 
ginal words,  "  I  believe  «?  to  dyiw  TtvsvjAa"  the  following,  "Torta^azj.jjTOf, 
to  -KaXYioav  hia.  t^v  rt^o^yjfuv.''  We  kuow  that  Cyril,  who  was  Bishop  of 
Jerusalem  in  the  fourth  century,  wrote  an  exposition  of  the  creed  of 
which  these  words  are  a  part ;  and  we  learn  from  his  writings,  that 
this  creed  was  explained  to  the  catechumens  in  the  church  of  Jerusa- 
lem, and  that  they  were  required  to  repeat  it  before  they  received 
baptism. 

Here  the  matter  rested  till  after  the  time  of  the  Arian  controversy. 
As  Arius  held  the  Son  to  be  the  most  excellent  creature  of  God,  by 
whom  all  others  were  created,  the  Spirit  was  necessarily  ranked  by 
him  amongst  the  productions  of  the  Son :  and  accordingly  the  an- 
cient writers  who  have  left  an  account  of  the  heresy  of  Arius,  say 
that  he  made  the  Spirit  xtia^ia  xtianato;,  the  creature  of  a  creature.  But 
as  his  attacks  were  chiefly  directed  against  the  divinity  of  the  Son, 
and  as  liis  opinions  concerning  the  Spirit  were  only  an  inference  from 
the  leading  principles  of  his  system,  they  did  not  draw  any  particular 
attention  in  the  council  of  Nice.  This  first  general  council,  which 
met  A.  D.  325,  published  the  creed,  which  is  known  by  the  name  of 
the  Nicene  creed,  in  direct  opposition  to  the  errors  of  Arius.  Accord- 
ingly, they  are  added  in  this  creed  to  the  second  article  of  the  ancient 
creeds,  that  concerning  the  Son,  several  clauses  which  were  meant  to 
declare  the  dignity  of  his  person,  and  his  consubstantiality  with  the 
Father ;  but  the  third  article,  that  concerning  the  Spirit,  is  continued 
in  the  same  simple  mode  of  expression  which  had  been  originally 
suggested  by  the  form  of  baptism,  xm  m  to  nvivfia  to  ayto^. 

In  the  course  of  the  fourth  century,  Macedonius,  who  held  a  par- 
ticular modification  of  the  Arian  system  concerning  the  Son,  follow- 
ing out  the  principles  of  that  system,  openly  denied  the  divinity  of 
the  Spirit,  and  was  the  founder  of  a  sect,  known  in  those  times  by 
the  name  Uvivfiato/A.axoi.  Macedonius  is  said  by  some  to  have  denied 
that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  a  person  distinct  from  the  Father,  and  to  have 
considered  what  the  Scriptures  call  the  Spirit,  as  only  a  divine  energy 
diff'used  throughout  creation.  According  to  others,  he  held  the  Spirit 
to  be  a  creature,  the  servant  of  the  Most  High  God.  We  are  not 
acquainted  witli  the  detail  of  his  opinions.  We  only  know  in  general 
that  he  did  not  admit,  what  in  his  time  had  been  generally  received 
in  the  Christian  church,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  a  person  of  the  same 
divine  nature  with  the  Father  and  the  Son ;  and  we  have  the  clearest 
evidence  that  the  opinion  of  Macedonius  appeared  to  the  church  to 
be  an  innovation  in  the  ancient  faith.  For  as  the  first  general  comi- 
cil,  the  council  of  Nice,  had,  A.  D.  325,  condemned  the  opinions  of 
Arius  with  regard  to  the  Son,  so  the  second  general  council,  the 


OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE    SPIRIT.  363 

council  of  Constantinople,  A.  D.  381,  condemned  the  opinions  of 
Macedonius  with  regard  to  the  Spirit.  The  council  of  Nice  testified 
their  disapprobation  of  the  opinions  of  Arius,  and  guarded  those  who 
should  be  received  into  the  Christian  church  against  his  errors,  by  the 
additions  which  they  made  to  the  second  article  of  the  ancient  creeds ; 
and  the  council  of  Constantinople,  in  like  manner,  entered  their  tes- 
timony against  the  errors  of  Macedonius  by  the  following  change 
upon  that  creed  which  had  been  used  in  the  church  of  Jerusalem, 
and  which  appears  to  have  been  the  same  in  substance  with  that  used 
throughout  the  Christian  world.  The  third  article  of  the  ancient  creed 

had  run  thus,  ti^  to  ayiov  Ttvsvixa,  to  Tta^axXrjtov,  to  ^.aXrjauv  6ia  ti^v  rt^o^-^ttov.  In- 
stead of  TO  na^a.xxrjtov,  which  might  be  conceived  to  convey  a  notice  of 
inferiority  and  ministration  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  council  of  Con- 
stantinople introduced  the  following  expressions :  Kai  «j  t-o  Ttvevfia  to 

ayiot',  to  xv^LOf  to  (^(^orioww,  to  ex  tov  rtar^oj  ixrto^evojxevov,  to  aw  7tat;v  xat  vicp  rteod- 
xwov/j-svov  scat  SvvSo^a^ofxevov,  to  XaT^rjaav  Sia  tutv  7t^o^t]tu)v. 

The  expressions  inserted  instead  of  to  rta^axxtjtov,  were  intended  to 
declare,  what  the  natural  import  of  the  words  very  strongly  conveys, 
that  majesty  of  character  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  that  equality  with 
the  Father  and  the  Son  in  worship  and  glory,  which  those  who  are 
admitted  to  Christian  baptism  after  being  catechumens  had  been 
taught,  in  the  application  of  the  original  form,  to  believe,  and  which 
it  does  not  appear  that  the  great  body  of  the  church,  till  the  time  of 
Macedonius,  had  ever  thought  of  questioning. 

When,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  opinions  concerning  the  Son,  much 
bolder  than  those  which  had  been  held  by  Arius,  or  any  of  his  fol- 
lowers, were  avowed  and  published  by  Socinus,  it  was  not  possible 
that  he  could  acquiesce  in  the  received  creed  concerning  the  Spirit  : 
and  the  opinion  which  he  adopted  upon  this  subject  was  the  same 
with  that  refined  system  which  has  been  ascribed  by  some  to  Mace- 
donius, Socinus  did  not  say  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  a  creature ;  he 
said  that  it  is  the  power  and  energy  of  God  sent  from  heaven  to  men ; 
that  by  its  being  given  without  measure,  as  the  Scriptures  speak,  to 
Jesus  Christ,  this  great  Prophet  was  sanctified,  and  led,  and  raised 
above  all  the  other  messengers  of  heaven  ;  that  by  the  extraordinary 
measure  in  which  it  was  given  to  his  apostles,  they  were  qualified 
for  executing  their  commission ;  and  that  it  is  still  communicated  in 
such  manner  and  such  degree  as  is  necessary  for  the  comfort  and 
sanctification  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus. 

This  is  the  system  of  the  modern  Socinians,  which  Lardner  has 
brought  forward  in  some  pieces  that  are  published  in  the  tenth  and 
elevenjth  volumes  of  his  works,  and  which  is  found  often  recurring  in 
the  writings  of  Priestly  and  Lindsey.  The  arguments  upon  which 
this  system  rests  are  of  the  following  kind.  An  attempt  is  made  to 
reconcile  with  this  system  all  those  passages  of  Scripture  which  seem 
to  imply  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  a  distinct  person  ;  it  is  said  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  sometimes  denotes  the  power  or  wisdom  of  God,  as 
they  are  communicated  to  men,  i.  e.  spiritual  gifts;  that  it  is  some- 
times merely  a  circumlocution  for  God  himself;  and  that  when  the 
Spirit  of  God  appears  to  be  spoken  of  as  a  person,  we  are  to  under- 
stand that  there  is  a  figure  of  speech,  the  same  kind  of  prosopopoeia 
by  which  it  is  said  that  charity  is  kind  and  envieth  not — that  sin 


364  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE    SPIRIT. 

deceives  and  slays  us — and  that  the  law  speaks.  It  is  allowed  that 
the  figure  is  variously  used  in  different  places;  but  it  is  alleged,  that, 
by  a  moderate  exercise  of  critical  sagacity,  all  those  passages  of  the 
New  Testament,  in  which  the  Spirit  of  God  is  mentioned,  may  be 
explained  without  our  being  obliged  to  suppose  that  a  person  is 
deiroted  by  that  expression. 

This  is  the  Socinian  mode  of  arguing  with  regard  to  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Upon  the  other  side,  it  is  argued  by  Bishop  Pearson,  who 
has  treated  the  subject  very  fully  and  distinctly  in  his  Exposition  of 
the  Creed ;  by  Dr.  Barrow,  in  one  of  his  S&rmons  on  the  Creed ;  by 
Bishop  Burnet,  on  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  and  by  others,  that  num- 
berless actions  and  operations  which  unavoidably  convey  the  idea  of 
a  person  are  ascribed  to  the  Holy  Ghost — that  there  are  many  places 
in  which  neither  prosopopoeia  nor  any  other  figure  of  speech  can 
account  for  this  manner  of  speaking — and  that  the  attributes,  and 
names,  and  description  of  this  person,  are  such  as  clearly  imply  that 
he  is  no  creature,  but  truly  God. 

The  subject,  it  may  be  seen,  from  this  general  account  of  the  argu- 
ment upon  both  sides,  runs  out  into  a  long  detail  of  minute  criticism. 
Without  attempting  to  enter  into  this,  I  will  only  suggest  four  general 
observations,  which  it  is  proper  to  carry  along  with  you  when  you 
examine  those  passages  which  Dr.  Clarke  has  fairly  collected  in  his 
Scripture  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and  upon  which  the  other  writers 
argue. 

1.  In  many  places  of  Scripture,  "the  Spirit  of  God"  may  be  a  cir- 
cumlocution for  God  himself,  or  for  the  power  and  wisdom  of  God. 
Thus,  when  we  read, "  whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  spirit,  and  whither 
shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence  ?" — "  they  vexed  his  holy  spirit" — "  by 
his  spirit  he  hath  garnished  the  heavens  ;"  or  when  Jesus  says,  "  If 
I  by  the  Spirit  of  God ;"  in  another  gospel  it  is,  "  if  I  by  the  finger 
of  God  cast  out  devils,"  it  is  not  more  reasonable  to  infer  from  these 
expressions  that  the  Spirit  of  God  is  a  person  distinct  from  God,  than 
it  would  be  to  suppose  that,  when  we  speak  of  the  spirit  of  a  man, 
we  mean  a  person  distinct  from  the  man  himself  You  will  not  think 
that,  because  the  circumlocution,  for  which  the  Socinians  contend, 
does  not  give  the  true  explication  of  all  the  passages  to  which  they 
wish  to  apply  it,  there  is  no  instance  of  its  being  used  in  Scripture  : 
and  you  will  always  carry  along  with  you  this  general  rule  of  scrip- 
ture criticism,  that  it  is  most  unbecoming  those,  who  profess  to  derive 
all  their  knowledge  of  theology  from  the  Scriptures,  to  strain  texts  in 
order  to  make  them  appear  to  support  particular  doctrines,  and  that 
there  never  can  be  any  danger  to  truth,  in  adopting  that  interpreta- 
tion of  Scripture  which  is  the  most  natural  and  rational. 

2.  There  are  many  passages  in  which  "  the  Spirit  of  God"  means 
gifts  or  powers  communicated  to  men,  and  from  which  we  are  not 
warranted  to  infer  that  there  is  a  person  who  is  the  fountain  and  dis- 
tributer of  these  gifts.  So  we  read  often  in  the  Old  Testament,  "  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  came  upon  him,"  when  nothing  more  is  necessarily 
implied  under  the  expression,  than  that  the  person  spoken  of  was 
endowed  with  an  extraordinary  degree  of  skill,  or  might  or  wisdom. 
So  the  promises  of  the  Old  Testament,  "  I  will  pour  out  my  Spirit 
upon  you,"  were  fulfilled  under  the  New  Testament,  by  what  are 


OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE    SPIRIT.  365 

there  called  "the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost;"  in  reference  to  which  we 
read,  "that  Christians  received  the  Holy  Ghost" — "that  the  Holy 
Ghost  was  given  to  them" — "  that  they  were  filled  with  the  Spirit." 
Neither  the  words  of  the  promise,  nor  the  words  that  relate  the  fulfil- 
ment of  it,  suggest  the  personality  of  the  Spirit;  and  if  we  knew 
nothing  more  than  what  such  passages  suggest,  the  Socinian  system 
upon  tliis  subject  would  exhaust  the  meaning  of  Scripture,  and  the 
Spirit  would  appear  to  be  merely  a  virtue  or  energy  proceeding  from 
God. 

3.  But  my  third  observation  is,  that  if  there  are  passages  in  which 
the  Holy  Ghost  is  clearly  and  unequivocally  described  as  a  person, 
then,  however  numerous  the  passages  may  be  in  which  "  the  Spirit 
of  God"  appears  to  be  a  phrase  meaning  gifts  and  powers  communi- 
cated to  men,  this  does  not  in  the  least  invalidate  the  evidence  of  the 
personality  of  the  Spirit,  because  it  is  a  most  natural  and  intelligible 
figure  to  express  the  gifts  and  powers  by  the  name  of  that  person 
who  is  represented  as  the  distributer  of  them.  The  true  method, 
then,  of  stating  the  question  upon  this  subject  between  the  So- 
cinians  and  other  Christians,  is  not,  whether  it  be  possible  to  inter- 
pret a  great  number  of  passages  that  speak  of  the  Spirit  of  God, 
without  being  obliged  to  suppose  that  there  is  a  distinct  Person  to 
whom  this  name  is  given,  but  whether  there  are  not  some  passages 
by  which  the  personahty  of  the  Spirit  may  be  clearly  ascertained. 

There  are  two  passages  of  this  last  kind  to  which  I  would  direct 
your  attention.  The  first  is,  the  long  discourse  of  our  Lord,  in  chaps, 
xiv.  XV.  and  xvi.  of  John's  Gospel,  where,  in  promising  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  the  apostles,  he  describes  him  as  a  person  who  was  to  be 
sent  and  to  come,  who  hears,  and  speaks,  and  reproves,  and  instructs ; 
as  a  person  different  from  Jesus,  because  he  was  to  come  after  Jesus 
departed,  because  he  was  to  be  sent  by  Christ,  and  to  receive  of  Christ, 
and  to  glorify  Christ ;  as  a  person  different  from  the  Father,  because 
he  was  to  be  sent  by  the  Father,  and  because  he  was  not  to  speak  of 
himself,  but  to  speak  what  he  should  hear.  The  second  passage  is  a 
discourse  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  1  Cor.  xh.  1 — 13,  where  the  apostle,  in 
speaking  of  the  diversities  of  spiritual  gifts,  represents  them  as  under 
the  administration  of  one  Spirit.  It  is  impossible  to  conceive  words 
which  can  mark  more  strongly  than  the  11th  verse  does,  that  there  is 
a  Person  who  is  the  author  of  all  spiritual  gifts,  and  who  distributes 
them  according  to  his  discretion. 

You  will  meet,  in  the  collection  of  texts  upon  this  subject,  with 
many  other  passages  which  show  that  the  apostles  considered  the 
Spirit  as  a  person :  and  to  the  inference  obviously  suggested  by  all 
these  passages,  you  are  to  add  this  general  consideration,  that  as  the 
prosopopoeia,  to  which  the  Socinians  have  recourse  in  order  to  evade 
the  evidence  of  the  personality  of  the  Spirit,  appears  to  be  forced  and 
unnatural,  when  it  is  applied  to  the  long  discourse  recorded  by  John, 
so  the  supposition  of  any  such  prosopopoeia  being  there  intended,  is 
rendered  incredible  by  our  Lord's  introducing,  after  that  discourse,  the 
Holy  Ghost  in  the  form  of  baptism,  and  thus  conjoining  the  Holy 
Ghost,  whom  he  had  described  as  a  person,  with  the  Father  and  the 
Son,  who  are  certainly  known  to  be  persons.  There  is,  in  all  this,  a 
continued  train  of  argument,  so  much  fitted  to  impress  our  minds  with 
33*       \ 


366  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE    SPIRIT. 

a  conviction  of  the  personality  of  the  Spirit,  that,  if  the  Socinian  sys- 
tem on  this  subject  be  true,  it  will  be  hard  to  fix  upon  any  inference 
from  the  language  of  Scripture  in  which  our  minds  may  safely 
acquiesce. 

4.  My  fourth  observation  is,  that  if  the  Spirit  of  God  be  a  person, 
it  follows  of  course  that  he  is  God.  I  do  not  say  that  the  Spirit  is 
anywhere  in  Scripture  directly  called  God :  and  although  the  writers 
on  this  subject  have  repeatedly  said  that  this  name  is  given  him  by 
implication,  because,  Acts  v.  3,  4,  lying  to  the  Holy  Ghost  is  stated 
as  the  same  as  lying  to  God ;  and  our  bodies  are  called,  1  Cor.  vi.  19, 
the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  1  Cor.  iii.  16,  the  temple  of  God, 
yet  I  would  not  rest  so  important  an  article  of  faith  upon  this  kind  of 
verbal  criticism.  The  clear  proof  of  the  divinity  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
f  may  in  my  opinion  be  thus  shortly  stated.  Since  all  spiritual  gifts 
are  represented  as  being  placed  under  the  administration  of  this  per- 
son ;  since  blasphemy  against  him  is  declared  to  be  an  unpardonable 
sin ;  since  our  Lord  commands  Christians  to  be  baptized  into  the 
name  of  this  person  as  well  as  into  the  name  of  the  Father  and  the 
Son ;  and  since  the  apostle  Paul  prays  or  wishes  for  the  comnmnion 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  as  for  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  the 
love  of  God,  it  is  plain  that  the  Scriptures  teach  us  to  honour  and 
worship  this  person  as  we  honour  the  Father  and  the  Son  ;  and  it  is 
not  to  be  supposed  that  if  he  bore  to  these  two  persons  the  relation 
of  a  creature  to  the  Creator,  we  should  be  in  this  manner  led  to  con- 
sider all  the  three  as  of  the  same  nature. 

So  much  force  is  there  in  this  argument,  that  the  supposition  of  the 
Spirit's  being  a  creature  has  long  been  abandoned.  It  has  not  even 
that  support  which  the  Socinian  opinion  concerning  Jesus  Christ 
appears  to  derive  from  the  expressions  relating  to  his  humanity.  The 
Spirit  is  nowhere  spoken  of  in  those  humble  terms  which  belong  to 
the  man  Christ  Jesus :  and  they  who  are  not  disposed  to  admit  his 
divinity,  finding  no  warrant  for  affixing  to  him  any  lower  character, 
are  obliged  to  deny  his  existence,  by  resolving  all  that  is  said  of  him 
into  a  figure  of  speech. 

Your  business,  therefore,  in  studying  the  controversy  concerning  the 
Spirit,  is  to  examine  whether  this  figure  of  speech,  which  is  natural 
in  some  passages,  can  be  admitted  as  the  explication  of  all ;  or 
whether  the  impropriety  of  attempting  to  introduce  it  into  some  places 
where  the  Spirit  is  described,  be  not  so  glaring  as  to  leave  a  convic- 
tion upon  the  mind  of  every  candid  inquirer,  that  the  Scriptures  reveal 
to  us  a  third  person,  whose  agency  is  exerted  in  accomplishing  the 
purposes  of  the  Gospel :  and  if  your  minds  are  satisfied  of  the  person- 
ality of  the  Spirit,  you  have  next  to  examine  whether  the  descriptions 
of  this  person,  being  incompatible  with  the  notion  of  that  inferiority 
of  character  which  belongs  to  a  creature,  do  not  lead  you  to  consider 
him  as  truly  and  properly  God. 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    TRINITY.  367 


CHAPTER  X. 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    TRINITY. 


From  the  information  which  is  given  us  concerning  the  two  per- 
sons whom  the  Gospel  reveals,  it  appears  to  follow  that  both  tlie  Son 
and  the  Holy  Ghost  are  truly  and  essentially  God.  But  this  com- 
munication of  the  attributes,  the  names,  and  the  honours  which 
belong  to  God  the  Father,  implies  that  these  two  persons  have  an 
intimate  connexion  with  him,  and  with  one  another :  and  we  are  thus 
led,  after  considering  the  two  persons  singly,  to  attend  to  the  manner 
in  which  they  are  united  with  the  Father.  For  when  reason  is  able 
to  deduce  from  Scriptiue  that  there  are  three  persons,  each  of  whom 
is  God,  that  curiosity,  which  is  inseparable  from  the  exercise  of  our 
powers,  renders  her  solicitous  to  investigate  the  connexion  that  sub- 
sists amongst  the  three :  and  it  is  not  till  after  she  has  made  many 
unsuccessful  attempts,  that  she  is  forced  to  acquiesce  in  a  conscious- 
ness of  her  inability  to  form  a  clear  apprehension  of  the  subject. 

I  am  now  therefore  to  subjoin  to  the  Scripture  account  of  the  Son 
and  the  Holy  Ghost,  a  view  of  the  opinions  that  have  been  held  con- 
cerning the  manner  in  which  they  are  united  with  the  Father;  a 
subject  which  is  known  in  theology  by  the  name  of  the  Doctrine  of 
the  Trinity.  In  stating  these  opinions,  I  shall  not  recite  a  great  deal 
that  I  have  read  without  being  able  to  penetrate  its  meaning ;  nor 
shall  I  attempt  to  go  minutely  through  all  the  shades  of  difference 
that  may  be  traced ;  but  I  shall  produce  the  fruit  which  I  gathered 
from  a  wearisome  perusal  of  many  authors,  by  marking  the  great 
outlines  of  the  three  systems  upon  this  subject,  which  stand  forth 
most  clearly  distinguished  from  one  another.  I  shall  give  them  the 
names  of  the  Sabellian,  the  Arian,  and  the  Catholic  systems.  I  call 
the  third  the  Catholic  system,  because  it  is  the  opinion  concerning  the 
Trinity  which  has  generally  obtained  in  the  Christian  Church. 


Section  I. 

The  point,  from  which  a  simple  distinct  exposition  of  opinions  con- 
cerning the  Trinity  sets  out,  is  that  fundamental  doctrine  of  natural 
religion,  the  unity  of  God.  Although  the  heathens  muhiplied  gods, 
yet,  even  in  their  popular  mythology,  a  wide  distinction  was  made 
between  the  subordinate  deities  and  that  Supreme  Being  from  whom 
they  were  derived,  and  by  whom  they  were  controlled;  and  the 
more  enlightened  that  the  mind  of  any  philosopher  became,  he  rose 
the  nearer  to  an  apprehension  of  the  divine  unity.     Our  notions  of 


368  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    TRINITY. 

the  perfection  of  the  divhie  nature  involve  tlie  idea  of  unity ;  and 
that  nice  analogy  of  parts,  which  a  skilful  observer  discovers' in  the 
works  of  nature  and  Providence,  is  an  experimental   confirmation 
of  all  the  reasonings  upon  which  this  idea  is  founded.     The  law  of 
Moses,  which  separated  the  Jews  from  the  worship  of  the  gods  of 
the  nations,  declares  that  there  is  none  other  besides  him,  and  asserts 
his  unity  in  these  words,  Deut.  vi.  4,  «  Hear,  0  Israel,  the  Lord  our 
God  is  one  Lord."     Our  Saviour,  Mark  xii.  32,  adopts  the  unhy  of 
God  as  the  principle  of  the  first  and  great  commandment  of  his 'reli- 
gion.    In  another  place,  Mark  x.  18,  he  disclaims  the  appellation  of 
good,  saying,  "  there   is  none   good   but  one,  that  is   God."     The 
divine  unity  is  asserted  in  the  strongest  terms  by  his  apostles,  "  To  us 
there  is  but  one  God,  the  only  wise  God,  who  only  hath  immortality."* 
It  is  said  that  those  who  were  converted,  "  turned  to   God  from  idols 
to  serve  the  living  and  true  God  ;"t  and  we  cannot  read  the  New 
Testament  without  being  strongly  impressed  with  this  truth,  that  the 
supposition  of  a  number  of  gods,  which  philosophy  and  Judaism 
discard,  is  most  repugnant  to  the  perfect  revelation  made  by  Him 
who  came  from  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  to  declare  God  to  man. 

If  there  be  truth  in  this  first  principle  of  natural  religion,  so  earnestly 
inculcated  by  the  general  strain  of  the   New  Testament,  then  th'e 
Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  cannot  be  three  Gods,  but  there 
must  be  a  sense  in  which  these  three  Persons  are  one  God.     Our 
Lord  has  been  generally  understood  to  intimate  that  there  is  such  a 
sense,  when  he  says,  John  x.  30,  "  I  and  my  Father  are  one  ;"  and 
his  apostle  says  the  same  thing  with  regard  to  all  the  three,  1  John 
V.  7.     It  is  proper,  however,  that  you  should  be  aware  of  the  objec- 
tions that  have  been  made  to  this  application  of  these  two  texts. 
With  regard  to  the  first,  it  has  been  said  that  the  words  of  our  Lord 
do  not  necessarily  imply  that  unity  of  which  we  are  speaking,  and 
that,  whether  we  consider  the  context,  or  the  similar  expressions 
which  he  uses  in  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  John,  his  words  may 
mean  no  more  than  this,  I  and  my  Father  are  one  in  purpose,  i.  e. 
his  power,  which  none  can  resist,  is  always  exerted  in  carrying  into 
efl'ect  my  gracious  designs  towards  my  disciples.     With  regard  to  the 
second  text,  it  has  been  said  that  the  whole  verse  is  an  interpolation, 
because  it  is  wanting  in  many  Greek  manuscripts,  and  because  it  is 
not  quoted  by  any  Christian  father  who  wrote  in  Greek  before  the 
Council  of  Nice.     The  authenticity  of  this  verse  is  certainly  proble- 
matical, for  very  able  judges  have  formed  different  opinions  concern- 
ing it.     Mill,  the  celebrated  editor  of  the  New  Testament,  in  the 
beginning  of  the  last  century,  after  stating  at  great  length  the  argu- 
ments upon  both  sides,  gives  it  as  his  judgment,  that  the  verse  is 
genuine.     But  Griesbach,  the  latest  editor  of  the  New  Testament, 
after  a  long  investigation,  declares  in  the  most  decided  manner,  that 
the  strongest  testimonies  and  arguments  are  against  this  verse  ;  and 
that,  if  it  is  admitted  npon  the  slight  grounds  which  have  been  alleged 
in  defence  of  it,  Textus  Novi  Teslamenti  iiniversus  plane  incertus 
esset  tttque  dubiiis.     This  was  also  the  opinion  of  Porson,  the  late 
celebrated  Greek  Professor  in  England,  and  of  Herbert  Marsh,  the 

*  1  Cor.  viii.  6.     1  Tim.  i.  17  ;  vi.  16.  f  1  Thes.  i.  9. 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    TRINITr.  369 

Editor  of  Michaelis.  I  must  accede  to  such  authorities— and  I  have 
further  to  say,  that  even  aUhough  we  should  admit  this  verse,  we 
cannot  positively  athrm  that  it  teaches  an  unity  of  nature  in  three 
persons  ;  for  it  may  mean  nothing  more  than  an  agreement  in  that 
record,  which  all  the  three  are  there  said  to  bear. 

It  is  not,  then,  upon  this  controverted  verse  in  John's  Epistle,  nor 
upon  the  probability,  however  strong,  that  the  emphatical  words  of 
our  Lord,  "  I  and  my  Father  are  one,"  mean  something  more  than 
an  unity  of  purpose,  that  the  unity  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the 
Holy  Ghost  ought  to  be  rested  ;  but  it  is  upon  the  following  clear 
induction.  The  Scriptures,  in  conformity  with  right  reason,  declare 
that  there  is  one  God :  at  the  same  time,  they  lead  us  to  consider 
every  one  of  three  Persons  as  truly  God.  But  the  one  of  these  pro- 
positions must  be  employed  to  qualify  the  other ;  and  therefore  there 
certainly  is  some  sense  in  which  these  three  persons  are  one  God. 
This  induction  is  confirmed  by  the  language  of  the  New  Testament, 
which  never  speaks  of  three  Gods,  but  uniformly  mentions  these 
three  persons  in  such  a  manner  as  to  suggest  an  union  of  council  and 
operation  infinitely  more  perfect  than  any  which  we  behold. 

The  force  of  the  induction  which  I  have  now  stated  has  been  felt 
in  all  ages  of  the  church.  The  earliest  Christian  writers,  who  paid 
the  same  honours  to  the  Son  and  to  the  Holy  Ghost  as  to  the  Father, 
declared  their  abhorrence  of  polytheism,  and  considered  themselves 
as  worshippers  of  the  one  true  God.  In  the  second  century,  the  word 
rgtaj,  trinitas,  was  imported  from  the  Platonic  school,  to  express  the 
union  of  the  three  persons  ;  and  the  whole  succession  of  Ante-Nicene 
fathers,  although  their  illustrations  are  not  always  the  most  pertinent, 
discover  by  innumerable  passages  that  they  worshipped  the  Father, 
the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  constituting  what  TertuUian  calls,  hi 
the  second  century,  Triniias  unius  divinitatis,  and  Cyprian,  in 
the  third,  Adunata  trinitas,  and  Athanasius,  in  the  fourth,  oScaigfT-oj 


Section  II. 

The  first  attempt,  in  the  way  of  speculation,  to  reconcile  with  the 
unity  of  the  Godhead  what  Christians  had  learnt  to  call  the  Trinity, 
was  made  in  the  second  century  by  Praxeas,  and  was  continued,  in 
the  beginning  of  the  third  century,  by  Noetus,  and  in  the  middle  of 
it  by  Sabellius.  There  may  be  some  shades  of  difference  in  the  opi- 
nions of  these  three  men :  but  as  the  leading  parts  of  their  systeni 
were  the  same,  the  names  of  Praxeas  and  Noetus  came  to  be  lost  in 
the  name  of  Sabellius,  and  the  points  common  to  all  the  three  consti- 
tute that  system  of  the  Trinity  which  is  known  by  the  name  of  Sa- 
bellianism.  According  to  this  system,  God  is  one  Person,  who,  at 
his  pleasure,  presents  to  mortals  the  different  aspects  of  Father,  Son, 
and  Holy  Ghost.  In  respect  of  his  creating  and  preserving  all  things, 
he  is  the  Father ;  in  respect  of  what  he  did  as  the  Redeemer  of  men, 
he  is  the  Son  ;  and  in  respect  of  those  influences  which  he  exerts  in 
their  sanctification,  he  is  the  Holy  Ghost.     The  accounts  which  an- 

"3D 


370  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    TRINITY. 

cient  writers  give  of  the  opinions  of  Sabellius  lead  us  to  thinlc  that 
he  considered  the  distinction  of  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  as 
merely  nominal,  calling  God  r^icow^os.  But  several  circumstances, 
collected  by  the  acute  and  industrious  Mosheim,  render  it  probable 
that  Sabellius  conceived  a  ray  or  portion  emitted  from  the  divine  sub- 
stance to  have  been  joined  to  the  man  Jesus  Christ,  in  order  to  form 
the  Son ;  so  that  his  opinion  concerning  the  JPerson  of  Christ  coin- 
cided with  that  of  the  Gnostics,  who  considered  Jesus  Christ  as  a  man 
to  whom  an  emanation  of  the  Supreme  ]VIind  was  united,  and  with 
that  of  the  modern  Socinians,  who  consider  the  power  and  wisdom 
of  God  as  dwelling  in  the  man  Christ  Jesus.  But  even  after  this  re- 
finement upon  the  opinions  of  Praxeas  and  Noetus;  God  continued 
to  be  stated  in  this  system  as  one  person,  who  assumes  different  names 
from  the  different  aspects,  which  himself  or  a  part  of  himself  pre- 
sents :  and  the  true  character  of  Sabellianism  is  this,  that  it  destroys 
the  distinction  of  persons  Avhich  the  Scriptures  teach,  confounding  the 
sender  with  the  person  sent,  him  that  begat  with  him  that  is  begot- 
ten, and  the  Holy  Ghost  with  the  Father,  from  whom  he  is  said  to 
proceed.  TertuUian,  who  wrote  against  Praxeas  in  the  second  cen- 
tury, and  the  Avriters  of  the  third  who  opposed  Sabellius,  urge  with 
great  strength  of  argument  the  various  passages  in  which  this  dis- 
tinction is  expressed  or  implied :  and  that  they  might  place  in  the 
most  odious  light  the  doctrine  by  which  it  was  confounded,  they  gave 
to  Sabellius  and  his  followers  the  name  of  Patropassians,  meaning  to 
represent  it  as  a  consequence  of  their  doctrine,  that  the  God  and  Fa- 
ther of  all  had  endured  those  sufferings  which  the  Scriptures  ascribe 
to  Jesus  Christ. 

Sabellianism  preserves  in  the  most  perfect  manner  the  unity  of 
God ;  and  on  this  accomit  it  may  appear  to  be  the  most  philosophical 
scheme  of  the  Trinity.  But  insuperable  objections  to  it  arise  from 
the  language  and  views  introduced  into  the  New  Testament.  Those 
who  wrote  after  this  system  was  first  published,  were  so  sensible  of 
the  force  of  these  objections,  that  they  discover  an  extreme  solicitude 
to  express  clearly  the  distinction  between  the  Father  and  the  Son. 
They  were  sometimes  led  by  this  solicitude  into  modes  of  speaking, 
which  have  been  represented  as  inconsistent  with  a  belief  of  the  divi- 
nity of  the  Son ;  and  the  great  controversy  which  was  agitated  about 
a  hundred  years  ago,  with  regard  to  the  opinion  of  the  Ante-Nicene 
fathers  concerning  the  person  of  the  Son,  took  its  rise  from  this  cir- 
cumstance, that  there  being  in  their  times  some  who  denied  the  divi- 
nity of  our  Saviour,  and  others  who  denied  the  distinction  of  persons 
in  the  Godhead,  these  fathers  wrote  against  both,  and,  from  their  zeal 
for  the  truth,  or  from  the  eagerness  of  controversy,  used  expressions 
in  attacking  the  one  of  those  heresies,  which  it  is  not  easy  to  recon- 
cile with  the  expressions  used  against  the  opposite  heresy. 

The  language  employed  by  some  of  the  ancient  writers  in  con- 
demning Sabellianism  encouraged  Arius,  about  the  beginning  of  the 
fourth  centuiy,  to  avoid  every  appearance  of  confounding  the  person 
of  the  Father  and  the  Son,  by  broaching  an  opinion  whicli  his  con- 
temporaries represent  as  an  innovation,  till  that  time  unheard  of  He 
said  that  the  Son  was  a  creature  who  had  no  existence  till  he  was 
made  by  God  out  of  nothing — that  his  being  begotten  means  nothing 


DOCTRINE    OP    THE    TRINITY.  371 

more  than  liis  being  made  by  the  will  of  the  Father — and  that  this 
peculiar  term  is  applied  to  him,  because  he  was  made  before  all  other 
creatures,  that  he  might  be  the  instrument  of  the  Almighty  in  creat- 
ing them.  By  this  system  Arius  steered  clear  of  Sabellianism,  and 
at  the  same  time  he  preserved  the  unity  of  God.  For  Jesus  Christ, 
according  to  him,  is  in  reality  a  creature,  and  only  called  God  upon 
account  of  the  othces  in  which  he  was  employed,  and  the  honour  and 
dignity  with  which  he  Avas  invested  by  the  Father  Almighty.  To 
Arius,  therefore,  there  was  but  one  God,  in  the  proper  sense  of  that 
word  :  but  as  he  admitted  that  Jesus  Christ,  a  different  person  from 
the  Father,  was  also  God,  because  he  was  constituted  God,  ins  opi- 
nion must  be  stated  as  one  of  the  ancient  systems  of  the  Trinity. 

I  have  formerly  explained,*  at  great  length,  the  grounds  upon 
which  this  opinion  of  Arius  concerning  the  Son  was  rejected  by  the 
Christian  church.  At  present  I  have  to  advert  to  the  meaning  of 
those  terms  in  which  the  council  of  Nice,  A.  D.  325,  expressed  their 
condemnation  of  this  opinion.  The  council,  who  knew  the  sense  in 
which  Arius  applied  the  words  God,  and  only  begotten  Son  of 
God,  to  Jesus  Christ,  wished  to  frame  such  a  creed  as  could  not  be 
repeated  by  those  who  held  the  Arian  opinions;  and  with  this  view 
they  made  a  large  addition  to  the  second  article  of  the  ancient  creed, 
and  annexed  to  the  creed  a  condemnatory  clause,! 

The  word,  in  this  addition,  which  requires  the  most  particular  at- 
tention, upon  account  of  its  frequent  use  in  the  controversy  concern- 
ing the  Trinity,  is  uixoovsMi.  It  is  compounded  of  iftoj,  idem,  and  ou-na, 
substantia  ;  denoting  that  which  is  of  the  same  substance  or  essence 
with  another.  It  had  been  used  by  classical  Greek  writers  in  this 
sense.  So  Aristotle  says,  oftoowia  Tta-vt 0.0.^^0..  It  had  been  applied  J  by 
Christian  writers  long  before  the  council  of  Nice,  in  the  very  sense 
in  which  it  was  used  by  the  council :  and  it  only  expresses  the  amoinit 
of  those  images  which  had  been  employed  by  the  succession  of 
writers  from  the  earliest  times,  to  mark  the  relation  between  the  Fa- 
ther and  the  Son,  one  of  the  most  common  and  significant  of  which 
is  introduced  into  the  creed  itself,  t"?  ^^  ^uro;.  As  a  derived  light  is  the 
same  in  nature  with  the  original  light  at  which  it  was  kindled,  so, 
whatever  be  the  meaning  of  ^<^^  when  applied  to  the  Father,  the  word 
must  have  the  same  meaning  when  the  Son  is  called  i|>"?  (x  <pi^to^ . 

•   Book  iii.  cb.  I. 

f  Kai  ea,  tov  ivcf,  Kv^iov  Irj-jovv  'K^istorj,  tov  vlov  t'od  @eov,  ysvvr^^ ivta,  ix  -tov  rtarfo; 
^ovo/tv/i,  tovita-tiv  ix  t'j;?  oufjta;  tov  rtar^oj'  Qsov  tx  ^sov.  ^u;  (x  (f wm^ ,  ^j or  aXjj^tcoi' 
tx  ^iov  aXfjOwov,  yivvriOevta,  ov  TioirjOivta,  u^itoot'dtov  t^  rtaf^t,,  81  ov  ta  Tiav-ta  lyiviio.  x. 
T".  %'  T0U5  8s  Xfyorraq,  rjv  rCott,  ots  oit,  rjv,  xav  n^iv  yevvrjOrjiuv,  ovx  r^v,  xm  Lti  i%  ovx 
ovt^veyei'iro,  r;  e^  he^a;  v.-toTra-vfcoy  r; ou(Ti.as-  ^a^rxovro.^  f  ivat,  r]  xttatov,  r^  t^iTttov,  r]  a%\oiuitov 
-tov  vlov  roi)  0foii,  rovtong  avai,9ffia.ti^i'^  rj  xaOo'kixri  xai  artoa-toXt-xtj  ixxX-rj-iia.  The  second 
dause  is  thus  translated  by  the  church  of  Enfrlancl,  in  thai  creed  which  they  call  the  Nicene 
Creed,  and  which  forms  part  of  the  communion  service.  "  And  in  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
the  only  be;jotten  Son  of  God,  be;;otten  of  his  Father  before  all  worlds,  God  of  God,  Light 
of  Lisfht,  very  God  of  very  God.  begotten  not  maile,  being  of  one  substance  with  the  Fa- 
ther, by  whom  all  things  were  made,"  &.c.  &c.  The  anathematizing  clause  is  not  adopted 
by  the  church  of  England. 

t  Bull,  D.  F.  N.  28. 


372  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    TRINITY. 

There  is  a  circumstance  respecting  the  ancient  use  of  the  word 
iiuoovoLog,  whicli  it  is  proper  to  state,  because  it  creates  some  embarrass- 
ment, and  has  been  the  subject  of  satire  and  ridicule.  This  Avord, 
wliich  the  council  of  Nice  introduced  into  their  creed,  had  been  pro- 
hibited by  a  council  which  met  sixty  years  before  at  Antioch ;  and 
this  inconsistency  between  two  early  councils  has  been  stated  in  a 
light  very  unfavourable  to  the  uniformity  of  the  Christian  faith.  But 
the  true  account  of  the  matter  appears  to  be  this.  At  the  time  of  the 
council  at  Antioch,  the  controversy  was  with  the  Sabellians,  who  de- 
nied the  distinction  of  persons  between  the  Father  and  the  Son.  The 
Sabellians,  employing  every  method  to  fix  an  odium  upon  the  doc- 
trine generally  held  concerning  the  Son,  represented  the  word  o^ooikjioj, 
which  Christians  often  used,  as  implying  that  there  was  a  substance 
anterior  to  the  Father  and  the  Son,  of  which  each  received  a  part. 
The  council  of  Antioch  judged  that  the  easiest  way  of  repelling  this 
attack  of  the  Sabellians,  was  by  laying  aside  the  use  of  o^uoortftoj ;  and 
although  they  did  not  mean  to  acknowledge  that  those  who  had  used 
the  word  held  the  doctrine  said  by  the  Sabellians  to  be  couched  under 
it,  they  effectually  disowned  that  doctrine,  by  recommending  that 
other  terms  should  be  employed  for  expressing  the  CathoHc  opinion. 
At  the  time  of  the  Council  of  Nice,  Sabellianism  was  less  an  object 
of  attention.  The  impossibility  of  reconciling  that  system  with  the 
language  of  Scripture  had  been  completely  exposed ;  the  sense  of 
the  church  with  regard  to  the  distinction  of  the  Father  and  the  Son 
had  been  precisely  expressed ;  there  was  little  danger  of  any  misap- 
prehension of  terms  upon  this  subject ;  and  a  new  adversary,  who 
held  opinions  directly  opposite  to  those  of  Sabellius,  but  whose  sys- 
tem was  conceived  to  be  not  less  inconsistent  with  Scripture,  by  agree- 
ing Avith  the  church  in  the  expression  which  had  been  introduced  into 
former  creeds  concerning  the  Son,  seemed  to  demand  some  unequi- 
vocal declaration  of  the  common  faith.  The  council  of  Nice,  therefore, 
whose  faith  we  have  the  best  reason  for  thinking  was  the  same  with 
that  of  the  council  of  Antioch,  revived  the  word  o^oovmoi;,  not  in  the 
Sabellian  sense,  upon  account  of  which  the  council  of  Antioch  had 
laid  it  aside,  but  in  the  sense  in  which  it  had  been  used  by  more  an- 
cient writers,  and  in  which  it  was  perfectly  agreeable  to  the  general 
train  of  their  doctrine  ;  and  the  reason  of  the  council's  adopting  this 
particular  phrase  was  this,  that  no  other  could  be  found  so-  diamet- 
rically opposite  to  the  Arian  system.  For  although  the  Arians  might 
call  Jesus  God,  meaning  that  he  was  constituted  God,  and  might  say 
that  he  was  begotten  of  the  Father,  meaning  by  begotte-tt  created,  yet 
as  they  held  that  he  was  made  fl  ovx  ovtuv,  they  could  not  say  that  he 
was  f»  ■ir;s  outfta;  rtat^o^ ;  and  as  they  said  that  he  was  fx  tr,i;  itf^a.^  ov  6105, 
being  a  creature  in  respect  of  the  Creator,  they  could  not  say  that  he 
Avas  Oiitoovutoj.  Eusebius,  the  patron  of  the  Arians,  declared  in  a  letter 
to  the  council  of  Nice,  that  this  word  was  incompatible  with  their 
tenets ;  and  for  this  very  reason  we  are  told  it  was  adopted  by  the 
council,  that  according  to  an  expression  of  Ambrose,  which  has  been 
often  quoted,  "  with  the  sword  which  the  heresy  itself  had  drawn 
from  the  scabbard,  they  might  cut  off  the  head  of  the  monster." 

Whether  it  would  have  been  more  prudent  to  have  avoided  a  term 
which  a  great  body  of  Christians  declared  they  could  not  use,  and  to 


DOCTRINE    OP    THE    TRINITY.  373 


have  introduced  into  the  creed  only  those  general  Scripture  phrases 
in  which  the  Arians  were  ready  to  join  with  the  Catholics,  is  a  point 
to  be  decided  by  some  of  the  general  principles  of  church  govern- 
ment.  At  present,  in  explaining  the  terms  that  have  been  mtroduced 
into  the  controversy  concerning  the  Trinity,  Ave  have  only  to  observe, 
that  an  aversion  to  the  word  u,aoov-tio;  is  the  mark  which  distinguishes 
all  those  who  hold  any  modification  of  the  Arian  system.     Some  of 
the  followers  of  Arius,  wishing  to  avoid  the  harshness  of  calling  so 
exaUed  a  Being  a  creature,  said  that  the  Son  was  ditferent  from  all  other 
creatures,  but  still  they  were  obliged  by  their  principles  to  say  that 
he  was  ai'o,«o^oq  tQ  rfatgi.     Others  who  received  the  name  Semi-Arians, 
substituted  o^wowiffto?  in  place  of  ojuooucno;,  i.  e,  they  admitted  that  ,the 
Son  was  not  only  unlike  all  other  creatures,  but  that  he  was  like  the 
Father,  having  this  peculiar  privilege  granted  to  him,  to  have  a  sub- 
stance in  all  things  similar  to  that  of  God.     The  Semi-Arians  spoke 
in  the  highest  terms  of  the  dignity  of  the  Son ;  and  it  was  not  easy 
for  those  who  approached  so  near  to  one  another  as  the  Catholics  and 
they  did,  to  preserve,  upon  an  incomprehensible  subject,  a  marked 
difference  in  their  writings.    But  the  Semi-Arians  never  admitted  the 
word  uuooi;5io<;  into  their  creeds,  because  it  implied  more  than  tliey  be- 
lieved. They  believed  that  the  Father  had  granted  to  the  Son  a  simi- 
larity to  himself;  but  ifwor-tioj  implies  that  there  is  an  essential  same- 
ness of  nature  between  them. 

We  are  thus  led,  by  the  explication  of  this  discriminating  term,  to 
what  I  called  the  third  or  Catholic  system  of  the  Trinity,  which  may 
be  shortly  expressed  in  words  of  common  use^  with  the   Ancient 

Church,  ;"'»  OWM  XM  T'gf  15  vfioatausHi  OY,  "5  ©£05  f"  f C'crt)^  vrtoitaJEJi. 


Section  III. 

The  ecclesiastical  sense  of  the  word  irfosfa^tj  was  not  perfectly 
ascertained  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century.  By  some  it  was 
considered  as  denoting  the  being  or  subsistence  of  a  thing,  and  so  as 
equivalent  to  ovsia :  by  others  it  was  understood  to  mean  that  Avhich 
has  a  subsistence,  the  thing  subsisting,  a  person.  It  appears  to  be 
used  in  the  first  sense  by  the  council  of  Nice,  when  in  one  part  of  the 
anathematizing  clause  they  condemn  those  who  said  that  the  Son 
f|  tri^ai  ovaiaj  rj  irioaiarifui  nmi ;  and  according  to  this  seusc  the  council  ot 
Sardis,  in  the  fourth  century,  declared  fttar  nvac  i-^toataacv  tov  nat^o^  xat  rov 
vlov,  xav  tov  dytov  rtuivuatoi.  Had  the  couucil  mcaut  by  vrtoaraaij,  a  person, 
their  decree  would  have  been  pure  Sabellianism.  Some  alarm  was 
spread  through  the  church  when  the  decree  was  first  published,  from 
an  apprehension  that  this  might  be  the  meaning  of  it.  But  when  tlie 
matter  came  to  be  investigated,  it  was  found  that,  as  the  council  ot 
Sardis  understood  x-rtosra^;  in  the  first  sense,  and  those,  who  said  r^»; 
luuo  irtogfa^sii,  understood  it  in  the  second,  the  meaning  of  both  was 
precisely  the  same  ;  and  after  this  explication,  it  was  generally  under- 
stood that  ov6ca  should  denote  the  being  or  essence  of  a  thing,  vrto-raot; 
the  person  subsisting.  In  this  sense  the  last  word  had  been  used  by 
the  Platonic  school  and  by  many  of  the  Christian  v/riters,  before  the 
34 


374  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    TRINITY. 

council  of  Nice.  It  is  explained  in  the  ancient  Greek  lexicons  by 
rt^oauTiov,  and  it  was  rendered  by  the  Latins  persona,  a  living  intelli- 
gent agent. 

The  third  system,  then,  was  distinguished  from  Sabellianism,  by 
admitting  t^n-s  irtoaracrfi; ;  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  in- 
stead of  being  considered  as  one  person  manifesting  himself  in  various 
ways,  were  stated  as  three  persons,  each  of  whom  has  a  permanent 
distinct  subsistence.  It  was  distinguished  from  Arianism  by  ascribing 
to  all  the  three  persons  h^M  ovoia.     And  as  Athanasius  speaks,  to  ix^v 

^vauv  Sr;%oi,  trjt  ^cotftj-toi-  -to  Ss  taj  itov  r^ouv  tStor'jjraj.       Those    who    held    this 

system  would  not,  with  the  Arians,  call  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost 
its^ovoM,  because  this  conveyed  the  idea  of  separation  and  inferiority, 
such  an  essential  difference,  as  there  is  between  the  nature  of  the 
creature  and  that  of  the  Creator.  Neither  did  they  adopt  the  words 
tavtoovdiot,  and  ^orootcdot,  because  these  might  seem  to  favour  the  Sabel- 
lian  confusion  of  persons.  But  they  said  the  three  persons  were 
ofioovoLci,  of  one  substance.     Jesus  Christ,  said  the  council  of  Chalcedon, 

is  o^itooDotoj  rjfuv  jcttT'a  tt^v  avO^urtotrita,  XM  o^ooi^Otoj  rtar^c  xa-ta  "trjv  ^sotrira  :  ail  ex- 
pression which  leads  us  to  conceive  the  meaning  of  the  church  in 
those  days  to  have  been,  that  as  all  men  partake  of  the  same  human 
nature,  so  the  divine  nature  was  common  to  three  persons. 

But  it  will  occur  to  you  that  three  persons  having  a  distinct  sub- 
sistence, and  having  the  same  divine  nature,  are  in  reality  three  Gods ; 
that  the  most  perfect  agreement  in  purpose,  and  the  most  invariable 
consent  in  operation,  do  by  no  means  correspond  to  that  unity  of  God, 
which  is  a  first  principle  of  natural  religion ;  and  that  if  those  who 
held  the  third  opinion  had  reason  to  accuse  the  Arians  of  Paganism 
and  idolatry  for  worshipping  a  supreme  and  an  inferior  God,  the 
Arians  had  reason  to  accuse  them  in  turn  of  polytheism  for  believing 
in  three  Gods.  Accordingly,  the  names  which  Mr.  Gibbon  gives  to 
the  three  distinct  systems  concerning  the  nature  of  the  Divine  Trinity, 
which  he  professes  to  delineate  in  the  second  volume  of  his  History, 
are  these,  x\rianism,  Tritheism,  Sabellianism ;  and  the  charge  which  is 
commonly  brought  against  Athanasians,  the  name  given  to  those  who 
hold  the  third  or  Catholic  opinion,  is  that  they  are  tritheists.  It  is 
certain,  however,  that  Athanasius  and  his  followers  uniformly  dis- 
claimed tritheism, — and  that  while  they  asserted  the  equahty  of  the 
Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost  with  the  Father,  by  saying  that  the  divine 
nature  was  common  to  all  the  three,  they  maintained,  at  the  same 
time,  that  the  three  persons  were  united  in  a  manner  perfectly  different 
from  that  union  which  subsists  amongst  individuals  of  the  same 
species.  In  order,  therefore,  to  do  justice  to  the  Catholic  system,  it  is 
necessary  to  state  the  manner  in  which  those  who  hold  this  system 
endeavoured  to  reconcile  the  divine  unity  with  the  subsistence  of  the 
three  persons.  What  I  have  read  of  their  writings  upon  this  subject, 
appears  to  me  reducible  to  two  heads.  1.  That  the  Father  is,  in 
their  language,  the  fountain  of  deity,  the  principle  and  origin  of  the 
Son  and  Holy  Ghost.  2.  That  the  three  persons  are  inseparably 
joined  together. 

1.  The  Father  is  the  fountain  of  deity,  rt^y^  ^(oir;toi.  They  called 
the  Father  0.^x^1^  not  in  the  common  sense  of  that  word,  the  beginning, 
as  if  the  Father  existed  before  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  in  the 


I 


{ 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    TRINITF.  375 

philosophical  sense  of  the  word,  the  principle  from  which  another 
arises.  In  tliis  sense  he  was  called  ava^xoi—aynvrjroi—airia  v'mv.  It  was 
said  to  be  implied  in  the  very  name  of  Father  that  he  was  atna  xm 
a^xv  "^^v  «?  *''*o"  y^vvfiSivtoi ;  and  the  difference  of  the  three  persons  was 
conceived  to  consist  in  this,  that  the  Father  was  avw-twi ;  and  that  both 
the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost  were  MtM-toi. 

Upon  this  principle  the  ancient  Catholics  gronnded  the  Unity  of 
God.  They  did  not  conceive  that  there  were  three  unoriginated 
beings,  but  that  there  was  (""-a  a.e,xn  ^cotj^roj,  and  that  the  Father,  by 
being  the  o^xnAs,  the  tmatj.  God,  they  said,  is  one  because  the  Son 
and  the  Holy  Ghost  are  referred  "s  tv  mhov.  On  this  account  they 
held,  that,  although  there  are  three  Persons  in  the  Godhead,  f^om^ 

Dilferent  names  were  employed  to  express  the  manner  of  causation 
with  regard  to  the  two  persons  who  were  considered  as  attiarot.  It 
was  said  of  the  one  that  he  was  begotten,  of  the  other  that  he  pro- 
ceeded. The  generation  of  the  one  was  suggested  by  his  being  called 
in  Scripture  vlo;  tov  Qiov — novoytvrji  rta^tt  rtttf^oj.  The  procession  of  the 
other  was  suggested  partly  by  his  being  called  rtJ'sv^a,  a  nfsi^,  spii'o,  I 
send  forth  breath  ;   and  partly  by  our  Lord's  saying  in  one  place, 

John  XV.  26,  to  rf»'ft),utt  trii  aXtjOna^,  6  rta^a,  tov  rtar^oj  ixTio^ivitai,.    But  although 

generation  be  applied  to  the  Son,  we  must  be  sensible  that  the  man- 
ner in  Avhich  he  derived  his  origin  from  the  Father  cannot  bear  any 
analogy  to  the  proper  meaning  of  the  word  ;  and  that  all  attempts  to 
explain  the  manner  of  this  derivation  must  be  in  the  highest  degree 
presumptuous  and  unprofitable.  The  procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
is  a  word  of  more  general  signification,  and  does  not  convey  any  pre- 
cise idea  of  the  manner  in  which  this  Person  is  derived.  It  is  appro- 
priated to  Him,  because  the  Scripture  nowhere  says  of  him  that  he  is 
begotten  of  the  Father.  But  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  form  a  clear 
apprehension  of  the  distinction  between  procession  and  generation, 
the  two  terms  which  are  stated  as  the  tStots^raj  of  the  Son  and  the 
Holy  Ghost ;  both  denote  the  communication  of  the  divine  essence 
from  the  Father ;  and  all  the  attempts  of  ancient  and  of  modern 
writers  to  discriminate  the  modes  in  which  the  communication  may 
be  made,  consist  of  words  without  meaning. 

Although  those  who  held  the  system  of  the  trinity  maintained  the 
unity  of  the  Godhead,  by  saying  that  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost 
were  derived  from  the  Father,  they  are  not  to  be  understood  as 
meaning  that  the  existence  of  these  two  Persons  had  a  beginning,  or 
that  the  Father,  after  existing  for  some  time  alone,  brought  them  into 
being  by  an  act  of  his  will,  and  imparted  to  them  such  powers  as  he 
chose.  This  is  the  Arian  creed ;  but  it  cannot  be  received  by  those 
who  hold  t^tiivTioatarseiiivfiuLovaia;  for  the  divine  nature,  being  incapa- 
ble of  change,  cannot  be  extended  to  three  Persons  after  having  been 
peculiar  to  one ;  and  if  the  being  of  two  of  these  Persons  had  been 
precarious,  communicated  to  them  at  a  certain  time  by  the  will  of 
another,  both  of  them  would  want  eternity  and  immutability,  two  of 
the  essential  properties  of  the  divine  nature. 

The  Athanasians,  therefore,  in  consistency  witli  t!ie  leading  princi- 
ples of  their  system,  considered  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost  as  having 
always  existed  with  the  Father;  and  they  illustrated  their  meaning 


376  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    TRINITY. 

by  saying  that  as  light  cannot  exist  without  effulgence,  nor  the  sun 
without  emitting  his  rays,  nor  the  mind  without  reason — so  the 
Father  never  existed  without  the  Son  and  the  Spirit. 

Tlie    Son   was    vlo^  cuStoj  cuSlov  Ttarcoi — uv  crwcuSioj  xat  to  Kv^cca  jinvuari,.* 

And  in  the  confession  of  faith  of  Gregory,  an  illustrious  writer  of 
the  third  century,  after  a  description  of  the  three  Persons,  it  is  added, 

T^taj  rfkiia  60;-/;,  xat  aiStoTrji  xai  6^:10^1.0.  ^11;  fXi^L^oanr^. 

The  same  general  reasonmg  applies  to  the  necessary  and  eternal 
co-existence  of  both  the  atrtarot  with  the  atnoj.  But  as  tlie  dignity  of 
the  person  of  the  Son  was  much  more  an  object  of  attention  and  con- 
troversy in  the  early  ages,  than  that  of  the  Spirit,  most  of  the  images, 
and  the  greatest  part  of  the  language  employed  on  this  subject  refer 
particularly  to  him.  ~  One  of  the  images,  probably  suggested  by  the 
Apostle  John's  often  calling  the  Son  >-oyo5,  arose  from  the  meaning  of 
that  word.  It  was  said  by  the  Platonic  fathers,  that  "  God,  being  an 
eternal  intelligence,  from  the  beginning  had  the  ?.o-/oj  in  himself,  being 
eternally  rational ;"'  and  hence  they  often  called  Jesus  Christ  ?-o>oj 
cuStoj  rtaTgoj.  I  shall  illustrate  this  principle  by  the  words  of  Bishop 
Horsley,  who  concurs  in  it  with  the  ancient  Platonists.  ''  The  per- 
sonal subsistence  of  a  divine  ^-oyo,  is  implied  in  the  very  idea  of  a  God. 
The  argument  rests  on  a  principle  v^diich  was  common  to  all  the 
Platonic  fathers,  and  seems  to  be  founded  on  Scripture,  that  the  ex- 
istence of  the  Son  flows  necessarily  from  the  divine  intellect  exerted 
on  itself;  from  the  Father's  contemplation  of  his  own  perfections. 
For  as  the  Father  ever  was,  his  perfections  have  for  ever  been,  and 
his  intellect  hath  been  ever  active.  But  perfections  which  have  ever 
been,  the  ever-active  intellect  must  ever  have  contemplated  ;  and  the 
contemplation  which  hath  ever  been,  must  ever  have  been  accom- 
panied with  its  just  effect,  the  personal  existence  of  the  Son."t 

This  method  of  illustrating  the  necessary  co-existence  of  the  Son 
with  the  Father,  which  has  passed  from  the  Platonic  fathers  of  the 
second  century  through  a  succession  of  Athanasian  writers  to  the 
present  time,  does  certainly  convey  to  ordinary  readers  an  idea  that 
the  Son  is  merely  an  attribute  of  the  Father,  the  reason  of  God  ;  and, 
accordingly.  Dr.  Priestley  and  others  have  represented  the  earlier 
writers  who  called  the  Son  J-oyoj,  as  speaking  a  Sabellian  language ; 
and  they  say  that  it  was  to  avoid  the  Sabellianism  implied  in  the  use 
of  this  word,  that  the  Arians  made  a  distinction  between  the  ^o-^oj, 
which  always  was  with  God,  i.  e.  his  own  reason,  and  the  ^-cyoj  by 
whom  he  made  the  world,  i.  e.  the  person  whom  he  created  to  be  the 
instrument  of  making  other  things.  The  former  is  ?.oyo5  iv^toSircc, 
ratio  insita,  reason.  The  latter  is  >.oyo;  rt§c$o^txoj,  ratio  prolata,  speech, 
reason,  brought  forth  in  words.  The  Son,  said  Arius,  might  be  com- 
pared to  the  latter,  in  order  to  express  that  he  proceeded  immediately 
from  God,  but  he  cannot  be  compared  to  the  former,  which  means 
only  an  attribute  of  the  Deity.  This  was  a  distinction,  by  which 
Arius  wished  not  only  to  avoid  the  appearance  of  Sabellianism,  but 
also  to  evade  the  argument,  for  the  necessary  and  eternal  co-existence 
of  the  Son  with  the  Father,  drawn  from  his  being  called  >-0705  Ofoj;.  It 
cannot  be  denied  that  the  analogy  between  the  relation  of  the  Father  to 

*  Bull,  D.  F.  N.  199.  .  t  Horsley's  Tracts,  p.  61.  3d.  edit. 


DOCTRIXE    OF    THE    TRIMXr.  377 

the  >-oyo?,  and  the  relation  of  every  man's  mind  to  its  own  thoughts, 
which  the  early  writers  laid  hold  of  as  furnishing  an  argument  for  the 
eternal  co-existence  of  the  Son,  was  pursued  too  far  by  some  of  them, 
and  that  the  obscurity  and  inconsistency  which  always  tlow  from  an 
abuse  of  images,  was  the  consequence.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  cer- 
tain that  the  very  same  writers,  who  make  the  most  frequent  use  of 
this  image,  far  from  conceiving  the  ?-o-;0?  to  be  an  attribute  of  the  Father, 
speak  of  the  Son  as  a  distinct  person,  and  as  eternal ;  it  has  been 
made  probable  by  Bishop  Bull,  that,  when  they  spoke  of  ^jo-o?  «4ta9croj, 
they  meant  a  person,  the  offspring  of  the  divine  mind,  who  having 
been  from  eternity  with  the  Father,  became  before  the  creation  >-o',ci 
Tt^^po^ixor,  and  we  know  that  Athanasius,  probably  aware  of  the  abuse 
of  this  image,  does  not  approve  of  applying  either  f-oyoi  n-6ia9etoi  or  >j>io; 
.-t^o^oetxor  as  a  description  of  the  Son,  but  calls  him  vloc  avTortyjr:. 

The  distinction,  which  the  ancient  Catholic  writers  upon  the  Trinity 
made  between  J^y^j  frSta^troj  and  >-0;W  neopoeixo;,  is  connected  with  a 
circumstance  ^vhich  has  contributed  very  much  to  this  apparent 
embarrassment  and  contradiction  in  what  they  say  of  the  person  of 
the  Son.  The  circumstance  is  this,  that  the  generation  of  the  Son 
has  with  them  different  meanings,  according  as  it  respects  the  divine 
nature  of  this  person,  or  his  exertions  towards  the  creatures.  The 
generation  of  the  Son  properly  means  the  manner  in  which  the  divine 
essence  was  from  all  eternity  communicated  to  him.  In  respect  of 
this,  he  is  styled  in  Scripture  uMoynri  .ta^a  .tor^oj ;  and,  in  the  Nicene 
creed,  ©foj  «  eim.-;  and,  in  reference  to  this,  Athanasius  says,  0{o>  ojn.ii' 
-ati  zov  v'lov  rcarr^  (ifi.  But  the  aucicuts  oftcu  speak  of  a  generation 
of  the  Son  which  took  place  at  a  particular  time,  immediately  befoiie 
the  creation  of  the  world.  By  this  they  mean,  not  the  beginning  of 
his  existence,  but  the  display  of  his  powers  in  the  production  of 
external  objects.  In  reference  to  this,  Athanasius  explains  the 
expression  which  Paul  applies  to  the  Son,  new-roroxoj  na^r?  xnr.ti^e, 
begotten  before  all  creation  :  not  that  he  then  began  to  he,  for  he»had 
existed  as  a  distinct  person  from  all  eternity,  but  he  had  remained 
with  the  Father  without  exerting  his  powers  upon  external  objects, 
and  at  the  creation  came  forth  from  the  Father.  This,  therefore, 
was  properly  named  rtfo^y^rtj — Tt^oSoyjr,  prolatio,  the  projection  of  his 
energies ;  and  the  ancient  writers  who  gave  it  the  name  of  genera- 
tion, never  conceived  that  this  coming  forth  to  act  was  the  beginning 
of  the  Son's  existence.  But  the  Arians,  laying  hold  of  this  improper 
expression,  and  shelterins  their  opinion  concerning  the  creation  of  the 
Son  under  what  the  ancients  had  said  of  his  figurative  generation, 
declared  it  to  be  an  article  o(  their  faith,  that  the  Son  did  not  exist 
before  he  was  begotten.  The  declaration  appears  to  carry  intrinsic 
evidence  of  its  own  truth.  Yet  the  council  of  Nice  condemned  those 
who  say  of  the  Son  n^iv  yn-vrerxxu  otxrr:a  part  of  the  anathematizing 
clause,  of  which  we  could  not  make  sense,  if  we  d*d  not  know  that 
the  ancient  writers,  who  say  that  the  Son  was  begotten  when  he 
came  forth  to  create,  tmderstood  by  this  expression  merely  a  figura- 
tive generation,  not  the  beginning  of  his  existence  but  the  exertion  of 
his  powers,  and  that  they  believed  that  before  this  ri^otuv-^u,  o  >.o^t>j,  as 
John  speaks,  r»  -teoj  rot  ©jw. 

There  is  yet  a  third  generation  of  which  the  ancients  speak,  when 

34*  SE 


378  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    TRINITY. 

"  the  Word  was  made  flesh."  This  generation  is  part  of  that  otxoiouia 
which  the  Scriptures  reveal,  and  there  is  much  better  authority  for 
applying  the  word  generation  in  this  sense  than  in  the  former.  For 
the  angel  said  to  Mary,  "  the  Holy  Ghost  shall  come  upon  thee, — 
therefore,  also,  that  hol)^  thing  which  shall  be  born  of  thee  shall  be 
called  the  Son  of  God."* 

It  is  plain  from  what  has  been  said,  that  neither  the  Tt^oi^Bvavi  of  the 
Son,  nor  his  incarnation,  has  any  connexion  with  the  manner  of  his 
being.  They  were  only  what  the  ancients  called  cvyxata^cxastu  acts  of 
condescension  in  a  person  who  had  a  complete  existence.  But  in  this 
view  they  serve  to  illustrate  the  first  principle  of  wliich  we  are  now 
speaking.  For,  by  being  acts  of  condescension,  they  imply  that 
subordination  in  the  Son  which  results  from  the  Father's  being  the 
foundation  of  deity.  There  cannot  be  degrees  of  perfection  in  the 
godhead,  a  greater  and  a  less  divinity  ;  and,  if  the  Son  be  o^oovaioi 
Ttaf^i,  he  must  possess  all  the  essential  perfections  of  deity.  But  he  is, 
in  this  respect,  less  than  the  Father,  that  he  hath  received  them  from 
him.  He  is  avtoOioi,  a  word  of  frequent  use  among  the  ancient  writers 
of  the  Trinity,  if  the  word  be  understood  to  mean  ipse  Dens,  very 
God,  but  he  is  not  avToOsoi  if  the  word  be  understood  to  mean  Dens  a 
se  ipso  ;  for,  in  this  sense,  the  Father  alone  is  avtodeoi,  while  the  Son 
is  ^soj  IX  ^lov.  When  Jesus  therefore,  says,  "  my  Father  is  greater  than 
I,"  although,  upon  the  principles  of  the  third  system,  he  cannot  mean 
any  ditference  of  nature,  he  may  mean  that  pre-eminence  of  tlie 
Father  which  is  necessarily  implied  in  his  being  ayfijjjroj;  a  pre- 
eminence which  does  not  appear  to  us  to  admit  of  any  act  of  condes- 
cension in  the  Father,  of  his  receiving  a  commission,  or  being 
appointed  to  hold  an  office  ;  whereas  there  is  a  manifest  congruity  in 
the  Son,  who  derived  his  nature  from  the  Father,  being  employed  to 
exert  the  perfections  of  the  godhead  in  the  accomplishment  of  a 
particular  purpose.  Hence,  as  our  Lord  speaks  of  the  FatJjer's 
giving  him  a  commission,  of  his  being  sent  by  God,  of  his  coming  to 
do  the  will  of  God,  so  those  ancient  writers  who  represent  the  Son  as 
equal  to  the  Father,  speak  of  him  at  the  same  time  as  ayyi^o;,  irtt^^ctt;? 
Qcov;  and  the  fitness  of  that  oixonoj-ua.,  which  he  undertook  for  the 
salvation  of  mankind,  results  from  the  essential  subordination  of  the 
Son  to  the  Father. 

In  like  manner,  the  Spirit  who  "  proceedeth  from  the  Father"  is, 
upon  that  account,  subordinate  to  the  Father.  Hence,  in  numberless 
places  of  Scripture,  he  is  both  called  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  is  said  to 
be  sent  by  the  Father,  But  the  Scriptures  intimate  also  a  subordina- 
tion of  the  Spirit  to  the  Son,  for  he  is  called  the  Spirit  of  Christ.  Jesus 
says,  in  the  discourse  formerly  quoted  from  John's  Gospel,  "  I  will 
send  him — He  shall  glorify  me  ;  for  he  shall  receive  of  mine,  and 
shall  show  it  to  you."'  It  is  not  indeed  any  where  said  in  Scripture, 
that  the  Spirit  proceedeth  from  the  Son,  and,  for  this  reason,  the 
council  of  Constantinople,  A.D.  381,  when  they  condemned  the  errors 
of  Macedonius,  introduced  amongst  the  exalted  tides  which  they 
applied  to  the  Spirit,  this  designation,  taken  literally  from  Scripture, 
TO  £x  tov  ftat^oi  exrto^evoixsiw.     In  the  fifteenth  century  it  became  a  con- 

*  Luke  i.  35.  f  John  xv.  26  ;  xvi.  14. 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    TRINITY.  379 

troversy  whether  the  Spirit,  not  in  respect  of  occasional  mission,  for 
none  could  deny  what  tlie  Scriptures  say  that  the  Spirit  is  sent  by  the 
Son,  but,  in  respect  of  liis  nature,  proceeds  from  the  Son  as  well  as 
from  the  Father.  Most  of  the  Greek  Fathers,  while  they  acknow- 
ledged the  personality  and  divinity  of  the  Spirit,  would  not  adopt  an 
expression  concerning  him,  which  appeared  to  them  improper,  because 
it  is  unscriptural,  and  preserved  the  language  of  the  council  of  Con- 
stantinople, to  rti'evjxa  o  ex  tov  rtar^oj  ixTto^ivtrai,.  But  the  Latin  fathers 
argued  in  this  manner.  Since  the  Spirit,  who  is  called  in  Scripture 
the  Spirit  of  God,  is  called  also  the  Spirit  of  his  Son  ;  and  since  the 
Spirit,  who  is  sent  by  the  Father,  is  also  said  to  be  sent  by  the  Son, 
it  follows  that  there  is  the  same  subordination  of  the  Spirit  to  the  Son 
as  to  the  Father.  But  the  subordination  of  the  Spirit  to  the  Father 
is  grounded  upon  his  proceeding  from  the  Father,  and  his  being 
subordinate  to  the  Son  must  have  the  same  foundation,  i.  e.  as  the 
divine  nature  was  communicated  by  the  Father  to  the  Son,  so  it  was 
communicated  by  the  Father  and  the  Son  to  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Upon  the  strength  of  this  reasoning,  the  Latin  fathers  made  an 
addition  to  the  creed  of  Constantinople,  and  instead  of  simply  trans- 
lating the  clause  used  in  that  creed,  "  qui  a  Patre  procedlt,""  they 
said,  ^'■qiii  a  Patre  Jilioque  procedity  The  Greek  churches,  who  did 
not  admit  the  truth  of  that  which  was  added,  were  enraged  at  the 
presumption  of  the  Latin  churches  in  making  an  addition,  upon 
account  of  their  peculiar  tenets,  to  a  creed  which  had  been  composed 
by  a  general  council,  and  had  been  declared  to  be  unchangeable  ;  and 
a  contention  for  authority  thus  mingling  itself,  as  has  often  happened 
in  the  church  of  Christ,  with  a  difference  of  opinion,  the  word 
'■'filioque"  came  to  be  an  ostensible  ground  of  that  schism  between 
the  Greek  and  Latin  churches,  which  began  in  the  eighth  century, 
and  continues  till  this  day.  The  reformed  churches,  without  vindicat- 
ing the  Latin  church,  or  asserting  its  right  to  make  the  addition, 
acquiesce  in  the  reasoning  upon  which  its  opinion  was  founded,  and 
say  with  it  that  the  Holy  Ghost  proceedeth  from  the  Father  and  the 
Son. 

I  have  now  stated  the  full  amount  of  the  first  principle,  by  which   / 
I  said,  those  who  hold  the  third  or  Catholic  system  of  the  Trinity,  / 
♦  endeavour  to  maintain  the  unity  of  God.     They  do  not  believe  in/ 
three  unoriginated  beings,  co-ordinate  and  independent.     But  they/ 
believe  in  three  persons,  from  the  first  of  whom  the  second  and  third; 
did,  from  all  eternity,  derive  the  nature  and  perfections  of  the  god4 
head;  and,  upon  this  communication  of  the  substance  of  the  Father* 
to  the  Son,  and  the  substance  of  the  Father  and  the  Son  to  the  Holy 
Ghost,  they  ground  that  gradual  subordination,  which,  with  an  entir^ 
sameness  of  nature,  constitutes  the  most  perfect  consent  and  co-opera- 
tion of  the  three  persons. 

But  after  we  have  admitted  all  that  is  implied  in  this  first  principle, 
the  third  system  of  the  Trinity  appears  to  fall  very  short  of  those 
conceptions  of  the  unity  of  God  which  reason  and  Scripture  teach  us 
to  form.     We  must  therefore  take  into  view  the  second  principle. 

2.  It  may  be  thus  expressed ;  the  three  persons  are  inseparably 
joined  together.  So  necessary  and  indissoluble  is  this  connexion, 
that  as  the  Father  never  existed  without  the  Son  and  the  Spirit,  so 


3S0  DOCTRINE    or    THE    TRINITY. 

the  Son  and  the  Spirit  were  not  separated  from  him,  by  being  produced 
out  of  his  substance.  Every  idea  of  section,  and  division,  and  inter- 
val, which  is  suggested  to  us  by  material  objects  and  by  individuals 
of  the  same  species,  is  to  be  laid  aside  when  we  raise  our  conceptions 
to  that  distinction  of  persons  under  which  the  Deity  is  revealed  to  us 
in  the  Scripture.  We  are  to  attempt  to  conceive  that  this  distinction 
does  not  dissolve  the  continuity  of  nature — that  while  every  one  of 
the  three  persons  has  his  distinct  subsistence,  they  are  never  (WfftffKjjutfct 

There  were  two  phrases  which  the  ancient  Catholics  employed  to 
mark  this  idea.  In  order  to  show  that  they  did  not  consider  the  Son 
as  sent  forth  from  the  Father,  as  our  children  are  sent  forth  to  have  an 
existence  separated  from  their  parents,  they  called  his  generation  an 
interior,  not  an  external  production,  meaning  that  he  remained  in  the 
Father,  from  whom  he  was  produced  ;  and,  in  order  to  mark  the  in- 
dissoluble connexion  of  all  the  three  persons,  they  used  the  word 
■ri:^t.xi^^f]ii,i  or  £^rff^t;t"C'?crK»  circu?n-incessio,  which  is  thus  defined,  "  that 
union  by  which  one  being  exists  in  another,  not  only  by  a  participa- 
tion of  nature,  but  by  the  most  intimate  presence  with  it,  so  that, 
although  the  two  beings  are  distinct,  they  dwell  in  and  penetrate  one 
another."  They  considered  both  these  phrases  as  warranted  by  such 
expressions  in  Scripture  as  the  following,  John  x.  38,  "  That  ye  may 
know  and  believe  that  the  Father  is  in  me  and  I  in  him  ;"  and,  John 
xiv.  10,  "  The  Father  that  dwelleth  in  me,  he  doth  the  works."  And 
they  considered  this  indwelhng  of  the  persons  in  one  another  as  com- 
pleting the  unity  of  God. 

If,  upon  this  subject,  they  sometimes  speak  unintelligibly,  and  at 
other  times  approach  to  the  language  of  Sabellianism,  the  apology  is 
to  be  found  in  their  own  confession,  that  the  manner  of  the  divine 
existence  is  above  the  comprehension  of  man,  and  in  their  anxiety  to 
reconcile  a  fundamental  truth  of  natural  religion  with  the  discoveries 
of  revelation. 

I  cannot  better  illustrate  the  third  or  Catholic  system  which  I  have 
now  delineated,  than  by  giving  an  account  of  what  is  called  the 
Platonic  Trinity.  I  do  not  mean  the  Trinity  held  by  Plato  himself; 
for,  although  it  has  been  said  that  this  philosopher  anticipated  the 
revelation  of  three  persons  in  the  godhead,  and  that  his  philosophy 
prepared  the  world  for  receiving  this  incomprehensible  truth,  yet  the 
passages  relating  to  this  subject,  which  I  either  found  in  his  works, 
when  I  read  them,  or  which  I  have,  since  that  time,  seen  extracted 
from  him,  are  so  few  in  number,  so  short,  and  so  obscure,  that  it  seems 
to  me  impossible  for  any  person,  who  had  not  much  previous  know- 
ledge of  the  subject,  to  draw  that  conclusion  from  them,  which  they 
have  sometimes  been  brought  to  establish.  It  has  been  said  indeed 
that  the  Trinity  of  persons  in  the  Deity  was  a  secret  doctrine  of  Plato, 
which,  although  couched  in  his  writings  under  dark  words,  was 
plainly  taught,  to  those  disciples  who  were  able  to  receive  it.  I  know  not 
upon  what  evidence  this  is  said  ;  but  supposing  it  to  be  true,  it  must  be 
allowed  that  this  secret  doctrine  was  not  published  to  the  world  till  the 
second  or  third  century  of  the  Christian  era,  when  the  Platonic  school, 
following  out  the  sublime  views  of  the  divine  nature  given  by  their 
master,  which  in  some  points  corresponded  with  the  Christian  revela- 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    TRINITY.  3S1 

lion,  and  themselves  enlightened  by  acquaintance  with  the  gospel, 
which  they  could  not  fail  to  acquire  while  it  was  spreading  over  the 
Roman  empire,  and  was  embraced  by  many  Platonists,  brought  for- 
ward in  the  language  of  Plato  a  scheme  very  mucli  resembling  what 
I  called  the  third  system  of  the  Trinity. 

The  following  is  a  short  view  of  this  scheme,  in  the  words  of 
Bishop  Horsley,  who  writes  like  one  deeply  read  in  ancient  philoso- 
phy, and  whose  acknowledged  eminence  as  a  man  of  science  procures 
credit  for  his  account  of  the  opinions  of  other  men.  Dr.  Priestley 
having  asserted  in  one  of  his  publications,  that  it  was  never  imagined 
that  the  three  component  members  of  the  Platonic  Trinity  were  either 
equal  to  each  other,  or  were,  strictly  speaking,  one,  his  zealous  and 
able  antagonist  ascribes  this  assertion  to  an  ignorance  of  the  true  prin- 
ciples of  Platonism,  and  opposes  to  it  the  following  account  of  these 
principles,  which  I  gather  from  different  parts  of  his  13th  letter  to  Dr. 
Priestley.  The  three  principles  in  the  Deity  are  to  ayaOoi;  goodness, 
vovi,  intelligence,  ■^vxr;,  vitality.  These  three,  strictly  speaking,  are 
more  one,  than  any  thing  in  nature  of  which  unity  may  be  predicted. 
No  one  of  them  can  be  supposed  without  the  other  two.  The  second 
and  third  being,  the  first  is  necessarily  supposed  ;  and  the  first  being, 
the  second  and  third  must  come  forth.  All  the  three  were  included 
by  the  Platonists  in  the  divine  nature,  the  T'o^ftov;  a  notion  implying 
the  same  equality  which  the  Christian  Fathers  maintained.  To  the 
first  principle  they  ascribed  an  activity  of  a  very  peculiar  kind — such 
as  might  be  consistent  with  an  undisturbed  immutability.  He  acts 
fisvuiv  IV  mv-tov  r;On,  by  a  simplc  iiidivisiblc  unvaried  energy  ;  which,  as 
it  cannot  be  broken  into  a  multitude  of  distinct  acts,  cannot  be 
adapted  to  the  variety  of  external  things ;  on  which,  therefore,  the 
first  God  acts  not,  either  to  create  or  to  preserve  them,  otherwise  than 
through  the  two  subordinate  principles.  But  eternal  activity  was 
supposed  to  be  the  consequence  of  the  goodness  of  the  Deity ;  and 
from  this  eternal  activity  flowed,  by  necessary  consequence,  the 
existence  of  intellect,  and  the  vital  principle,  in  which  alone  the  divine 
nature  is  active  upon  external  things.  Accor  ing  to  this  system  too 
the  world  was  supposed  to  be  eternal,  because  it  was  conceived  that 
the  goodness  of  the  Deity  could  not  suffer  that  to  be  delayed  which, 
because  he  hath  done  it,  appears  fit  to  be  done.  But  the  world  was 
supposed  to  be  eternal,  not  by  its  own  nature,  but  by  the  choice  of  a 
free  agent  who  might  have  willed  the  contrary  ;  Avhereas  intellect 
and  the  vital  principle  have  been  eternal  by  necessity,  as  branches  of 
the  divinity  ;  and  therefore,  when  the  converted  Platonists,  upon  the 
authority  of  revelation,  discarded  the  notion  of  the  world's  eternity, 
they  did  not  find  themselves  obliged  to  discard  with  it  the  eternity  of 
thepovi,  which  they  considered  as  equivalent  to  the  Christian  ^oyoj, 
because  that  was  an  eternity  of  quite  another  kind. 

Sucli  is  the  view  of  the  Platonic  Trinity  given  by  Dr.  Horsley  ;  and 
in  perfect  conformity  to  this  is  the  confession  of  his  faith  in  the  Chris- 
tian Trinity,  which  his  13th  and  15th  letters  to  Dr.  Priestley  contain, 
and  which  form  the  most  useful  recapitulation  that  I  can  give  of  what 
has  been  said  upon  the  Catholic  system.  "  I  hold,"  says  Dr.  Hors- 
ley, "  that  the  Father's  faculties  are  not  exerted  on  external  things, 
otherwise  than  through  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost ;  that  the  Scrip- 


382  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    TRINITY. 

tures,  by  discovering  a  trinity,  teach  clearly  that  the  metaphysical 
unity  of  the  divine  nature  is  not  an  unity  of  persons,  but  that  they  do 
not  teach  such  a  separation  and  independence  of  these  persons  as 
amounts  to  tritheism.  I  maintain  that  the  three  persons  are  one  being 
— one  by  mutual  relation,  indissolute  connexion,  and  gradual  sub- 
ordination ;  so  strictly  one,  that  any  individual  thing  in  the  whole 
world  of  matter  and  of  spirit  presents  but  a  faint  shadow  of  their 
unity.  I  maintain  that  each  person  by  himself  is  God,  because  each 
possesses  fully  every  attribute  of  the  divine  nature.  But  I  maintain 
that  these  three  Persons  are  all  included  in  the  very  idea  of  God.  I 
maintain  the  equality  of  the  three  Persons  in  all  the  attributes  of  the 
divine  nature,  and  their  equality  in  rank  and  authority  with  respect 
to  all  created  things,  whatever  relations  or  differences  may  subsist 
between  themselves.  Differences  there  must  be,  lest  we  confound 
the  persons,  which  was  the  error  of  Sabellius.  But  the  differences 
can  only  consist  in  the  personal  properties,  lest  we  divide  the  substance, 
and  make  a  plurality  of  independent  gods." 


Section  IV. 

The  third  or  Catholic  system  of  the  Trinity  is  the  declared  faith  of 
both  the  established  churches  of  Great  Britain.  The  first  of  the  thirty- 
nine  articles  of  the  church  of  England  contains  this  clause  :  "  And  in 
the  unity  of  this  Godhead  there  be  three  persons,  of  one  substance, 
power,  and  eternity,  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost."  And 
the  creed  called  the  Creed  of  Athanasius,  because  it  delivers  with 
great  fulness  of  expression  that  doctrine  of  which  he  was  the  distin- 
guished champion,  is  appointed  to  be  read  upon  certain  days,  as  the 
most  explicit  declaration  that  the  Church  of  England  is  equally  re- 
moved from  the  Sabellian  and  the  Arian  systems.  The  words  in  the 
second  chapter  of  our  Confession  of  Faith  are  nearly  the  same  with 
those  of  the  first  article  of  the  Church  of  England.  "  In  the  unity  of 
the  Godhead  there  be  three  persons,  of  one  substance,  power,  and 
eternity ;  God  the  Father,  God  the  Son,  and  God  the  Holy  Ghost. 
The  Father  is  of  none,  neither  begotten  nor  proceeding  ;  the  Son  is 
eternally  begotten  of  the  Father ;  the  Holy  Ghost  eternally  proceeding 
from  the  Father  and  the  Son."  And  this  doctrine  is  accounted  by 
our  church  so  essential,  that  it  is  introduced  into  the  catechism  which 
they  recommend  for  the  instruction  of  young  persons  in  the  principles 
of  the  Christian  religion. 

In  Scotland  there  were  few  publications  during  the  course  of  the 
last  century  that  particularly  respected  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity ; 
and  in  most  parts  of  the  country  the  minds  of  the  great  body  of  the 
people,  from  tlie  force  of  early  instruction,  acquiesce,  perhaps  without 
much  speculation  or  inquiry,  in  the  Catholic  system.  But  in  England 
many  writers,  since  the  beginning  of  the  last  century,  have  drawn 
a  large  share  of  the  public  attention,  and  have  produced  a  considerable 
degree  of  agitation  in  the  minds  of  Christians,  by  the  theories  which 
they  have  offered,  in  order  to  reconcile  the  trinity  of  persons  with  the 
unity  of  the  Godhead.     A  particular  account  of  these  theories  would 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    TRINITV.  383 

lead  into  a  very  perplexed  and  tedious  detail,  and  is  in  reality  of  no 
use,  because  all  of  them  approach  to  one  or  other  of  the  three  systems 
that  have  been  mentioned.  By  assuming  a  new  name  they  may 
seem  to  keep  clear  of  the  objections  that  have  been  urged  against 
their  parent  system ;  but  when  they  are  narrowly  canvassed,  they  are 
always  found  to  be  resolvable  into  the  same  principles,  and  they  must 
be  tried  upon  the  same  grounds. 

Although  for  these  reasons  I  shall  not  recite  the  names  of  all  who 
have  held  some  particular  opinion  about  the  Trinity,  or  attempt  to 
discriminate  their  tenets,  there  is  one  exception  which  I  cannot  avoid 
making.  Dr.  Samuel  Clarke  is  so  deservedly  held  hi  high  estimation 
for  his  abilities  as  a  general  scholar,  and  for  the  excellence  and  use- 
fulness both  of  his  sermons  and  of  his  discourses  on  the  evidence  of 
natural  and  revealed  religion  ;  his  theory  of  the  Trinity  is  a  work 
executed  with  such  labour  and  skill,  and  the  controversy  to  which  it 
gave  occasion  was  carried  on  with  such  eagerness  at  the  time,  and  is 
still  referred  to  in  so  many  theological  treatises,  that  there  would  be 
an  essential  defect  in  this  view  of  ophiions  concerning  the  Trinity,  if 
no  particular  notice  were  taken  of  his  system. 

Dr.  Clarke  has  entitled  his  book.  The  Scripture  Doctrine  of  the 
Trinity.  The  first  part  is  a  collection  and  explication  of  all  the  texts 
in  the  New  Testament  relating  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  The 
collection  is  a  complete  and  a  fair  one ;  his  explication  of  some  of 
the  texts  does  not  agree  with  the  interpretation  most  generally  re- 
ceived ;  but  he  defends  his  criticisms  like  a  scholar  and  an  acute  rea- 
soner  ;  and  upon  this  collection  of  texts  and  his  explication  of  them, 
is  founded  the  second  part,  in  which  what  he  accounts  the  true  doc- 
trine of  the  Trinity  is  set  forth  at  large  in  fifty-five  distinct  propositions. 
He  accompanies  these  propositions  with  references  to  the  particular 
texts  which  support  them,  and  often  both  with  illustrations  of  his 
own,  and  with  citations  from  ancient  and  modern  writers ;  his  object 
being  to  show  that  the  doctrine  which  he  professes  to  ground  upon 
the  Scriptures  is  also  agreeable  to  the  sentiments  of  the  succession  of 
ecclesiastical  writers.  It  has  been  said  that  there  is  not  the  same  fair- 
ness hi  his  citations,  as  in  the  collection  of  texts.  He  not  only  omits 
those  passages  which  are  unfavourable  to  his  own  opinion,  but  he 
often  leaves  out  parts  of  the  sentences  which  he  quotes,  and  he  gives 
them  in  so  detached  a  form,  that  they  sometimes  appear  to  speak  a 
meaning  perfectly  different  from  that  which  a  reader,  who  has  an  op- 
portunity of  comparing  them  with  the  context,  perceives  to  be  the 
sense  of  the  author.  His  book,  therefore,  is  by  no  means  a  safe  guide 
to  those  who  wish  to  be  instructed  in  the  sentiments  of  the  ancient 
church  with  regard  to  the  Trinity.  But  to  those  who  have  derived 
that  knowledge  from  other  less  exceptionable  authority,  or  who  read 
his  book  merely  from  a  desire  to  know  what  Dr.  Clarke  himself 
thought,  it  presents  the  following  consistent  and  intelligible  scheme, 
which  I  give  as  the  amount  of  the  fifty-five  propositions  that  consti- 
tute the  second  part  of  his  book. 

There  is  one  living  intelligent  agent,  or  person,  who  alone  is  self- 
existent,  the  author  of  all  being  and  the  origin  of  all  power,  who  is 
supreme  over  all.  With  this  first  Supreme  Cause  and  Father  of  all, 
there  has  existed  from  the  beginning  a  second  divine  person,  who  is 


384  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    TRINITY. 

his  Word  or  Son,  and  a  third  divine  person,  who  is  liis  Spirit ;  and 
tliese  three  are  distinguished  in  Scriptiu-e  by  their  personal  cliaracters. 
When  the  Scriptures  mention  the  one  God,  the  only  God,  or  God  by 
way  of  eminence,  they  always  mean  the  Person  of  the  Father.   The 
Son  derived  his  being  and  all  his  attributes  from  the  Father,  and 
therefore  he  is  not  the  self-existent  substance.     But  as  the  Scriptures 
have  not  declared  the  metaphysical  manner  of  this  derivation,  they 
are  worthy  of  censure  who  affirm  that  the  Son  was  made  out  of  no- 
thing ;  and,  as  the  Scriptures  never  make  any  limitation  of  time  in 
declaring  the  Son's  derivation  from  the  Father,  they  are  also  worthy 
of  censure  who  say  that  there  was  a  time  when  the  Son  was  not. 
The  Son  derived  his  being  from  the  Father,  not  by  mere  necessity  of 
nature,  but  by  an  act  of  the  Father's  incomprehensible  power  and 
will.     In  like  manner,  the  Spirit,  without  any  limitation  of  time,  de- 
rived his  being  from  the  Father.     The  Son  is  sometimes  called  God, 
not  on  account  of  his  metaphysical  nature,  hoAV  divine  soever,  but  on 
account  of  his  relative  attributes  and  divine  authority  communicated 
to  him  from  the  Father  over  us.     To  the  Son  are  ascribed  all  com- 
municable divine  powers,  i.  e.  all  powers  which  include  not  the  inde- 
pendence and  supreme  authority  by  which  the  God  and  Father  of  all 
is  distinguished ;  for,  in  this  the  Son  is  evidently  subordinate  to  the 
Father,  that  he  derived  his  being,  attributes,  and  power  from  the 
Father.    Every  action  of  the  Son  is  only  the  exercise  of  the  Father's 
power  communicated  to  him,  and  the  reason  Avhy  the  Scriptures, 
although  they  style  the  Father  God,  and  also  style  the  Son  God,  yet 
at  the  same  time  always  declare  there  is  but  one  God,  is,  because 
there  being  in  the  monarchy  of  the  universe  but  one  authority,  origi- 
nal in  the  Father,  derivative  in  the  Son,  therefore  the  one  God,  abso- 
lutely speaking,  always  signifies  him  in  whom  the  power  and  authority 
is  original  and  underived.    In  like  manner,  the  Holy  Spirit,  whatever 
his  metaphysical  nature  be,  and  whatever  divine  power  or  dignity  be 
ascribed  to  him,  is  evidently  subordinate  to  the  Father ;  and,  in  Scrip- 
ture, he  is  also  represented  as  subordinate  to  the  Son,  both  by  nature 
and  by  the  will  of  the  Father.     And  thus  all  authority  and  power  is 
original  in  the  Father,  and  from  him  derived  to  the  Son,  and  exer- 
cised according  to  the  will  of  the  Father,  by  the  operation  of  the  Son, 
and  by  the  influences  of  the  Spirit. 

This  system  was  regarded  at  its  first  appearance  as  heretical.     A 
prosecution  was  commenced  against  the  author  by  the  lower  house 
of  Convocation  in  England  ;  and  he  was  attacked  by  many  divines, 
at  the  head  of  Avhom  is  Dr.  Waterland.     After  reading  a  great  part 
of  what  has  been  written  by  Dr.  Clarke  and  his  antagonists,  it  appears 
to  me  that  the  diflerence  between  them  may  be  stated  Avithin  a  nar- 
row compass.    Dr.  Clarke  avoids  the  most  offensive  expressions  used 
by  the  Arians.     Instead  of  calling  Christ  a  creature,  or  limiting  the 
beginning  of  his  existence,  he  says  "  that  the  Son  was  eternally  be- 
gotten by  the  will  of  the  Father."     But  the  word  eternally  in  this 
sentence  means  nothing  more  than  that  the  Son  was  begotten  before 
all  ages,  before  those  measures  of  time  which  the  succession  of  created 
objects  furnishes,  in  the  incomprehensible  duration  of  the  Father's 
eternity :  and  the  phrase  "  by  the  will  of  the  Father,"  implies  that 
the  Father  might  not  have  produced  the  Son,  or  that  he  might  have 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    TRINITY.  385 

produced  him  at  any  other  time  as  well  as  at  the  time  when  he  did  ; 
so  that  however  great  the  powers  are  which  the  Father  hath  been 
pleased  to  communicate  to  the  Son,  he  is  not  essentially  God,  but 
there  are,  in  the  manner  of  his  existence,  a  mutability  and  a  depen- 
dence inconsistent  with  our  ideas  of  the  Divine  Nature.  The  opinion 
of  Dr.  Clarke,  therefore,  is  in  reality  that  of  Semi-Arians,  who  were 
called  Homoiousians,  because  they  exalted  Christ  above  the  rank  of 
creatures,  and  held  that,  not  by  necessity  of  nature,  but  by  special 
privilege,  he  was  like  to  God.  On  the  other  hand,  according  to  the 
third  system,  eternity  in  its  proper  sense,  and  necessary  existence,  are 
ascribed  to  the  Son.  All  the  attributes  of  the  Godhead  are  conceived 
to  belong  to  him  by  nature,  and  it  is  not  supposed  possible  that  he 
could  be  other  than  that  which  he  is.  Dr.  Clarke  and  his  opponents 
agree  that  the  Son  is  not  self-existent ;  for  both  account  the  Father 
tlie  fountain  of  deity.  .  But  Dr.  Clarke  thinks,  that,  since  the  Son  is 
not  self-existent,  he  does  not  exist  necessarily,  while  his  opponents 
aflirm,  that,  with  the  consent  of  the  Father,  and  according  to  his  will 
yet  by  necessity  of  nature,  the  Son  derived  his  being  from  the  Father. 
Dr.  Clarke  and  his  opponents  agree  that  the  Son  is  subordinate  to  the 
Father ;  but  the  subordination  of  Dr.  Clarke  implies  an  essential  infe- 
riority of  nature,  while  his  opponents  do  not  admit  of  any  difference 
in  point  of  duration  or  dignity,  and  understand  the  word  subordina- 
tion as  respecting  merely  order.  Dr.  Clarke  and  his  opponents  agree 
that  the  Father,  and  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  are  three  distinct 
persons,  to  every  one  of  whom  the  name  God  is  applied :  but  Dr. 
Clarke  considers  that  name  as  belonging  in  its  highest  sense  to  the 
Father,  and  only  in  an  inferior  sense  to  the  other  two,  and  thus  main- 
tains the  unity  of  the  Godhead  upon  the  same  principle  with  the 
Arian  system,  while  his  opponents,  making  no  distinction  between 
the  word  of  God  when  applied  in  Scripture  to  the  Father,  and  the 
same  word  when  applied  in  Scripture  to  the  Son,  and  inferring,  from 
the  language  of  Scripture,  that  it  may  also  be  applied  to  the  Spirit,  have 
recourse  to  the  principles  which  were  stated  under  the  third  system,  for 
maintaining  the  unity  of  three  persons,  each  of  whom  is  truly  God. 

In  stating  this  unity,  the  opponents  of  Dr.  Clarke  adhered  to  the 
word  which  had  been  used  by  the  council  of  Nice,  saying  that  the 
three  persons  were  ofioovsoo^,  con-substantial,  which  is  rendered,  both 
in  the  English  Articles,  and  in  our  Confession  of  Faith,  "  of  one  sub- 
stance." It  did  not  escape  the  acuteness  of  Dr.  Clarke,  that  the 
phrase  is  ambiguous.  "  One  substance"  may  mean  one  numerical 
substance,  i.  e.  a  substance  which  is  one  in  number,  individual ;  or 
one  generical  substance,  i.  e.  the  same  in  kind,  that  which  belongs  to 
all  of  one  kind,  as  Aristotle  said  all  the  stars  are  ouoovgm.  On  account 
of  this  ambiguity  Dr.  Clarke  required  his  opponents  to  declare  in  what 
sense  they  understood  the  word ;  and  by  a  succession  of  writers,  who 
followed  his  steps,  and  wished  to  expose  the  third  system  as  untenable, 
the  following  dilemma  is  often  stated.  "  If  you  mean,  by  con-sub- 
stantial, that  the  three  persons  are  of  the  same  individual  substance, 
you  destroy  their  personality  ;  for  three  persons,  of  whom  each  has  not 
his  own  distinct  substance,  but  who  are  in  one  substance,  are  only  dif- 
ferent modifications  or  manners  of  being,  so  that  your  Trinity  becomes 
nominal  and  ideal,  and  in  your  zeal  for  the  unity  of  the  godhead,  you 
35  3  F 


386  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    TRINITY.  * 

recur  to  Sabelliaiiism.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  you  mean  by  con-sub- 
stantial, that  the  three  persons  are  of  the  same  generical  substance, 
then  you  destroy  their  unity  ;  for  three  persons,  having  the  same  sub- 
stance in  kind,  have  each  of  them  his  own  substance,  and  are,  in 
reahty,  three  beings." 

This  dilemma,  like  many  others  which  appear  to  be  inextricable,  is 
merely  captious.  P'or  the  ancients,  who  seem  to  have  understood 
o^oovatof,  as  marking  a  generical  identity  of  substance,  declare  that  they 
consider  the  three  persons  as  not  separated  from  one  another  like  three 
individuals  of  the  same  species,  but  as  united  in  a  manner  more  per- 
fect than  we  are  able  to  conceive ;  and  the  moderns,  many  of  whom 
seem  to  understand  con-substantial  as  marking  a  numerical  identity 
of  substance,  declare  that  they  consider  each  of  the  three  persons  as 
having  a  distinct  subsistence,  and  the  divine  substance  as  in  this 
respect  essentially  distinguished  from  every  thing  material,  that  with- 
out diminution  or  division  it  extends  to  three  persons.  The  difficulty, 
therefore,  arising  from  the  ambiguity  of  the  word  con-substantial, 
with  which  those  who  hold  the  Catholic  system  have  been  so  often 
pressed,  is  .only  a  proof  that  it  is  a  vain  attempt  to  apply  the  terms  of 
human  science  to  the  manner  of  the  divine  existence,  and  that  the 
multiplication  of  words  upon  this  subject  does  not  in  any  degree 
increase  the  stock  of  our  ideas. 

We  are  thus  brought  back,  after  reviewing  a  multiplicity  of 
opinions,  to  the  few  simple  positions  which  constitute  the  whole 
amount  of  the  knowledge  that  Scripture  has  given  us  concerning  the 
Trinity,  and  which  may  be  thus  briefly  stated.  The  Scriptures,  while 
they  declare  the  fundamental  truth  of  natural  religion,  that  God  is 
one,  reveal  two  persons,  each  of  whom,  with  the  Father,  we  are  led 
to  consider  as  God,  and  ascribe  to  all  the  three  distinct  personal  pro- 
perties. It  is  impossible  that  the  three  can  be  one  in  the  same  sense 
in  which  they  are  three  :  and  therefore  it  follows,  by  necessary  infer- 
ence, that  the  unity  of  God  is  not  an  unity  of  persons  ;  but  it  does  not 
follow  that  it  may  not  be  an  unity  of  a  more  intimate  kind  than  any 
which  we  behold.  An  unity  of  consent  and  will  neither  corresponds 
to  the  conclusions  of  reason,  nor  is  by  any  means  adequate  to  a  great 
part  of  the  language  of  Scripture,  for  both  concur  in  leading  us  to 
suppose  an  unity  of  nature.  Whether  the  substance  common  to  the 
three  persons  be  specifically  or  numerically  the  same,  is  a  question, 
the  discussion  of  which  cannot  advance  our  knowledge,  because 
neither  of  the  terms  is  applicable  to  the  subject ;  and,  after  all  our 
researches  and  reading,  we  shall  find  ourselves  just  where  we  began, 
incapable  of  perceiving  the  manner  in  which  the  three  persons  partake 
of  the  same  divine  nature.  But  we  are  very  shallow  philosophers 
indeed,  if  we  consider  this  as  any  reason  for  believing  that  they  do 
not  partake  of  it ;  for  we  are  by  much  too  ignorant  of  the  manner  of 
the  divine  existence  to  be  warranted  to  say  that  the  distinction  of 
persons  is  an  infringement  of  the  Divine  unity,  "  It  is  strange  bold- 
ness in  men,"  says  Bishop  Stillingfleet,  (iii.  352,)  "  to  talk  of  contra- 
dictions in  things  above  their  reach.  Hath  not  God  revealed  to  us 
that  he  created  all  things  ;  and  is  it  not  reasonable  for  us  to  believe 
this,  unless  we  are  able  to  comprehend  the  manner  of  doing  it  ?  Hath 
not  God  plainly  revealed  that  there  shall  be  a  resurrection  of  the 


*  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    TRINITY.  387 

dead  ?  And  must  we  think  it  unreasonable  to  believe  it,  till  we  are 
able  to  comprehend  all  the  changes  of  the  particles  of  matter  from  the 
creation  to  the  general  resurrection  ?  If  nothing  is  to  be  believed  but 
what  may  be  comprehended,  the  very  being  of  God  must  be  rejected, 
and  all  his  unsearchable  perfections.  If  we  believe  the  attributes  of 
God  to  be  infinite,  how  can  we  comprehend  them  ?  We  are  strangely 
puzzled  in  plain,  ordinary,  finite  things  ;  but  it  is  madness  to  pretend 
to  comprehend  what  is  infinite  ;  and  yet,  if  the  perfections  of  God  be 
not  infinite,  they  cannot  belong  to  him.  Let  those  who  presume  to  say 
that  there  is  a  contradiction  in  the  Trinity,  try  their  imaginations 
about  God's  eternity,  not  merely  how  he  should  be  from  himself,  but 
how  God  should  co-exist  Avith  all  the  differences  of  times,  and  yet 
there  be  no  succession  in  his  own  being  ;  and  they  will  perhaps  con- 
cur with  me  in  thinking  that  there  is  no  greater  difficulty  in  the  con- 
ception of  the  Trinity  than  there  is  of  eternity.  For  three  to  be  one 
is  a  contradiction  in  numbers ;  but  whether  an  infinite  nature  can 
communicate  itself  to  three  different  substances,  without  such  a 
division  as  is  among  created  beings,  must  not  be  determined  by  bare 
numbers,  but  by  the  absolute  perfections  of  the  divine  nature  :  which 
must  be  owned  to  be  above  our  comprehension." 

Since  then  the  Scriptures  teach  that  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost  are  one,  and  since  the  unity  of  three  persons  who  partake  of 
the  same  divine  nature  must  of  necessity  be  an  unity  of  the  most 
perfect  kind,  we  may  rest  assured  that  the  more  we  can  abstract  from 
every  idea  of  inequality,  division,  and  separation,  provided  we  pre- 
serve the  distinction  of  persons,  our  conceptions  approach  the  nearer 
to  the  truth.  But  since  the  manner  of  the  Divine  existence  is  con- 
fessedly above  our  comprehension,  and  since  no  words  or  images  that 
we  can  employ  are  found  to  correspond  to  the  unity  of  these  three 
persons,  there  are  two  inferences  or  advices  that  present  themselves 
upon  this  subject,  which  I  shall  just  mention  in  taking  leave  of  it. 

The  first  inference  is,  that  men  of  speculation  ought  to  exercise 
mutual  forbearance  if  they  differ  from  one  another  in  their  attempts 
to  explain  that  which  all  acknowledge  to  be  inexplicable.  It  is  vain 
to  think  of  confining  the  human  mind  to  those  researches  in  which 
she  may  easily  attain  some  certain  conclusion.  She  loves  to  soar  and 
to  roam,  and  she  gathers  much  wisdom  from  her  own  most  adventm*- 
ous  flights ;  but  this  lesson  surely  should  not  be  one  of  the  last,  that 
those  who  presume  to  expatiate  in  the  sublime  regions  where  the 
light  of  human  science  becomes  dim  and  uncertain,  need  not  be  sur- 
prised to  meet  with  many  wanderers.  Every  sober  inquirer  who 
finds  that,  after  all  his  investigations,  the  union  of  the  three  persons 
in  the  Godhead  remains  to  him  involved  in  impenetrable  darkness, 
will  judge  with  candour  of  the  attempts  made  by  other  men  to  obtain 
a  solution  of  the  difficulties  which  presented  themselves  to  their  minds  ; 
and  he  will  not  readily  suppose  that  they  doubt  of  the  fact,  although 
they  may  differ  from  him  in  the  manner  of  explaining  the  fact. 

The  second  inference  or  advice  is,  that  as  you  cannot  expect  to 
give  the  body  of  the  people  clear  ideas  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
thTee  persons  are  united,  it  may  be  better  in  discoursing  to  them,  to 
avoid  any  particular  discussion  of  this  subject ;  and  to  follow  here,  as 
in  every  other  instance,  the  pattern  of  teaching  set  in  the  New  Testa- 


388  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    TRINITr. 

meiit.  Our  Lord  and  his  Apostles  do  not  propose  any  metaphysical 
exphcation  of  the  unity  of  the  Divine  nature.  But  they  assume  it, 
and  declare  it  as  a  fundamental  truth ;  and  they  never  insinuate  that 
it  is  in  the  smallest  degree  infringed  by  the  revelation  which  they  give 
of  the  three  persons.  After  this  example,  I  advise  y6u  never  to  per- 
plex the  minds  of  the  people  with  different  theories  of  the  Trinity, 
and  never  to  suggest  that  the  unity  of  the  Divine  nature  is  a  question- 
able point ;  but  without  professing  to  explain  how  the  three  persons 
are  united,  to  place  before  your  hearers,  as  you  have  occasion,  the 
Scripture  account  of  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  well  as  of  the 
Father,  and  thus  to  preserve  upon  their  minds  wliat  the  Scriptures 
have  revealed,  and  what  upon  that  account  it  is  certainly  of  impor- 
tance for  them  to  learn,  the  dignity  of  the  second  and  third  persons, 
their  relation  to  us,  and  their  power  to  execute  the  gracious  offices 
necessary  for  our  salvation.  These  essential  points  of  Christian  in- 
struction, which  it  is  the  duty  of  the  ministers  of  the  gospel  to  impress 
upon  the  people,  are  revealed  in  the  Scriptures  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  be  in  no  danger  of  leading  into  the  Sabellian,  the  Arian,  or  the 
Tritheistic  scheme  of  the  Trinity  ;  and,  therefore,  if  we  adhere,  as  we 
ought  always  to  do,  to  the  pure  revelation  of  Scripture  in  our  account 
of  the  three  persons,  we  have  no  occasion  to  expose  to  the  people  the 
defects  of  these  schemes ;  and  we  may  reserve  to  ourselves  all  the 
speculations  about  the  manner  in  which  the  three  persons  are  united. 

I  conclude  this  specimen  of  the  variety  of  opinions,  and  of  the  kind 
of  language  which  you  may  expect  to  find  in  ancient  and  modern 
writers  upon  the  Trinity,  with  mentioning  the  books  from  which  I 
have  derived  most  assistance. 

The  best  writer  in  defence  of  the  Catholic  system  of  the  Trinity  is 
Bishop  Bull.  His  works  are  published  in  a  large  folio  volume,  more 
than  half  of  which  is  filled  with  the  three  following  treatises  :  Defensio 
fidei  NicensB — Judicium  Ecclesiae  Catholicse — Primitiva  et  Apostolica 
Traditio.  All  the  three  respect  the  Trinity,  and  are  often  quoted  by 
succeeding  writers,  who  borrow  the  greatest  part  of  their  matter  from 
this  very  learned  and  able  divine.  His  principal  work  is,  Defensio 
fidei  Nicense,  which  consists  of  four  parts.  1.  The  ?f^oirfa^tt?,  pre-exist- 
ence  of  the  Son — 2.  t-o  6;Uoov5to»',  consubstantiality  of  the  Son — 3,  to 
awaihov,  his  eternal  co-existence  with  the  Father.  4.  His  subordination 
to  the  Father.  Bishop  Pearson,  in  his  Exposition  of  the  Creed,  gives 
the  same  view  of  the  Trinity  with  Bishop  Bull ;  which  is  the  true 
Athanasian  scheme  ;  and  he  states  it  as  he  states  every  other  point  in 
theology  of  which  he  treats,  with  clearness,  with  sound  judgment,  and 
with  much  learning.  Dr.  Cudworth,  in  that  magazine  of  learning, 
which  he  calls  the  Intellectual  System,  gives  a  full  view  of  the  Chris- 
tian and  the  Platonic  Trinity.  If  you  consult,  when  you  read  him, 
the  ingenious  and  learned  notes  which  Mosheim  has  added  to  his 
Latin  edition  of  Cudworth,  you  will  be  preserved  from  some  errors, 
and  your  views  of  the  subjects  treated  will  be  much  enlightened  and 
improved.  When  you  come  down  to  the  last  century,  Dr.  Clarke's 
Scripture  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is  the  first  book  which  will  engage 
your  attention.  As  a  collection  of  texts  upon  the  subject  it  is  most 
useful ;  as  a  view  of  the  opinions  of  the  ancient  church  it  is  to  be  read, 
for  the  reasons  which  I  mentioned,  with  suspicion  ;  and  as  the  argu- 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    TRINITY.  389 

ment  of  a  very  able  and  acute  man,  upon  a  subject  which  seems  to 
have  been  near  his  heart,  it  is  proper  that  you  should  read  at  the 
same  time  what  was  said  by  his  opponents.  There  are  two  books 
by  Dr.  Waterland.  The  one.  Sermons  in  Defence  of  the  Divinity  of 
Jesus  Christ;  the  other,  A  Vindication  of  Christ's  Divinity.  And 
there  is  an  excellent  book,  not  so  controversial  as  Dr.  Waterland's, 
Avhich  should  be  read  by  every  student  of  divinity.  A  Vindication 
of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  by  Dr.  Thomas  Randolph.  Dr.  Ran- 
dolph opposes  the  principles  of  Dr.  Clarke.  But  he  writes  directly  in 
answer  to  a  small  book  entitled.  An  Essay  on  Spirit,  which  presents 
a  modification  of  the  Arian  System.  You  will  read  with  pleasure  a 
rational  intelligible  history  of  Arianism,  which  Dr.  Jortin,  who  is  very 
far  from  having  any  prejudice  in  favour  of  the  Catholic  system,  gives 
in  the  third  volume  of  his  Remarks  on  Ecclesiastical  History.  I 
referred  formerly  to  Ben  Mordecai's  Apology  by  Taylor.  You  will 
find  many  able  attacks  upon  all  the  parts  of  the  Catholic  system,  in 
the  works  of  JSIr.  Thomas  Emlyn. — Mosheim,  in  his  valuable  work, 
De  Rebus  Christianorum  ante  Christianum  Magnum,  gives  the  most 
complete  information  as  to  Sabellianism,  and  the  other  early  systems 
of  the  Trinity  ;  and  his  Church  History  joins  to  a  short  account  of  all 
the  variety  of  opinions  upon  this  subject,  references  to  the  authors 
who  have  treated  of  them  more  largely.  Mr.  Gibbon  has  introduced 
into  his  second  volume  a  history  of  the  Arian  controversy,  in  which 
he  professes  to  delineate  the  three  systems  of  the  Trinity.  But  there 
is  the  same  inveterate  prejudice  against  religion,  and  the  same  con- 
stant endeavour  to  turn  into  ridicule  every  branch  of  that  subject, 
which  disgrace  so  large  a  portion  of  the  writings  of  this  illustrious 
historian.  Some  of  the  books  which  I  have  mentioned  will  prepare 
you  for  reading  this  part  of  Gibbon,  by  enabling  you  to  discern 
Avhere  his  account  is  lame,  or  unfair.  Lardner,  Priestley,  Lindsey, 
and  the  other  Socinians  of  later  times,  incline  to  the  Sabellian  system, 
and  employ  every  art  to  represent  the  other  two  as  contrary  to 
Scripture,  to  reason,  and  to  the  opinions  of  the  primitive  church. 
They  have  been  attacked  by  many  modern  writers.  But  you  will 
need  no  other  antidote  to  their  heresy  than  the  volume  of  tracts  by 
Bishop  Horsley,  a  formidable  antagonist,  whose  superiority  in  argu- 
ment and  in  learning  gives  him  some  title  to  use  that  tone  of  disdain 
which  pervades  the  volume.  It  consists  of  a  charge  to  the  clergy  of 
his  Archdeaconry,  exposing  the  errors  in  one  of  Dr.  Priestley's  publica- 
tions ;  of  letters  to  Dr.  Priestley,  occasioned  by  his  reply  to  the  charge  ; 
of  a  sermon  on  the  incarnation,  and  of  supplemental  disquishions. 

Of  other  writers  who  have  published  particular  schemes  of  the 
Trinity,  I  am  almost  entirely  ignorant.  From  the  short  accounts  of 
their  works  which  have  come  in  my  way,  I  found  that  their  schemes 
are  only  certain  modifications  of  the  first  or  the  third  systems,  by 
which  ingenious  men  have  attempted  to  satisfy  their  own  minds,  or 
to  remove  the  objections  which  others  had  made ;  and  knowing  well 
that,  after  all  our  researches,  difficulties  must  remain,  and  that  these 
difficulties  furnish  no  argument  against  the  truth,  I  thought  that  my 
time  might  be  employed  more  profitably  than  by  labouring  to  fix  in 
my  mind  their  nice  discriminations,  winch  it  might  be  difficult  to  ^ 
apprehend  and  impossible  to  retain. 
35* 


BOOK  IV. 

OPINIONS   CONCERNING    THE    NATURE,   THE    EXTENT, 

AND    THE    APPLICATION    OF    THE    REMEDY 

BROUGHT    BY    THE    GOSPEL. 


Having  given  a  view  of  the  different  opinions  which  have  been 
held  concerning  the  two  persons,  who  are  revealed  in  the  gospel,  I 
come  now  to  treat  of  the  remedy  which  was  brought  by  the  one  of 
these  persons,  and  is  applied  by  the  other.  It  appears  to  me  that  the 
best  method  in  which  I  can  state  the  most  important  questions  in 
theology  upon  this  great  division  of  the  subject,  is  by  leading  yon  to 
attend  to  the  opinions  which  have  been  held  concerning  the  Nature 
— the  Extent — and  the  Application  of  the  remedy.  By  considering 
these  three  points  in  succession,  we  shall  exhaust  the  remaining  part 
of  the  Socinian,  together  with  the  Pelagian  and  Arminian  controver- 
sies, and  shall  thus  obtain,  without  more  repetition  than  is  unavoida- 
ble upon  subjects  so  closely  allied,  a  complete  and  connected  view  of 
the  capital  branches  of  controversial  divinity. 


CHAPTER  I. 


DISEASE    FOR    WHICH    THE    REMEDY    IS    PROVIDED. 


The  gospel  proceeds  upon  the  supposition  that  all  have  sinned.  It 
assumes  the  character  of  the  religion  of  sinners,  and  professes  to  bring 
a  remedy  for  the  moral  evil  which  exists  in  the  world.  Our  attention 
is  thus  called  back  from  the  remedy  to  the  disease  ;  for  we  cannot 
entertain  just  apprehensions  of  the  nature  of  that  provision  wliich  the 
gospel  has  made,  unless  we  understand  the  circumstances  which 
called  for  that  provision  ;  and  we  may  expect  that  those,  who  have 
formed  ditierent  systems  with  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  remedy,  are 
not  of  the  same  opinion  with  regard  to  the  disease.  In  one  point 
391 


392  *  DISEASE    FOR    WHICH    THE 

however,  all  sects  of  Christians  agree,  that  there  is  much  sin  in  the 
world.  The  Socinian  does  not  hesitate  to  say  with  the  Calvinist,  that 
all  have  sinned ;  and  those  fanatics  who  conceived  that  ihcy  them- 
selves had  attained  the  perfection  of  virtue,  were  led,  by  this  self- 
conceit,  to  magnify  the  wickedness  of  the  rest  of  mankind. 

That  men  are  sinners,  is  a  point  concerning  which  those  who 
respect  the  authority  of  Scripture  cannot  entertain  any  doubt ;  for  it 
is  uniformly  taught  there,  from  the  period  preceding  the  flood,  when, 
as  we  read,  "  God  saw  that  the  wickedness  of  man  was  great."*  At 
the  appearance  of  Christianity,  the  angel  gave  to  the  son  of  Mary  the 
name  of  Jesus,  "  for  he  shall  save  his  people  from  their  sins."t  Jesus 
himself  said,  "they  that  are  whole  need  not  a  physician,  but  they 
that  are  sick ;"{  and  Paul,  the  apostle  of  Jesus,  in  his  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,  builds  his  whole  doctrine  upon  the  position  which  he  proves 
in  the  commencement,  "  that  both  Jews  and  Gentiles  are  under  sin, 
and  that  the  whole  world  is  guilty  before  God."§  But  this  position 
does  not  rest  entirely  upon  the  authority  of  Scripture.  It  is  abundantly 
established  by  the  experience  of  all  ages ;  and  they  who  never  received 
the  revelation  of  the  gospel,  agree  with  Christians  in  acknowledging 
I  the  fact  upon  which  that  revelation  proceeds.  The  violence  of  human 
passions,  the  inefficacy  of  all  the  attempts  which  have  been  made 
since  the  beginning  of  legislation  to  restrain  them,  the  secret  wicked- 
ness which  abounds,  the  horrors  of  remorse  which  rack  the  minds  of 
some,  the  selt^-reproach  of  which  those  who  are  less  guilty  cannot 
divest  themselves,  and  the  dissatisfaction  with  their  own  attainments, 
which  the  most  virtuous  feel — these  circumstances  conspire  in  afford- 
ing the  clearest  evidence,  that  men  do  not  act  up  to  the  dictates  of 
right  reason,  but  that  the  conduct  of  all  falls  short,  in  one  degree  or 
I  other,  of  that  standard  which  they  perceive  it  to  be  both  their  duty 
and  their  interest  to  follow.  Men  will  differ  in  their  opinion  of  the 
grossness  and  the  extent  of  the  corruption  of  manners,  according  to 
the  opportunities  which  they  have  had  of  observing  it — according  to 
the  degree  of  severity  in  their  natural  disposition — according  to  the 
sentiments  and  principles  which  they  had  imbibed  during  their  educa- 
tion, or  which  the  reflections  and  habits  of  advanced  life  have  formed  ; 
but  no  diflerence  in  character  or  situation  can  render  men  wholly 
insensible  to  this  corruption.  Even  those,  who  plead  upon  system 
for  an  indulgence  to  their  own  defects,  meet  with  numberless  instances 
where  they  cannot  allow  others  to  plead  the  same  indulgence.  The 
vices  of  one  rank  are  regarded  with  contempt  or  with  indignation  by 
another ;  and  the  easy  accommodating  moralist,  who  resolves  the 
vices  of  the  age  into  the  progress  of  society,  looks  back  with  horror 
upon  the  enormities  of  former  times.  It  is  true  that  the  forms  of 
wickedness  vary  according  to  the  state  of  society ;  it  is  also  true  that 
some  forms  are  marked  with  deeper  depravity  than  others ;  and  it 
will  not  be  denied  by  any  scholar,  that  a  concurrence  of  favourable 
circumstances  has  at  some  periods  gone  far  to  mitigate  the  atrocity  of 
crimes,  and  to  invigorate  the  exertions  of  virtue.  But  it  is  in  the 
writings  of  the  poets,not  of  the  historians  of  antiquity,  that  a  golden 

*  Gen.vi.  5.  f  Mat.  i.  21. 

i  Mat.  ix.  12.  ^  Rom.  iii.  9. 


REMEDY    IS    PROVIDED.  393 

age  IS  to  be  found.  The  authentic  records  of  the  civil  and  political 
transactions  of  man,  from  the  earliest  times,  are  full  of  the  etfects 
of  his  wickedness ;  no  date  is  fixed  in  these  records  for  the  first 
introduction  of  sin  into  the  world ;  and  all  our  information  with 
regard  to  this  most  important  era  in  chronology  is  derived  from 
Scripture. 


Section  I. 

It  is  well  known  that  in  the  third  chapter  of  the  book  of  Genesis 
the  first  act  of  disobedience  is  related,  and  that  the  history  of  this  act 
is  connected  with  a  command  and  a  threatening,  which  had  been 
mentioned  in  the  second  chapter.  This  interesting  history  demands 
our  particular  attention,  when  we  are  beginnhig  to  speak  of  that  state 
of  moral  evil  for  which  the  gospel  brings  a  remedy ;  and  in  order  to 
prepare  you  for  the  information  which  it  conveys,  it  may  be  proper 
to  mention  two  extremes,  which  are  to  be  avoided  in  the  interpreta- 
tion of  this  chapter. 

1.  Several  parts  of  the  history  cannot  be  understood  in  a  literal 
sense.  Thus  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  tree,  of  which  man 
was  forbidden  to  eat,  had  the  power  which  the  name  seems  to  imply, 
and  which  the  serpent  suggests,  of  making  those  who  ate  the  fruit  of 
it  wise,  knowing  good  and  evil ;  neither  is  it  to  be  supposed  that  the 
serpent  at  that  time  possessed  those  powers  of  speech  and  reason 
which  the  narration  seems  to  ascribe  to  him,  or  that  the  plain  mean- 
ing of  these  words,  "  the  seed  of  the  woman  shall  bruise  the  head 
of  the  serpent,"  expresses  the  whole  punishment  of  the  tempter. — 
Several  writers,  indeed,  who  are  disposed  to  turn  the  Scriptures  into 
ridicule,  have  stated  what  they  call  the  absurdity  or  the  frivolousness 
of  the  literal  sense,  as  a  reason  for  rejecting  both  the  narration  and  the 
books  in  which  it  is  contained.  But  it  has  been  well  answered,  that 
the  narration  bears  upon  the  face  of  it  the  marks  of  that  symbolical 
style  which  prevailed  amongst  all  nations  in  early  times  from  the 
poverty  of  language,  and  which,  even  after  it  has  ceased  to  be  neces- 
sary, continues  to  be  used,  both  because  it  is  ancient  and  because  it 
is  expressive.  In  this  symbolical  style,  the  objects  of  sense  are  em- 
ployed to  represent  the  conceptions  of  the  mind ;  actions  or  things 
material  to  represent  things  spiritual ;  and  under  words  which  are 
true  when  interpreted  literally,  there  is  couched  some  more  exalted 
meaning.  To  the  learned  it  cannot  appear  surprising,  that  the  book 
which  claims  to  be  the  most  ancient  should  adopt  a  style  which  oc- 
curs in  other  early  productions ;  that  a  transaction,  which  assumes  a 
date  next  to  that  of  the  creation,  and  the  memory  of  which  had  pro- 
bably been  preserved  amongst  the  first  men  by  symbols,  should  be 
recorded  by  the  historian  of  a  future  age  in  a  language  which  refer- 
red to  these  symbols ;  and  that  circumstances  might  prevent  him  from 
attempting  to  remove  the  veil  which  this  symbolical  language  threw 
over  the  transaction. 

If  the  rules  for  expounding  the  symbolical  style,  which  have  been 
hivestigated  by  the  learned,  are  applied  to  the  narration  in  the  third 

3G 


3S^-  DISEASE    FOR    WHICH  THE 

chapter  of  Genesis,  with  the  same  candor  with  which  they  are  usually 
applied  to  every  other  subject,  the  difhculties  arising  from  the  literal 
sense  of  the  words  will  in  a  great  measure  vanish.  It  will  readily 
be  admitted,  that  although  the  tree  did  not  possess  any  power  of 
making  those  who  ate  the  fruit  of  it  wise,  it  might  be  called  the  tree 
of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  because,  the  prohibition  to  eat  of 
it  being  the  trial  of  man's  obedience,  it  was  made  known  to  other 
beings,  by  means  of  this  tree,  whether  he  was  good  or  evil,  and  he 
himself,  in  eating  of  it,  learnt  by  sad  experience  the  distinction  be- 
tween good  and  evil ;  it  will  be  admitted,  that  if  an  intelligent  spirit 
chose  for  a  season  to  conceal  himself  under  the  body  of  a  serpent, 
the  actions  of  this  spirit  might,  during  that  time,  be  ascribed  to  a  ser- 
pent ;  and  that  if  Moses  had  no  commission  to  explain  the  rank,  the 
character,  and  the  motives  of  this  spirit,  because  the  state  of  rehgious 
knowledge  which  the  world  then  possessed  rendered  it  inexpedient 
for  them  to  receive  this  communication,  he  could  in  no  other  way  re- 
cord the  transaction  but  by  retaining  the  name  of  the  animal  under 
whose  form  the  spirit  had  appeared  ;  and,  if  these  things  be  admitted, 
it  will  follow  that  the  words  of  the  sentence,  "  it  shall  bruise  thy 
head,"  are  the  most  proper  words  that  could  have  been  used  upon 
the  occasion,  because,  while  they  apply  literally  to  the  animal,  they 
admit  easily  a  higher  sense,  in  which  they  express  the  punishment  of 
the  spirit. 

2.  But  although  it  be  necessary  to  look  beyond  the  literal  sense  of 
the  words,  in  order  to  perceive  the  aptness  and  the  signiiicancy  of 
this  history,  I  must  warn  you  against  another  extreme.  Some,  with 
an  excess  of  refinement,  have  sought  to  avoid  the  inconveniences  of 
the  literal  sense,  by  considering  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis  as  an 
allegory,  not  the  history  of  a  real  transaction,  but  a  moral  painting 
of  the  violence  of  appetite,  and  the  gradual  introduction  of  vice  in 
conjunction  with  the  progress  of  knowledge  and  the  improvements 
of  society.  But,  however  true  it  may  be,  that  vice  arises  from  the 
prevalence  of  appetite  over  reason,  and  that  men  in  a  civilized  state 
know  vices  of  which  barbarous  times  are  ignorant,  yet  there  are  two 
reasons  which  seem  to  render  it  impossible  for  those  who  respect  the 
authority  of  Scripture,  to  admit  this  as  the  true  interpretation  of  the 
third  chapter  of  Genesis.  1.  This  chapter  is  part  of  a  continued  his- 
tory. It  is  inserted  between  the  account  of  the  creation  of  the  first 
pair  and  the  birth  of  their  two  sons ;  and  it  explains  the  reason  of 
their  being  driven  out  of  that  place,  which  we  had  been  told  in  the 
second  chapter  had  been  allotted  them  by  their  Creator.  Now,  not 
only  is  it  inconsistent  with  the  gravity  of  an  historian,  but  it  detracts 
in  a  high  degree  from  the  authority  of  his  writings,  that  in  the  pro- 
gress of  relating  facts  so  important  he  should  introduce  a  chapter 
which,  with  all  the  appearance  of  being  a  continuation  of  the  history, 
is  only  an  allegorical  representation  of  the  change  of  manners.  2. 
The  references  to  this  third  chapter,  which  are  found  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament, are  to  us  unquestionable  vouchers  of  its  being  a  real  history. 
If  you  look  to  2  Cor.  xi.  3,  you  will  perceive  that  the  allusion  of  the 
apostle  implies  his  conviction  of  the  fact  to  which  he  alludes ;  and, 
if  you  look  to  1  Tim.  ii.  13,  14,  15,  you  wiH  find,  that  what  was 
only   implied  in  the   former  passage   is  there   expressly   asserted. 


REMEDY    IS    PROVIDED.  395 

The  transgression  of  Adam  is  introduced  as  a  fact  of  the  same  autho- 
rity and  notoriety  as  his  creation.  The  occasion  of  the  transgression, 
viz.  deceit — the  order  of  the  transgression,  that  the  woman,  not  the 
man,  was  deceived — and  one  part  of  the  punishment  of  the  trans- 
gression, viz.  "  in  sorrow  thou  shalt  bring  forth  children" — these  three 
important  circumstances  are  mentioned  in  such  a  manner  by  the 
apostle,  that  the  historical  sense  of  the  whole  chapter  may  be  consi- 
dered as  having  the  sanction  of  his  authority. 

It  appears  from  these  remarks  that  we  are  sufficiently  warranted 
by  the  rules  of  sound  criticism,  in  adopting  that  interpretation  which 
hes  in  the  middle  between  the  two  extremes  ;  and  the  middle  inter- 
pretation is  this,  to  consider  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis  as  the  history 
of  a. real  transaction  which  took  place  soon  after  the  creation ;  and 
as  a  history  related  after  the  symbolical  manner  common  in  early 
times,  but  exhibiting  clearly  uiider  this  manner  the  following  im- 
portant facts.  Adam  and  Eve,  being  tempted  by  the  suggestions  of 
an  evil  spirit  who  appeared  to  them  under  the  form  of  a  serpent, 
transgressed  the  commandment  of  iheir  Creator.  In  consequence  of 
this  transgression,  the  ground  which  God  had  given  them  was  cursed, 
sorrow  became  the  portion  of  their  life,  and  they  were  subjected  to 
death,  the  sanction  which  God  has  annexed  to  his  commandment. 
Sentence  was  also  pronomiced  upon  the  tempter.  As  he  appeared 
before  God  in  the  same  shape  in  which  he  tempted  the  woman,  the 
Avhole  of  the  sentence  is  applicable  to  a  literal  serpent :  and  the  first 
part  of  it,  Gen.  iii.  14,  has  been  generally  understood  to  imply  a 
degradation  of  the  serpent  from  the  figure  wliich  he  had,  and  the  life 
which  he  led  before  the  temptation,  to  the  state  in  which  we  see  him. 
But  the  second  part  of  the  sentence,  Gen.  iii.  15,  although  applicable 
to  the  antipathy  with  which  the  human  race  regards  an  odious  and 
dangerous  animal,  admits  also  of  a  higher  sense ;  and  whatever  it 
might  convey  to  Adam  and  Eve,  is  now  understood  by  us  to  be  sig- 
nificant of  that  victory  which  the  seed  of  the  woman,  i.  e.  a  person 
descended  from  the  woman,  was  at  a  future  period  to  gain  through 
suffering,  over  the  evil  spirit,  who  had  assumed  the  form  of  a  ser- 
pent. 

This  middle  interpretation  of  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis,  which 
the  rules  of  sound  criticism  warrant,  is  very  much  confirmed  by  its 
being  agreeable  to  the  sense  of  the  Jewish  church.  Bishop  Sherlock, 
with  the  ingenuity  and  ability  which  distinguish  all  his  writings,  has 
collected  the  evidence  of  this  point  in  the  third  of  his  discourses  upon 
prophecy,  and  in  a  dissertation  annexed  to  them,  entitled.  The  sense  of 
the  ancients  before  Christ  upon  the  circumstances  and  consequences 
of  the  fall.  His  account  of  the  history  of  that  transaction  is  so  sound 
and  clear,  that  I  shall  give  a  short  specimen  of  the  manner  in  which 
he  attempts  to  prove,  that  what  I  called  the  middle  interpretation,  is 
agreeable  to  the  sense  of  the  Jewish  clun-ch. 

We  know  that  the  books  of  the  Apocrypha  were  written  before  the 
days  of  our  Saviour ;  and  in  them  we  find  the  following  expressions, 
which  are  clear  evidences  that  the  Jews  of  those  days  considered  the 
third  chapter  of  Genesis  as  the  history  of  a  real  transaction,  and  at  the 
same  time  looked  beyond  the  literal  sense.  Wisd.  ii.  23,  24,  "For 
God  created  man  to  be  mimortal,  and  made  hun  to  be  an  image  of 


396  DISEASE    FOR    WHICH    THE 

his  own  eternity.  Nevertheless,  through  envy  of  the  devil,  came 
death  into  the  world,  and  they  that  do  hold  of  his  side  do  find  it." 
Eccles.  XXV.  24,  "  Of  the  woman  came  the  beginning  of  sin,  and 
through  her  we  all  die."  Dr.  Sherlock  traces  in  the  book  of  Job, 
which  we  have  reason  to  believe  was  written  before  any  of  the  books 
of  JNIoses,  many  delicate  allusions  to  the  circumstances  mentioned  in 
the  third  chapter  of  Genesis,  sufficient  to  show  that  the  transaction 
there  recorded  was  known  to  the  author  of  this  book.  The  words  of 
Zopliar,  Job  xx.  4,  5,  6,  have  a  good  moral  meaning  according  to  any 
interpretation  which  you  can  give  them.  But  if  you  understand  by 
the  hypocrite,  as  the  Chaldee  paraphrast  has  done,  the  tempter  or 
accuser,  /.  e.  the  spirit  who  tempted  by  deceit,  and  at  the  same  time 
recollect  the  views  suggested  to  Eve,  and  the  punishment  pronounced 
upon  Adam,  you  will  feel  that  the  significancy  and  energy  of  the 
verses  arc  very  much  improved.  The  twenty-sixth  chapter  of  Job 
is  a  magnificent  description  of  the  works  of  creation,  and  it  concludes 
with  these  words,  "  By  his  spirit  he  hath  garnished  the  heavens,  his 
hand  hath  formed  the  crooked  serpent.  If  nothing  more  is  meant 
than  the  formation  of  the  animal,  it  appears  strange  that  an  exertion 
of  power  so  much  inferior  to  all  the  others  should  be  mentioned  after 
them.  But  if  the  crooked  serpent  is  employed  to  mark  the  spirit  who 
once  assumed  that  form,  this  expression  forms  a  fit  conclusion  of  the 
whole  description,  because  it  is  the  most  explicit  declaration  of  the 
sovereignty  of  God,  in  opposition  to  an  opinion  which  early  prevailed, 
that  there  is  in  nature  an  evil  principle  independent  of  the  good.  Dr. 
Sherlock  further  observes,  that  in  different  places  of  Isaiah  and  Micah, 
the  enemies  of  God  are  metaphorically  styled  Leviathan,  the  crooked 
serpent,  the  dragon ;  that  the  Son  of  God  is  represented  by  the 
Psalmist  as  treading  upon  the  adder,  and  his  enemies  as  licking  the 
dust ;  and  that  in  one  of  those  figurative  descriptions  of  the  new 
heavens  and  the  new  earth,  i.  e.  the  blessed  change  introduced  by  the 
dispensation  of  the  Gospel,  which  occur  often  in  Isaiah :  the  con- 
cluding words  are,  "  And  dust  shall  be  the  serpent's  meat."  Isaiah 
Ixv.  25. 

It  will  not  appear  to  any  person  of  taste  that  some  of  these  allusions 
are  of  little  avail  in  this  argument,  because  they  are  expressed  in  few 
words ;  for  it  is  universally  allowed  that  the  shortest  incidental  refer- 
ence to  an  historical  fact,  by  a  subsequent  writer,  may  be  of  such  a 
kind  as  to  afford  a  decisive  proof  of  his  knowledge  of  that  fact ;  and 
when  we  add  to  these  allusions,  what  Bishop  Sherlock's  subject  did 
not  lead  him  to  mention,  the  frequent  references  to  this  history  which 
are  found  in  the  New  Testament,  it  seems  to  be  a  matter  beyond 
doubt  tliat  he  has  given  a  just  account  of  the  sense  of  the  ancient 
Jewish  church.  Thus  Paul  says,  Rom.  v.  12,  "By  one  man  sin 
entered  into  the  world,  and  death  by  sin."  Satan  is  styled  in  the 
book  of  Revelation,  xii.  9,  "  the  old  serpent  which  deceive th  the  whole 
world ;"  and  John  viii.  44,  our  Lord  calls  him  a  murderer  and  a  liar 
from  the  beginning,  a^egioTtoxrowj  an:'  a^xn'^i  xm  ■i'svatrju  two  names  which 
most  fitly  express  his  having  brought  death  upon  the  first  pair  by 
deceit.  John  says,  1  John  iii.  8,  "  The  devil  sinneth  from  the  begin- 
ning ;  for  this  purpose  the  Son  of  God  was  manifested  that  he  might 
destroy  the  works  of  the  devil ;"  and.  Rev.  xx.  2,  xii.  10,  he  represents 


REMEDY    IS    PROVIDED.  397 

the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  the  power  of  his  Christ,  by 
"that  old  serpent  the  accuser  of  the  brethren  being  cast  down." 
Christians  are  represented  as  partaking  in  this  triumph  ;  for  as  Christ, 
while  he  was  upon  earth,  gave  his  disciples  power  over  all  the  power 
of  the  enemy,  and  made  the  spirits  subject  to  them,  so  the  apostle, 
writing  to  the  church  of  Rome, says,  Rom.  xvi.  20,  "  And  the  God  of 
peace  shall  bruise  Satan  under  your  feet  shortly ;"  and  the  last  chap- 
ter of  the  book  of  Revelation  describes,  with  the  most  marked  allusion 
to  the  tliird  chapter  of  Genesis,  a  time  when  all  the  effects  of  his 
temptation  are  to  disappear.  In  Genesis,  the  ground  is  cursed,  and  a 
flaming  sword  guards  the  tree  of  life.  In  the  Revelation,  they  who 
enter  through  the  gates  into  the  city,  which  is  there  described,  are 
said  to  have  a  right  to  the  tree  of  life ;  the  tree  grows  in  the  midst  of 
the  street,  and  on  either  side  of  the  river ;  and  the  leaves  of  it  are  for 
the  healing  of  the  nations ;  and,  it  is  added,  there  shall  be  no  more 
curse.  The  effects  of  the  curse  are  exhausted  with  regard  to  all  who 
enter  into  the  city.  Thus  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  the  Bible  lend 
their  authority  in  support  of  each  other.  The  transaction  recorded  in 
the  beginning  explains  the  reason  of  many  expressions  which  occur 
in  the  progress  of  Scripture  ;  and  the  description  which  forms  the  con- 
clusion reflects  light  upon  the  opening.  Whatever  opinion  we  may 
entertain  of  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis  when  we  read  it  singly,  it 
swells  in  our  conceptions  as  we  advance  ;  and  all  its  meaning  and  its 
importance  become  manifest,  when  we  recognise  the  features  of  this 
early  transaction  in  that  magnificent  scene  by  which  the  mystery  of 
God  shall  be  finished. 


Section  II. 

I  HAVE  judged  it  necessary  to  unfold  thus  fully  the  principles  upon 
which  we  interpret  the  account  given  in  Scripture  of  the  introduction 
of  sin.  The  event  thus  interpreted  is  known  by  the  name  of  the  fall ; 
a  word  which  does  not  occur  in  Scripture,  but  which  has  probably 
been  borrowed  by  Christians  from  Wisdom  x.  1.  "  She  preserved 
the  first  formed  father  of  the  world,  that  was  created  alone,  and 
brought  him  out  of  his  fall."  "  His  fall"  is  expressive  of  that  change 
upon  his  mind,  his  body,  and  his  outward  circumstances,  which  was 
the  consequence  of  Adam's  transgression. 

Wishing  to  begin  with  the  simplest  view  of  the  subject,  I  have  not 
hitherto  spoken  of  this  event  in  any  other  light  than  as  if  it  had  been 
merely  personal.  But  I  have  now  to  engage  in  those  intricate  ques- 
tions that  liave  been  agitated  concerning  the  effects,  which  the  fall  of 
Adam  has  produced  upon  his  posterity.  The  opinions  with  regard  to 
this  matter  may  be  reduced  to  four ;  and  the  order  of  stating  them  is 
dictated  by  their  nature,  for  they  rise  above  one  another  in  the  follow- 
ing gradation, 

1.  The  first  opinion  is  that  which  was  published  by  Pelagius,  a 
Briton,  A,  D.  410,  which  was  adopted  by  Socinus  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  and  is  held  by  the  modern  Socinians.  It  is  admitted,  even 
according  to  this  opinion,  that  Adam,  by  eating  of  the  tree  of  the 


398  DISEASE    FOR    WHICH    THE 

knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  transgressed  the  divine  commandment 
and  exposed  himself  to  the  displeasure  of  his  Creator.  But  the  con- 
sequences of  this  displeasure  are  not  considered  as  having  impaired 
the  powers  of  his  nature,  or  as  extending  to  his  posterity  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  do  them  the  smallest  hurt.  He  was  a  fallible  mortal  crea- 
ture by  the  condition  of  his  being,  /.  e.  he  was  liable  to  sin  from  the 
moment  that  he  was  created,  and  he  would  have  died  whether  he 
had  sinned  or  not.  He  continued,  after  the  action  recorded  in 
Genesis,  to  be  such  as  he  was  at  his  creation,  and  all  his  posterity  are 
born  in  similar  circumstances.  Adam  was  indeed  driven  from  that 
paradise  which  had  been  assigned  as  his  abode,  and  by  many  incon- 
veniences in  his  situation,  was  made  to  feel  the  effects  of  his  trans- 
gression ;  but  these  very  inconveniences,  while  they  reminded  him 
that  he  had  transgressed,  tended  to  prevent  him  from  going  farther 
astray  ;  the  labour  with  which  he  had  to  eat  his  bread  was  a  salutary 
discipline,  and  the  recollection  of  his  folly  became  a  lesson  of  wis- 
dom. The  posterity  of  Adam  in  like  manner  are  placed  in  a  state 
of  trial ;  and  as  their  minds  are  as  enlightened  and  as  virtuous  as  his 
was,  their  situation  is  not  more  unfavourable.  Death  to  them,  as  to 
him,  is  a  natural  event,  arising  from  the  structure  of  the  body,  and 
indicated  by  many  symptoms :  and  the  shortness  of  their  abode  upon 
earth  joins  its  influence  to  the  common  evils  of  life,  in  teaching  them 
to  apply  their  hearts  to  wisdom.  If  Adam  and  Eve,  by  being  the 
first  that  sinned,  had  not  any  examples  of  vice  to  entice  them,  yet 
neither  did  they  behold  any  examples  of  its  punishment :  whereas  if 
we  are  in  danger  of  following  the  vices  of  those  who  went  before  us, 
yet  we  may  learn  from  the  history  of  the  world,  and  from  our  own 
observation,  to  guard  against  the  fatal  tendency  of  the  principle  of 
imitation. 

The  amount  then  of  this  opinion  is  that  our  first  parents,  who 
sinned  by  eating  the  forbidden  fruit,  were  not  distinguished  in  any 
essential  respect  from  those  who  sin  in  after  ages,  and  that  our  con- 
dition is  not  the  worse  for  their  sin  ;  that  as  they  were  to  blame  for 
yielding  to  a  temptation  which  they  might  have  resisted,  so  all  of  us, 
by  a  proper  attention  in  cultivating  our  natural  powers,  may  main- 
tain our  innocence  amidst  the  temptations  with  which  we  are  sur- 
rounded ;  and,  therefore,  that  we  fall  short  of  that  which  it  is  in  our 
power  to  do,  if  we  do  not  yield  a  more  perfect  obedience  to  the  law 
of  God  than  Adam  yielded. 

There  is  a  simplicity  in  this  system  which  appears  at  first  sight  to 
recommend  it.  It  seems  to  be  rational  and  philosophical  to  say,  that 
human  nature  is  the  same  now  as  when  it  proceeded  from  the  hands 
of  the  Creator,  and  to  resolve  the  changes  of  character  which  it  has 
exhibited,  into  the  effects  of  the  progress  of  society.  But  the  fact  is, 
that  even  the  ancient  philosophers  did  not  consider  this  as  a  satisfying 
account  of  many  circumstances  in  the  present  condition  of  human  na- 
ture, and  the  account  falls  so  very  far  short  of  all  the  views  which  the 
Scriptures  give  upon  this  subject,  and  requires  such  violence  to  be 
done  to  particular  passages,  that  many,  who  are  decidedly  hostile  to 
the  Calvinistic  system,  finding  the  Pelagian  untenable,  have  had  re- 
course to  a  second  opinion. 

2.  The  second  opinion  may  be  called  the  Arminian,  as  deriving  its 


REMEOr    IS    PROVIDED.  399 

origin  from  Arminiiis,  a  divine  of  the  seventeenth  century.  It  holds 
the  middle  place  between  the  Socinian  and  the  Calvinistic  systems. 
It  is  explained  with  clearness,  and  defended  with  much  abiHty  in  a 
Latin  treatise  by  Whitby,  the  commentator  upon  the  New  Testament, 
entitled,  Tractatus  de  Imputatione  Peccati  ^Idami,  from  which  I 
take  the  account  of  it  that  I  am  now  to  give. 

According  to  this  opinion,  although  the  first  man  had  a  body 
naturally  frail  and  mortal,  his  life  would  have  been  for  ever  preserved 
by  the  bounty  of  his  Creator,  had  he  continued  obedient ;  and  the 
instrument  employed  by  God  to  preserve  his  mortal  body  from  decay 
was  the  tree  of  life.  Death  was  declared  to  be  the  penalty  of  trans- 
gression ;  and,  therefore,  as  soon  as  he  transgressed,  he  was  removed 
at  a  chstance  from  the  tree  of  life ;  and  his  posterity  inheriting  his 
natural  mortality,  and  not  having  access  to  the  tree  of  life,  are  sub- 
jected to  death.  It  is  therefore  said  by  Paul,  "  By  one  man  sin 
entered  into  the  world,  and  death  by  sin,  and  so  death  passed  upon 
all  men.  In  Adam  all  die.  By  one  man's  offence  death  reigned  by 
one."*  These  expressions  clearly  point  out  death  to  be  the  conse- 
quence of  Adam's  transgression,  an  evil  brought  upon  his  posterity 
by  his  fault ;  and  this  the  Arminians  understand  to  be  the  whole 
meaning  of  its  being  said,  "  Adam  begat  a  son  in  his  own  hkeness, 
after  his  image  ;"t  and  of  Paul's  saying,  "  We  have  borne  the  image 
of  the  earthly. "t 

It  is  admitted,  however,  by  those  who  hold  the  second  opinion,  that 
this  change  upon  the  condition  of  mankind,  from  a  life  preserved 
without  end,  to  mortality,  was  most  unfavourable  to  their  moral 
character.  The  fear  of  death  enfeebles  and  enslaves  the  mind  ;  the 
pursuit  of  those  things  which  are  necessary  to  support  a  frail  perishing 
life  engrosses  and  contracts  the  soul ;  and  the  desires  of  sensual  plea- 
sure are  rendered  more  eager  and  ungovernable,  by  the  knowledge 
that  the  time  of  enjoying  them  soon  passes  away.  Hence  arise  envy- 
ing of  tliose  who  have  a  larger  share  of  the  good  things  of  this  life — 
strife  with  those  who  interfere  in  our  enjoyments — impatience  under 
restraint — and  sorrow  and  repining  when  pleasure  is  abridged.  And 
to  this  variety  of  turbulent  passions,  the  natural  fruits  of  the  punish- 
ment of  Adam's  transgression,  there  are  also  to  be  added,  all  the 
fretfulness  and  disquietude  occasioned  by  the  diseases  and  pains 
which  are  inseparable  from  the  condition  of  a  mortal  being.  In  this 
way  the  Arminians  explain  such  expressions  as  these,  "  by  one  man's 
disobedience  many  were  made  sinners;"  "all  are  under  sin  ;"  "be- 
hold I  was  shapen  in  iniquity,"§  i.  e.  all  men,  in  consequence  of 
Adam's  sin,  are  born  in  these  circumstances, — under  that  disposition 
of  events  which  subjects  them  to  the  dominion  of  passion,  and  exposes 
them  to  so  many  temptations,  that  it  is  impossible  for  any  man  to 
maintain  Iris  integrity.  And  hence,  they  say,  arises  the  necessity  of 
a  Saviour,  who,  restoring  to  man  the  immortality  which  he  had  for- 
feited, may  be  said  to  have  abolished  death;  Avho  effectually  delivers 
his  followers  from  that  bondage  of  mind,  and  that  corruption  of 

*  Rom.  V.  12,  17.     1   Cor.  xv.  23.  f  Gen.  v.  3. 

+   I   Cor.  XV.  49.  §  Rom.  v.  19;  Hi.  9.     Psal.  li.  5. 


400  DISEASE    FOR    WHICH    THE 

character  which  are  connected  with  the  fear  of  death ;  who,  by  his 
perfect  obedience,  obtains  pardon  for  those  sins  into  which  they  have 
been  betrayed  by  their  condition ;  and  by  his  Spirit  enables  them  to 
overcome  the  temptations  which  hnman  nature  of  itself  cannot  with- 
stand. 

According  to  this  opinion,  then,  the  human  race  has  sutfered  uni- 
versally in  a  very  high  degree  by  the  sin  of  their  first  parent.  At  the 
same  time,  the  manner  of  their  suffering  is  analagous  to  many  circum- 
stances in  the  ordinary  dispensations  of  Providence  ;  for  we  often  see 
children,  by  the  negligence  or  fault  of  their  parents,  placed  in  situa- 
tions very  unfavourable  both  to  their  prosperity  and  to  their  improve- 
ment ;  and  we  can  trace  the  profligacy  of  their  character  to  the  defects 
of  their  education,  to  the  example  set  before  them  in  their  youth,  and 
to  the  multiplied  temptations  in  which,  from  a  want  of  due  attention 
on  the  part  of  others,  they  find  themselves  early  entangled.  All  this 
is  the  same  in  kind  with  that  account  of  the  eflects  of  Adam's  trans- 
gression which  the  Arminians  give  ;  so  that  the  second  opinion  is  not 
attended  with  any  difficulties  peculiar  to  the  Christian  religion  ;  and 
did  it  exhaust  the  meaning  of  those  passages  of  Scripture  from  which 
our  knowledge  of  that  transaction  must  be  derived,  we  should  be 
delivered  from  some  of  the  most  embarrassing  questions  in  theology. 
But  we  must  not  be  afraid  of  following  the  truth,  because  it  might  be 
easier  to  stop  short  before  we  arrive  at  it ;  and  therefore  it  is  neces- 
sary for  me  to  state,  that  this  second  opinion,  however  plausible,  does 
not  appear  to  give  a  complete  account  of  all  the  circumstances,  which 
both  Scripture  and  experience  direct  us  to  take  into  view,  when  Ave 
speak  of  the  effects  which  the  sin  of  Adam  produced  upon  his  pos- 
terity ;  and  that  the  third  opinion  implies  a  great  deal  more. 

3.  As  the  third  opinion,  which  forms  the  foundation  of  what  is 
called  the  Calvinistic  system,  is  delivered  both  in  the  articles  of  the 
church  of  England,  and  in  the  Confession  of  Faith  of  the  church  of 
Scotland,  I  shall  give  the  amount  of  it  in  the  words  of  t,he  two 
churches. 

In  the  sixth  chapter  of  the  Confession  of  Faith,  it  is  said,  "  our  first 
parents,  by  their  sin,  fell  from  their  original  righteousness  and  com- 
munion with  God,  and  so  became  dead  in  sin ;  the  same  death  in 
sin,  and  corrupted  nature,  are  conveyed  to  all  their  posterity,  de- 
scending from  them  by  ordinary  generation ;  and  from  this  original 
corruption,  whereby  we  are  utterly  indisposed,  disabled,  and  made 
opposite  to  all  good,  and  wholly  inclined  to  all  evil,  do  proceed  all 
actual  transgressions."  In  like  manner,  it  is  said  in  the  ninth  article 
of  the  church  of  England,  "  Original  sin  standeth  not  in  the  following 
or  imitation  of  Adam,  (as  the  Pelagians  do  vainly  talk,)  but  it  is  the 
fault  or  corruption  of  the  nature  of  every  man,  that  naturally  is  en- 
gendered of  the  offspring  of  Adam,  Avhereby  man  is  very  far  gone 
from  original  righteousness,  and  is  of  his  own  nature  inclined  to  evil." 

This  opinion  is  supported  in  all  the  Calvinistic  systems  of  divinity 
by  nearly  the  same  arguments.  But  in  stating  the  grounds  of  it,  I 
shall  take,  as  my  principal  guide,  Mr.  Edwards,  formerly  president  of 
the  college  of  New  Jersey  in  America,  who  has  written  able  treatises 
upon  different  branches  of  the  Calvinistic  system,  and  whose  defence 


REMEDY    IS    PROVIDED.  401 

of  the  doctrine  of  original  sin  contains  the  fullest  and  acutest  answers 
that  I  have  seen,  to  the  objections  commonly  urged  against  that 
doctrine. 

The  fundamental  fact,  upon  which  the  third  opinion  rests,  is  this, 
that  men  in  all  countries  and  in  all  varieties  of-  situation  are  sinners ; 
by  which  it  is  not  meant  that  all  men  are  equally  bad,  or  that  every 
man  commits  every  sin  ;  but  the  meaning  is,  that  the  whole  history 
of  mankind  does  not  afford  an  instance  of  a  perfect  freedom  from  sin, 
either  in  any  body  of  people,  or  even  in  any  one  individual.  With- 
out looking  back  upon  the  universal  prevalence  of  idolatry,  and  the 
enormities  with  which  it  was  accompanied  in  the  heathen  world,  even 
if  we  form  our  opinion  of  the  human  race  from  the  appearances  which 
it  has  exhibited  in  those  lands  that  have  been  blessed  with  revelation, 
we  shall  find  that  a  great  part  transgress  the  laws  of  God  in  a  high 
degree,  and  in  various  respects  ;  that  all  the  means  employed  to  pre- 
vent or  to  correct  wickedness  prove  ineflectual  for  their  amendment ; 
and  that  in  the  obedience  of  the  best,  there  are  such  defects  as  consti- 
tute them  sinners.  But  the  universal  prevalence  of  sin,  in  all  possible 
circumstances,  and  under  every  measure  of  advantage,  is  the  decisive 
proof  of  a  natural  propensity  to  sin ;  for  we  have  no  other  method 
by  which  to  judge  of  tendency  or  propensity,  than  by  observing  the 
same  effect  in  every  change  of  situation.  It  is  from  this  kind  of 
observation  we  say  that  heavy  bodies  have  a  tendency  to  fall ;  that 
animals  have  certain  instincts ;  that  individuals  of  the  human  race 
have  characteristical  propensities.  In  like  manner,  the  propensity  of 
the  whole  race  to  sin  is  gathered  from  the  uniformity  with  which  the 
race  has  sinned.  If  the  effect  arose  merely  from  external  circum- 
stances, without  any  natural  propensity,  it  could  not  take  place  so 
steadily  ;  if  the  mind  had  no  greater  propensity  to  that  which  is  evil 
than  to  that  which  is  good,  some  circumstances  must  have  occurred, 
in  the  infinite  variety  of  events  since  the  beginning  of  the  world, 
fitted  to  prevent  the  appearance  of  the  eftect  altogether,  by  exhibiting 
the  human  race  completely  virtuous.  But  if  men  have  always  in  one 
degree  or  other  sinned,  there  must  be  something  in  their  nature  that 
indisposes  them  for  their  duty,  which  is  the  very  thing  meant  by  a 
corruption  of  nature. 

While  we  thus  infer,  from  the  universal  practice  of  sin,  that  the 
nature  of  man  is  corrupt,  we  learn  from  Scripture  that  this  is  not  the 
state  in  which  Adam  was  created.  Solomon  gives  us  as  the  result 
of  all  his  observations,  Eccles.  vii.  29,  "  Lo  this  only  have  I  found, 
that  God  hath  made  man  upright ;  but  they  have  sought  out  many 
inventions."  The  solemnity  with  which  the  remark  is  introduced, 
and  the  natural  significancy  of  the  words,  lead  us  to  consider  Solo- 
mon as  speaking  of  the  very  great  difference  between  the  crooked 
paths  which  men  now  pursue,  and  the  state  of  uprightness  in  which 
the  first  man  was  made  :  and  the  remark,  thus  understood,  is  agree- 
able to  what  we  may  easily  gather  from  laying  diflerent  passages  to- 
gether. Thus,  Gen.  i.  31,  man  was  made  at  the  time,  when  "God 
saw  every  thing  that  he  had  made,  and  behold  it  was  very  good  ;" 
and  the  formation  of  this  part  of  the  divine  workmanship  is  express- 
ed in  these  peculiar  words.  Gen.  i.  27,  "  So  God  created  man  in  his 
own  image,  xar'  sixom  Qiov,  ill  the  image  of  God  created  he  him."  The 
36*  3  H 


402  DISEASE    FOR    WHICH    THE 

Socinians  indeed  interpret  this  expression  as  meaning  nothing  more 
than  dominion ;  man,  they  say,  the  lord  of  this  lower  world,  is  the 
image  of  God,  the  sovereign  of  the  universe.  But  the  words,  as  they 
are  placed  in  Genesis,  appear  to  imply  something  distinct  from  the 
dominion  given  to  man,  and  antecedent  to  it ;  and  that  they  really 
express  the  character  of  his  mind,  is  manifest  from  the  references 
made  to  them  in  the  New  Testament,  where  the  character,  formed 
by  the  Spirit  of  God  in  all  true  Christians,  is  thus  described,  "  The 
new  man,  which  after  God  is  created  in  righteousness  and  true  holi- 
ness,— which  is  renewed  in  knowledge  after  the  image  of  him  that 
created  him."*  Any  person  who  has  studied  the  Old  and  the  New 
Testament  together,  and  who  has  marked  the  perfect  consistency  that 
runs  through  the  whole  language  of  Scripture,  cannot  entertain  a 
doubt  that  Paul,  who  gives  these  descriptions,  understood  by  Adam's 
being  created  in  the  image  of  God,  his  being  created  in  knowledge, 
righteousness,  and  true  holiness. 

But  Adam,  who,  in  the  day  that  God  created  him,  was  made  in  the 
likeness  of  God,  is  said,  after  he  had  transgressed  the  commandment 
of  God,  to  have  begotten  a  son  in  his  own  likeness  after  his  image. 
Now  this  image  of  Adam,  which  all  his  posterity  bear,  is  something 
very  ditferent  from  the  image  of  God  in  which  he  was  made  ;  and  it 
is  not  expressive  merely  of  mortality,  as  the  Arminians  say,  but  it 
marks,  as  the  image  of  God  did,  a  character  of  mind.    This  is  mani- 
fest from  the'  general  strain  of  Scripture.    For  the  Scriptures  not  only 
declare  that  all  have  sinned,  but  they  seem  to  refer  the  abounding  of 
iniquity  to  a  cause  antecedent  to  education,  example,  or  the  operation 
of  particular  circumstances ;  and  in  numberless  places  they  represent 
the  nature  of  man  as  corrupt.    Of  this  kind  are  the  following :  "  The 
imagination  of  man's  heart  is  evil  from  his  youth."    "  Behold  I  was 
shapen  m  iniquity,  and  in  sin  did  my  mother  conceive  me."     "  The 
wicked  are  estranged  from  the  womb,  they  go  astray  as  soon  as  they 
be  born,  speaking  lies."     "  The  heart  of  the  sons  of  men  is  full  of 
evil,  and  madness  is  in  their  heart  while  they  live,  and  after  that  they 
go  to  the  dead."t     To  these  are  to  be  joined  from  the  Old  Testament 
several  very  striking  expressions  in  the  book  of  Job,  a  book  regarded 
as  at  least  of  equal  antiquity  with  the  books  of  Moses,  and  of  the 
more  weight  in  this  argument,  that  the  personages  introduced  into  it 
do  not  discover  any  acquaintance  with  the  Mosaic  dispensation.     Of 
this  kind  are  the  following  :  "  Who  can  bring  a  clean  thing  out  of  an 
unclean  ?  Not  one."     "  What  is  man,  that  he  should  be  clean  ?  and 
he  which  is  born  of  a  woman  that  he  should  be  righteous  ?    Be- 
hold he  putteth  no  trust  in  his  saints ;  yea  the  heavens  are  not  clean 
in  his  sight.     How  much  more  abominable  and  filthy  is  man,  Avhich 
drinketh  iniquity  like  water."|     In  the  New  Testament,  the  expres- 
sion of  our  Lord,  John  iii.  6,  "  That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is 
flesh ;"  and  the  words  of  his  apostle,  Rom.  vii.  18,  '•  For  I  know  that 
in  me,  that  is,  in  my  flesh,  dwelleth  no  good  thing ;"  and  all  those 
pictures  of  the  works  of  the  flesh  which  abound  in  the  epistles  ap- 

•  Epbes.  iv.  24.     Colos.  iii.  10. 

■\  Gen.  viii.  21.     Ps.  li.  5  ;  Iviii.  3.     Eccles.  ix.  3. 

t  Job  xiv.  4  ;  xv.  14,  15,  16. 


EEMEDY    IS    PROVIPED.  403 

pear  to  afford  evidence  that,  throughout  the  New  Testament,  the 
natural  state  of  eveiy  man  is  represented  as  a  state  of  depravity  and 
aUenation  from  God. 

I  have  now  given  a  general  view  of  the  train  of  argument  which 
is  employed  to  establish  this  fact,  that  human  nature  is  corrupted  by 
the  fall  of  Adam.  But  after  the  fact  is  established,  there  remain 
various  questions  with  regard  to  the  manner  of  the  fact,  which  have 
been  agitated  with  much  heat,  and  with  very  little  edification. 

The  church  of  Rome  consider  that  universal  propensity  to  evil  of 
which  we  have  been  speaking,  and  to  which  they  give  the  name  of 
co7icupiscentia,  as  the  natural  state  of  man,  /.  e.  the  state  in  which 
he  was  created.     This  propensity  wag,  in  Adam,  under  the  restraint 
of  that  superior  divine  principle  which  he  derived  from  communion 
with  God  ;  and  in  this  restraint  consisted  his  uprightness.    When  the 
superior  principle  was,  inconsequence  of  his  transgression,  withdrawn 
from  him  and  his  posterity,  the  propensity  remained.     But,  being  the 
nature  of  man,  it  is  not  in  itself  sinful,  and  becomes  sin  only  when 
it  is  carried  forth  into  action  ;  as  it  is  said,  James  i.  15,  "  Then  when 
lust  hath  conceived,  it  bringeth  forth  sin."     In  answer  to  this  system, 
it  has  been  justly  argued,  that  the  disorders  of  the  passions  are  in 
themselves  strong  indications  of  depravity ;  that  they  are  opposite  to 
the  spiritual  and  refined  morality  of  the  gospel,  which  requires  purity 
of  heart ;  that  concupiscentia,  in  several  places  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, particularly  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  chap.  vii.  is  spoken 
of  as  sin,  and  that  James  means  that  lust,  which  is  sinful  while  it 
dwells  in  the  heart,  when  it  hath  conceived,  brings  forth  sinful  actions. 
An  opinion,  diametrically  opposite  to  this  system  of  the  church  of 
Rome,  was  broached  in  the  last  century  by  Flaccus    lUyricus,  an 
obscure  divine,   that   original   sin  is  the  very  substance  of  human 
nature,  a  being  operating  and  existing  in  all  men.     This  opinion  is 
justly  regarded  as  monstrous,  even  by  those  who  hold  the  corruption 
of  human  nature  in  its  greatest  extent ;  and  it  would  not  have  found 
a  place  in  this  general  view  of  opinions  concerning  original  sin,  if  the 
mention  of  it  did  not  assist  you  in  apprehending  the  true  system  of 
the   Calvinists   upon   this   point.     They  consider  the  corruption  of 
human  nature,  not  as  a  substance,  but  as  a  defect  or  perversion  of  its 
qualities,  by  which  they  are  deprived  of  their  original  perfection  ;  and 
applying  to  this  corruption  various  expressions  in  which  the  Apostle 
Paul,   in  his  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  describes  the   state   of  the 
heathen  world  before  Christianity  appeared,  they  consider  the  natural 
state  of  man  as  a  state  in  which  the  understanding  is  darkened,  the 
heart  alienated  from  the  life  of  God,  the  affections  set  upon  earthly 
things,  and  all   the  powers  of  the  mind  emploA^ed  in  fulfilling  the 
desires  of  the  flesh.     This  state  is  called  by  the  apostle  "  being  dead 
in  trespasses  and  sins  ;"  an  expression  which,  when  taken  in  conjunc- 
tion   with  the  threatening  to  Adam,  "  in  the  day  that  thou  eatest 
thereof  thou    shalt   sm-ely    die,"  has   suggested   what   divines    call 
spiritual  death.   This  denotes  an  estrangement  from  God.  the  fountain 
of  life,  and  an  inability  in  man  to  return  to  God  ;  and  being  consider- 
ed as  extending  from  Adam  through  liis  posterity,  it  is.  in  the  highest 
sense,  the  corruption  of  the  nature  of  a  creature,  who  was  made  after 
the  image  of  God. 


404  DISEASE    FOR    WHICH    THE 

This  account  of  the  corruption  of  human  nature  does  not  imply- 
that  man  has  lost  the  natural  capacity  of  knowing  God,  or  the  natural 
sense  of  the  distinction  between  right  and  wrong.  The  same  powers 
of  reason  by  which  he  conducts  the  business  of  life,  or  makes 
discoveries  in  science,  lead  him  to  infer,  from  the  works  of  creation, 
the  existence  and  the  perfections  of  the  Deity  ;  and  those  moral  senti- 
ments, upon  which  all  the  intercourse  of  society  and  the  principles  of 
legislation  proceed,  dictate  to  him  that  conduct  which,  as  an  indivi- 
dual, he  ought  to  observe.  Accordingly,  the  apostle  to  the  Romans, 
at  the  very  time  he  is  proving  the  universal  corruption  of  human 
nature,  says  that  heathen  idolatry  was  inexcusable,  because  the 
invisible  things  of  God  may  be  understood  by  the  things  which  he 
hath  made  ;  and  further,  that  the  Gentiles,  who  have  not  the  law,  i.  e. 
any  written  law,  are  a  law  unto  themselves.*  Man,  therefore,  is  not, 
according  to  the  third  opinion,  so  far  degraded  by  the  corruption  of 
his  nature  as  to  cease  to  be  a  moral  agent.  In  every  situation  he 
appears  capable  of  the  sentiment  of  religion  ;  in  every  country,  and 
under  every  form  of  society,  his  heart  has  glowed  with  the  feelings 
of  private  affection  and  tenderness ;  and  the  history  of  his  exploits 
has  been  ennobled  by  many  disinterested  and  heroic  exertions.  But, 
without  any  invidious  detraction  from  those  amiable  dispositions  and 
those  splendid  actions,  which  constitute  the  principal  charm  of  the 
ancient  poets  and  historians,  it  will  occur  to  you  that  they  were  either 
wholly  unconnected  with  principles  of  religion,  or  that  they  were 
accompanied  with  superstition  so  gross  and  childish,  as  not  in  reality 
to  contradict  that  system,  which  places  the  corruption  of  human 
nature  in  an  estrangement  from  the  true  God.  Amidst  all  the  offices 
of  private  kindness  or  of  public  spirit  which  we  have  been  accustom- 
ed to  admire,  men  were  without  God  in  the  world ;  and  there  does 
not  appear,  from  the  full  experiment  which  was  made  under  the 
philosophy  and  government  of  ancient  times,  the  smallest  probability 
that  any  improvement  of  the  understanding  which  they  could  pro- 
duce, or  any  refinement  of  the  heart  which  they  could  form,  would 
have  recovered  man  from  what  is  termed  the  spiritual  death  of  the 
soul,  so  as  to  bring  him  back  to  the  fountain  of  life,  and  restore  that 
communion  with  God,  and  that  image  of  God,  which  are  essential  to 
the  rectitude  of  his  nature. 

After  ascertaining  what  is  meant,  according  to  the  third  opinion,  by 
the  corruption  of  human  nature,  it  has  been  inquired  in  what  manner 
this  corruption  is  transmitted,  how  it  comes  about  that  the  powers  of 
our  nature  inherit  from  Adam  this  defect  and  perversion.  But  this 
is  an  inquiry  in  which  it  is  impossible  to  attain  any  satisfying  conclu- 
sion, because  it  resolves  into  principles  of  which  we  are  totally 
ignorant.  We  infer,  from  various  appearances,  that  besides  the  body 
which  is  obvious  to  our  senses,  and  the  growth  of  which  may  be 
traced  from  the  time  of  its  conception,  every  human  being  has  a 
principle  distinct  from  matter,  which  we  call  the  soul.  But  we  know 
not  enough  of  the  nature  of  the  soul  to  form  any  judgment  with 
regard  to  the  manner  of  its  connexion  with  the  body,  or  the  kind  of 
influence  which  the  one  exerts  over  the  other.     If  we  say  with  some 

*  Rom.  i.  ii. 


REMEDY    IS    PROVIDED.  405 

sects  of  Christians  animam  esse  ex  traduce,  that  the  soul  is  generated 
like  the  body  by  the  act  of  the  parents,  we  seem  to  approach  to 
materialism.  If  we  say,  as  the  Calvinists  generally  do,  that  souls  are 
successively  made  by  the  Creator,  and  joined  by  his  act  to  those 
bodies  which  they  are  to  animate,  we  seem  to  form  a  rational  hypo- 
thesis. But  having  never  been  admitted  to  the  secret  counsels  of  the 
Father  of  Spirits,  we  find  this  act  of  his  in  many  points  to  us  inex- 
plicable. Here  are  two  substances,  not  only  of  a  different  nature, 
but,  according  to  this  hypothesis,  of  a  different  origin,  most  intimately 
joined.  We  feel  daily  the  effects  of  their  junction.  Yet  we  cannot 
pretend  to  assign  the  period  when  it  commenced,  the  reasons  which 
determined  the  Creator  to  join  a  soul  to  one  body  rather  than  to 
another,  or  the  bond  which  keeps  together  that  soul  and  body  which 
he  chose  to  unite.  These  are  questions  which  reason  does  not 
resolve,  and  upon  which  revelation  does  not  profess  to  throw  any 
light.  They  meet  us  upon  many  subjects  in  natural  religion,  and 
they  recur  when  we  attempt  to  speculate  concerning  the  manner  in 
which  the  corruption  of  human  nature  is  transmitted.  But  in  revela- 
tion, as  in  natural  religion,  they  are  questions  concerning  the  manner 
of  the  fact,  not  concerning  the  fact  itself;  and,  therefore,  if  the  Scrip- 
tures reveal,  or  if  experience  assures  us,  that  this  corruption  is  trans- 
mitted, the  questions  which  may  be  started,  and  which  cannot  be 
answered,  are  of  no  more  weight  to  shake  the  evidence  of  this  fact, 
than  questions  of  the  same  kind  are  to  shake  the  evidence  of  the  union 
of  soul  and  body.  We  cannot  doubt,  from  our  acquaintance  with  the 
government  of  God,  that  if  the  Creator  infuses  a  soul  into  a  body, 
either  at  the  time  of  the  conception  of  the  body,  or  at  any  subsequent 
period,  he  acts  according  to  a  general  course  which  is  established 
with  wisdom  ;  and  it  appears  from  our  experience  to  be  part  of  this 
course,  that  the  likeness  of  children  to  their  parents  extends  beyond 
the  features  of  their  body.  There  are  not  only  constitutional  diseases, 
but  constitutional  vices ;  there  is  a  character  which  often  runs 
through  a  family  for  many  generations ;  and  there  are  numberless 
instances  where  the  resemblance  cannot  be  explained  by  imitation. 
The  same  Scriptures,  from  Avhich  we  infer  that  a  general  corruption 
pervades  the  posterity  of  Adam,  intimate  that  it  is  transmitted  by 
natural  generation,  that  is  to  say,  that  the  constitution  of  which  we 
observe  many  particular  instances  extends  to  this  universal  fact.  But 
they  leave  the  transmission  of  this  corruption  upon  the  same  footing, 
and  in  the  same  darkness,  with  the  propagation  of  the  soul ;  and 
their  silence  is  sufficient  to  check  the  speculations  of  every  sober 
inquirer. 

This  third  opinion  concerning  the  effects  of  the  sin  of  Adam  is 
supported  by  many  passages  in  Scripture;  it  appears  to  have  been, 
the  received  opinion  of  the  Jewish  church  ;  and  some  traditions  of  it 
having  probably  reached  the  heathen  philosophers,  and  coming  in  aid 
of  the  conclusions  that  might  be  drawn  from  universal  experience, 
may  have  led  Socrates  to  speak  oixaxov  t^^vtov,  a  phrase  equivalent  to 
what  we  call  natural  corruption  ;  and  Plato  to  ascribe  the  causes  of 
our  vices  to  those  first  principles  which  we  inherit  from  our  parents. 

But  there  yet  remains  a  fourth  opinion  upon  this  subject. 

4.  It  is  held  by  many  divines,  it  is  part  of  the  creed  of  the  church 


406  DISEASE    FOR    WHICH    THE 

of  Scotland,  and  it  seems  to  be  implied  in  the  language  of  the  arti- 
cles of  the  church  of  England,  although  it  is  not  there  directly  ex- 
pressed, that  the  sin  of  Adam  is  imputed  to  his  posterity ;  and  that 
by  means  of  this  imputatron,  all  who  are  descended  from  iiim  are 
guilty  before  God.  The  opinion  of  those  who  hold  the  imputation 
of  the  sin  of  Adam  includes  the  truth  of  the  third  opinion ;  but  they 
hold  something  more  ;  and  you  will  understand  in  what  respect  the 
fourth  opinion  goes  beyond  the  third,  by  attending  to  the  meaning  of 
two  terms  which  are  of  fi'equent  use  amongst  those  who  write  upon 
original  sin,  the  mediate  and  immediate  imputation  of  the  sin  of 
Adam.  The  corruption  which  we  derive  from  Adam  has  been  styled 
the  mediate  imputation  of  liis  sin  ;  it  becomes  ours  only  in  conse- 
quence of  our  connexion  with  him,  but  it  is  truly  ours  because  it  in- 
fects our  nature.  Now  those  who  hold  the  fourth  opinion  say,  that 
besides  this  corruption  of  nature,  although  always  in  conjunction  with 
it,  there  is  an  immediate  imputation,  by  which  the  sin  of  Adam  is 
counted  in  the  sight  of  God  as  ours.  Accordingly,  you  will  find  the 
third  and  fourth  opinion  joined  in  the  sixth  chapter  of  our  Confession 
of  Faith,  as  forming  together  the  complete  view  of  the  effects  of 
Adam's  sin.  '*'  They  being  the  root  of  all  mankind,  the  guilt  of  this 
sin  was  imputed,  and  the  same  deatli  in  sin  and  corrupted  nature  con- 
veyed to  all  their  posterity,  descending  from  them  by  ordinary  gene- 
ration." 

The  reasoning,  upon  which  this  fourth  opinion  has  been  grounded, 
is  of  the  following  kind.  In  those  transactions  which  took  place  soon 
after  the  creation,  Adam  appears  as  the  representative  of  the  human 
race.  The  first  blessing,  "  be  fruitful  and  multiply,  and  replenish  the 
earth,  and  subdue  it,"  both  by  the  terms  in  which  it  is  conceived,  and 
by  the  nature  of  the  thing,  was  not  a  personal  blessing,  but,  although 
addressed  to  Adam  and  Eve,  conveyed  to  their  posterity,  as  well  as 
to  themselves,  a  right  to  occupy  the  earth,  to  rule  over  the  inferior 
animals,  and  to  employ  their  service.  Had  the  penalty  annexed  to 
disobedience,  "  in  the  day  thou  eatest  thereof  thou  shalt  surely  die," 
been  executed  as  instantly  as  the  words  might  have  led  Adam  to  ex- 
pect, he  could  not  have  had  any  posterity.  It  was  the  delaying  the 
execution  of  this  part  of  the  sentence  which  left  time  for  the  appear- 
ance of  the  human  race  upon  earth  ;  but  in  consequence  of  the 
sin  of  their  first  parents,  they  come  into  the  world  subject  to  death  ; 
and  the  calamities  in  their  persons,  which  mankind  continually  expe- 
rience, are  the  daily  execution  of  the  former  parts  of  the  sentence 
pronounced  upon  Adam.  The  ground  is  cursed  to  them  for  his  sake; 
and  even  if  we  admit  the  ingenious  theory  which  Bishop  Sherlock 
has  ably  supported,  that  part  of  the  curse  upon  the  ground  was  re- 
mitted by  the  blessing  pronounced  upon  Noah  after  the  flood,  we 
must  acknowledge  that  the  full  extent  of  that  curse  had  been  felt  by 
all  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  for  many  generations.  Here  then  are 
unquestionably  the  effects  of  the  sin  of  Adam  reaching  to  his  poste- 
rity ;  in  other  words,  it  is  counted  to  them  in  the  judgment  of  God  as 
if  it  were  their  own  ;  so  that  Adam  in  this  sin,  as  well  as  in  the  other 
transactions  between  the  Creator  and  our  first  parents,  appears  not  as 
an  individual,  but  as  being  what  divines  call  a  federal  head,  who,  in 
the  covenant  that  was  made  with  him,  acted  for  his  posterity. 


REMEDY    IS    PROVIDED.  407 

These  views,  suggested  by  the  consequences  of  the  transaction  be- 
fore the  fall,  are  considered  as  implied  in  an  expression,  Ephes.  ii.  3, 
fvju  iixva  op.r;i;  and  they  are  very  much  confirmed  by  the  reasoning 
of  the  Apostle  Paul,  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  chap.  v.  The 
apostle  had  proved  largely,  in  the  beginning  of  that  epistle,  the  uni- 
versal sinfulness  of  mankind.  From  thence,  he  had  proceeded  to  dis- 
course of  the  richness  of  that  grace  by  which  sinners  are  justified,  i.  e. 
brought  into  a  state  of  favour  and  reconciliation  ;  and  in  reference  to 
what  he  had  said  of  the  manner  of  this  justification,  he  thus  expresses 
himself,  Rom.  v.  11,  "  we  joy  in  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
by  whom  we  have  received  the  atonement."  At  this  point,  he  looks 
back  upon  the  two  subjects  which  he  had  discussed,  and  with  the 
comprehension  and  rapidity  of  thought  which  distinguish  the  writings 
of  Paul,  he  brings  forward  to  the  view  of  the  Romans  a  striking  simi- 
larity between  the  two  subjects.  The  similarity  is  this,  that  both  sin, 
and  the  remedy  of  sin,  were  introduced  through  one  man.  By  Jesus 
we  have  received  the  atonement :  by  one  man  sin  entered  into  the 
world.  This  similarity  in  two  things  diametrically  opposite  was  of 
itself  worthy  of  attention.  But  the  apostle  had  a  particular  reason 
for  bringing  it  forward  and  dwelling  upon  it,  which  we  may  gather 
from  the  preceding  part  of  the  epistle.  The  great  distinction  of  man- 
kind in  those  times  was  into  Jew  and  Gentile.  Accordingly,  the 
apostle,  when  he  v/as  proving  the  sinfulness  of  mankind,  found  it 
necessary  to  show  that  the  Jews  in  this  respect  had  no  advantage 
above  the  Gentiles,  and  rendered  his  proposition,  in  the  apprehension 
of  those  to  whom  he  wrote,  completely  universal,  by  concluding  both 
Jews  and  Gentiles  under  sin.  But  there  could  not  be  a  more  effectual 
way  of  confirming  the  universality  of  this  his  fundamental  proposi- 
tion, than  by  recurring  to  the  similarity  which  he  is  now  going  to 
state.  For,  in  stating  this  similarity,  he  draws  the  attention  of  his 
readers  from  Abraham,  the  father  of  the  Jewish  nation,  of  whom 
they  boasted,  and  through  whom  they  inherited  many  blessings,  to  a 
more  remote  ancestor,  from  whom  both  Jews  and  Gentiles  were 
descended,  and  through  whom  both  inherited  the  same  dismal  legacy. 
In  ascending  to  Adam  the  distinction  between  Jews  and  Gentiles  is 
lost,  and  the  necessity  of  a  Saviour  is  laid  in  that  condition  which  is 
common  to  all  mankind. 

This  account  of  the  occasion  of  introducing  the  discourse,  which 
we  are  about  to  consider,  explains  the  meaning  of  the  two  words 
Bia  -tovto,  with  which  the  twelfth  verse  begins.    A'*  rovto  li^rtf^  81  £>oj 

avO^iiitov  ri  ajMi^tia  fij  ■tov  xoaixov  ({.arfkOi,  xat,  5ta  t'j;?  ajwa^t'ias  o  ^va-toit  xa.i  oiifco;  ft? 
navto-i  av^gcortouj  o  ^aratoj  5tj;X9£i',  tij)'  9  rtavT'Ej  ^.ua^T'oi'.       Tovto  doeS  UOt  refer  tO 

any  particular  word  in  the  preceding  verse,  but  to  the  whole  of  what 
the  apostle  had  said  in  the  former  part  of  the  epistle.  "  This  being 
the  view  which  I  have  given  of  the  sinfulness  of  mankind  and  of  their 
deliverance,  you  will  perceive  that  similarity  between  the  two  which 
I  am  now  to  state."  '  O-ime,  gives  notice  that  the  similarity  is  to  be 
stated  ;  but  the  reddition  of  it,  or  tl:e  other  subject  similar  to  that 
mentioned  in  the  twelfth  verse,  is  not  formally  enunciated  till  the 
eighteenth.  The  intervening  verses,  after  the  manner  of  Paul,  are 
filled  up  with  illustrations  of  the  first  subject,  or  with  the  mention  of 
points  of  dissimilitude  between  the  two,  before  the  point  in  which 


408  DISEASE    FOR    WHICH    THE 

they  are  similar  is  clearly  expressed.  The  first  three  clauses  of  the 
twelfth  verse  have  already  occurred  in  speaking  of  the  effects  of 
Adam's  sin,  and  they  are  not  attended  with  any  peculiar  difficulty. 
But  the  last  clause  of  this  verse,  e^'  9  fio-vtc;  t;ixa^top,  admits  of  three 
different  interpretations,  and  the  nature  of  its  connection  with  the  rest 
of  the  verse  appears  to  vary  according  to  the  interpretation  which  is 
adopted.  It  has  been  rendered,  "in  whom,  viz.  the  first  man,  all 
sinned" — "  unto  which,  viz.  death,  all  sinned" — "  inasmuch  as,  viz. 
for  this  which  is,  all  sinned."  The  first  does  not  really  express  more 
than  may  be  gathered  from  the  apostle's  argument,  and  therefore  the 
sense  is  no  reason  for  rejecting  it.  But  it  will  occur  to  you,  that 
according  to  this  interpretation,  the  antecedent,  avO^ccnov,  is  very  re- 
mote, and  that  several  masculine  words  have  intervened.  The 
second  refers  the  relative  to  the  nearest  antecedent  ^amtoi,  and -marks 
truly  the  effect  or  consequence  of  sin,  but  it  marks  that  eflect  by  an 
expression  harsh  and  obscure.  The  third  renders  ^t'  9  in  a  manner 
agreeable  to  the  analogy  of  the  Greek  language,  and  the  use  of  this 
phrase  in  classical  writers.  But  it  would  have  been  more  accurate  to 
have  rendered  w^C^'o"' "  did  sin,"  than  "  have  sinned;"  and  if  our 
translation  be  read  with  this  small  correction, "  forasmuch  as,  or  upon 
this  account  which  is,  all  did  sin,"  the  last  clause  of  the  twelfth  verse, 
in  which  the  apostle  is  still  stating  the  first  subject,  will  appear  to  be 
perfectly  equivalent  to  the  first  clause  of  the  nineteenth  verse,  wliere 
the  same  subject  is  repeated.  "  All  were  constituted  siimers  by  the 
act  of  this  one  man."  The  reason  of  this  assertion  is  given  in  the 
thirteenth  verse.  "  For  before  the  law  of  Moses  was  given,  sin  was 
in  the  world."  I  need  not  refer  to  the  book  of  Genesis  for  the  sins 
of  that  period,  which  are  there  related  :  for  none  will  be  disposed  to 
deny  that  sin  was  in  the  world,  i.  e.  was  universally  practised,  before 
the  children  of  Israel  went  out  of  Egypt ;  and  yet  whatever  the 
actions  of  men  in  that  period  had  been,  they  could  not  have  been 
counted  to  them  as  sins,  had  there  been  no  law ;  since,  according  to 
an  axiom  often  repeated  by  the  apostle,  "  where  no  law  is,  there  is 
no  transgression."  But  the  apostle  had  clearly  proved,  in  the  first 
and  second  chapters  of  the  epistle,  that  men  never  were  left  without 
a  law,  because  "  the  invisible  things  of  God  from  the  creation  of  the 
Avorld,  are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the  things  that  are  made," 
and  "  the  nations  who  have  not  the  law,  are  a  law  unto  themselves." 
There  is  a  primary  universal  rule  of  righteousness  written  on  the 
heart  of  man,  under  which  every  man  is  born,  by  which  every  man, 
although  he  has  no  other  revelation  of  the  divine  will,  knows  that  he 
shall  be  judged,  and  every  transgression  of  which  is  felt  to  be  worthy 
of  death.  Had  there  been  no  such  law,  sin  could  not  have  been 
attended  with  its  penal  consequence,  i.  e.  death. 

The  word  a?i^a,  in  the  fourteenth  verse,  gives  notice  of  an  objection 
which  the  apostle  is  aware  might  occur  to  his  doctrine  in  the  thirteenth, 
but  which  he  purposely  brings  forward,  because  it  is  the  strongest 
confirmation  of  his  capital  position,  that  sin  and  death  entered  into 
the  world  by  one  man.  The  objection  is,  that  sin  appeared  by  its 
penal  effect,  death,  in  the  interval  between  Adam  and  Moses,  even 
over  those  who  had  not  sinned  after  the  similitude  of  Adam's  trans- 
gression.    It  is  not  obvious  who  are  the  persons  here  meant,  and 


REMEDY    IS    PROVIDED.  409 

different  interpretations  have  been  given.     It  appears  plain  to  me, 
that  the  apostle  cannot  mean,  as  some  say,  those  who  had  not  sinned 
like  Adam,  with  the  punishment  of  death  before  their  eyes ;  because 
the  apostle  had  expressly  said,  Rom.  i.  32,  "  That  the  heathen,  who 
were  filled  with  all  unrighteousness,  knew   the  judgment  of  God, 
and  they  who  commit  such  things  are  worthy  of  death."     Besides,  it 
is  not  pertinent  to  his  argument  to  say  here,  that  any  who  sinned,  in 
the  interval  between  Adam  and  Moses,  sinned  without  knowing,  as 
Adam  did,  that  death  is  the  punishment  of  sin.     For  his  argument  is 
this  ;  sin  cannot  be  counted  to  a  person,  so  as  to  be  punished  in  him, 
without  a  law  :  but  sin  was  punished  before  the  law  of  Moses  existed ; 
the  consequence  is,  that  there  must  be  some  law  antecedent  to  the 
law  of  Moses,  and  more  universal,  viz.  the  law  of  works  given  to  the 
first  parent  of  mankind,  and  extending  to  all  his  posterity.     Every 
one  that  commits  sin,  therefore,  sins  after  the  similitude  of  Adam's 
transgression,  in  this  respect,  that  he  sins  against  the  law  of  his  Crea- 
tor, knowing  that  he  deserves  death.     But  who  then  are  they  that 
have  not  sinned  after  the  similitude  of  Adam's  transgression,  and  yet 
death  reigns  over  them  ?  They  can  be  none  other  than  infants,  the 
persons  of  whom  this  clause  is  generally   understood ;   that  large 
proportion  of  the  human  race  who  die  before  their  faculties  are  so  far 
unfolded,  that  they  are  capable  of  committing  any  sin.     They  die  in 
consequence  of  the  law  given  to  their  first  parent,  by  which  death  is 
declared  to  be  the  punishment  of  sin,  and  their  dying  is  a  proof  that 
his  sin  is  counted  to  them  as  theirs.     The  mention  of  this  striking  fact 
leads  the  apostle  to  style  Adam  -ivTio^  tov  ntVKovtou  an  image  or  represen- 
tation of  him  that  was  to  come,  of  Christ,  the  person  by  whom  the 
deliverance  was  to  be  brought.     But  he  does  not  formallj'-  state  the 
similarity  between  the  two,  until  he  has  touched  upon  the  points 
of  dissimilitude.      These   are  stated   in  the    15th,    16th,  and    17th 
verses;  and  the  amount  of  them  is  this:  the  value  of  the  gift  tran- 
scends the  extent  of  the  forfeiture,  and  the  grace  manifested  in  the 
gift  goes  far  beyond  every  appearance  of  severity  in  the  condemna- 
tion.    I  will  not  arrest  your  attention  upon  these  points  of  dissimili- 
tude now,  because  they  will  occur  more  properly  when  we  come  to 
speak  of  the  remedy.     From  the  mention  of  them,  the  apostle  passes 
on  to  state  explicitly,  in  verses  IS,  19,  the  similarity  between  the 
method  in  which  sin  and  death  were  introduced  into  the  world,  and 
the  method  of  our  deliverance.     The  particles  a^aow  give  notice  that 
he  is  continuing  his  discourse,  and  that  he  is  collecting  the  former 
parts  of  it  in  approaching  to  his  conclusion.     The  similarity  is  this. 
As  by  one  offence  all  men  are  under  the  condemnation  of  death,  as 
by  the  disobedience  of  one  man  many  were  constituted  in  the  sight 
of  God  sinners,  so  by  one  righteousness,  all  men  obtain  the  justifica- 
tion of  life,  and  by  the  obedience  of  one  many  shall  be  constituted  in 
the  sight  of  God  righteous.     The  offence  of  one  is  counted  to  us  in 
such  a  manner  that  we  suffer  the  punishment  of  sin,  which  a  just  God 
would  not  inflict  upon  us  if  we  were  not  considered  by  him  as  sinners ; 
the  obedience  of  one  is  counted  to  us  in  such  a  manner,  that  we  who 
were  sinners  are  upon  account  of  it  justified,  i.  e.  considered  as 
righteous  by  a  just  God,  and  received  into  his  favour. 

This  whole  reasoning  of  the  apostle  favours  the  notion  of  an  im- 
37  3  1 


410  ^  DISEASE    FOR    WHICH    THE 

putation  of  Adam's  sin.  The  phrase  indeed  does  not  occur ;  but  the 
thing  meant  by  the  phrase  appears  to  be  the  natural  meaning  of  the 
passage  ;  and  I  know  no  better  way  in  which  you  can  satisfy  your- 
selves that  it  is  the  true  meaning,  tiian  by  comparing  the  interpreta- 
tion now  given,  with  the  forced  paraphrases  to  which  those  are  obUged 
to  have  recourse,  who  wish  to  show  that  the  fourth  opinion  does  not 
receive  any  countenance  from  the  authority  of  Paul. 

Upon  these  two  grounds,  our  daily  experience  that  the  effects  of 
Adam's  sin  yet  subsist  in  the  world,  and  the  manner  in  which  the 
apostle  reasons  from  this  fact,  that  all  die,  there  has  been  founded  that 
notion,  which,  from  the  religious  education  commonly  received  in 
this  country,  is  familiar  to  your  minds,  that  there  was  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  world  a  covenant  in  v/hich  Adam  acted  as  the  represent- 
ative of  his  posterity.  It  is  generally  said,  in  support  of  this  notion, 
that  Adam  had  every  possible  advantage  for  keeping  the  covenant, 
and  no  reasonable  temptation  to  break  it,  so  that  human  virtue  could 
not  have  had  a  fairer  trial ;  that  human  affairs  could  not  proceed  un- 
less parents  acted  for  their  children,  and  rulers  for  their  subjects ;  and 
that  we  are  accustomed  to  behold  not  only  many  instances  in  which 
individuals  suffer  for  the  faults  of  those  who  went  before'  them,  but 
also  many  kinds  of  civil  contracts,  that  include  posterity  in  transac- 
tions, which,  although  they  had  no  opportunity  of  giving  their  con- 
sent to  them,  are  considered,  in  the  eye  of  the  law,  as  theirs.  It  is 
further  said,  that  our  usages  and  ideas  with  regard  to  such  transac- 
tions occur  often  in  the  Old  Testament,  where  the  Almighty  con- 
descends to  represent  that  act  of  sovereignty,  by  which  he  chose 
the  posterity  of  Abraham,  as  a  covenant  made  with  their  ancestor, 
and  the  law  given  by  Moses  as  a  covenant  made  with  the  Israelites 
in  the  wilderness,  not  for  themselves  only,  but  for  their  posterity  ;*  a 
covenant  which  both  conveyed  blessings  to  the  descendants  of  those 
with  whom  it  was  made,  and  also  laid  them  under  many  restraints ; 
and  a  covenant  constituted  in  this  manner,  that  succeeding  generations 
endured  many  calamities,  and  the  Jews  at  this  day  are  continuing  to 
suffer,  for  the  sins  of  their  fathers. 

If  is  true  indeed  that  we  are  not  warranted  to  consider  this  part  of 
the  constitution  of  that  covenant  which  was  made  with  the  Israel- 
ites, as  in  all  respects  a  specimen  of  the  general  plan  of  the  divine 
administration,  because  this  constitution  extended  only  to  the  temporal 
affairs  of  the  Jewish  nation.  And  yet,  when  we  are  told  by  that 
apostle,  from  whose  writings  our  knowledge  of  the  new  dispensation 
is  chiefly  derived,  that  those  who  have  committed  no  sin  sutler  death, 
which  entered  into  the  world  by  the  sin  of  the  first  Adam,  it  is  im- 
possible for  us  to  avoid  concluding,  that  as  there  was  a  particular 
constitution  for  the  Jewish  state,  in  which  the  iniquities  of  the  fathers 
were  visited  upon  the  children,  there  may  be  an  universal  constitution 
for  the  human  race,  by  which  the  sin  of  their  first  parent  extends  to 
all  his  offspring. 

It  is  readily  admitted  that  difficulties  appear  to  us  to  attend  this 
constitution.  But  difficulties  of  the  same  kind  are  perpetually  occur- 
ring upon  subjects  in  theology,  not  peculiar  to  this  system,  but  nearly 

*  Deut.  xxix.  10—15. 


REMEDY    IS    PROVIDED.  411 

the  same,  in  whatever  manner  we- attempt  to  accomit  for  the  origin 
of  evil :  and  the  same  account  may  be  given  of  all  of  them.  We  see 
only  in  parts ;  but  we  are  not  qualified  to  judge  of  the  ways  of  God 
without  seeing  the  whole,  because  his  administration  embraces  the 
whole.  There  may  be  a  deptli  of  wisdom  in  the  constitution  of  which 
we  are  now  speaking,  that  we  are  unable  to  penetrate  :  there  may  be 
advantages  resulting  from  it  to  the  human  race,  that  infinitely  counter- 
balance the  evils  to  which  it  gives  occasion.  That  it  is  not  unbecoming 
the  Ruler  of  the  universe,  appears  with  the  clearest  evidence  from 
hence,  that  a  constitution  of  the  same  kind,  with  regard  to  some  par- 
ticulars, may  be  observed  in  the  ordinary  course  of  his  providence 
towards  all  men,  and  in  the  whole  history  of  that  people,  of  whom  he 
condescended  to  appear  as  the  immediate  Governor. 

Although  it  may  appear  to  you  from  what  lias  been  said,  that  we 
are  warranted  to  employ  the  notion  of  a  covenant,  when  we  speak  of 
the  manner  in  which  the  sin  of  Adam  is  huputed  to  his  posterity,  it  is 
proper  to  warn  you  that  there  is  a  danger  of  falling  into  very  great 
improprieties  both  in  language  and  in  sentiment,  by  pushing  the 
analogy  too  far,  and  that  you  must  not  be  surprised  if  all  the  explica- 
tions oi'  this  subject  appear  to  you  unsatisfactory.  When  you  read 
that  Adam  is  the  root,  and  that,  as  in  the  communication  of  the  juices 
of  a  tree,  the  guilt  is  necessarily  conveyed  from  the  root  to  all  the 
branches  ; — that  Adam  and  his  posterity  constitute  one  moral  person  ; 
— that  the  whole  human  race  was,  at  the  beginning,  one  mass  acting 
by  its  head  ; — and  that  all  the  hidividuals  of  that  mass  consented  to 
his  act,  because  they  were  in  him,  from  whom  they  afterwards  pro- 
ceeded,— you  will  probably  feel,  as  I  did,  that  they  are  repugnant  to 
that  distinct  agency,  which  enters  into  our  notion  of  accountable 
beings,  as  essential  to  that  character.  But  you  will  remember  that 
those  who  say  such  things  attempt  to  explain  what  they  do  not  under- 
stand ;  and  you  will  learn,  by  their  failure,  that  it  is  wiser  to  refrain 
from  such  attempts,  and  to  rest  in  what  the  Scriptures  teach  with 
regard  to  the  imputation  of  Adam's  sin,  which  may  be  summed  up 
in  a  few  words.  The  effects  of  the  sin  of  Adam  reach  to  his  posterity  1 1 
in  such  a  manner,  that  they  suffer  death,  which  is  declared  in  Scrip-  | 
ture  to  be  the  wages  of  sin,  as  if  his  sin  had  been  committed  by  them,  f 
The  Scriptures,  in  stating  the  effects  of  Adam's  sin  make  no  distinc- 
tion between  that  death  which  his  posterity  visibly  suffer,  and  that 
eternal  destruction  which  is  often  called  by  the  name  of  death ;  and 
therefore  we  are  not  warranted  to  say  that  the  dissolution  of  soul  and 
body  is  tlie  only  effect  of  Adam's  sin,  which  extends  to  his  posterity. 
In  what  manner  the  mercy  of  God  will  dispose  hereafter  of  those 
infants  who  die  in  consequence  of  Adam's  sin,  without  having  done 
any  evil,  the  Scriptures  have  not  declared ;  and  it  does  not  become 
us  to  say  more  than  is  said  in  the  excellent  words  of  our  Confession  of 
Faith :  "  Elect  infants,  dying  in  infancy,  are  regenerated  and  saved 
by  Christ  through  the  Spirit,  who  workedi  wlien  and  where,  and 
how  he  pleaseth."*  With  regard  to  those  that  are  grown  up,  the 
corruption  of  nature  mherited  from  Adam,  in  consequence  of  which 
they  daily  commit  sins  of  their  own,  is  jomed  with  the  imputation  of 

*  Confession  of  Faith,  x.  3. 


412  DISEASE    FOR    WHICH    THE    REMEDY    IS    PROVIDED. 

his  sin ;  and  when  we  think  of  their  situation,  we  ought  not  to  allow 
ourselves,  even  in  imagination,  to  separate  the  two. 

Tiie  amount  of  all  that  has  been  said  concerning  that  situation  for 
which  the  Gospel  brings  a  remedy  is  this.  Those  who  consider  the 
Scriptures  as  declaring  that  the  whole  human  race  are  both  guilty 
and  depraved  before  God  perceive,  in  this  picture,  the  absolute  neces- 
sity of  a  remedy.  But  even  those  who  do  not  admit  the  truth  of  this 
picture  acknowledge,  without  hesitation,  that  men  are  sinners.  They 
differ  in  opinion  from  the  former  with  regard  to  the  malignity  of  sin, 
the  manner  in  which  it  was  introduced  into  the  world,  and  the  nature 
of  that  constitution  under  which  the  guilt  and  misery  of  it  are  trans- 
mitted ;  and  hence  they  entertain  different  apprehensions  with  regard 
to  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  remedy,  and  the  manner  in  which  it 
is  applied  to  the  soul.  But  as  the  words  of  the  apostle,  "  All  have 
sinned,  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God,"  are  subscribed  by  every 
Christian,  the  fundamental  proposition  upon  which  the  Gospel  rests 
is  universally  assented  to  ;  and  from  this  proposition  we  now  proceed 
to  examine  the  different  opinions  concerning  the  remedy. 


OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE    NATURE    OF    THE    REMEDY.        413 


CHAPTER  II. 

OPINIONS  CONCERNING    THE    NATURE    OF    THE    REMEDY. 

As  Christians  of  all  denominations  admit  that  men  have  sinned, 
they  admit  also  that  the  Gospel  is  a  remedy  for  the  present  state  of 
moral  evil.  They  readily  adopt  that  "faithful  saying,"  which  the 
apostle  Paul  declares  to  be  «  worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that  Christ 
Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners."  They  adore  the  love  of 
the  Father  in  sending  the  Son  upon  this  errand.  They  profess  the 
warmest  gratitude  to  him  "  who  gave  himself  for  us,  that  he  might 
redeem  us  from  all  iniquity."  They  acknowledge  that  the  greatest 
benefits  are  derived  to  the  world  by  his  sufferings ;  that  we  "  have 
redemption  through  his  blood,  even  the  forgiveness  of  sms ;"  and  that 
by  what  he  did  and  underwent  for  our  sakes,  he  is  entitled  to  be 
honoured  as  the  Savioiu,  the  Deliverer,  and  the  Redeemer  of  man- 
kind. ,  •  ,      1,     1 

But  under  this  uniformity  in  the  language  which  all  who  receive 
the  Scriptures  are  constrained  to  use,  there  is  concealed  much  diversity 
of  opinion ;  and  the  nature  of  that  remedy,  which  it  is  the  character 
of  the  Gospel  to  have  brought,  is  one  of  the  subjects  in  their  specula- 
tions upon  which  Christians  have  departed  very  far  from  one  another. 
—The  opposite  systems  are  supported  partly  by  general  reasonings, 
and  partly  by  passages  of  Scripture.  The  general  reasonings  are  by 
no  means  of  equal  weight  upon  all  sides.  But  it  is  possible  for  able 
men  to  reason  so  plausibly  in  support  of  any  of  the  opinions  which 
have  been  held  upon  this  subject,  that  the  mind  might  remain  in  sus- 
pense, if  the  general  language  of  Scripture,  when  fairly  interpreted, 
did  not  appear  decidedly  to  favour  one  of  the  systems  ;  so  that  the 
question  concerning  the  nature  of  the  remedy,  like  those  which  we 
Lately  discussed  concerning  the  character  and  dignity  of  the  persons 
revealed  in  the  Gospel,  must  be  ultimately  determined  by  sound 
Scripture  criticism. 

There  are  three  systems  with  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  remedy, 
to  which  we  may  be  able  afterwards  to  affix  more  significant  names 
from  the  leading  features  by  which  they  are  distinguished,  but  which 
it  may  suffice  at  present  to  mark  by  calling  them  the  Sociman,  the 
JMiddle,  and  the  Catholic  opinions.  By  calling  the  first  the  Sociman, 
I  do  not  mean  that  it  was  held  by  Spcinus  himself,  for  his  opinion 
Avent  a  great  deal  farther ;  but  it  is  the  opinion  held  by  those  who 
now  call  themselves  Socinians,  and  it  is  the  simplest  system  that  can 
be  formed  with  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  remedy.  I  call  the  third 
the  Catholic  opmion,  because  it  has  been  generally  held  in  the  Chns- 
37* 


414  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE 

tian  church  since  the  days  of  theapostles,  and  enters  into  the  creed  of 
almost  every  estabUshed  church  in  Christendom.  What  I  call  the 
Middle  opinion  arose  in  the  course  of  the  last  century  out  of  a  part  of 
the  system  of  Socinus.  It  is  disavowed  by  the  modern  Socinians ; 
but  it  has  been  brought  forward  by  some  very  able  divines  both  in 
the  church  of  England,  and  amongst  the  dissenters,  as  the  best  method 
of  steering  clear  of  the  objections  that  have  been  made  either  to  the 
Socinian  or  to  the  Catholic  system. 

I  think  it  of  importance  to  give  a  fair  and  complete  exhibition  of 
every  one  of  these  three  systems ;  and  the  order  of  stating  them, 
which  appears  to  be  dictated  by  their  nature,  is  to  begin  with  the 
Socinian,  which  is  the  simplest ;  to  proceed  to  the  middle,  which 
professes  to  be  an  improvement  upon  the  Socinian ;  and  to  end  with 
the  Catholic,  which,  if  it  is  the  truth,  will  bear  the  disadvantage  arising 
from  the  previous  exhibition  of  two  systems  that  are  founded  upon 
objections  to  it,  and  will  approve  itself  to  the  understanding  to  be 
agreeable  both  to  reason  and  to  Scripture. 


Section  I. 

The  fundamental  principle  of  the  Socinian  system  is  this.  Pure 
goodness,  or  a  desire  to  communicate  happiness,  is  conceived  by  the 
Socinians  to  constitute  the  whole  character  of  the  Deity.  All  the 
moral  attributes  of  the  divine  nature  are  regarded  as  only  modifica- 
tions of  benevolence,  and  it  is  believed  that  nothing  either  exists  in 
God,  or  forms  a  part  of  his  government,  which  may  not  be  resolved 
into  this  principle.  Infinitely  blessed  in  himself,  he  could  have  no 
reason  for  creating  the  human  race  but  to  make  them  happy.  His 
wisdom  discerns  the  best  means  of  communicating  happiness ;  his 
power  carries  these  means  readily  and  certainly  into  effect ;  and 
although  the  means  vary  according  to  circumstances,  the  benevolent 
purpose  from  which  they  proceed  is  always  the  same.  He  hates 
sin,  because  it  makes  his  creatures  unhappy ;  he  forbids  it,  that  his 
authority  may  deter  them  from  doing  what  is  hurtful  to  themselves ; 
he  punishes  it,  that  the  experience  of  sufiering  may  convince  them 
of  their  error.  He  employs  various  means  for  their  reformation  ;  he 
bears  patiently  with  their  obstinacy  and  heedlessness;  and  at  what 
time  soever  the  recollection  of  his  prohibition,  the  suffering  of  evil,  or 
any  other  circumstance,  brings  back  to  their  duty  those  who  have 
sinned,  that  goodness  of  the  Deity,  which  had  been  exercised  under 
the  form  of  long-suffering  during  their  error,  becomes  compassion  and 
clemency ;  he  receives  his  returning  children  into  his  favour ;  and 
without  regard  to  any  external  circumstance;  or  any  other  being, 
freely  forgives  their  sins.  The  supreme  ruler  of  the  universe,  say 
the  Socinians,  in  thus  freely  forgiving  all  sins  merely  upon  the  re- 
pentance of  the  sinner,  does  injury  to  none.  He  only  remits  a  part 
of  his  own  right,  a  debt  which  his  offending  creatures  have  contracted 
to  him.  The  independent  felicity  of  his  nature  suffers  no  diminution 
from  his  not  exacting  all  that  he  might  claim  ;  the  glory  of  his  good- 
ness is  illustrated  by  tlie  happiness  which  the  pardon  conveys  to  the 


NATURE  OF  THE  REMEDV.  415 

penitent ;  and  in  conferring  this  pardon  freely  without  any  considera- 
tion foreign  to  himself,  he  sets  his  creatures  an  example  of  generosity 
in  forgiving  those  otfcnces,  which  they  are  daily  commiting  against 
one  another. 

Tills  fundamental  principle  of  the  Socinian  opinion,  which  seems 
at  first  sight  to  flow  from  the  infinite  perfection  of  the  divine  nature, 
and  to  be  most  honourable  to  the  Creator  and  Fatlier  of  all,  is  sup- 
ported by  numberless  passages  of  Scripture,  which  magnify  the 
free  grace  of  God  in  the  pardon  of  transgressors,  which  invite  them 
to  return,  which  describe  the  readiness  with  which  they  shall  be 
received,  and  the  joy  that  there  is  in  heaven  over  a  sinner  that 
repenteth.  It  is  supported  by  the  many  instances  in  which  we 
experience  the  forbearance  of  God,  that  long-suffering  which  spares 
us  amidst  repeated  provocations,  and  leads  us  by  unmerited  blessings 
to  repentance.  It  is  supported  by  all  those  candid  and  indulgent 
sentiments,  which  dispose  us  to  forget  the  offences  of  persons  in  whom 
we  discover  a  change  of  mind,  and  particularly  by  parental  afiection, 
which,  instead  of  being  worn  out  by  the  waywardness  and  perverse- 
ncss  of  children,  is  impatient  to  embrace  them  on  the  first  symptoms 
of  a  return  to  obedience.  It  can  easily  be  conceived  that  the  argu- 
ments, of  which  I  have  given  a  short  sketch,  are  capable  of  receiving 
much  embellishment,  and  that  eloquent  men,  by  fixing  the  attention 
upon  a  particular  view  of  the  subject,  may  leave  little  doubt  in  the 
minds  of  ordinary  readers,  that  a  theory  concerning  the  nature  of  the 
remedy  offered  in  the  gospel,  resting  upon  this  prhiciple  as  its  basis, 
contains  the  whole  of  the  truth. 

When  this  principle  is  applied  in  forming  such  a  theory,  it  follows 
obviously  from  the  principle,  that  the  person  who  brought  the  remedy 
had  nothing  to  do  in  order  to  procure  the  pardon  of  those  who  repent. 
That  is  freely  and  purely  the  effect  of  the  divine  goodness.  But  the 
circumstances  of  the  world  might  render  it  expedient  that  a  declara- 
tion of  pardon  should  be  made.  For  if  men  have  been  sinners  from 
the  beginning  of  the  world,  as  the  Socinians  do  not  deny,  if  the  religion 
of  the  heathen  Avas  connected  with  much  superstition,  i.  e.  with  a 
blind  excessive  fear  of  the  deity ;  and  if  the  Jewish  religion  appointed 
a  costly  burdensome  method  of  approaching  the  God  of  Israel,  which 
could  not  be  observed  by  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  there  seems  to 
be  much  occasion  that  a  religion  not  confined  to  a  particular  tribe,  but 
professing  to  spread  itself  over  the  whole  world,  and  appointing  a 
spiritual  worship,  should  declare,  hi  the  most  unequivocal  and  solemn 
manner,  that  encouragement  to  the  penitent  which  is  derived  from 
the  essential  goodness  of  God.  Now  such  declarations  are  known  to 
abound  in  the  gospel :  and  they  appear  to  the  Socinians  to  give  the 
religion  of  Jesus  that  importance  which  every  one  expects  to  find  in 
a  divine  revelation.  God  appears  there  in  Christ  reconciling  the 
world  to  himself,  and  repentance  and  remission  of  sins  are  preached 
in  the  name  of  Christ  among  all  nations  ;  not  that  God  is  more  gracious 
than  he  was  at  any  former  time  ;  not  that  Christ  did  any  thing  to 
render  God  propitious :  but  he  is  the  messenger  who  publishes  the 
divine  grace.  His  first  words  were,  "  Repent,  for  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  at  hand ;"  his  own  discourses  represent  God  as  merciful ; 
his  apostles,  after  his  ascension,  preached  the  fprgiveness  of  sins, 


416  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE 

saying,  "  Repent  and  be  converted,  that  your  sins  may  be  blotted 
out,"  and  his  whole  religion  is  a  standing  declaration  of  this  proposi- 
tion, which  was  always  equally  true,  but  the  truth  of  which  was  not 
at  all  times  perfectly  understood,  that  "whosoever  confesseth  and 
forsaketh  his  sins  shall  have  mercy." 

This  proposition,  say  the  Socinians,  approves  itself  by  intrinsic 
evidence  to  a  philosophical  mind.  But,  in  order  to  rouse  the  atten- 
tion of  the  multitude,  the  person  employed  by  God  to  publish  it  to 
the  world  was  rendered  respectable  in  their  eyes  by  many  mighty 
works.  The  miracles,  which  the  power  of  God  enabled  the  messen- 
ger of  this  grace  to  perform,  were  the  credentials  of  a  divine  com- 
mission ;  and  a  splendor  was  thrown  around  his  character  by  the 
other  purposes  which  his  appearance  accomplished. 

One  of  these  additional  purposes  was  his  being  the  instructor  of 
the  world,  who  not  only  restored,  by  the  declaration  which  he  was 
commissioned  to  make,  the  natural  confidence  that  men  ought  to  have 
in  the  goodness  of  their  Creator,  but  also  taught  them  the  will  of  God. 
As  the  Socinians  do  not  admit  that  the  first  man  possessed  more 
knowledge  and  righteousness  than  any  of  his  posterity,  their  princi- 
ples lead  them  to  deny  those  remains  of  the  image  of  God  which 
other  Christians  trace,  to  detract  very  much  from  the  authority  of  the 
law  of  nature,  and  to  resolve  all  religious  knowledge  into  the  tradi- 
tion of  some  primary  revelation.  This  tradition  could  not  fail  to  be 
obscured  and  corrupted  in  the  progress  of  ages ;  and  as  gross  igno- 
rance of  the  duties  of  men  is  known  to  have  overspread  the  earth,  it 
is  manifest  that  there  was  much  need  of  the  perfect  teaching  of  a  man, 
whose  miracles  were  both  a  security  that  he  ta,ught  the  will  of  God 
truly,  and  a  call  upon  men  to  listen  to  him.  In  this  opinion  of  the 
usefulness  of  Christianity,  all  who  receive  it  as  a  divine  revelation 
readily  agree.  But  the  Socinians,  as  if  desirous  to  atone  by  this 
branch  of  their  encomium  upon  Christianity,  for  the  dishonour  which 
other  parts  of  their  system  are  conceived  to  do  to  that  religion,  go  far 
beyond  other  Christians  in  magnifying  the  importance  of  the  gospel 
as  a  method  of  instruction.  They  represent  its  precepts  as  not  only 
simple,  clear,  and  authoritative,  but  as  inculcating  virtues  which  are 
neither  explicitly  taught  in  the  law  of  Moses,  nor  deducible  from  any 
of  its  principles ;  and  they  allow  the  messenger  of  the  grace  of  God 
all  the  honour  which  can  accrue  to  his  character  and  to  his  religion 
from  the  essential  superiority  of  his  precepts. 

In  delivering  to  a  world  full  of  superstition  and  vice,  precepts  so 
opposite  to  their  maxims  and  manners,  the  messenger  of  the  grace  of 
God  encountered  much  opposition ;  he  provoked  the  civil  and  eccle- 
siastical rulers — he  alarmed  the  evil  passions  that  he  endeavoured  to 
restrain — and  after  a  life  marked  with  uncommon  difficulties  and  un- 
merited persecution,  he  was  put  to  death  by  the  violence  of  his  ene- 
mies. His  death  is  considered  by  the  Socinians  as  the  unavoidable 
result  of  the  circumstances  in  which  he  published  his  excellent  reli- 
gion ;  an  event  happening  without  any  special  appointment  of  hea- 
ven, according  to  the  course  of  human  aflairs ;  for  having  persevered 
during  a  life  of  suffering  in  bearing  witness  to  the  truth,  and  behig 
incapable  of  retracting,  even  in  the  immediate  prospect  of  death,  like 
other  martvrs  he  sealed  his  declaration  with  his  blood.     The  death 


J!fATURE    OF    THE    REMEDY.  417 

of  Christ,  even  althongli  regarded  merely  as  a  natural  event,  is  full 
of  instruction  to  liis  followers.  The  innocence  of  the  illustrious  suf- 
ferer was  made  conspicuous  by  all  the  circumstances  which  attended 
his  trial ;  the  patience,  the  magnanimity,  the  piety  and  benevolence 
which  marked  the  hour  of  his  sufferings,  imprint  upon  those  who 
cherish  his  memory  with  affection,  all  the  lessons  of  his  religion ;  and 
having  taught  men  the  will  of  God  while  he  lived,  he  suffered  for 
their  benefit,  "  leaving  them  an  example  that  they  should  follow  his 
steps/' 

But  the  example  exhibited  in  his  sufferings,  and  the  testimony 
which  he  bore  by  them  to  all  that  he  had  said  during  his  life,  are  not 
the  only  benefits  of  the  death  of  Christ  which  the  modern  Socinians 
admit.  They  say  also,  that  it  confirmed  the  truth  of  the  promises  of 
God ;  for  his  death  was  necessary  in  order  to  his  resurrection,  and 
his  resurrection  not  only  completes  the  evidences  of  his  mission,  but 
is  the  earnest  to  mankind  of  life  and  immortality,  that  great  blessing 
which  he  was  commissioned  to  promise.  It  is  this  further  purpose 
of  the  death  of  Christ  which  completes  the  Socinian  scheme  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  and  therefore,  in  order  to  render  the  view  which  I  am  now 
giving  a  fair  exposition  of  that  scheme,  it  is  necessary  to  state  the 
peculiar  importance  which  it  affixes  to  this  purpose. 

Not  admitting  any  forfeiture  to  have  been  incurred  by  the  trans- 
gression of  Adam,  the  Socinians  consider  man  as  mortal,  a  creature 
who  would  have  died  whether  he  had  sinned  or  not.  Dr.  Priestley 
goes  farther  upon  this  subject  than  some  of  those  who  adopt  his  other 
principles  have  yet  been  able  to  follow  him.  He  holds  that  the  dis- 
tinction between  soul  and  body  is  a  popular  error,  derived  from  hea- 
then philosophy,  but  contradicted  by  reason  and  Scripture  ;  that  man 
is  a  homogeneous  being,  i.  e.  that  the  powers  of  thought  and  sensa- 
tion belong  to  the  brain,  as  much  as  gravity  and  magnetism  belong 
to  other  arrangements  of  matter ;  and  that  the  whole  machine,  whose 
complicated  motions  had  presented  the  appearance  of  animal  and 
rational  life,  is  dissolved  at  death.  To  Dr.  Priestley,  therefore,  the 
resurrection  promised  in  the  gospel  is  the  highest  possible  gift,  be- 
cause, according  to  his  system,  it  is  the  restoration  of  existence.  But 
even  those  Socinians,  who  do  not  so  far  depart  from  the  conclusions 
of  sound  philosophy  as  to  believe  that  the  phenomena  of  thought  can 
be  explained  without  supposing  an  immaterial  principle  in  man, 
while  they  allow  that  this  principle  may  survive  the  body,  are  inclined 
to  compare  the  state  in  which  it  is  left,  after  the  dissolution  of  the 
body,  to  a  kind  of  sleep,  in  which  all  the  faculties  of  the  soul  con- 
tinue suspended  till  the  resurrection.  Being  led,  by  their  system 
concerning  the  fall,  to  infer  from  the  present  appearance  of  death,  that 
it  is  part  of  the  original  constitution  of  nature,  and  finding  no  reason- 
ing in  favour  of  a  future  state  amongst  those  who  had  not  the  benefit 
of  revelation,  so  clear  and  decisive  as  to  satisfy  a  speculative  mind, 
and  no  explicit  promise  in  the  law  of  Moses,. they  consider  immor- 
taUty  as  a  free  gift  which  the  Almighty  may  have  bestowed  upon 
those  who  died  in  ancient  times,  but  a  gift,  the  assurance  of  which  is 
conveyed  to  the  human  race  solely  by  the  religion  of  Christ.  Here, 
therefore,  the  Socinians  place  the  great  value  and  importance  of  the 

3  K 


418  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE 

gospel.  Whether  man  consists  of  spirit  and  body  united  in  an  inex- 
plicable manner,  or  whether  his  whole  frame  be  only  an  organization 
of  matter  more  exquisite  than  any  which  he  beholds,  he  cannot  infer 
with  certainty  from  any  deductions  of  his  own  reason,  that  he  shall 
survive  that  event,  which,  happening  in  the  established  course  of  na- 
ture, puts  an  end  to  all  his  labours  and  enjoyments  upon  earth.  But 
the  gospel  brings  life  and  immortality  to  light.  While  it  declares  that 
the  God  who  made  man  is  ready  to  forgive  all  his  wanderings,  and  to 
receive  him  into  favour  upon  his  repentance,  it  promises  to  reward 
the  obedience  and  virtues  of  this  short  life,  by  raising  him  from  the 
sleep  of  death,  by  restoring  to  him  at  the  resurrection,  whatever  had 
been  his  state  in  the  intervening  period,  all  those  capacities  which 
death  seemed  to  have  annihilated,  and  by  introducing  him  to  a  life 
of  endless  and  complete  bliss. 

This  promise  corresponds  with  that  essential  goodness  of  the  Deity 
from  which  the  declaration  of  pardon  flows;  but  it  is  infinitely  beyond 
the  deserts  of  a  frail  sinful  creature:  and,  therefore,  that  it  may  take 
possession  of  the  mind  of  man,  that  he  may  rest  without  hesitation  in 
the  certainty  of  the  gift,  and  that  he  may  derive  all  the  comfort  and 
improvement  which  the  prospect  is  fitted  to  administer,  it  is  necessary 
that  every  confirmation  of  the  promise,  every  sensible  proof  which 
the  nature  of  the  case  admits,  should  be  given  him.  Now  this  sensi- 
ble proof  is  afforded  by  means  of  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and 
hence  the  great  advantage  which  the  world  derives  from  that  fact. 
A  man,  say  the  Socinians,  not  distinguished  from  his  brethren  in  his 
origin  or  in  the  powers  of  his  nature,  having  been  employed  by  God 
to  teach  his  will  and  to  declare  the  promise  of  pardon  and  life  eternal 
to  those  who  repent,  is  exposed,  in  the  execution  of  this  commission, 
to  sufferings  more  severe  than  those  which  fall  to  the  lot  of  ordinary 
men  ;  he  endures  them  with  patience,  and  the  virtues  of  his  character 
are  illustrated  by  his  sorrows.  But  instead  of  being  enabled  to  sur- 
mount them,  he  is  delivered  by  God  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies, 
that  being  put  to  d^ath  by  their  malice,  he  might  be  raised  by  the 
power  of  the  Creator.  In  three  days  he  returns  from  the  grave  ;  and 
the  evidence  of  his  resurrection  is  so  remarkably  circumstantial,  that 
there  is  not,  perhaps,  says  Dr.  Priestley,  any  fact  in  ancient  history  so 
perfectly  credible  according  to  the  estabHshed  rules  of  evidence.  But 
the  resurrection  of  the  man,  who  promised  in  the  name  of  God  that, 
at  the  last  day,  all  shall  rise,  is  a  demonstration  in  his  person  that  a 
general  resurrection  is  possible  ;  it  is  an  assurance  from  God  of  the 
fulfilment  of  the  promise,  the  most  level  to  the  apprehensions  of  the 
generality  of  mankind,  and  it  is  connected  with  that  glorious  reward 
upon  which  the  Scriptures  say  this  man  has  already  entered.  For, 
whatever  may  be  the  state  of  other  men  till  the  general  resurrection, 
we  are  told  that  this  man  has  ascended  to  heaven,  and  is  now  invested 
with  supreme  dignity  and  bliss.  His  recompense  is  held  forth  in 
Scripture  as  the  encouragement  and  the  security  to  his  disciples  that 
they  shall  in  due  time  receive  theirs  ;  and  the  encouragement  and 
security  are  founded  upon  this  circumstance,  that  he  was  a  man  like 
them,  who  suffered  and  died.  So  speak  the  apostles  ;  "if  we  believe 
that  Jesus  died  and  rose  again,  even  so  them  also  which  sleep  in  Jesus 


NATURE  OP  THE  REMEDY.  419 

will  God  bring  with  him."*  "Every  man  in  his  own  order;  Christ 
the  first-fruits;  afterward  they  that  are  Christ's."!  And  our  Lord 
himself  said  to  his  apostles,  "  Ye  are  they  which  have  continued  with 
me  in  my  temptations;  and  I  appoint  unto  you  a  kingdom  as  my 
Father  hath  appointed  unto  me. "J  Socinus  and  his  immediate 
followers  admitted  that  power  of  Christ  in  dispensing  the  recompense 
of  his  disciples,  which  seems  to  be  intimated  in  the  last  of  these 
passages,  and  in  such  other  expressions  as  these,  his  giving  a  crown 
of  life,  his  granting  to  sit  down  with  him  on  his  throne,  his  raising 
the  dead,  and  his  judging  the  world.  But  the  modern  Socinians  pre- 
serve the  consistency  of  their  scheme  by  giving  figurative  interpreta- 
tions of  all  such  phrases,  and  so  resolving  the  accomplishment  of  that 
promise  which  proceeded  from  the  love  of  God,  purely  into  his  power 
and  will,  without  the  interposition  of  any  other  being.  Christ  may 
be  employed  as  an  instrument  of  fulfilling  the  pleasure  of  the 
Almighty ;  but  so  may  angels,  so  may  virtuous  men  ;  and  it  is  not 
from  any  inherent  power  that  Christ  possesses,  but  from  that  example 
of  the  truth  of  the  promise,  which  Christians  behold  in  his  having 
been  raised  from  the  dead  and  set  at  God's  right  hand,  that  they 
derive  the  full  assurance  of  hope. 

This  system  of  pure  Socinianism  which  I  have  now  delineated,  I 
shall  state  in  a  few  sentences,  gathered  from  Dr.  Priestley's  History 
of  the  Doctrine  of  Atonement.  "  The  great  object  of  the  mission  and 
death  of  Christ  was  to  give  the  fullest  proof  of  a  state  of  retribution, 
in  order  to  supply  the  strongest  motives  to  virtue ;  and  the  making 
an  express  regard  to  the  doctrine  of  a  resurrection  to  immortal  life 
the  principal  sanction  of  the  laws  of  virtue  is  an  advantage  peculiar 
to  Christianity.  By  this  peculiar  advantage  the  gospel  reforms  the 
world,  and  remission  of  sin  is  consequent  on  reformation.  For, 
although  there  are  some  texts  in  which  the  pardon  of  sin  seems  to  be 
represented  as  dispensed  in  consideration  of  the  sufferings,  the  merits, 
the  resurrection,  the  life,  or  the  obedience  of  Christ,  Ave  cannot  but 
conclude,  upon  a  careful  examination,  that  all  these  views  of  it  are 
partial  representations,  and  that,  according  to  the  plain  general  tenor 
of  Scripture,  the  pardon  of  sin  is,  in  reality,  always  dispensed  by  the 
free  mercy  of  God  upon  account  of  men's  personal  virtue,  a  penitent 
upright  heart,  and  a  reformed  exemplary  life,  without  regard  to  the 
sufferings  or  merit  of  any  being  whatever." 

The  Socinians  endeavour  to  accommodate  to  this  system  all  those 
expressions,  which  Christians  have  learned  from  Scripture  to  apply 
to  the  gospel  remedy.  The  following  instances  may  serve  as  a  spe- 
cimen of  their  mode  of  interpretation,  Christ  died  for  us,  ^.  e.  for 
our  benefit,  because  we  derive  much  advantage  from  his  death.  He 
is  our  mediator,  because  he  came  from  God  to  us  to  declare  the  divine 
mercy.  He  saves  his  people  from  their  sins,  because  the  influence  of 
his  precepts  and  his  example,  supported  by  the  hope  of  a  future  life 
which  he  has  revealed,  leads  them  from  sin  to  the  practice  of  right- 
eousness. His  blood  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin,  because,  being  shed  in 
confirmation  of  his  doctrine,  and  as  a  step  to  his  resurrection,  it  fur- 

*  1  Thess.iv.  14.  f  1   Cor.  xv.  23. 

t  Luke  xxii.  28,  29. 


420  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE 

nishes  the  most  powerful  incentives  to  virtue  ;  and  we  have  redemp- 
tion, through  his  blood,  even  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  because  we  are 
led  by  the  due  consideration  of  his  death  and  its  consequences,  to  that 
repentance,  which,  under  the  merciful  constitution  of  tlie  divine  gov- 
ernment, always  obtains  forgiveness. 

According  to  this  system,  then,  Jesus  Christ  is  a  teacher  of  right- 
eousness, the  messenger  of  divine  grace,  the  publisher  of  a  future  life, 
the  bright  example  of  every  virtue,  and  the  most  illustrious  pattern 
of  its  reward.  As  far  as  these  expressions  go,  he  is  the  Saviour  and 
Redeemer  of  the  world  ;  but  it  is  not  allowed  that  he  did  any  thing 
further  to  merit  this  character.  His  religion  is  the  most  perfect  sys- 
tem of  morality,  delivering  with  the  authority  of  heaven  a  more 
plain,  and  complete,  and  spiritual  rule  of  duty  than  is  any  where  else 
to  be  found,  and  exciting  men  to  follow  that  rule  by  hopes  which  no 
other  teacher  was  commissioned  to  give.  It  is  in  these  respects  the 
most  effectual  lesson  of  righteousness  which  ever  was  addressed  to 
the  world  ;  and  in  this  sense  only  it  is  a  remedy  for  the  present  state 
of  moral  evil. 

This  system  accords  with  all  the  principles  held  by  those  who  are 
now  called  Socinians,  and  forms  part  of  a  great  scheme,  which,  how- 
ever blameworthy  it  may  be  in  many  respects,  has  the  merit  of  being 
consistent.  But  to  Christians  who  do  not  hold  these  principles  in 
their  full  extent,  it  appears  to  labour  under  insuperable  difficulties. 

Those  who  believe  in  the  pre-existence  of  Jesus,  cannot  consider 
his  death  as  merely  a  natural  event,  like  the  death  of  any  other  man  ; 
and  they  look  for  some  purpose  of  his  dying,  beyond  that  of  afford- 
ing, by  his  resurrection,  an  example  of  a  dead  man  brought  to  life, 
because  Jesus,  appearing  to  them  in  this  respect  essentially  distin- 
guished from  all  other  men,  that  he  existed  before  he  was  born,  may 
be  also  distinguished  in  this  further  respect,  that  he  returned  to  exist- 
ence after  he  died.  We  know  that  some  of  the  ancient  philosophers 
were  accustomed  to  argue  for  a  future  life  from  that  state  of  pre-ex- 
istence which  they  assigned  to  the  soul ;  and  the  inference  is  so  natu- 
ral and  obvious,  if  the  supposition  upon  which  it  proceeds  is  admitted, 
that,  whether  the  Arian  or  Athanasian  system  be  adopted  with  regard 
to  the  dignity  which  Jesus  had  before  he  was  born,  no  argument, 
drawn  from  the  death  and  resurrection  of  this  singular  personage, 
can  be  a  sufficient  warrant  for  ordinary  men  to  expect  that  they  also 
shall  be  raised.  Those  who  have  a  strong  apprehension  of  the  evil 
of  sin  and  of  the  authority  of  the  divine  government,  and  who  ob- 
serve, that  even  amongst  men  repentance  does  not  always  restore  a 
person  to  the  condition  in  which  he  was  before  he  sinned,  camiot 
readily  admit  that  a  simple  declaration  of  forgiveness  to  all  who  re- 
turn to  their  duty  is  consistent  with  the  holiness  and  majesty  of  the 
Ruler  of  the  universe ;  more  especially  as  this  declaration  does  not 
barely  remit  the  punishment  of  transgression,  but  is  connected  with 
a  promise  of  eternal  life  ;  a  promise  which  other  Christians  consider 
as  restoring  what  had  been  forfeited  by  Adam,  which  the  Socinians 
consider  as  so  peculiar  to  the  gospel,  that  it  gives  to  man  a  hope 
which  he  never  had  before,  and  which  all  acknowledge  to  contain  a 
free  inestimable  gift.  There  appears  to  be  an  expediency  in  some 
testimony  of  the  divine  displeasure  against  sin,  at  the  time  of  declar- 


NATURE  OP  THE  REMEDY.  421 

ing  that  such  a  gift  is  to  be  conferred  upon  penitents ;  and  if  there 
are  in  Scripture  many  intimations  of  such  a  testimony,  they  who  are 
impressed  with  a  sense  that  it  is  expedient  will  not  be  disposed  to  ex- 
plain them  away. 

Those  who  form  their  system  of  theology  upon  the  language  of 
Scripture,  do  not  find  themselves  warranted  to  sink  Jesus  to  the  office 
of  a  messenger  of  the  divine  mercy,  when  they  recollect  that  he  is 
said  to  have  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  his  own  blood,  and  to  have 
bought  us  with  a  price ;  that  repentance  and  remission  of  sins  are 
uniformly  connected  with  something  which  he  did  ;  that  according  to 
his  command  they  were  preached  by  his  apostles  in  his  name,  and 
that  they  are  said  to  be  granted  by  him.  Ditierent  systems  have  been 
formed  for  explaining  such  expressions  ;  but  many  Christian  writers, 
who  do  not  pretend  to  decide  which  of  the  systems  is  true,  or  whe- 
ther it  is  becoming  in  us  to  form  any  system  upon  the  subject  at  all, 
consider  expressions  of  this  kind  as  plainly  teaching  that  the  interpo- 
sition of  Christ  was  somehow  efficacious  in  procuring  the  pardon  of 
sin ;  and  it  appears  to  them  that  this  efficacy,  whatever  be  the  nature 
of  it,  must  go  very  far  beyond  the  bare  declaration  of  a  proposition 
which  was  always  true,  that  God  is  merciful. 

All  these  reasons  for  rejecting  the  Socinian  system  are  very  much 
confirmed,  by  attending  to  the  descriptions  given  in  Scripture  of  the 
honour  and  power  to  which  Jesus  Christ  is  now  exalted.  Although 
the  modern  Socinians,  feeling  that  these  descriptions  are  inconsistent 
with  their  system,  have  attempted  to  resolve  into  mere  figures  of 
speech  what  Socinus  himself  interpreted  literally,  any  Christian  who 
reads  the  New  Testament,  not  with  a  view  to  reconcile  it  to  his  own 
system,  but  in  order  to  learn  what  it  contains,  cannot  entertain  a 
doubt  that  the  person  who  appeared  upon  earth  in  a  humble  form, 
the  Saviour  of  men,  is  now  exalted  as  their  Lord ;  that  all  power  in 
heaven  and  in  earth  is  committed  to  him ;  and  that  he  is  ordained  of 
God  to  be  the  judge  of  the  quick  and  the  dead.  But  why  is  Jesus 
thus  exalted  ?  Although  his  being  preserved  from  that  sleep  of  the 
soul  which  some  Christians  have  supposed,  or  his  being  raised  out  of 
the  grave  from  that  complete  dissolution  which  Dr.  Priestley's  mate- 
rialism teaches,  may  be  useful  to  Christians  as  a  living  example  of  a 
resurrection,  it  cannot  be  said  that  his  being  advanced  to  the  govern- 
ment of  the  universe  is  necessary  to  give  us  assurance  of  a  future 
life.  According  to  the  Socinian  system,  we  cannot  discern  in  the  ser- 
vices of  this  man  any  merit  beyond  that  of  other  messengers  of  hea- 
ven, or  even  of  his  own  apostles ;  and  we  do  not  perceive  any  purpose 
which  is  to  be  attained  by  his  receiving  a  recompense  so  infinitely 
above  his  deserts.  If  the  forgiveness  of  sin  and  the  gift  of  immoi- 
tality  flow  entirely  from  the  mercy  of  God,  without  regard  to  any 
other  being  whatever,  the  security  of  them  does  not,  in  the  smallest 
degree,  depend  upon  the  condition  of  the  messenger  by  whom  they 
Avere  promised  ;  so  that  the  powers,  which  the  Scriptures  ascribe  to 
that  messenger,  are  a  mere  waste,  and  his  exaltation,  unlike  any  other 
work  of  God,  is  without  meaning. 

Such  are  the  objections  which  Christians  of  different  descriptions 
are  led,  by  their  principles,  to  urge  against  tlie  Socinian  system  of 
redemption.     Many  able  and  serious  men,  who  felt  the  force  of  these 
38 


422  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE 

objections,  could  not  reconcile  their  minds  to  the  third  system,  which 
they  found  to  be  the  general  faith  of  the  Christian  church  ;  and  hence 
has  arisen  a  middle  system,  which,  as  it  is  certainly  clear  of  the  objec- 
tions that  have  now  been  stated,  appears  to  some  to  comprehend  the 
whole  doctrine  of  Scripture  upon  this  subject. 


Section  II. 

The  middle  system  is  founded  upon  a  part  of  the  doctrine  of  Socinus, 
which  the  modern  Socinians  have  thrown  out,  viz  :  the  power  given 
by  God  to  Jesus  Christ  after  his  resurrection.  But  many  additions 
were  made  to  this  article  in  the  course  of  the  last  century,  and  it  has 
been  spread  out  by  several  writers  into  a  complete  and  beautiful 
system.  My  knowledge  of  it  is  derived  from  an  Essay  on  Redemp- 
tion, written  by  an  English  clergyman,  John  Balguy,  and  republished 
by  Dr.  Thomas  Balguy  ;  from  a  book  entitled  Ben  Mordecai's  Apology 
for  becoming  a  Christian,  consisting  of  letters  upon  the  peculiar  doc- 
trines of  Christianity,  written  by  Mr.  Taylor,  another  English  clergy- 
man ;  and  from  a  volume  of  sermons  published  by  Dr.  Price,  the 
celebrated  English  dissenter,  who,  rejecting  both  the  Socinian  and 
the  Calvinistic  systems,  gives  to  this  the  name  which  I  have  borrowed 
from  him,  calling  it  the  middle  system.  Availing  myself  of  these 
sources  of  information,  I  shall  give  a  short  exposition  of  the  middle 
system,  which  may  enable  you  to  form  a  conception  of  the  manner 
in  which  the  parts  of  it  are  linked  together,  and  of  the  prmcipies  by 
wliich  it  is  supported. 

The  fundamental  principle  of  the  middle  system  is,  that  under  the 
government  of  a  righteous  God  a  distinction  ought  to  be  made  between 
innocents  and  penitents.  It  is  allowed  that  God,  who  is  accountable 
to  none,  may  freely  forgive  the  sins  of  his  creatures ;  it  is  allowed 
that,  being  infinitely  merciful,  he  has  no  delight  in  punishing  them ; 
it  is  allowed  that  repentance,  without  which  no  sinner  can  be  received, 
is  a  commendable  disposition.  But  after  all  these  things  are  granted 
to  the  Socinians,  it  is  still  conceived  to  be  right  in  itself,  that  those, 
who  have  sinned,  should  not  feel  their  situation  in  every  respect  the 
same  as  if  they  had  uniformly  obeyed  the  commands  of  their  Creator ; 
and  it  is  considered  as  a  lesson  which  may  be  useful  both  to  them- 
selves and  to  other  parts  of  the  universe,  that  the  restoration  of  the 
human  race  to  the  divine  favour  should  be  marked  by  some  circum- 
stances sufficient  to  preserve  the  memory  of  their  transgression.  It 
is  observed  that,  in  the  course  of  human  affairs,  the  effects  of  the 
vices  of  some  are  often  repaired  by  the  virtues  of  otbers,  repaired  not 
only  to  society,  but  to  themselves.  When  they  become  sensible  of 
their  misconduct,  they  do  not  always  find  it  possible  by  any  personal 
eflbrt  to  extricate  themselves  from  all  the  evils  in  which  they  are 
involved,  or  to  recover  that  place  in  society  which  they  had  forfeited ; 
but  they  are  relieved  by  some  generous  interposition ;  their  professions 
of  repentance  are  accepted  at  the  intercession  of  a  respectable  friend, 
for  the  sake  of  something  which  had  been  done  by  another ;  and 
their  re-establishment  in  their  former  condition,  which  was  not  due 


NATURE  OF  THE  REMEDY.  423 

to  themselves,  thus  becomes  a  part  of  the  tribute  paid  by  society  to 
that  uniform  virtue,  which  is  felt  by  all  men  to  be  worthy  both  of 
confidence  and  of  reward.  Upon  this  principle  proceeded  the  plead- 
ing of  Appius  in  his  own  defence  :  "Majorum  merita,"  says  Livy, 
"  in  rempublicam  commemorabat,  quo  poenam  deprecaretur."*  In 
Jike  manner  Tacitus  says,  "  Plautio  mors  remittitur  ob  patrui  egregium 
meritum."t  And  Cicero,  proceeding  upon  his  knowledge  and  ex- 
perience of  the  sentiments  of  mankind,  delivers  this  general  rule, 
"  oportebit  eum,  qui  sibi  ut  ignoscatur  postulabit, — majorum  suorum 
beneficia,  si  qufB  extabunt,  proferre."  J  So  we  read  hi  the  Old  Testa- 
ment that  God  was  merciful  to  the  children  of  Israel  for  Abraham's 
sake  ;  §  that  he  pardoned  their  idolatry  at  the  intercession  of  Moses  ;|| 
and  that  he  accepted  the  prayer  of  his  servant  Job  for  the  three  friends, 
who  had  not  spoken  of  him  the  thing  that  is  right.TF 

These  and  other  instances  of  the  same  kind  in  the  history  of  Scrip- 
ture, according  with  what  we  often  behold  amongst  men,  and  cor- 
responding also  with  our  apprehension  of  the  essential  difference 
between  the  merit  of  those  who  have  always  obeyed,  and  of  those 
who  only  repent  of  their  sin,  are  considered  in  the  middle  system  as 
an  opening  of  the  great  scheme  revealed  in  the  gospel. 

Jesus  Christ,  the  first  born  of  every  creature,  by  whom  God  made 
the  worlds,  the  purest  and  the  most  glorious  being  that  ever  proceeded 
from  the  Father  of  all,  beheld  the  miserable  condition  of  the  human 
race,  the  forfeiture  which  they  had  incurred  by  the  transgression  of 
Adam,  and  the  multiplied  offences  which  they  were  daily  committing 
against  the  majesty  of  heaven.  Prompted  by  love  to  the  souls  of 
men,  he  left  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  laid  aside  the  glories  of  his 
nature,  and  became  a  man  of  sorrows,  that  he  might  extricate  from 
evil  those  whom  he  had  made.  All  the  scorn  and  persecution  which 
he  received  while  he  went  about  doing  good  to  men ;  all  the  amaze- 
ment and  agony  which  his  pure  spirit  sustained  amidst  the  iniquities 
of  those  with  whom  he  dwelt :  all  the  bitter  sufferings  which  marked 
the  end  of  his  life  upon  earth,  were  the  voluntary  acts  of  a  person 
who  had  devoted  himself  to  the  accomplishment  of  a  most  gracious 
purpose.  They  were  accepted  by  God,  who,  not  willing  that  any 
should  perish,  had  given  the  Son  of  his  love  to  be  in  this  manner  the 
deliverer  of  the  human  race  ;  and  they  were  rewarded  by  the  powers 
conferred  upon  him  after  his  resurrection.  His  reward  added  to  the 
dignity  of  his  character,  by  placing  him  at  the  head  of  the  creation, 
and  rendering  the  most  exalted  spirits  subject  to  his  dominion.  But 
it  was  not  the  prospect  of  any  increase  of  his  personal  glory  which 
called  forth  his  exertions.  He  had  no  need  to  be  greater  or  happier 
than  he  was  before  he  visited  this  earth ;  and  he  would  not  appear 
in  a  light  so  truly  exalted,  had  he  come  here  merely  with  the  view 
of  holding  a  higher  place  in  heaven  when  he  returned  thither.  The 
joy  set  before  the  Redeemer  of  the  world,  for  which  it  is  said  he  en- 
dured the  cross,  the  recompense  in  the  prospect  of  which  he  left  the 
mansions  of  bliss,  and  drank  the  bitter  cup  given  him  by  his  Father, 
is  to  be  gathered  from  such  passages  in  the  New  Testament  as  the 

*  Liv.  iii.  56.  f  Tac.  Ann.  xi.  .36.  t  Cic.  de  Inv.  ii.  35. 

§  Ps.  cv.  42,  43.  II  Exod.  xxxii.  ^  Job  xlii. 


424  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE 

following:   John  v.  26,  27;  vi.  39;  xvii.  2.     Acts  v.  31.     Heb.  ii.  9, 
10;  V.  9. 

The  idea  which  is  plainly  expressed  in  some  of  these  passages,  and 
which  appears  to  be  implied  in  all  of  them,  is  this  :  that  there  was 
given  to  the  Son  of  man,  after  his  sufferings,  the  power  of  recovering 
a  lost  world,  of  removing  all  the  evils  which  sin  had  introduced,  of 
raising  men  from  death,  which  is  the  punishment  of  sin,  and  of  bring- 
ing those  that  repent  to  eternal  life.  All  this  is  the  reward  of  the 
services  of  the  Redeemer ;  that  is,  although  it  redounds  to  the 
advantage  of  the  penitents,  it  is  not  given  to  them  as  what  they  earn 
for  themselves,  but  it  is  given  to  him  as  his  recompense  ;  and  in  this 
exalted  sense  are  fulfilled  the  words  which  the  evangelical  prophet 
Isaiah  introduced  into  his  prediction  of  the  sufferings  of  the  Messiah  : 
"  he  shall  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul,  and  shall  be  satisfied  ;  by  his 
knowledge  shall  my  righteous  servant  justify  many."*  Jesus  Christ 
did  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul  and  was  satisfied  ;  in  other  words, 
he  received  his  reward  by  justifying  many. 

The  natural  recompense  of  disinterested  exertion,  and  the  purest 
joy  which  a  benevolent  mind  can  taste,  is  an  enlargement  of  the  power 
of  doing  good.  Feeble  dependent  creatures  like  us  are  glad  to  receive, 
as  a  reward  of  the  good  which  we  do  from  love  unfeigned,  an  exten- 
sion of  the  sphere  of  our  private  enjoymejits,  and  an  establishment  of 
our  own  security.  But  he,  who  is  styled  in  Scripture  the  Son  of  Man, 
and  the  brightness  of  his  Father's  glory,  submitted  to  suffering  purely 
for  this  purpose,  that  he  might  receive  from  his  Father  the  right  of 
communicating  happiness  ;  and  the  more  complete  and  irretrievable 
on  the  part  of  man  the  forfeiture  by  sin  had  been,  and  the  more 
extensive  and  precious  the  blessings  which  the  Redeemer  is 
empowered  to  convey,  so  much  the  more  exquisite  and  glorious  is 
his  reward. 

This  system  derives  considerable  support  from  its  preserving  that 
striking  contrast  between  the  first  and  the  second  Adam,  which  we 
found  the  Apostle  Paul  marking  in  the  fifth  chapter  of  his  Epistle  to 
the  Romans.  "  As  by  one  man's  disobedience  many  were  made 
sinners,  so  by  the  obedience  of  one  many  shall  be  made  righteous." 
The  punishment  of  Adam  is  transmitted  to  those  who  do  not  sin  after 
the  similitude  of  his  transgression.  But  the  evils  which  flow  from 
this  constitution  meet  in  the  gospel  with  a  remedy  perfectly  analogous 
to  the  disease ;  for  the  reward  of  Jesus  Christ  is  communicated  to 
those  who  are  very  unlike  himself;  and,  according  to  the  middle 
system,  it  is  literally  by  his  obedience  that  many  are  made  righteous. 

The  middle  system  is  further  supported  by  its  exhibiting,  in  a 
most  pleasing  and  instructive  light,  that  essential  difference  between 
those  who  have  uniformly  obeyed  God,  and  those  who  only  repent 
of  their  transgressions,  which  we  expect  to  find  under  the  govern- 
ment of  God.  That  exalted  Being,  who,  in  making  the  worlds, 
fulfilled  the  commandment  of  God,  and  in  whom  the  Father  was 
always  well  pleased,  by  coming  to  this  earth  to  do  the  will  of  God, 
had  ah  opportunity  of  displaying  before  angels  and  men,  in  a  degree 
more    eminent    than   they    had   ever  beheld,   humility,  obedience, 

*  Isaiah  liii,  11. 


NATURE    OF    THE    REMEDY'.  425 

resignation,  patience,  fortitude,  generosity  ;  and  in  this  transcendent 
excellence  of  virtue  was  crowned  with  a  reward  the  most  iUustrious 
which  the  Fatlier  ever  bestowed,  and  the  most  dehghtful  to  him  upon 
whom  it  was  conferred,  the  power  of  extricating  the  human  race 
from  ail  the  evils  which  they  had  incurred  by  sin,  and  of  restoring  to 
them  the  gilt  of  immortality  which  they  had  forfeited.  In  this  method 
of  saving  sinners  there  is  a  continual  memorial  of  the  evil  of  sin,  and 
a  lesson  to  all  the  intelligent  creation  of  God,  that  without  some 
very  singular  interposition  those  who  have  sinned  cannot  obtain 
pardon.  For,  although  the  Son  of  God  was  connected  with  the 
iiuman  race  from  the  time  that  by  him  God  made  the  worlds,  a  much 
closer  connexion  was  necessary  in  order  to  their  being  saved  from  sin  ; 
and  the  constitution,  by  which  penitents  are  received  into  the  divine 
favour,  is  such  as  to  make  them  feel  a  constant  and  an  entire  depend- 
ence upon  their  Redeemer.  It  is  by  his  power  that  they  are  delivered 
from  the  effects  of  their  transgression  :  the  accomplishment  of  their 
salvation  is  premial  to  him,  not  to  them,  that  is,  all  that  they  receive 
is  given  them,  not  upon  their  own  account,  but  upon  account  of  what 
he  hath  done.  At  the  same  time,  this  method  of  checking  the  pre- 
sumption of  sinners  is  a  bright  display  of  divine  love.  God  the 
Father  provides  a  method  for  receiving  his  returning  children  into  his 
family  ;  and  he  rewards  the  generous  exertion  of  his  own  Son,  by 
opening  the  mansions  of  heaven  to  those  whom  his  Son  shall  bring 
thither.  In  all  the  steps  of  their  progress  heavenward,  they  experience 
the  grace  of  the  Redeemer,  and  daily  reap  the  fruit  of  his  reward ; 
and  when  they  shall  at  length  enter  the  city  of  the  living  God,  their 
numbers  and  their  felicity  will  redound  to  his  honour.  "  These  are 
they,"  as  one  of  the  elders  about  the  throne  said  to  John  in  the  Reve- 
lation, "  which  came  out  of  great  tribulation,  and  have  washed  their 
robes  and  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb."  "  They 
follow  the  Lamb  whithersoever  he  goeth ;  and  the  new  song  that  is 
sung  by  every  creature  in  heaven  has  a  peculiar  significancy  when 
it  proceeds  from  their  mouth,  "  worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  was  slain, 
to  receive  power,  and  honour,  and  glory,  and  blessing." 

Many  of  the  passages  of  Scripture,  which  Christians  are  accustomed 
to  apply  to  the  remedy  brought  in  the  gospel,  receive  an  interpretation 
at  once  more  exalted  and  more  natural  from  those  who  hold  the  mid- 
dle system,  than  from  those  who  hold  the  Socinian.  According  to  the 
middle  system,  Jesus  is  said  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our  sins,  because 
by  his  meritorious  obedience  he  hath  procured  our  reconciliation  with 
God.  He  is  said  to  have  given  himself  an  offering  and  a  sacrifice  to 
God  for  us,  because  he  devoted  himself  to  death  in  order  to  accom- 
plish our  salvation.  He  is  our  mediator,  because  through  him  we 
have  access  to  the  Father.  He  is  our  advocate,  who  maketh  inter- 
cession for  us,  because  all  that  we  ask,  and  all  that  we  receive  is  for 
his  sake,  because  nothing  is  due  to  us,  but  all  that  heaven  can  bestow 
is  due  to  the  perfection  of  his  obedience  ;  and  we  are  saved  by  him, 
because  with  the  same  grace  which  led  him  to  sutler  for  our  sakes,  he 
imparts,  to  those  who  repent,  the  gifts  which  he  hath  received  from 
his  Father,  accounting  their  salvation  his  reward.  A  system,  which 
gives  such  views  of  our  dependence  upon  our  Redeemer,  follows  out 
those  lessons  of  humility  by  which  the  gospel  has  for  ever  excluded 
38*  3L 


426  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE 

the  presumption  of  sinners,  and  the  boasting  of  those  who  are  saved  ; 
and  it  may  be  regarded  as  a  commentary  upon  these  vvords  of  the 
apostle,  "All  things  are  yours,  and  ye  are  Christ's,  and  Christ  is 
God's;"*  and  upon  the  words  of  our  Lord  himself,  <' To  him  that 
overcometh  will  I  grant  to  sit  with  me  in  my  throne,  even  as  I  also 
overcame,  and  am  set  down  with  my  Father  in  his  throne."! 

The  middle  system,  which  I  have  now  delineated,  has  the  merit  of 
being  beautiful  and  consistent.  As  far  as  it  goes,  it  proceeds,  in  a 
great  measure,  upon  the  language  and  the  views  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. It  appears  to  unite,  in  the  pardon  of  those  who  repent,  the 
rectitude  which  becomes  the  Judge  of  the  universe,  with  tliat  com- 
passion which  we  feel  ourselves  so  willing  to  ascribe  to  the  Deity.  It 
gives  penitents  all  that  security  for  being  restored  to  the  divine 
favour,  and  for  obtaining  the  reward  of  eternal  life,  whicli  can  arise 
from  the  power  of  their  Redeemer ;  and  it  seems  so  peculiarly  calcu- 
lated to  illustrate  his  glory,  that,  in  the  atfectionate  admiration  with 
which  it  is  natural  for  Christians  to  regard  him,  the  heart  inclines  the 
understanding  to  receive  it  as  the  whole  truth. 

But  there  are  two  objections  to  this  system,  which,  with  a  great 
part  of  the  Christian  world,  are  sufficient  to  counterbalance  these 
advantages,  so  far  as  to  satisfy  them,  that  although  a  great  part  of 
this  system  may  be  true,  it  is  not  a  complete  account  of  the  gospel 
remedy. 

The  first  objection  is,  that  the  middle  system  plainly  involves  in  it 
the  Arian  opinion  concerning  the  person  of  Christ.  It  presents  to  our 
view,  a  being,  who,  by  performing  a  hard  service  in  the  government 
of  God,  acquires  new  powers,  and  is  advanced  to  a  degree  of  supre- 
macy and  a  capacity  of  conferring  happiness,  which  he  did  not 
formerly  possess.  But  this  view  of  Christ  is  totally  inconsistent  with 
the  Athanasian  system.  Those,  who  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is  truly 
and  essentially  God,  think  that  they  are  naturally  led,  by  the  manner 
in  which  his  exaltation  is  spoken  of  in  Scripture,  to  consider  it  as 
part  of  the  oixovo^ia  there  revealed,  a  manifestation  of  the  Son  of  God, 
an  investiture  of  the  same  person  in  his  human  nature  with  that  glory 
which  he  had  from  eternity  in  his  divine.  But  they  cannot  believe  that 
he  became,  by  sufiering,more  able  to  save  than  he  was  before.  They 
are  compelled,  by  their  creed,  to  remove  from  their  conceptions  of 
him  all  those  ideas  of  dependence  and  changeableness  which  are 
necessarily  implied  in  an  enlargement  of  powers ;  and  they  cannot 
degrade  him  whom  they  worship  as  God,  equal  with  the  Father,  to  a 
rank  with  those  inferior  spirits,  who,  by  progressive  improvements  in 
goodness,  may  become  worthy  of  holding  more  conspicuous  stations, 
and  of  being  appointed  to  more  important  offices  in  the  administration 
of  the  universe. 

The  second  objection  to  the  middle  system  is,  that  although  a  beau- 
tiful and  plausible  theory,  yet,  like  many  other  theories,  it  proceeds 
upon  a  partial  view  of  facts.  It  is  the  theory  of  men  who  are  satisfied 
that  the  Socinian  scheme  is  indefensible,  but  who  are  at  the  same  time 
solicitous  to  avoid  those  particular  determinate  views  of  the  sufferings 
of  Christ,  which  other  Christians  derive  from  a  literal  interpretation 

*  1  Cor.  iii.  22,  23.  f  Rev,  iii.  21. 


NATURE    OF    THE    REMEDY.  427 

of  Scripture.  Hence  they  are  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  such  views 
as  are  vague  and  general.  They  studiously  throw  into  the  shade 
many  parts  of  that  information  which  the  Scriptures  have  been 
generally  supposed  to  convey  ;  and  they  hope,  by  the  splendid  parts 
of  their  theory,  to  occupy  and  please  the  mind,  so  that  tlie  defect  shall 
not  he  felt.  Accordingly  it  will  be  observed,  tliat  while  the  power, 
which  the  Redeemer  is  supposed  to  have  acquired  by  his  sufferings, 
stands  forth  in  this  theory  a  luminous  object,  no  specific  reason  is 
assigned  for  the  sufferings.  They  are  a  display  of  benevolence,  a 
virtuous  exertion  on  the  part  of  the  Redeemer,  and  the  reward  of 
them  redounds  in  the  most  effectual  manner  to  tlie  benefit  of  the 
human  race.  But  we  do  not  see,  by  this  theory,  any  thing  in  the 
sufferings  peculiarly  applicable  to  the'  situation  of  those  who  are  re- 
deemed. Exertions  of  another  kind  might  have  merited  the  same 
reward  ;  and  we  feel  ourselves  at  a  loss  to  account  for  the  fitness  of 
many  things  which  he  endured,  and  for  a  great  part  of  that  language 
in  which  the  Scriptures  speak  of  his  sufferings. 


Section  III. 

The  two  preceding  schemes  concerning  the  nature  of  the  Gospel 
remedy  are  the  invention  of  modern  times.  What  I  called  the  Catho- 
lic opinion  upon  this  subject  appears  to  have  been  derived  from  the 
Scriptures  by  the  earliest  Christian  writers ;  it  has  been  generally  held 
in  the  Christian  world ;  and  it  enters  into  the  creed  of  the  two  esta- 
blished churches  of  this  island.  The  church  of  England  concludes 
the  second  article,  which  is  a  description  of  the  Son  of  God,  with  these 
words,  "  who  truly  suffered,  was  crucified,  dead,  and  buried,  to  recon- 
cile his  Father  to  us,  and  to  be  a  sacrifice,  not  only  for  orighial  guilt, 
but  also  for  actual  sins  of  men."  And  the  same  opinion  is  more  fully 
expressed  in  the  prayer  of  consecration  which  forms  part  of  the  coni- 
munion  service,  "Almighty  God,  our  heavenly  Father,  who  of  thy 
tender  mercy  didst  give  thine  only  Son  Jesus  Christ  to  sufi:'er  death 
upon  the  cross  for  our  redemption,  who  made  there,  by  his  one  obla- 
tion of  himself  once  offered,  a  full,  perfect,  and  sufiicient  sacrifice, 
oblation,  and  satisfaction  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world."  The 
words  of  our  Confession  of  Faith,  chap.  viii.  5,  are  these, "  The  Lord 
Jesus,  by  his  perfect  obedience  and  sacrifice  of  himself,  which  he, 
through  the  eternal  Spirit,  once  oftered  up  unto  God,  hath  fully  satis- 
fied the  Justice  of  his  Father ;  and  purchased  not  only  reconciliation, 
but  an  everlasting  inheritance  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  for  all  those 
whom  the  Father  hath  given  unto  him."  It  is  the  first  part  of  this 
paragraph  which  is  peculiar  to  the  Catholic  ophiion ;  for  those  who 
hold  the  middle  system  also  say  that  by  the  merit  of  Christ's  obedi- 
ence, they  who  repent  shall  receive  the  reward  of  eternal  life ;  and 
therefore  they  need  not  scruple  to  say  that  he  purchased  an  everlasting 
inheritance  for  them.  But  they  do  not  admit  that  lie  hath  fully  sat- 
isfied the  justice  of  the  Father,  by  his  sacrifice  of  himself  offered  up 
unto  God ;  and  this  is  the  point  in  which  they  unite  with  the  Socin- 
ians.     This  distinguishing  part  of  the  Catholic  opinion  is  known  by 


428  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE 

the  name  of  the  doctrme  of  the  atonement,  or  the  satisfaction  of 
Christ.  The  subject  is  in  itself  so  important,  it  has  received  such 
ample  and  acute  discussion  from  the  times  of  Socinus  to  the  present 
day,  and  the  points  in  controversy  enter  so  much  into  all  the  discourses 
.and  offices  of  the  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  that  I  should  fail  in  my 
duty  if  I  did  not  speak  of  it  fully,  A  much  shorter  illustration  will 
suffice  for  the  other  part  of  the  Catholic  opinion, — the  manner  in 
which  those  who  hold  it  connect  the  promise  and  the  hope  of  life 
everlasting  with  the  obedience  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  doctrine  of  the  atonement  or  satisfaction  of  Christ  is  not  neces- 
sarily connected  with  a  belief  in  his  divinity ;  for  this  doctrine  was 
ably  defended  by  Dr.  Clarke,  and  it  is  held  by  many  who  avow  that 
they  do  not  consider  the  Son  as  truly  God.  But  it  is  impossible  for 
any  one,  who  believes  that  Jesus  Christ  is  a  mere  man,  to  entertain 
such  an  opinion  of  the  value  of  his  sufferings,  as  to  think  that  they 
could  be  a  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  the  world,  and  a  satisfaction  to  the 
justice  of  God.  A  denial,  therefore,  of  the  pre-existence  of  our  Saviour, 
and  a  denial  of  the  doctrine  of  satisfaction,  are  the  two  leading  fea- 
tures of  Socinianism,  and  they  necessarily  go  together ;  whereas  all, 
as  far  as  I  know,  without  exception,  who  believe  in  the  Trinity,  and 
a  part  of  those  who  consider  Jesus  as  the  most  exalted  creature  of 
God,  embrace  that  part  of  the  catholic  opinion  which  we  are  now  to 
state,  that  is  to  say,  they  believe  that  as  this  glorious  person  could  not 
suffer  in  the  form  of  God,  he  was  made  in  the  likeness  of  men,  and 
dwelt  amongst  us  in  the  body  prepared  for  him,  for  this  purpose 
chiefly,  that  he  might  suffer  for  the  sins  of  men  ;  that  the  sorrows  of 
his  life,  the  agony  of  his  last  hours,  and  the  bitterness  of  his  death, 
were  the  punishment  due  to  our  transgressions,  which  it  pleased  the 
Father  to  lay  upon  him,  and  which  he  cheerfully  undertook ;  and  that 
the  sins  of  those  who  repent  and  believe  are  forgiven  upon  account 
of  this  substitution  of  Jesus  Christ  in  their  stead,  which  is  called  his 
vicarious  suffering. 

It  is  well  known,  that  the  general  strain  of  Scripture  favours  this 
opinion ;  for  we  meet  with  numberless  expressions  of  this  kind. 
"  Christ  was  delivered  for  our  offences ;  he  suffered  for  sins  the  just 
for  the  unjust ;  by  his  stripes  we  are  healed  ;  he  hath  made  peace  by 
the  blood  of  his  cross — he  hath  given  himself  for  us  an  offering,  and 
a  sacrifice  of  a  sweet  smelling  savour."  But  it  is  not  by  a  bare  enu- 
meration of  such  texts,than  which  there  is  nothing  more  easy,  that 
the  Catholic  opinion  is  to  be  established.  For  those  who  oppose  it 
do  not  deny  that  it  appears  to  be  favoured  by  the  language  of  Scrip- 
ture. But  they  maintain  that  it  is  liable  to  so  many  objections,  and 
in  particular  is  so  contrary  to  the  moral  attributes  of  the  Deity,  that 
it  cannot  be  true,  and  that  they  would  not  believe  it  even  although  it 
were  taught  in  Scripture  more  plainly  than  it  is :  and  they  say  further, 
that  this  opinion,  though  apparently  favoured  by  Scripture,  is  not 
necessarily  implied  in  the  language  there  used,  that  the  phrases  em- 
ployed by  those  who  hold  it,  viz.  vindictive  justice,  vicarious  suffering, 
substitution,  and  satisfaction,  are  of  human  invention,  and  that  the 
expressions  in  Scripture  which  have  been  conceived  to  warrant  such 
phrases  admit  of  a  milder  interpretation. 

This  being  the  manner  in  which  the  Catholic  opinion  is  combated, 


KATURE  OF  THE  REMEDY.  429 

those  who  defend  it  have  to  show,  in  the  first  place,  that  it  is  not 
irrational  or  nnjust ;  for,  if  it  were,  it  could  not  form,  as  they  say  it 
does,  the  most  important  article  in  the  Christian  revelation ;  and  in 
the  second  place,  after  they  have  fairly  stated  and  vindicated  their 
opinion,  it  remains  for  them  to  show  that  it  is  unquestionably  the 
doctrine  of  Scripture,  that  the  views  there  given  of  the  method  of  our 
redemption  by  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  correspond  with  the  language 
which  they  employ  in  statmg  their  opinion,  and  with  the  principles 
upon  which  they  rest  the  vindication  of  it.  I  shall  follow  this  natm-al 
division  of  the  defence  of  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement ;  and  I  think 
that  I  shall  thus  be  able  to  furnish  you  with  a  complete  view  of  the 
kind  of  argument  employed  to  prove  that  it  is  agreeable  to  reason, 
and  that  it  is  taught  by  Scripture. 


130  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 


CHAPTER  III. 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 


The  first  thing  necessary  for  those  who  defend  the  Cathohc  opinion, 
respecting  the  gospel  remedy,  is  to  show  that  it  may  be  stated  in  such 
a  manner  as  not  to  appear  irrational  or  unjust.  The  objections  urged 
against  it  are  of  a  very  formidable  kind.  Christians  who  hold  other 
systems  concerning  the  gospel  remedy  unite  with  the  enemies  of 
revelation  in  misrepresenting  this  doctrine ;  and  if  you  form  your 
notion  of  it  from  the  accounts  commonly  given  by  either  of  these 
classes  of  writers,  you  will  perhaps  be  disposed  to  agree  with  Socinus 
in  thinking,  that  whether  it  be  contained  in  the  Scriptures  or  not  it 
cannot  be  true.  It  has  been  said  that  this  doctrine  represents  the 
Almighty  as  moved  with  fury  at  the  insults  offered  to  his  Supreme 
Majesty,  as  impatient  to  pour  forth  his  fury  upon  some  being,  as 
inditferent  whether  that  being  deserves  it  or  not,  and  as  perfectly 
appeased  upon  findmg  an  object  of  vengeance  in  his  own  innocent 
Son.  It  has  been  said  that  a  doctrine  which  represents  the  Almighty 
as  sternly  demanding  a  full  equivalent  for  that  which  was  due  to  him, 
and  as  receiving  that  equivalent  in  the  sufferings  of  his  Son,  transfers 
all  the  affection  and  gratitude  of  the  human  race,  from  an  inexorable 
being  who  did  not  remit  any  part  of  his  right,  to  another  being  who 
satisfied  his  claim.  It  has  been  said  that  a  translation  of  euilt  is 
impossible,  because  guilt  is  personal,  and  that  a  doctrine,  which 
represents  the  innocent  as  punished  instead  of  the  guilty,  and  the 
guilty  as  escaping  by  this  punishment,  contradicts  the  first  principles 
of  justice,  subverts  all  our  ideas  of  a  righteous  government,  and,  by 
holding  forth  an  example  of  reward  and  punishment  dispensed  by 
heaven  without  any  regard  to  the  character  of  those  who  receive 
them,  does,  in  fact,  encourage  men  to  live  as  they  please. 

These  objections  are  the  more  formidable,  that  they  have  received 
no  small  countenance  from  the  language  of  many  of  the  most  zealous 
friends  of  this  doctrine.  The  atonement  presents  a  subject  of  spe- 
culation most  interesting  to  the  great  body  of  the  people,  who  are 
alwa3^s  incapable  of  metaphysical  precision  of  thought ;  it  enters  into 
loose  and  popular  harangues  delivered  by  many  who  are  more  ac- 
customed to  speak  than  to  think ;  and  the  manner  of  stating  it  has 
been  toa  often  accommodated  to  prejudices  which  are  inconsistent 
with  truth,  and  adverse  to  morality.  It  is  not  surprising  that,  in  such 
circumstances,  the  mistakes  of  the  friends  of  this  doctrine  have  given 
much  advantage  to  the  misrepresentation  of  its  enemies ;  and  it  is 
upon  this  account  very  necessary  for  you,  the  great  object  of  whose 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  43l 

Study  is  to  acquire  just  and  enlarged  apprehensions  of  the  whole 
scheme  of  Cliristian  doctrine,  that  you  may  be  able  to  defend  that 
truth  which  you  understand,  to  beware  of  forming  your  notions  of 
this  capital  article  of  our  faith  from  the  incorrect  superficial  statements 
of  it  which  may  come  in  your  way. 

Happily  for  your  instruction,  the  objections  to  this  doctrine  have 
called  forth  some  of  the  greatest  masters  of  reason  in  its  defence. 
Grotius,  whose  comprehensive  vigorous  mind  was  illuminated  by 
an  intimate  acquaintance  with  jurisprudence,  wrote,  in  answer  to 
Socinus,  a  treatise,  Dc  Satisfactione  C/iristi,  which  is  both  a  fair 
exposition  and  a  complete  vindicat-ion  of  the  doctrine  ;  and  the  reply 
published  by  Crellius,  an  adherent  of  Socinus,  was  answered  in  the 
end  of  the  seventeenth  century  by  the  learned  and  able  Bishop  Stil- 
lingfleet,  who,  in  his  discourse  on  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  has  unfolded 
and  illustrated  the  leading  principles  laid  down  by  Grotius,  and  by 
applying  them  to  the  acute  reasonings  of  Crellius,  has  shown  how 
ready  a  solution  they  afford  of  every  objection.  Dr.  Clarke,  with  that 
accuracy  of  thought  and  that  precision  of  language  which  are  his 
characteristics,  has  explained  within  a  short  compass,  in  a  sermon 
upon  the  nature  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  and  elsewhere  occasionally, 
the  true  principles  of  this  doctrine.  The  general  circulation  of  Dr. 
Clarke's  works  has  rendered  these  principles  familiar  to  many,  who 
have  not  leisure  to  study  the  more  elaborate  treatises  of  Grotius  and 
Stillingfieet ;  they  are  now  pretty  generally  understood,  and  you  will 
find  them  spread  out,  and  applied  with  much  propriety  to  the  form  in 
which  some  modern  writers  have  brought  forward  the  ancient  objec- 
tions, in  two  treatises  published  not  many  years  ago,  the  one  entitled, 
Jesus  Christ  the  Mediator  between  God  and  Man,  by  Tomkins ;  the 
other.  Vicarious  Sacrifice,  by  Elliot. 

Availing  myself  of  these  helps,  I  shall  now  proceed  to  state  that 
precise  notion  of  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement,  upon  which  the 
reasonableness  of  it  is  rested  by  those  who  know  best  how  to  defend 
it.  This  fair  statement  of  the  Catholic  opinion  will  involve  in  it  an 
answer  to  the  objections  which  I  mentioned,  and  will  prepare  us  for 
discovering,  by  a  critical  examination  of  various  passages  of  Scripture, 
the  evidence  that  it  is  there  taught,  and  the  views  of  it  which  are 
there  given. 


Section  I. 

The  first  principle  upon  which  a  fair  statement  of  the  doctrine  of 
the  atonement  proceeds  is  this,  that  sin  is  a  violation  of  law,  and  that 
the  almighty,  in  requiring  an  atonement  in  order  to  the  pardon  of  sin, 
acts  as  the  supreme  lawgiver.  So  important  is  this  principle,  that  all 
the  objections  to  the  doctrine  proceed  upon  other  views  of  sin,  which 
to  a  certain  extent,  appear  to  be  just,  but  which  cannot  be  admitted 
to  be  complete  without  acknowledging  that  it  is  impossible  to  answer 
the  objections.  Thus,  if  you  consider  sin  as  merely  an  insult  to  the 
majesty  of  heaven,  God  the  Father  as  the  person  offended  by  this 
insult,  and  that  wrath  of  God,  of  which  the   Scriptures  speak,  as 


432  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 

something  analagous  to  the  emotion  of  anger  excited  in  our  breasts 
by  the  petulance  of  our  neighbours,  it  would  seem,  according  to  the 
notions  which  we  entertain,  more  generous  to  lay  aside  this  wrath, 
and  to  accept  of  an  acknowledgment  of  the  ofience,  than  to  demand 
reparation  of  the  insult ;  and  it  may  be  thought  that  the  Almighty,  in 
requiring  another  to  suffer  before  an  offence  which  is  personal  to 
himself  can  be  forgiven,  discovers  a  jealousy  of  his  own  dignity  un- 
becoming that  supreme  majesty,  which  is  incapable  of  being  tarnished 
by  the  conduct  of  his  creatures.  In  like  manner,  if,  because  our 
Lord  sometimes  calls  trespasses  by  the  name  of  debts,  we  stretch  the 
comparison  so  far  as  to  make  it  a  complete  description  of  sin,  if,  fol- 
lowing out  the  similitude,  we  consider  the  Almighty  as  a  creditor  to 
whom  the  sinner  has  contracted  a  debt,  and  forgiveness  as  the  remis- 
sion of  that  debt  which  would  have  been  paid  by  the  punishment  of 
the  sinner,  there  does  not  occur  from  this  description  any  reason  why 
the  Almighty  may  not  as  freely  forgive  the  sins  of  his  creatures,  as  a 
creditor  may  remit  what  is  due  to  himself;  and,  therefore," when,  in- 
stead of  doing  so,  he  requires  payment  of  the  debt  by  the  sufferings  of 
his  Son,  he  appears  in  the  light  of  a  rigorous  creditor,  who,  having 
insisted  upon  his  own,  although  the  person  originally  bound  was  not 
able  to  pay,  receives  it  from  a  surety,  so  that  all  that  grace  of  God  in 
the  forgiveness  of  sin,  which  the  Scriptures  extol,  is  without  meaning, 
for  when  the  debt  is  paid,  the  liberation  of  the  debtor  is  a  matter  of 
right,  not  of  favour.  Further,  if  the  intrinsic  evil  of  sin  is  the  only 
thing  attended  to,  and  the  sinner  be  considered  in  no  other  light  than 
as  a  reasonable  creature  who  has  deformed  his  nature,  and  whose 
character  has  become  odious,  it  may  be  thought  that  repentance  is 
the  proper  remedy  of  this  evil.  Men,  not  being  qualified  to  judge  of 
the  sincerity  of  those  who  profess  sorrow  for  their  past  trespasses, 
would  act  unwisely  if  they  pardoned  every  person  who  appears  to  be 
penitent ;  but  it  is  impossible  that  the  Supreme  Being  can  be  mistaken 
in  judging  of  the  hearts  of  men;  and,  therefore,  if  the  hatefulness  of 
their  conduct  be  the  only  cause  of  alienation,  whenever  he  discerns 
in  them  the  marks  of  true  reformation,  that  cause  no  longer  exists, 
and  the  sinner,  by  a  real  change'  upon  his  character,  returns  into 
favour  with  his  Creator.  According  to  this  view  of  the  matter,  all 
that  is  necessary  for  dispensing  forgiveness  is  an  effectual  method  of 
promoting  reformation ;  and  the  Socinians  appear  to  give  a  complete 
account  of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  when  they  say  that  it  saves  us  from 
our  sins  by  leading  us  to  forsake  them. 

Thus  many  of  the  principal  objections  against  the  doctrine  of 
atonement  remain  without  an  answer,  when  we  confine  our  notions 
of  sin  to  these  three  views  of  it.  But  although  it  be  true  that  sin  is 
an  insult  to  the  majesty  of  heaven,  by  which  the  Supreme  Being  is 
offended,  that  it  is  in  some  sense  a  debt  to  the  Creator,  and  that  it 
cannot  be  beheld  by  a  pure  spirit  without  the  highest  disapprobation, 
there  is  a  further  view  of  it  not  directly  included  under  any  of  these  ; 
and  all  the  objections  which  I  mentioned  arise  from  the  stopping  short 
at  some  one  of  these  views,  or  at  least  employing  the  language  pecu- 
liar to  them,  without  going  on  to  state  this  further  view,  that  sin  is  a 
violation  of  the  law  given  by  the  Supreme  Being.  But  it  is  under  the 
character  of  a  lawgiver  that  the  Almighty  is  to  be  regarded  both  in 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  433 

punishing  and  in  forgiving  the  sins  of  men.  For  akhongh  by  creation 
he  is  the  absokite  lord  and  proprietor  of  all,  who  may  withont 
challenge  or  control  dispose  of  every  part  of  his  works  in  what  manner 
he  pleases,  he  does  not  exercise  this  right  of  sovereignty  in  the 
government  of  his  reasonable  creatures,  but  he  has  made  known  to 
them  certain  laws,  wliich  express  what  he  would  have  them  to  do, 
and  he  has  annexed  to  these  laws  certain  sanctions  which  declare  the 
rewards  of  obedience,  and  the  consequences  of  transgression.  It  is 
this  which  constitutes  what  we  call  the  moral  government  of  God,  of 
which  all  those  actions  of  the  Almighty,  that  respect  what  is  right  or 
wrong  in  the  conduct  of  his  reasonable  creatures,  form  a  part,  and 
under  which  every  man  feels  that  he  lives.  For  although  this  moral 
government  be  administered  with  very  unequal  measures  of  instruc- 
tion to  the  subjects,  there  is  no  situation  in  which  the  human  race 
have  the  use  of  their  faculties,  without  recognising  in  one  degree  or 
other  the  law  df  their  nature  ;  and  whether  this  knowledge  be  derived 
from  sentiment,  or  reason,  or  tradition,  or  written  revelation,  every 
thing  which  to  them  is  sin  may  with  accuracy  be  defined  the  trans- 
gression of  a  law. 

If  the  Almighty,  then,  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  lawgiver,  we  must 
endeavour  to  rise  to  the  most  exalted  conceptions  which  we  are  able 
to  form  of  the  plan  of  his  moral  government ;  and  for  this  purpose  it 
is  necessary  that  we  should  abstract  from  every  kind  of  weakness 
which  is  incident  to  the  administration  of  human  governments,  and 
lay  hold  of  those  principles  and  maxims  which  reason  and  experience 
teach  us  to  consider  as  essential  to  a  good  government,  and  without 
which  it  does  not  appear  to  us  that  that  expression  has  any  meaning. 

Now  it  is  the  first  principle  of  every  good  government,  that  laws 
are  enacted  for  the  benefit  of  the  community.  The  happiness  of  the 
whole  body  depends  upon  their  being  observed,  for  they  would  not 
have  been  enacted,  if  the  observance  of  them  had  been  a  matter  of 
indifference  to  the  public.  Hence  every  person  who  violates  the 
laws,  besides  the  disrespect  which  he  shows  to  that  authority  by  which 
they  were  enacted,  besides  the  hurt  which  individuals  may  sustain 
by  his  action,  does  an  injury  to  the  public,  because  he  disturbs  that 
order  and  security  which  the  laws  establish.  It  is  therefore  essential 
to  the  excellence  of  government,  that  there  succeeds,  immediately  after 
disobedience,  what  is  called  guilt,  i.  e.  the  desert  of  punishment,  an 
obligation  to  suffer  that  which  the  law  prescribes.  Accordingly  in 
the  code  of  laws  of  many  northern  nations,  who  were  accustomed  to 
estimate  all  crimes  at  certain  rates,  a  murderer  not  only  paid  a  sum 
to  the  relations  of  the  deceased,  as  a  compensation  for  their  loss,  but 
he  paid  a  sum  to  the  king  for  the  breach  of  the  peace.*  And  in  all 
countries,  that  which  is  properly  called  punishment  does  not  mean 
the  putting  the  rights  of  a  private  party,  who  may  have  been  imme- 
diately injured,  in  the  same  state  in  which  they  were  before  the 
trespass  was  committed,  but  it  means  the  reparation  made  to  the 
public  by  the  suffering  of  the  criminal,  for  the  disorder  arising  from 
his  breach  of  the  laws.  The  law  generally  defines  what  the  measure 
of  this   suftering  shall  be,  and  it  is  applied  to  particular  cases  by 

*  Tac.  Germ.  xii. 
39  3M 


434  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 

criminal  judges,  who,  being  only  interpreters  of  the  law,  have  no 
power  to  remit  the  punishment.  It  is  true  that  in  most  human 
governments  a  power  is  lodged  somewhere  of  granting  pardon, 
because  from  the  imperfection  which  necessarily  adheres  to  them,  it 
may  often  be  inexpedient  or  even  unjust,  that  a  person  who  has  been 
legally  condemned  should  suffer ;  and  there  are  times  when  the 
legislature  sees  meet  to  pass  acts  of  indemnity.  But  it  is  only  in  very 
particular  circumstances  that  the  safety  of  the  state  admits  the  escape 
of  a  criminal ;  and  in  most  cases  the  supreme  authority  proceeds,  not 
with  wrath,  but  from  a  calm  and  fixed  regard  to  the  essential  interests 
of  the  community,  to  deter  other  subjects  from  violating  the  laws,  by 
exhibiting  to  their  view  punishment  as  the  consequence  of  transgres- 
sion. 

If  we  apply  these  maxims  and  principles,  which  appear  to  us  im- 
plied in  the  very  nature  of  good  government,  we  shall  find  it  impos- 
sible  to  conceive  of  God  as  a  lawgiver,  without  thinking  it  essential 
to  his  character  to  punish  transgression  ;  and  the  perfection  of  his 
government,  far  from  superseding  this  exercise  of  that  character, 
seems  to  render  it  the  more  becoming  and  the  more  indispensable.  It 
is  not  that  the  wickedness  of  men  can  hurt  him,  that  his  throne  is  in 
any  danger  of  being  shaken  by  their  combinations,  or  that  his  trea- 
sures may  be  exhausted  if  his  subjects  do  not  pay  what  they  owe 
him ;  it  is  not  from  any  such  emotion  as  personal  injury  excites  in  our 
breast ;  but  it  is  because  his  laws  are  founded  in  the  essential  differ- 
ence between  good  and  evil ;  because  they  are  adapted  with  wisdom 
and  goodness  to  the  circumstances  of  those  to  whom  they  are  given, 
and  because  the  happiness  of  the  whole  rational  creation  depends 
upon  the  observance  of  them,  that  guilt  under  the  divine  government 
is  followed  by  punishment.  Hence  you  will  observe  that  what  divines 
call  vindictive  or  punitive  justice,  far  from  deserving  the  opprobrious 
epithets  with  which  it  has  been  often  loaded  by  hasty  and  superficial 
writers,  belongs  to  the  character  of  the  Ruler  of  the  universe,  as  much 
as  any  other  attribute  of  the  divine  nature.  For  if  the  goodness  of 
the  lawgiver,  and  the  excellence  of  his  laws,  do  not  lead  men  to  ob- 
serve them,  it  remains  for  him  to  vindicate  their  authority,  and  to  pre- 
serve that  order  for  the  sake  of  which  they  were  given,  by  employing 
the  punishment  of  transgression  as  the  mean  of  preventing  the  repe- 
tition of  it. 

This  mean  is  employed  according  to  the  natural  course  when  the 
sinner  bears  the  punishment  of  his  own  transgression ;  and  he  can 
have  no  title  to  complain,  although  he  endures  the  whole  of  that  suf- 
fering which  the  law  prescribes.  In  human  governments,  those  who 
execute  the  laws  seldom  have  much  liberty  of  choice  in  the  exercise 
of  punitive  justice,  because  they  are  either  merely  the  interpreters  of 
law,  or  are  accountable  to  some  higher  authority ;  and  even  when 
they  feel  no  such  external  restraint,  their  imperfect  knowledge  of  the 
effects  of  their  own  decisions  makes  it  appear  to  them  safer  and  wiser 
to  follow  the  established  course.  But  the  Almighty,  who  has  an 
entire  comprehension  of  the  whole  circumstances  of  every  case,  may 
perceive  that  different  manners  of  exercising  punitive  justice  are 
equally  well  calculated  to  attain  the  ends  of  punishment.  As  he 
giveth  not  account  of  his  matters,  he  cannot  be  restrained  by  any  cir- 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  435 

ciimstance  foreign  to  himself  from  adopting  that  manner  which  ap- 
pears to  him  best  suited  to  the  circumstances  of  the  case ;  and  even 
our  understandings  can  discern  in  the  situation  of  a  guilty  world  the 
strongest  reasons  for  departing  from  that  method  of  exercising  puni- 
tive justice,  which  lays  the  whole  punishment  of  transgression  upon 
the  transgressor.  For  if  all  men  are  sinners,  and  if  death,  which  is 
declared  to  be  the  punishment  of  sin,  cannot  possibly  mean  that  those 
who  die  for  their  sins  shall  be  happy  hereafter,  but  must  include  the 
dissolution  or  the  future  misery  of  the  sinner,  it  is  manifest  that  the 
Supreme  Lawgiver,  by  exercising  punitive  justice  in  this  manner, 
Avould  have  put  an  end  to  the  existence  of  the  human  race,  or  ren- 
dered them  for  ever  wretched ;  and  therefore,  if  there  is  any  manner 
by  which  the  ends  of  punitive  justice  can  be  attained  in  a  consistency 
with  the  salvation  of  the  human  race,  it  appears  to  us,  judging  a 
priori,  that  it  is  becoming  the  Almighty  to  adopt  this  manner,  be- 
cause in  so  doing  he  acts  both  as  the  Lawgiver  of  the  universe,  and 
as  the  Father  of  manlvind. 

In  the  substitution  of  Jesus  Christ,  according  to  the  Catholic  opi- 
nion, there  is  a  translation  of  the  guilt  of  the  sinners  to  him,  by  which 
is  not  meant  that  he  who  was  innocent  became  a  sinner,  but  that 
what  he  suffered  Avas  upon  account  of  sin.  To  perceive  the  reason 
for  adopting  this  expression,  you  must  carry  in  your  minds  a  precise 
notion  of  the  meaning  of  the  three  words,  sin,  guilt,  and  punishment. 
Sin  is  the  violation  of  law  ;  guilt  is  the  desert  of  punishment  which 
succeeds  this  violation  ;  and  punishment  is  the  suffering  in  consequence 
of  this  desert.  When  you  separate  suffering  from  guilt,  it  ceases  to 
be  punishment,  and  becomes  mere  calamity  or  affliction  ;  and  although 
the  Almighty  may  be  conceived,  by  his  sovereign  dominion,  to  have 
the  right  of  laying  any  measure  of  suffering  upon  any  being,  yet  suf- 
fering, even  when  inflicted  by  heaven,  unless  it  is  connected  with 
guilt,  does  not  attain  the  ends  of  punishment.  In  order,  therefore, 
that  the  sufferings  of  the  Son  of  God  might  be  such  as  it  l3ecame  the 
Lawgiver  of  the  universe  to  inflict,  it  was  necessary  that  the  sufferer, 
who  had  no  sin  of  his  own,  should  be  considered  and  declared  as 
taking  upon  him  that  obligation  to  punishment  which  the  human  race 
had  incurred  by  their  sins.  Then  his  sufferings  became  punishment, 
not  indeed  deserved  by  sins  of  his  own,  but  due  to  him  as  bearing  the 
sins  of  others. 

Although  the  sufferings  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  consequence  of  this 
translation  of  guilt,  became  the  punishment  of  sin,  it  is  plain  that 
they  are  not  that  very  punishment  which  the  sins  deserved  ;  and  hence 
it  is  that  they  are  called  by  those  who  hold  the  Catholic  opinion,  a 
satisfaction  for  the  sins  of  the  world.  The  word  satisfaction  is  known 
in  the  Roman  law,  from  whicli  it  is  borrowed,  to  denote  that  method 
of  fulfilling  an  obligation  which  may  either  be  admitted  or  refused. 
When  a  person,  by  the  non-performance  of  a  contract,  has  incurred 
a  penalty,  he  is  entitled  to  a  discharge  of  the  contract,  if  he  pays  the 
penalty ;  but  if,  instead  of  paying  the  penalty  itself,  he  offers  some- 
thing in  place  of  it,  the  person  who  has  a  right  to  demand  tine  penalty, 
may  grant  a  discharge  or  not,  as  he  sees  meet.  If  he  is  satisfied  with 
that  which  is  offered,  he  will  grant  the  discharge ;  if  he  is  not  satis- 
fied, he  cannot  be  called  unjust ;  he  may  act  wisely  in  refusing  it. 


436  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 

According  to  this  known  meaning  of  the  word,  the  sufferings  of  Christ 
for  sin  have  received  tire  name  of  a  satisfaction  to  the  justice  of  God, 
because  they  were  not  the  penaUy  that  had  been  incurred,  but  were 
something  accepted  by  the  Lawgiver  instead  of  it.  It  appears  even 
to  us  inconsistent  with  the  character  of  the  Lawgiver  of  the  universe, 
and  many  reasons  in  his  universal  government,  which  we  are  not 
quaUfied  to  perceive,  may  have  rendered  it  in  the  highest  degree  unfit, 
tliat  an  act  of  indemnity,  by  which  the  sins  of  all  that  repent  and  be- 
lieve are  forgiven,  should  be  published  to  the  human  race  without 
some  awful  example  of  the  punishment  of  transgression.  It  pleased 
God  to  exhibit  his  example  in  the  sufferings  of  his  own  Son.  By 
declaring  that  the  iniquities  of  the  whole  world  were  laid  upon  this 
person,  he  transferred  to  him  the  guilt  of  mankind,  and  thus  showed 
them,  at  the  very  time  when  their  sins  are  forgiven,  that  no  transgres- 
sion of  his  law  can  escape  with  impunity. 

It  follows  from  the  account  which  has  been  given  of  a  satisfaction 
for  sin,  that  it  cannot  procure  the  pardon  of  the  sinner  without  the 
good  will  of  the  lawgiver,  because  it  offers  something  in  place  of  that 
which  he  was  entitled  to  demand ;  and  for  this  reason  the  Catholic 
opinion  concerning  the  nature  of  the  remedy  brought  in  the  gospel, 
far  from  excluding,  will  be  found,  when  rightly  understood,  to 
magnify  the  mercy  of  the  Lawgiver,  Those,  who  know  best  how  to 
defend  it,  never  speak  of  any  contest  between  the  justice  and  the 
mercy  of  God,  because  they  believe  that  there  is  the  most  perfect 
harmony  amongst  all  the  divine  perfections :  they  never  think  so 
unworthily  of  God  as  to  conceive  that  his  fury  was  appeased  by 
the  interposition  of  Jesus  Christ ;  but  they  uniformly  represent  the 
scheme  of  our  redemption  as  originating  in  the  love  of  God  the  Father, 
who  both  provided  and  accepted  that  substitution,  by  which  sinners 
are  saved ;  and  they  hold  that  the  forgiveness  of  sins  is  free,  because 
although  granted  upon  that  consideration  which  the  Lawgiver  saw 
meet  to  exact,  it  was  given  to  those  who  had  no  right  to  expect  it, 
and  who  could  have  fulfilled  their  obligation  to  punishment  only  by 
their  destruction,  or  their  eternal  misery. 

One  essential  point  in  the  statement  of  the  Catholic  opinion  yet  re- 
mains. Allowing  that  it  became  the  Ruler  of  the  universe  to  exhibit 
the  righteousness  of  his  government,  by  punishing  transgression  at  the 
time  when  remission  of  sins  was  preached  in  the  gospel,  and  that  we 
are  thus  able  to  assign  the  reason  of  that  translation  of  guilt,  without 
which  a  guilty  world  could  not  be  saved,  it  may  still  be  inquired  upon 
what  principle  an  innocent  person  was  made  to  suffer  this  punish- 
ment :  and  it  is  one  part  of  the  objections  to  the  Catholic  opinion,  that 
no  reason  of  expediency,  not  even  mercy  to  the  human  race,  can 
render  it  right  or  fit,  that  he  who  had  done  no  sin  should  be  punished 
as  a  sinner.  When  the  Socinians  are  asked  in  what  manner  they 
can  account  for  the  sufferings  of  Jesus  Christ,  who,  even  in  the  judg- 
ment of  those  who  lower  his  character  to  that  of  a  peaceable  mortal, 
must  be  allowed  to  have  suffered  more,  although  he  sinned  less,  than 
other  men,  they  resolve  them  into  an  act  of  dominion  in  the  Creator, 
the  same  kind  of  sovereignty  by  which  he  often  sends  the  heaviest 
afflictions  upon  the  worthiest  persons,  and,  disposing  of  his  creatures 
at  his  pleasure,  brings  good  out  of  evil.     But  this  is  an  account  to 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  437 

which  those  who  hold  the  Catholic  opinion  cannot  have  recourse, 
because  their  whole  system  proceeds  upon  this  principle,  that  the 
Almighty  is  to  be  considered,  in  every  part  of  tiiis  transaction,  not  as 
an  absolute  proprietor,  who  does  what  he  will  with  his  own,  but  as  a 
righteous  governor,  who  derives  the  reasons  of  his  conduct  from  the 
laws  which  constitute  his  government.  In  the  Catholic  opmion, 
therefore,  the  consent  of  him  who  endured  the  sufferings  is  conjomed 
with  the  act  of  the  Lawgiver,  who  accepted  them  as  a  satisfaction  for 
sin  ;  and  it  is  by  the  conjunction  of  these  two  circumstances,  the  con- 
sent of  the  sufferer  and  the  acceptance  of  the  Lawgiver,  that  the  suf- 
ferings of  Christ  are  essentially  distinguished  from  all  other  mstances 
of  vicarious  punishment. 

The  ordinary  course  of  human  affairs,  and  the  Scripture  history, 
furnish  many  cases  in  which  persons  suffer  for  the  sins  of  others.     It 
is  part  of  the  positive  laws  of  many  states,  and  of  the  general  constitu- 
tion of  nature,  that  the  effects  of  transgression  extend  beyond  the  lives 
and  fortunes  of  those  by  whom  it  was  committed,  and  that  children, 
subjects,  or  other  connexions  thus  endure  a  larger  portion  of  evil  than 
it  is  likely  they  would  have  endured  had  it  not  been  for  the  sins  of 
those  who  went  before   them.     You  will  find  cases  of  this   kind 
brought  forward,  and   very  much  dwelt  upon,  even  in  the   most 
masterly  vindications  of  the  Catholic  opinion ;  but  I  own  it  appears 
to  me,  that  the  principles  upon  which  the  Catholic  opinion  is  defended 
destroy  every  kind  of  similarity  between  these  cases  and  the  sufferings 
of  Christ.     In  all  such  instances  of  the  extension  of  punishment,  per- 
sons suffer  for  sins,  of  which  they  are  innocent,  without  their  consent, 
in  consequence  of  a  constitution  under  which  they  are  born,  and  by  a 
disposition  of  events  which  they  probably  lament ;  and  their  suffering 
is  not  supposed  to  have  any  effect  in  alleviathig  the  evils  incurred  by 
those  whose  punishment  they  bear.     The  constitution  by  which  pun- 
ishment is  thus   extended  has  a  striking   similarity  to   the   effects 
produced  by  the  fall  of  Adam  upon  his  posterity.     It  suggests  a 
general  analogy  by  which  the  second  or  the  fourth  opinion  upon  that 
subject  may  be  vindicated ;  but  it  is  wholly  inapplicable  to  the  suffer- 
ings which  procured  the  remedy.     Cases  which  appear  to  be  more 
similar  are   those  in  which   parents  or  friends,  from   affection  and 
choice,  submit  to  much  labour  and  pain,  by  which  they  are  able  to 
mitigate  the  afflictions  of  others,  and  often  to  extricate  them  from 
danger  or  sorrow.     Such  cases  intimate,  as  has  been  well  said  by 
Bishop  Butler,  that  the  general  constitution  of  the  universe  is  mercilul, 
/.  e.  that  evils,  however  deserved,  are  not  left  without  remedy  ;  and 
the  generosity  and  willingness  which  brings  the  remedy,  have  been 
considered  as  suggesting  an  analogy  favourable  to  that  which  I  call 
the  Middle  opinion.     But  all  such  cases  fall  very  far  short  of  the 
Catholic  opinion.     For  although  persons  in  certain  situations  may 
conceive  it  to  be  their  duty,  or  may  feel  an  inclination  to  make  an 
exertion  of  benevolence   painful   to  themselves,  and   profitable  to 
others  ;  and  although  the  enthusiasm  of  aflection  has  sometimes  pro- 
duced a  wish  to  bear  for  others  all  that  they  had  deserved,  yet,  from 
the  nature  of  the  thin?,  there  cannot  be  in  such  cases  a  legal  substi- 
tution.    No  person  is"entitled  to  give  a  formal  consent  that  his  life 
shall  be  taken  by  God  in  place  of  that  of  another,  because  his  own  is 
39* 


438  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 

entirely  at  the  disposal  of  his  Creator;  and  it  would  be  presumptuous 
in  him  to  offer  to  the  Almighty  to  suffer  the  punishment  of  another 
man's  sins,  for  every  man  has  to  bear  his  own  iniquity,  and  every 
man  may  know,  that  if  God  were  to  enter  into  judgment  with  him, 
this  is  a  load  more  than  sufficient  for  him. 

When  you  turn  to  human  judgments,  you  will  find  nothing  exactly 
similar  to  what  is  called  a  satisfaction  for  sin  by  the  sufferings  of 
Clu-ist ;  and  a  little  attention  will  satisfy  you  that  the  dissimilarity  is 
not  accidental,  but  is  founded  on  the  nature  of  things.  In  those  cases 
in  which  the  penalty  incurred  by  breach  of  contract  is  a  sum  of 
money,  or  a  prestation  that  may  be  performed  by  any  one,  he  who 
pays  the  sum,  or  does  the  service  for  the  person  originally  bound, 
undergoes  what  may  properly  be  called  vicarious  punishment ;  but 
he  cannot  be  said  to  make  satisfaction,  because  he  does  the  very  thing 
which  was  required,  and  the  liberation  of  the  pannel  becomes,  in  con- 
sequence, of  such  substitution,  a  matter  of  right,  not  of  favour.  In 
those  cases  in  which  the  penalty  incurred  is  a  punishment  that  attaches 
to  the  person  of  the  pannel,  as  imprisonment,  banishment,  stripes,  or 
death,  human  law  does  not  admit  of  substitution,  because  in  all  such 
cases  there  cannot  be  that  concurrence  of  the  acceptance  of  the  law- 
giver, and  the  valid  consent  of  the  substitute,  without  which  substitu- 
tion is  illegal.  Corporal  chastisement  and  imprisonment  for  a  limited 
time  are  hitended  not  only  as  examples  to  others,  but  as  a  method  of 
reforming  the  vices  of  the  criminal, — they  are  a  medicine  which  must 
be  administered,  not  to  another,  but  to  the  patient.  Perpetual  im- 
prisonment, banishment,  and  death,  are  inflicted  upon  those  whom 
the  law  considers  as  incorrigible  ;  and  besides  being  examples,  are 
intended  to  prevent  the  danger  of  any  further  harm  being  done  to  the 
community  by  the  persons  who  are  thus  punished.  But  if  another 
were  punished  in  their  stead,  the  danger  would  still  exist ;  at  least  it 
is  impossible  for  human  government  to  judge  how  far  the  lesson  ad- 
ministered by  the  punishment  of  another  would  correct  the  vice  of 
those  who  deserved  to  have  suffered  it. 

There  was  a  circumstance  in  the  practice  of  ancient  nations,  which 
may  appear  to  furnish  an  exception  to  these  remarks  ;  for  it  is  known 
that,  in  the  intercourse  of  states,  hostages  were  often  given  as  a 
security  that  a  treaty  should  be  fulfilled ;  and  that  in  private  causes, 
persons  called  wti^vxoo  pledged  their  own  lives  for  the  lives  of  those 
who  had  been  convicted  of  a  capital  crime.  If  the  nation  did  not 
fulfil  the  contract,  the  hostage  was  put  to  death ; — if  the  criminal  did 
not  appear,  the  surety  was  executed.  But  there  are  two  essential 
points  of  dissimilarity  between  these  cases  and  the  subject  of  which 
we  are  now  speaking.  The  first  is,  that  neither  the  nation  nor  the 
criminal  was  liberated  by  this  vicarious  suffering.  The  criminal  was 
amenable  to  the  sentence  of  the  law,  whenever  he  was  apprehended, 
although  the  avtt.'^vxoi  had  suffered  ;  and  the  nation  was  considered  as 
having  broken  the  treaty,  although  it  had  sacrificed  its  citizen.  And 
thus  in  the  sufferings  inflicted  upon  hostages  and  sureties,  there  was 
not  that  translation  of  guilt  by  which  the  punishment  of  one  person 
takes  away  the  obligation  of  another  to  suffer  punishment.  But  the 
second  point  of  dissimilarity  is  still  more  essential.  Supposing  it  had 
been  understood  as  a  part  of  the  law  of  nations,  that  the  punishment 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  439 

of  a  hostage  cancelled  the  obligation  of  a  treaty ;  supposing  it  had 
been  part  of  the  criminal  jurisprudence  of  any  country,  that  one  sub- 
ject might  be  carried  forth  to  execution  in  place  of  another  who  had 
been  condemned  to  die,  still  such  substitution  would  have  been  unjust : 
it  might  have  expressed  the  sentiments  of  those  times  with  regard  to 
vicarious  punishment,  but  it  could  not  have  reconciled  that  punish- 
ment with  the  eternal  law  of  righteousness,  because  no  man  is  entitled 
to  consent  that  his  life  shall  be  given  in  place  of  the  life  of  another. 
He  has  power  to  dispose  of  his  goods  and  of  his  labour,  in  any  way 
that  is  not  contrary  to  the  laws  of  God,  or  the  regulations  of  the  com- 
munity under  whose  protection  he  lives ;  but  he  has  not  power  to 
dispose  of  his  life,  which  he  received  from  his  Creator,  which  he  is 
bound  to  preserve  during  the  pleasure  of  him  who  gave  it,  and  of  the 
improvement  of  which  he  has  to  render  an  account.  A  man,  indeed, 
is  often  called  to  expose  his  life  to  danger  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty  ; 
and  it  is  not  the  part  either  of  a  man  or  of  a  Clu"istian  to  value  life  so 
much  as,  for  the  sake  of  preserving  it,  to  decline  doing  what  he  ought 
to  do.  I3ut  that  he  may  be  warranted  to  make  a  sacrifice  inconsistent 
with  the  first  law  of  his  nature,  the  law  of  self-preservation,  it  should 
be  clearly  marked  out  to  him  to  be  his  duty,  by  circumstances  not  of 
his  own  choosing.  It  is  true  also,  that  the  first  principles  of  social 
union  give  the  rulers  of  the  state  a  right  to  call  forth  the  subjects  in 
the  most  hazardous  services,  because  a  nation  cannot  exist  unless  it 
be  defended  by  the  members.  But  if,  in  consequence  of  this  connexion 
with  the  community,  a  good  citizen  should  not  feel  himself  at  liberty 
to  decline  when  he  is  sent  as  an  hostage,  and  if  he  should  be  put  to 
death  because  the  nation  from  which  he  came  did  not  fulfil  the  treaty, 
the  illegality  of  the  substitution  would  only  be  transferred  from  the 
individual  who  did  his  duty  in  obeying,  to  the  community  who  took 
the  life  of  a  subject,  not  to  defend  the  state,  but  to  leave  the  state  at 
liberty  to  break  its  faith.  To  the  avu-^vxoi,  of  the  ancients  there  was 
not  the  apology  of  a  public  order.  Theirs  was  a  private  act,  proceed- 
ing often,  it  may  be,  from  the  most  laudable  sentiments,  but  exceeding 
the  powers  given  to  man,  and  upon  that  account  invalid. 

The  purpose  of  this  long  deduction  was  to  account  for  what  might 
at  first  sight  appear  an  objection  to  the  Catholic  opinion,  that  of  all 
the  instances  commonly  alleged  as  similar,  there  are  none  which  can 
properly  be  called  a  satisfaction  by  vicarious  punishment ;  and  the 
amount  of  the  deduction  is  this :  The  imperfect  knowledge,  which 
every  human  lawgiver  has  of  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  disquali- 
fies him  from  judging  how  far  the  ends  of  punishment  may  be  attained 
by  substitution,  so  that  it  is  wiser  for  him  to  follow  the  established 
course  of  justice  which  lays  the  punishment  upon  the  transgressor  : 
and  in  capital  punishments  the  law  of  nature  forbids  substitution ; 
because  no  warmth  of  afiection,  and  no  apprehension  of  utility,  Avar- 
rant  a  man  voluntarily  to  sacrifice  that  life  which  is  the  gift  of  God 
to  him,  merely  that  another  who  deserved  to  die  might  live.  For 
these  reasons  I  said,  that  in  eve^y  thing  which  seems  to  approach  to 
a  substitution  amongst  men,  there  is  wanting  that  concurrence  of  the 
acceptance  of  the  lawgiver,  and  the  consent  of  the  substitute,  without 
which  substitution  is  illegal.     But  these  two  circumstances  meet  in 


440  POCTKINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 

the  substitution  of  Christ ;  and  it  is  this  peculiar  concurrence  which 
forms  the  complete  vindication  of  the  Catholic  opinion. 

Jesus  Christ  was  capable  of  giving  his  consent  to  sailer  and  to  die 
for  the  sins  of  men,  because  he  had  that  power  over  his  life  which  a 
mere  man  cannot  have.  Death  did  not  come  upon  him  by  the  con- 
dition of  his  being  ;  but  having  existed  from  all  ages  in  the  form  of 
God,  he  assumed,  at  a  particular  season,  the  fashion  of  a  man,  for  this 
very  cause  that  he  might  suffer  and  die.  All  the  parts  of  his  sutfer- 
ings  were  known  to  him  before  he  visited  this  world  ;  he  saw  the 
consequences  of  them  both  to  mankind  and  to  himself;  and,  with 
every  circumstance  fully  in  his  view,  he  said  unto  his  Father,  as  it  is 
written  in  the  volume  of  God's  book  concerning  him,  "  Lo  !  I  come 
to  do  thy  will,  0  God  !"*  His  own  words  mark  most  explicitly  that 
he  had  that  power  over  his  life  which  a  mere  man  has  not ;  "  No 
man  taketh  my  life  from  me,  but  I  lay  it  down  of  myself:  I  have 
power  to  lay  it  down,  and  I  have  power  to  take  it  again  ;"f  and 
upon  this  power,  peculiar  to  Jesus,  depends  the  signiiicancy  of  that 
expression  which  his  Apostles  use  concerning  him,  "he  gave  iiimself 
for  us,"  i.  e.  with  a  valid  deliberate  consent  he  acted  in  all  that  he 
suffered  as  our  substitute. 

It  affords  a  favourable  view  of  the  consistency  of  the  Catholic 
opinion,  that  tiie  very  same  dignity  of  character,  which  qualified  the 
substitute  to  give  his  consent,  implies  the  strongest  reasons  for  the 
acceptance  of  the  Lawgiver, — the  other  circumstance  which  must 
concur  in  order  to  render  vicarious  suffering  a  satisfaction  to  justice. 
The  support,  which  the  human  nature  of  Jesus  received  from  his 
divine,  enabled  him  to  sustain  that  wrath  which  the  Lawgiver  saw 
meet  to  lay  upon  a  person  who  was  bearing  the  sins  of  the  world. 
The  exalted  character  of  the  sufferer  exhibited  to  the  rational  creation 
the  evil  and  heinousness  of  sin,  which  the  Supreme  Lawgiver  did  not 
choose  to  forgive  without  such  a  substitution ;  and  the  love  of  God 
to  the  human  race,  which  led  him  to  accept  of  the  sufferings  of  a 
substitute,  was  illustrated  in  the  most  striking  manner,  by  his  not 
sparing  for  such  a  purpose  a  person  so  dear  to  him  as  his  own  Son. 

Tiiese  grounds  of  the  reasonableness  of  the  Catholic  opinion,  which 
we  deduce  from  the  character  of  the  substitute,  have  no  necessary 
connexion  with  some  assertions  which  occur  in  many  theological 
books.  It  has  been  said,  that  our  sins,  being  committed  against  the 
infinite  majesty  of  Heaven,  deserved  an  infinite  punishment ;  that  none 
but  an  infinite  person  could  pay  an  equivalent,  and  therefore  that 
God  could  not  pardon  sin  without  the  sufterings  of  his  Son.  This 
manner  of  speaking,  which  pretends  to  balance  one  infinite  against 
another,  must  be  unintelligible  to  finite  minds ;  and  as  far  as  it  can  be 
understood,  it  appears  to  be  unjustifiable;  because  it  ill  becomes 
creatures  whose  sphere  of  observation  is  so  narrow,  and  whose 
faculties  are  so  weak  as  ours,  to  say  what  God  could  do,  or  what  he 
could  not  do.  It  has  also  been  said,  that  such  was  the  value  of  the 
suflerings  of  Christ,  that  one  drop  of  his  blood  was  suflicient  to  wash 
away  the  sins  of  the  world.  This  is  a  manner  of  speaking  which 
appears   to   be   both  presumptuous  and  false  ;  because,  under  the 

*  Heb.  X  7.  fJohnx.  18. 


DOCTRINE    OP    THE    ATONEMENT.  441 

semblance  of  magnifying  the  Redeemer,  it  ascribes  cruelty  and  injus- 
tice to  the  Father  in  the  measure  of  sufiering  which  he  laid  upon  his 
Son.  Neither  are  we  warranted  to  say,  that  the  purpose  of  maldng 
an  atonement  for  the  sins  of  men  contains  the  whole  account  of  the 
sufferings  of  Christ;  because  there  may  be  in  this  transaction  what 
the  Scriptures  call  a  manifold  wisdom  to  us  unsearchable ;  reasons 
founded  upon  relations  to  other  parts  of  the  universe,  and  upon  the 
general  plan  of  the  divine  government,  which  we  have  not  at  present 
the  capacity  of  apprehending.  It  is  of  great  importance  to  vindicate 
the  Catholic  opinion  from  that  appearance  of  presumption,  Avhich  the 
language  of  some  of  its  zealous  friends  has  annexed  to  it.  But  such 
language  is  by  no  means  essential  to  the  statement  of  this  opinion. 
We  do  not  say  what  God  could  have  done,  or  what  were  all  the 
reasons  for  his  doing  what  we  think  the  Scriptures  tell  us  he  has 
done  :  but  we  say,  that  in  the  revelation  which  is  given  of  the  dignity 
of  Jesus  Christ,  we  discern  both  that  he  was  capable  of  giving  consent, 
and  that  he  is  such  a  substitute  as  it  became  the  Lawgiver  to  accept. 
It  appears  then  to  follow,  from  what  has  been  stated,  that  when 
the  sins  of  the  penitent  are  forgiven  upon  account  of  the  substitution 
of  the  sufterings  of  Christ,  the  authority  of  the  divine  government  is 
as  completely  vindicated  as  if  transgressors  had  sutiered  all  the 
punishment  which  they  deserved  ;  at  the  same  time,  the  most  tender 
compassion  is  displayed  to  the  human  race,  so  that  the  Supreme 
Lawgiver  appears  both  merciful  and  just.  The  harmony  with  which 
the  divine  perfections  unite  in  this  scheme,  is  considered  by  those  who 
hold  the  Catholic  opinion,  as  a  strong  internal  evidence,  that  it  is  the 
true  interpretation  of  Scripture,  For  it  has  been  often  said,  and  it 
must  always  be  repeated  when  this  subject  is  discussed,  that  had  the 
gospel  been  a  simple  declaration  of  forgiveness  to  all  that  repent,  men 
would  both  have  felt  that  a  general  act  of  indemnity,  so  easily  pro- 
nounced, was  an  encouragement  to  sin  ;  and,  instead  of  being  deeply 
impressed  with  the  richness  of  that  grace  from  which  it  flowed,  might 
have  regarded  it  as  an  ordinary  exertion  of  divine  goodness,  of  the 
same  rank  with  those  bounties  of  Providence  which  are  daily  com- 
municated. Whereas  the  preparation,  the  solemnity,  and  the  expense, 
which,  according  to  the  Catholic  opinion,  attended  the  pronouncing 
of  this  act,  at  once  enhances  the  value,  and  guards  against  the  abuse 
of  it.  When  we  behold  the  Son  of  God  descending  from  heaven, 
that  he  might  bear  our  sins  in  his  body  on  the  tree,  and  the  forgive- 
ness of  sins  preached  through  the  name  of  a  crucified  Saviour,  we 
read  in  the  charter  which  conveys  our  pardon,  that  there  is  a  deep 
malignity  in  sin,  and  we  learn  to  adore  the  kindness  and  love  of  God 
which,  at  such  a  price,  brought  us  deliverance.  All  those  declarations 
of  the  placability  of  the  divine  nature,  which  the  Socinians  quote  in 
support  of  their  system,  are  thus  allowed  by  the  Catholic  opinion 
their  full  force.  We  say  as  they  do,  that  the  Lord  God  is  merciful 
and  gracious,  and  ready  to  forgive ;  and  although  we  contend  that 
pardon  is  dispensed  only  upon  account  of  the  suflerings  of  Christ,  yet, 
far  from  thinking  that  the  love  of  God  is  in  this  way  obscured,  we 
hold  that  this  manner  of  dispensing  pardon  is  the  brightest  display  of 
the  greatness  of  the  divine  mercy.  But  we  claim  it  as  the  peculiar 
advantage  of  the-  Catholic  opinion,  that  according  to  it,  the  display  of 

3N 


442  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 

mercy  is  conjoined  with  an  exhibition  of  the  evil  of  sin  ;  and  when 
we  advance  to  other  parts  of  the  subject,  we  say  further,  that  fhe 
remedy  thus  procured  is  dispensed  and  applied  in  a  manner  wisely 
calculated  to  give  the  most  effectual  check  to  those  abuses,  of  which 
so  striking  an  instance  of  the  divine  compassion  is  susceptible. 


Section  II. 

We  have  seen  that,  from  the  nature  of  the  thing,  nothing  exactly 
similar  to  vicarious  punishment  is  to  be  found  in  the  transactions  of 
men  with  one  another.  But  if  vicarious  punishment  is  the  foundation 
of  the  gospel  remedy,  that  analogy  which,  from  other  circumstances, 
we  know  to  pervade  all  the  dispensations  of  rehgion  from  the  be- 
gimiing  of  the  world,  leads  us  to  expect,  in  the  previous  intercourse 
between  man  and  his  Creator,  some  intimation  of  this  method  of 
saving  sinners.  As  soon  as  we  turn  our  attention  to  this  subject,  we 
are  struck  with  the  universal  use  of  sacrifice.  A  worshipper  bringing 
an  animal  to  be  slain  at  the  altar  of  his  God,  presents  an  obvious  re- 
semblance, which  has  been  eagerly  laid  hold  of  by  those  who  defend 
the  doctrine  of  pardon  by  substitution ;  and  yet  you  will  find,  that 
much  discussion  and  an  accurate  discrimination  are  necessary,  before 
any  sound  and  clear  argument  in  favour  of  that  doctrine  can  be  war- 
rantably  drawn  from  this  general  practice.  For,  in  the  first  place, 
many  of  the  sacrifices  of  the  heathen  Avere  merely  eucharistical  ex- 
pressions of  gratitude  for  blessings  received,  or  festivals  in  honour  of 
the  deity  worshipped  by  the  sacrifice,  at  which  he  was  supposed  to 
be  present,  and  in  which  it  was  conceived  by  the  vulgar  that  he  par- 
took. Even  the  votive  and  propitiatory  sacrifices,  i.  e.  those  which 
expressed  a  wish  of  the  worshipper,  and  his  earnest  desire  to  obtain 
the  favour  of  the  deity,  may  be  considered  as  only  a  method  of  suppli- 
cation, in  which  a  solemn  action  accompanied  the  words  that  were 
used ;  or  as  a  bribe,  by  which  the  worshipper,  presenting  Avhat  Avas 
most  precious  in  his  own  sight,  solicited  the  protection  of  his  god. 

But,  in  the  second  place,  although  there  Avere  sacrifices  among  the 
heathen  which  approached  nearer  to  the  notion  of  a  substitution,  it  is 
not  certain  whether  they  were  of  divine  or  of  human  original.  To 
some  the  universality  and  the  nature  of  the  practice  taken  together 
appear  to  furnish  a  strong  presumption,  or  even  a  clear  proof,  that  it 
was  in  the  beginning  commanded  by  God ;  whilst  others  think,  that 
by  attending  to  the  state  of  the  mind  under  the  influence  of  religious 
emotions,  and  to  the  early  mode  of  speaking  by  action,  a  reasonable 
and  natural  account  can  be  given  of  the  introduction  and  progress  of 
sacrifice,  without  having  recourse  to  the  authority  of  the  Creator 
and  there  are  many  to  whom  it  appears  a  strange  method  of  defend- 
ing a  peculiar  doctrine  of  revelation,  to  have  recourse  to  a  practice, 
which,  although  it  originated  in  sentiments  dictated  to  all  men  by 
particular  situations,  and  might  at  first  be  innocent  and  expressive,  is 
known  to  have  degenerated  in  process  of  time,  not,  merely  into  a 
frivolous  service,  but  into  cruel  and  shocking  rites. 

I  know  few  subjects  upon  which  more  has  been  written  to  less 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  443 

purpose,  than  the  origin  of  sacrifices.  Tlie  only  facts  which  are 
certainly  known  with  regard  to  tliis  subject  are  the  following.  No 
command  to  offer  sacrifice  is  found  in  the  book  of  Genesis.  Yet 
Cain  and  Abel,  the  two  first  sons  of  Adam,  brought  offerings  to  the 
Lord,  and  the  offering  of  Abel  was  of  the  firstlings  of  his  flock.  ^ 
Job,  who  is  not  supposed  to  have  been  acquainted  with  the  books 
of  Moses,  offered  burnt-ofierings  according  to  the  number  of  his 
sons  ;t  and  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  of  whom  it  is  at  least  doubtful 
whether  their  religion  was  derived  from  the  Mosaic  law,  introduced 
sacrifices  into  the  ceremonial  of  their  worship.  Now  these  facts  are 
so  few,  and  they  run  back  into  a  period  of  which  we  know  so  little,  and 
in  Avhich  they  are  so  naked  of  circumstancss,  that  it  is  possible  for  men 
of  ingenuity  and  fancy,  to  give  a  plausible  appearance  to  any  kind 
of  reasoning  upon  them,  and  thus  to  accommodate  their  opinion  of 
the  origin  of  sacrifices,  to  the  general  system  of  their  opinions  upon 
other  subjects. 

I  should  so  very  far  out  of  my  province,  if  I  entangled  myself  in 
the  labyrinth  opinions  upon  this  problematical  subject.  But  there  are 
two  points,  totally  independent  of  any  of  the  particular  systems  that 
have  been  formed  concerning  it,  which  it  appears  to  me  of  much  im- 
portance for  those  who  defend  the  Catholic  opinion  to  carry  along 
■with  them.  The  one  is,  that  amidst  the  multiplicity  of  heathen  sacri- 
fices, there  were  some  in  which  the  people  understood  that  the  victim 
was  substituted  in  place  of  the  offerer,  and  suftered  the  whole  or  a 
part  of  the  punishment  which  the  offerer  deserved.  I  do  not  inquire 
into  the  origin  of  this  kind  of  sacrifices,  because  whatever  were  the 
steps  by  which  they  were  introduced,  and  whether  they  were  the 
earliest  or  the  latest  sacrifices,  it  remains  equally  true  that  they  were 
known  and  used  by  ancient  nations,  and  that  this  is  a  fact  of  which 
the  classics  furnish  the  most  abundant  and  various  evidence.  The 
anger  of  the  gods,  excited  by  some  transgression,  and  signified  by 
prodigies  or  calamities,  was  supposed  to  be  averted  by  sacrifices, 
which  for  this  reason  were  called  averriuica,  i.  e.  iram  divinmn 
avertentia.  This  was  implied  in  the  action  of  the  worshipper,  when 
he  presented  such  sacrifices,  viz  :  his  laying  his  hands  upon  the  head 
of  the  victim  while  he  confessed  his  sins,  and  uttered  the  solennia 
verba  :  and  the  same  thing  is  expressed  in  these  words  of  Ovid, 
"hanc  animam  vobis  pro  meliore  damns;"  J  and  of  Horace,  mactata 
veniet  lenior  hostia ;"  §  and  in  terms  often  used  by  Livy  upon  such 
occasions,  "pacem  exposcere  deum."||  As  the  animal  was  supposed 
to  bear  the  anger  due  to  tliB  offerer,  it  was  believed  that  the  more 
precious  the  victim,  and  the  more  nearly  connected  with  the  oflerer, 
the  gods  would  the  more  certainly  be  appeased.  Hence  arose  the 
splendid  hecatombs  of  which  we  read  in  Homer ;  and  hence  too  the 
human  sacrifices,  and  the  offering  of  children  by  their  own  parents, 
of  which  we  read  amongst  many  nations.  Thus  Caesar  says  of  the 
Gauls,  "  pro  vita  hominum  nisi  vita  hominis  reddatur,  non  posse  aliter 
Deorum  immortalium  numen  placari  arbitrantur."1[  Justin  says  of 
the  Carthagenians,  "  homines  ut  victimas  immolabant,  et  impuberes 

*   Gen.  iv.  3,  4.  j-  Job  i.  5.  +  Ovid.  Fast.  vi.  162. 

§  Hor.  Carm.  i.  19.  |1  Liv.  iii.  7.  ^  Css.  De  B.  G.  vi.  16. 


444  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 

— aris  admovebant,  pacem  Deorum  sanguine  eorum  exposcentes."* 
The  following  lines  of  Virgil  show,  that  the  idea  of  a  victim  suftering 
for  the  sins  of  another  was  familiar  to  the  poet  and  his  countrymen. 
They  are  put  into  the  mouth  of  Simon,  who,  pretending  to  have 
escaped  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Greeks,  by  whom  he  had  been  destined 
for  the  altar,  is  brought  before  Priam. 

Nee  mihi  jam  palriam  antiquam  spes  ulla  videndi, 
Nee  dulees  natos  exoptatumque  parentem  : 
Quos  illi  fors  ad  poenas  ob  nostra  reposeent 
Eflugia,  et  culpam  hanc  miserorum  morte  piabuntf 

No  words  can  mark  more  significantly  the  nature  and  the  effect  of 
vicarious  suffering,  than  the  beautiful  lines  in  which  Juvenal  describes 
the  act  of  the  Decii,  in  devoting  themselves  to  death  for  their  coun- 
try ;  an  act  which  Livy  had  ca.\led  piacu him  omnis  Deorum  irae.X 

391 

Plebeiae  Deciorum  animae,  plebeia  fuerunt 
Nomina  :  pro  totis  legionibus  hi  tamen,  et  pro 
Omnibus  auxiliis,  atque  omni  plebe  Latina, 
Suffieiunt  Disinfernis,  Terraeque  parenti : 
Pluris  enim  Decii,  quam  qui  servantur  ab  illis.§ 

The  second  point  which  may  be  gathered  from  the  heathen  sacri- 
fices, independently  of  any  speculation  with  regard  to  the  origin  of 
sacrifice,  is  intimately  connected  with  the  first.  It  is  this:  as  the 
practice  of  substituting  a  victim  to  bear  the  wrath  due  to  the  offerer 
was  nearly  universal,  an  idea  which  could  not  fail  to  become  so  fami- 
liar to  the  minds  of  all  men,  was  everywhere  expressed,  so  tliat  in 
the  languages  of  all  nations,  there  are  found  various  words  which 
were  significant  of  this  idea,  and  the  meaning  of  which  evaporates, 
if  you  throw  it  aside.  Every  language  must  be  interpreted  accord- 
ing to  the  sentiments  and  customs  of  those  who  used  it.  Whether 
these  sentiments  and  customs  be  founded  in  nature  or  in  prejudice,  is 
a  matter  of  another  consideration :  but  since  the  persons  amongst 
whom  they  prevailed  spoke  according  to  their  views  of  things,  we 
speak  unintelligibly,  or  with  a  design  to  mislead,  if  we  employ  their 
words  without  recollecting  their  ideas ;  and  when  we  profess  to  in- 
terpret ancient  books,  we  err  against  the  first  rules  of  criticism,  if, 
instead  of  adopting  the  interpretation  suggested  by  ancient  manners, 
Ave  attempt  to  bend  the  words  which  occur  there,  to  ideas  which  we 
may  believe  to  be  right,  but  which  we  must  acknowledge  to  be  new. 

It  is  known  to  every  classical  scholar,  that  in  the  language  of  the 
best  Greek  writers  ayof  denotes  a  crime,  which  was  to  be  expiated  by 
a  sacrifice  ;  that  o^wfco  and  ayic<w,  which  are  derived  from  o^oj,  denote  the 
act  of  expiation  ;  that  xa^cwgu,  with  many  of  its  derivatives,  was  also 
applied  to  this  effect  ascribed  to  sacrifice  ;  that  aaox«  denotes  the 
method  of  propitiating  the  gods  by  sacrifice  ;  and  that  the  force  of 
these  words,  or  the  end  conceived  to  be  obtained  by  substituting 

*  Justin.  Hist,  xviii.  6.  f  Virg.  En.  ii.  139. 

\  Liv.  Hist,  viii.  9.  §  Juv.  Sat.  viii.  35, 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  445 

something  else  in  place  of  the  punishment  due  to  the  oftender,  was 
expressed  in  Latin,  hy  pio,  expio,  lustro,  puriJico,placo,  and  the  like. 
All  these  are  what  we  call  voces  signatae,  i.  e.  words  which,  when 
applied  to  sacrifice,  are  appropriated  to  a  particular  idea,  and  they 
Avere  ditiused  through  ancient  languages,  by  an  opinion  which  Pliny 
has  thus  described :  "  Vetus  priscis  temporibus  opinio  obtinuit,  feb- 
rua"  (an  old  Latin  word,  for  which  piacula  and  jjiamina  came  to 
be  afterwards  used,)  "  esse  omnia,  quibus  malefactorum  conscientiae 
purgarentur,  delerenturque  peccata." 

From  the  Latin  words  now  mentioned  there  have  been  transfused 
into  modern  languages,  and  particularly  into  ours,  several  single  words 
and  phrases  significant  of  this  opinion ;  and  many  of  the  Greek  words 
passed  with  the  universal  language  of  ancient  Greece  to  the  other 
nations,  and  particularly  to  the  authors  of  the  Septuagint  translation 
of  the  Old  Testament,  and  to  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament,  in 
whose  works  every  sound  critic  must  understand  them,  unless  some 
notice  is  given  of  a  different  acceptation,  according  to  that  which  he 
knows  to  have  been  their  received  sense  in  the  country  from  which 
they  came. 

Having  gathered  these  two  points  from  the  sacrifices  of  other  na- 
tions, we  proceed  to  direct  our  attention  to  that  people,  whose  history 
forms  a  large  part  of  the  Scriptures  which  Christians  receive. 


Section  IIL 

It  pleased  tlie  Almighty  to  select  the  posterity  of  Abraham  from 
the  surrounding  tribes,  and  out  of  the  son  whom  he  gave  that  vene- 
rable patriarch  in  his  old  age,  to  raise  a  nation,  whom,  by  a  succession 
of  wonderful  events,  he  reared  and  formed  for  himself,  till  they  were 
ready  to  be  planted  in  that  land  which  his  promise  to  Abraham  had 
marked  out  as  their  habitation.  The  whole  plan  of  their  civil  gov- 
ernment, and  all  their  religious  institutions,  had  been  prescribed  in 
the  intercourse  wliich  Moses  their  leader  was  permitted  to  hold  with 
the  Almighty  during  their  long  pilgrimage  from  Egypt  into  that  land  ; 
and  when  they  settled  there,  the  minutest  parts  in  the  ceremonial  of 
their  worship  were  exactly  conformable  to  the  pattern  which  had 
been  shown  to  Moses  upon  the  mount. 

Now  sacrifice  constitutes  a  very  large  part  of  this  ceremonial ;  so 
that,  amongst  the  people  of  Israel,  the  question  with  regard  to  the 
origin  of  sacrifices  had  no  existence  ;  and  every  circumstance  relating 
to  the  quality  of  the  victims,  the  purpose  and  the  manner  of  oftering 
them,  was  there  regulated  by  the  express  appointment  of  Heaven. 

It  cannot  be  denied  by  any  who  receive  the  Scriptures,  that  the 
sacrifices  prescribed  in  the  laAv  of  Moses  were  of  divine  institution. 
But  it  has  been  said  by  many,  that  in  the  multiplicity  of  these  sacri- 
fices there  was  an  accommodation  to  that  taste  which  the  people  of 
Israel  had  acquired  during  their  long  residence  in  Egypt,  the  ancient 
nursery  of  superstition ;  and  from  thence  it  is  insinuated,  that  the 
Jewish  sacrifices  do  not  afford  a  sound  argument  in  favour  of  any 
particular  opinion  with  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  gospel.  The  ob- 
40 


446  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 

servation  upon  which  this  inference  is  meant  to  be  founded  may  be 
true  to  a  certain  extent,  /,  e.  we  may  suppose  that  the  Ahiiighty,  who 
in  all  his  dealings  with  his  creatures  remembers  their  infirmities,  gave 
this  people  such  a  dispensation  of  religion  as  they  were  qualified  to 
receive ;  and,  accordingly,  we  are  accustomed  to  vindicate  the  ac- 
knowledged imperfection  of  the  Mosaic  dispensation  by  saying,  that 
it  was  suited  to  the  circumstances  of  the  world  in  those  days.     But 
the  slightest  attention  will  satisfy  you,  that  to  say  the  Mosaic  ritual 
was  accommodated  to  the  acquired  taste  of  the  people,  is  to  assert  a 
proposition  which  cannot  be  admitted  without  very  great  limitations. 
Forty  years  were  spent  in  the  journey  from  Egypt  to  Canaan  for  this 
declared  purpose,  that  the  whole  generation  who  had  lived  in  Egypt 
might  perish  before  the  people  were  settled  hi  their  new  habitation. 
Those  whom  Joshua  led  into  Canaan  were  ordered  to  exterminate 
the  former  inhabitants,  that  they  might  not  be  enticed  to  imitate  their 
idolatry.  They  were  warned  against  inquiring  how  these  nations  had 
served  their  gods ;  and  they  were  taught  to  regard  many  practices 
which  they  had  left  in  Egypt,  and  which  they  found  in  the  nations 
around  Canaan,  as  an  abomination  to  the  Lord.     "  The  Lord  spake 
unto  Moses  saying,  speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  and  say  unto 
them,  I  am  the  Lord  your  God.     After  the  doings  of  the  land  of 
Egypt  wherein  ye  dwelt,  shall  ye  not  do ;  and  after  the  doings  of  the 
land  of  Canaan  whither  I  bring  you,  shall  ye  not  do :  neither  shall 
ye  walk  in  their  ordmances.     Ye  shall  do  my  judgments,  and  keep 
mine  ordinances,  to  walk  therein:  I  am  the  Lord  your  God."*     In- 
deed it  is  impossible  to  read  the  books  of  Moses  without  feeling,  that 
as  the  posterity  of  Abraham  were,  in  the  language  of  the  la\v,t  a 
chosen  generation,  a  royal  priesthood,  a  peculiar  people  holy  unto 
the  Lord,  so  one  great  object  of  their  ritual  was  to  preserve  them 
from  the  surrounding  idolatry,  by  keeping  their  minds  so  much  occu- 
pied with  the  service  which  the  true  God  had  appointed,  as  to  leave 
them  neither  leisure  nor  inclination  to  go  after  other  gods.     In  this 
view,  it  must  appear  not  only  unworthy  of  God,  but  inconsistent  with 
the  very  end  for  which  the  nation  was  formed,  that  there  should 
be  imported  into  this  ritual  from  their  idolatrous  neighbours  any  prac- 
tice inconsistent  with  reason  and  justice  ;  and  we  are  entitled  to  as- 
sume it  as  a  principle,  that  all  those  directions  with  regard  to  sacrifice 
which  are  found  in  the  Jewish  law,  were  agreeable  to  the  nature  and 
the  perfections  of  that  God  by  whose  authority  Moses  delivered  them 
to  the  people. 

When  we  apply  this  principle  in  examining  the  Mosaic  ritual,  we 
immediately  discover  that  a  substitution  of  the  victim  for  the  otferer, 
which  we  had  found  amongst  the  sacrifice  of  all  heathen  nations,  was 
there  consecrated  by  the  express  appointment  of  God.  It  is  not 
meant,  that  all  the  Jewish  sacrifices  implied  this  substitution.  Some, 
as  the  feast  of  tabernacles,  were  national  festivals  in  commemoration 
of  the  blessings  by  which  the  God  of  Israel  had  distinguisiied  his 
people  ;  others,  as  the  offerings  of  the  first-fruits,  were  an  acknow- 
ledgment of  the  returning  bounties  of  Providence  ;  and  manv  of  the 
peace-offerings  and  free  will -offerings  mentioned  in  the  law,  were  ex- 

*  Levit.  xviii.  1 — 4.  \  Exod.  xix.  5,  6.  1  Pet.  il  9. 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  447 

pressions  of  the  devotion  and  gratitude  of  individuals,  called  forth  by 
the  particular  events  of  their  life.     But  in  all  burnt-offerings  there 
were  circumstances  strongly  expressive  of  a  consciousness  ot  guilt  in 
the  worshipper ;  and  many  of  the  burnt-offerings  were  called  trespass 
and  sin  offerings,  a  name  which  corresponds  with  all  the  ceremonies 
that  attend  them,  in  conveying  to  us  this  idea,  that  the  death  of  the 
victim  was  instead  of  that  death  which  the  worshipper  deserved.    Of 
every  burnt-offering  of  the  herd,  the  law  thus  speaks  :  "  If  Ins  oftermg 
be  a  burnt-sacrifice  of  the  herd,  let  him  offer  a  male  without  blemish. 
—And  he  shall  put  his  hand  upon  the  head  of  the  burnt-offermg,  and 
it  shall  be  accepted  for  him  to  make  atonement  for  him."*     The 
making  atonement  or  propitiation  has  precisely  that  notion  in  the  law 
of  Moses  which  the  words  appear  to  us  to  imply,  viz.  the  turning 
away  the  wrath  of  God  ;t  so  that  every  burnt-offering  of  the  herd 
implied  an  acknowledgment  that  the  worshipper  deserved  wrath,  and 
was  an  appointed  method  of  turning  it  away.     In  the  trespass-offer- 
ings and  sin-offerings,  the  manner  of  turning  away  wrath  by  the  sub- 
stitution of  a  victim  to  bear  it,  is  still  more  directly  expressed ;  for  it 
appears  from  Leviticus  iv.  v.  vi.  that  the  ceremonies  to  be  observed 
in  such  offerings  consisted  of  the  following  parts.     The   worshipper, 
being  conscious  of  his  sin  or  his  trespass,  brought  an  animal,  his  own 
property,  to  the  door  of  the  tabernacle.     It  was  understood  by  the 
nature  of  the  animal,  by  the  manner  of  his  bringing  it,  or  by  the 
words  which  he  uttered,  that  he  was  not  bringing  a  freewill  ofleruig, 
a  simple  expression  of  gratitude  and  devotion,  but  that  he  was  bring- 
ing an  offering  for  the  sin  which  he  had  sinned.  He  laid  his  hands  upon 
the  head  of  the  animal,  and  being  understood  by  this  action  to  transfer 
to  it  the  guilt  which  he  had  contracted,  he  slew  it  with  his  own  hand, 
and  then  delivered  it  to  the  priest,  who  burnt  the  fat  and  a  part  of  the 
animal  upon  the  altar,  and  who,  having  employed  part  of  the  blood 
in  sprinkling  the  altar,  and  in  some  cases  the  worshipper,  poured  all 
the  rest  at  the  bottom  of  the  altar.     And  thus,  says  the  law,  "  the 
priest  shall  make  an  atonement  for  him  as  concerning  his  sin,  and  it 
shall  be  forgiven  him."     The  most  particular  directions  are  given 
with  regard  to  the  manner  of  disposing  of  the  blood  of  all  sin-offerings, 
and  the  Israelites  were  not  permitted  to  eat  any  manner  of  blood : 
the  reason  of  both  which  parts  of  the  law  is  given  in  the  following 
words:  "  I  will  set  my  face  against  that  soul  that  eateth  blood,  and 
will  cut  him  off  from  among  his  people :  for  the  life  of  the  flesh  is  in 
the  blood,  and  I  have  given  it  to  you  upon  the  altar,  to  make  an 
atonement  for  your  souls  ;  for  it  is  the  blood  that  maketh  an  atone- 
ment for  the  souL"t     The  force  of  the  reason  lies  here.     As  death 
was  the  sanction  of  the  commandment  given  to  Adam,  so  every  per- 
son who  transgressed  any  part  of  the  law  of  Moses  became  guilty  of 
deaih ;  for  the'law  spoke  on  this  wise,  "  the  man  which  doth  those 
things  shall  live  by  them  ;"§  and  therefore  it  followed,  that  he  who 
did  them  not  was  to  die  in  his  trespass      Now,  in  a  sin-offering,  the 
life  of  an  animal  was  presented  instead  of  that  life  which  the  sinner 
had  forfeited.     To  mark  this  in  the  most  significant  manner,  all  the 

•  Levit.  i.  3.  f  Numb.  xvi.  46 — 48. 

+  Levit.  xvii.  10,  11.  §  Gal.  iii.  13.  Levit.  y.viii.  5. 


448  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 

blood,  in  which  is  the  hfe  of  the  animal,  was  employed  in  the  sacri- 
fice ;  and  to  remind  the  people  that  blood  made  an  atonement  for 
their  souls,  they  were  not  permitted  at  any  time  to  use  it  for  food. 

Sin-offerings  and  trespass-offerings  were  presented  occasionally  by 
individuals.  But  there  was  one  stated  day  of  the  year,  called  the  day 
of  atonement,  when  the  sin-offering  was  presented  with  peculiar 
solemnity  for  the  whole  congregation  of  Israel.*  Upon  that  day,  the 
high-priest,  having  first  presented  a  bullock  as  a  sin-offering  for  him- 
self and  his  house,  took  of  the  congregation  two  goats,  upon  which  he 
cast  the  lots ;  and  the  lot  determined  which  of  the  two  should  be 
oflered,  and  which  should  be  sent  away  alive.  There  being  no  indi- 
vidual for  whom  the  first  was  peculiarly  offered,  the  high-priest  him- 
self presented  and  slew  it ;  and  then  he  took  of  the  blood  of  both  the 
bullock  and  the  goat,  and  carried  the  blood  into  the  holy  of  holies, 
the  inmost  recess  of  the  temple,  where  stood  the  mercy-seat,  which 
was  conceived  to  be  the  residence  of  the  God  of  Israel,  and  was  dis- 
tinguished by  the  schechinah  or  cloud  of  glory,  the  visible  symbol  of 
the  divine  presence.  Into  this  holy  place  no  other  person  ever  en- 
tered ;  and  the  high  priest  only  upon  the  day  of  atonement.  The 
blood  which  he  carried  with  him  he  sprinkled  upon  the  mercy-seat, 
and  before  the  mercy-seat ;  and  then  he  came  out,  and  sprinkled  it  as 
usual  upon  the  altar.  After  he  had  thus,  by  the  blood  of  the  one  goat, 
reconcifed  the  holy  place,  and  the  tabernacle,  he  laid  both  his  hands 
upon  the  head  of  the  other  goat,  called  the  scape-goat,  and  confessed 
over  him  all  the  iniquities  of  the  children  of  Israel,  and  all  their  trans- 
gressions in  all  their  sins,  putting  them  upon  the  head  of  the  goat,  and 
sent  him  away  thus  bearing  all  their  iniquities  into  the  wilderness. 
What  remained  of  the  other  goat  and  of  the  bullock  was  carried  forth 
out  of  the  camp  and  burnt. 
J  While  the  Mosaic  ritual  thus  clearly  presents,  in  many  of  its  sacri- 
fices, vicarious  punishments,  or  an  atonement  for  sin,  by  the  life  of  an 
animal  which  the  proprietor  substituted,  according  to  the  appointment 
of  the  lawgiver,  in  place  of  his  own  life,  it  limits  the  efficacy  of  this 

/substitution  to  certain  cases  marked  in  the  law.  These  cases  appear 
to  me  to  be  three.  The  first  respects  what  is  called  in  the  law  un- 
cleanness,  which  is  described  in  several  chapters  of  Leviticus.  It 
might  be  contracted  without  any  fault  by  certain  diseases,  in  the  dis- 
charge of  pious  offices,  by  touching  a  dead  body,  and  in  various  other 
ways ;  and  it  had  the  effect  of  excluding  a  person  from  joining  with 
his  comitrymen  in  the  services  of  the  temple.  If  he  presumed  to 
approach  while  the  uncleanness  continued,  he  incurred  the  penalty  of 
death ;  but  after  purifying  himself  by  sacrifice  offered  in  a  certain 
manner,  he  was  restored  to  the  privileges  of  the  sanctuary.  The 
second  case  respects  what  may  be  called  sins  of  ignorance.  When  a 
person  unwittingly  sinned  in  the  holy  things  of  the  Lord,  or  did  any  of 
the  things  forbidden  in  the  law,  although  he  wist  it  not,  he  was  guilty. 
But  upon  his  bringing  the  sacrifice  prescribed  in  Leviticus  iv.  v.  the 
priest  made  an  atonement  concerning  his  ignorance  wherein  he  erred 
and  wist  it  not ;  and  it  was  forgiven  him.  The  third  case  is  mentioned 
in  the  beginning  of  Leviticus  vi.     It  respects  those  sins  which  admit 

*  Levit.  xvi. 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  449 

of  full  restitution  being  made  to  the  persons  immediately  affected  by  W 
them  :  as  when  a  thing  is  taken  away  by  violence,  or  fraudulently 
detained  from  the  right  owner.  The  law  ordered  the  person  who  had 
committed  such  a  sin,  in  the  first  place,  to  restore  the  principal,  and 
to  add  the  fifth  part  more  thereto,  as  a  compensation  for  the  loss  or 
anxiety  which  the  owner  had  sustained  by  the  want  of  his  property; 
and  after  he  had  by  this  restitution  put  the  rights  of  the  private  party 
in  the  same  state  in  which  they  were  before,  the  law  admitted  him, 
although  the  sin  was  done  with  knowledge,  to  make  an  atonement 
by  sacrifice  for  his  trespass  against  the  Lord.  "  He  shall  bring  his 
trespass-offering  unto  the  Lord :  and  the  priest  shall  make  an  atone- 
ment for  him  before  the  Lord ;  and  it  shall  be  forgiven  him." 

The  effect  of  sacrifice  did  not  reach  to  any  sin  not  comprehended  T 
mider  one  of  these  three  cases.     Thus  it  is  said  in  general,  Numb.  ♦ 
XV.  30,  31,  "The  soul  that  doeth  aught  presumptuously,  because  he 
hath  despised  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  hath  broken  his  command- 
ment, that  soul  shall  utterly  be  cut  oft',  his  iniquity  shall  be  upon  him." 
And  this  general  expression  of  "  doing  aught  presumptuously"  is  par- 
ticularly applied  to  two  kinds  of  sins  :  Jirsi,  to  such  sins  as  blasphemy^ 
and  idolatry,  which   indicated   a  contempt  of  the  God  of  Israel;! 
secondly,  to  such  sins  as  adultery  and  murder,  which  admit  of  no 
restitution  to  the  injured  person.     Neither  kind  could  be  atoned  for 
by  any  sin-offering,  but  were  punished  with  death.      Accordingly 
David,  who  had  been  guilty  of  both  adultery  and  murder,  does  not 
propose  to  bring  any  sin-ofiering,  but  speaks  of  a  broken  heart,  as  the 
only  sacrifice  which,  in  such  a  case,  could  be  presented.*     Of  murder 
it  is  said,  "  Blood  it  defileth  the  land  ;  and  the  land  cannot  be  cleansed 
of  the  blood  that  is  shed  therein,  but  by  the  blood  of  him  that  shed 
it."t     As  it  sometimes  happened,  however,  that  the  murderer  could 
not  be  found,  the  land  was  permitted  to  expiate  the  defilement  which 
it  had  contracted  by  a  sin-offering,  and  the  murderer  was  conceived  ] 
to  carry  the  guilt  with  him. 

The  detail  which  I  have  now  given  appeared  to  me  necessary  in 
order  to  convey  to  your  minds  the  true  notion  of  the  sin-offerings 
imder  the  law  of  Moses.  They  are  not  to  be  regarded  merely  as 
emblematical  of  holiness ;  for  although  they  certainly  had  a  moral 
import,  of  the  same  kind  as  that  which  is  often  inculcated  in  the  Old 
Testament  by  such  expressions  as  these, "  circumcising  the  heart, 
washing  the  heart  from  wickedness,  he  that  hath  clean  hands,"  yet 
the  words  of  the  law  by  which  the  sin-offerings  are  appointed  imply 
a  great  deal  more  than  the  emblematical  lesson  of  holiness,  which 
may  be  drawn  from  other  parts  of  the  ritual.  Neither  are  they  to  be 
regarded  merely  as  memorials  of  the  placability  of  God  towards  those 
who  had  sinned ;  for  had  this  been  their  only  use,  they  would  not 
have  failed  in  the  case  of  those  heinous  sins  where  the  fears  of  con- 
science rendered  such  memorials  the  most  necessary.  But  they  are 
to  be  regarded  as  part  of  a  constitution  given  by  God  to  a  particular 
nation ;  a  constitution  which,  for  wise  purposes,  appointed  a  variety 
of  observances,  which  declared  that  whosoever  continued  not  in  all 
things  written  in  the  book  of  the  law  to  do  them  was  accursed  and 

•  Psalm  li.  17.  f  Numb.  xxxv.  33. 

40*  3  0 


450  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 

P  guilty  of  death ;  but  which  admitted  in  certain  cases  of  relaxation  of 
the  punishment  threatened,  upon  the  substitution  of  the  life  of  a  vic- 
tim slain  by  the  offender,  anci  delivered  by  him  to  the  priest  to  be 
offered  to  the  Lord.  God  dwelt  amongst  this  people  upon  a  mercy- 
seat,  towards  which  all  their  worship  was  directed.  But  this  mercy- 
seat  was  approached  only  by  the  high-priest,  and  never  by  him 
without  blood,  which  had  been  shed  as  an  atonement  for  the  sins  of 
the  people.  The  method  of  dispensing  pardon,  in  the  cases  and  to 
the  extent  in  which  it  was  dispensed  among  this  people,  was  by 
vicarious  suffering ;  and  the  lawgiver,  by  appointing  this  method, 
gave,  at  the  very  time  when  he  appeared  merciful,  an  awful  display 
of  the  purity  of  his  nature,  and  the  authority  of  his  laws. 
•  This  example  of  vicarious  punishment,  which  we  have  found  in 
4  the  Old  Testament,  is  a  sufficient  answer  to  many  of  the  objections 
against  the  Catholic  opinion  ;  because  whatever  may  have  been  the 
origin  of  expiatory  victims  amongst  the  heathen,  the  sin-offerings  of 
the  law,  being  part  of  a  ritual  which  every  Christian  believes  to  be 
of  divine  institution,  constitute  an  analogy  in  favour  of  the  substitution 
of  Christ,  furnished  by  the  express  appointment  of  God.  But  this 
part  of  the  Mosaic  ritual  is  much  more  than  an  example,  under  the 
government  of  God,  of  somewhat  strictly  analogous  to  the  substitution 
of  Christ :  for  when  it  is  considered  with  all  the  circumstances  which 
belong  to  it,  and  all  the  light  which  it  has  received  from  inspired 
writers,  it  appears  not  only  to  vindicate  the  reasonableness,  but  to 
afford  a  conclusive  argument  in  favour  of  the  truth  of  the  Catholic 
opinion. 


f 


Section  IV. 

The  connexion  between  the  Mosaic  and  the  Christian  dispensations 
may  be  assumed  in  this  part  of  our  course,  because  we  formerly  found 
that  it  forms  a  capital  branch  of  the  evidence  of  Christianity.  We 
saw,  in  reviewing  the  deistical  controversy,  that  the  Mosaic  dispensa- 
tion was  preparatory  to  the  Christian  ;  that  the  change  was  intimated 
by  the  prophets ;  that  the  time  and  place  of  the  new  dispensation  had 
been  exactly  marked  out ;  and  that  even  predictions,  which,  when 
they  were  uttered,  appeared  to  relate  to  events  in  which  the  prophets 
of  their  contemporaries  had  a  part,  received  their  full  accomplishment 
in  those  events  which  constitate  the  character  of  the  new  dispensation. 

In  order  to  illustrate  the  force  of  that  argument  which  those  who 
hold  the  Catholic  opinion  derive  from  this  connexion,  it  is  proper  to 
attend  to  the  three  great  divisions  of  the  Mosaic  dispensation,  which 
may  be  styled  the  moral,  the  political,  and  the  ceremonial  law.  The 
moral  law  comprehended  all  those  precepts,  whether  in  the  decalogue 
or  in  the  books  of  Moses  and  the  prophets,  which,  being  founded  in 
the  nature  of  God  and  the  nature  of  man,  do  not  derive  their  obliga- 
tion from  temporary  and  local  circumstances,  but  are  in  all  situations 
binding  upon  reasonablfe  creatures.  The  Socinians  represent  the 
moral  law  of  Moses  as  essentially  defective,  and  they  say  that  the 
gospel  has  superinduced  many  new  precepts.     But  other  Christians, 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  451 

who  entertain  more  honourable  apprehensions  of  the  original  state  * 
of  man,  and  who  have  not  the  same  reason  for  taking  this  method  of 
magnifying  the  gospel,  hold,  that  as  morality  is  in  its  nature  unchange- 
able, the  moral  precepts  of  every  true  religion  must  be  the  same ; 
and  that  what  the  Socinians  call  new  precepts,  are  only  interpretations 
by  which  the  great  prophet,  following  out  the  true  spirit  of  the  law, 
vindicated  the  word  of  Moses  and  the  prophets  from  those  false  glosses, 
and  those  absurd  limitations,  by  which  a  succession  of  Jewish  teachers 
had  perverted  their  meaning.  This  opinion  is  defended  at  great  length 
by  a  particular  review  of  the  Ten  Commandments,  in  that  chapter  of 
the  Ordinary  Systems  which  is  entitled  De  Decalogo.  It  is  well  illus- 
trated in  the  section  of  Calvin's  Institutes  de  Decalogo, — a  most  useful 
part  of  that  valuable  book.  The  opinion  is  clearly  supported  by  the  ■ 
reason  of  the  thing,  by  the  respect  with  which  our  Lord  and  his. 
apostles  always  speak  of  the  moral  law,  and  by  the  resemblance 
manifestly  borne  by  those  precepts  of  the  gospel  which  the  Socinians 
call  new,  to  both  the  words  and  the  spirit  of  the  Old  Testament. 

The  political  law  comprehends  all  those  regulations  which  respected 
the  civil  government  of  the  people  of  Israel,  the  decision  of  contro- 
versies, the  private  lives  of  the  subjects,  and  their  intercourse  with 
one  another.  Although  these  regulations  were  of  divine  appointment, 
yet,  being  given  to  a  particular  nation,  they  are  not  binding  upon  any 
other  nation,  except  in  so  far  as  it  chooses  to  adopt  them  into  the  code 
of  its  own  laws ;  and  even  to  that  nation  to  whom  they  were  given, 
the  possibility,  and  consequently  the  obligation,  of  observing  these 
regulations  varied  with  circumstances.  For  the  political  liberty  of 
the  nation  was  abridged  in  their  captivities,  in  the  desolations  which 
different  conquerors  spread  over  the  country,  and  in  their  subjection 
to  the  Roman  empire  ;  and  it  was  completely  taken  away  when  the 
city  was  razed  to  the  ground,  and  the  remnant  who  survived  the 
calamities  of  those  days  were  scattered  over  the  face  of  the  earth. 
The  Jewish  State,  which  was  at  first  literally  a  theocracy,  in  which 
God  acted  as  the  immediate  ruler,  and  which  was  afterwards  ad- 
ministered by  judges,  then  by  kings,  then  by  princes  or  governors 
dependent  upon  other  nations,  has  long  ceased  to  be.  The  Jews, 
although  separated  by  many  of  their  customs  from  the  people  amongst 
whom  they  liv^c,  nowhere  exist  as  a  nation :  it  is  said  that  they  have 
lost  that  distinction  of  tribes  which  was  an  essential  part  of  their  civil 
constitution  ;  and  the  Almighty,  as  if  to  show  that  the  purpose  for 
which  he  gave  this -lingular  constitution  has  been  accomplished,  has 
continued  them  above  1700  years  in  a  situation  which  renders  the 
observance  of  their  political  law  impracticable. 

The  ceremonial  law  comprehends  all  those  directions  concerning 
the  method  of  approaching  the  God  of  Israel,  from  which  the  Mosaic 
dispensation  derives  its  peculiar  character  as  a  religious  institution, 
and  in  particular  the  various  sacrifices  ordained  by  Moses,  of  which 
we  have  found  sin-offerings  to  form  a  large  part.  But  the  regulations 
which  constitute  the  ceremonial  law  had  respect  to  particular  seasons 
of  the  .year,  to  a  particular  place,  and  to  a  particular  succession  of 
men,  by  whom  many  of  the  services  were  to  be  performed,  and 
through  whose  hands  all  the  sacrifices  were  to  pass ;  and  therefore, 
in  the  present  situation  of  the  Jews,  when  it  is  impossible  for  them  to 


452  DOCTRINE  OP  THE  ATONEMENT. 

assemble  at  the  prescribed  season,  or  in  the  place  which  God  chose, 
and  when  the  order  of  priesthood  is  lost  in  the  confusion  of  tribes,  the 
ceremonial  law  cannot  be  observed. 

From  this  review  of  the  three  great  divisions  of  the  Mosaic  dispen- 
sation, it  appears  that  the  ceremonial  law,  like  the  political,  is  in  this 
respect  essentially  distinguished  from  the  moral, — that  it  has  a  preca- 
rious temporary  existence.    The  moral  law  is  always  the  same.    But 
the  ceremonial  law  was  not  given  till  after  the  world  had  existed 
more  than  two  thousand  years, — it  was  then  given  only  to  a  particu- 
lar people, — and  the  present  situation  of  that  people,  which  has  put 
an  end  to  their  political  \a.\v,  renders  it  impossible  to  observe  the  cere- 
monial.    Unless,  then,  we  say,  that  there  was  no  true  religion  in  the 
world  before  the  days  of  Moses,  which  the  Jews,  who  boast  of  their 
descent  from  Abraham,  will  not  say  ;  and  unless  we  say  also,  that 
there  has  been  no  true  religion  in  the  world  since  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem,  which  no  Christian  will  say ;  we  must  admit  that  the 
ceremonial  law  is  not  essential  to  the  worship  of  God,  but  consists  of 
positive  institutions,  which,  however  wisely  they   may  have  been 
adapted   to  particular  circumstances,  have  nothing  in  their  nature 
inconsistent  with  change  or  repeal. 

Thus  the  precarious  nature  of  the  ceremonial  law  is  incontroverti- 
bly  established  by  that  expiration  of  this  law,  which  is  a  matter  of 
fact  arising  necessarily  from  the  present  circumstances  of  the  nation 
to  whom  the  law  was  given.     But  this  fact  cannot  be  regarded  as  an 
unexpected  consequence  of  the  fortune  of  war;  for  it  is  the  fulfihuent 
of  prophecies  contained  in  the  sacred  books  of  that  nation.     All  those 
intimations  of  a  new  covenant,  which  constitute  part  of  the  evidence 
of  Christianity,  point  to  the  abolition  of  the  ceremonial  law.     They 
speak  of  a   time  when  the  ark  of  the  covenant  shall  no  more  be 
remembered  nor  visited,*  when  there  shall  be  an  altar  to  the  Lord  in 
the   midst  of  Egypt,t  when   in  every  place  pure  incense  shall  be 
oftered,t  and  God  will  take  priests  out  of  all  nations  :§  and  it  is 
•-declared,  that  sacrifice,  although  the  most  solemn  and  essential  part 
of  the  ceremonial,  was  not  to  remain  after  this  change  of  dispensation  ; 
for  the  prophets  not  only  explain  to  the  people,  that  sacrifices  were 
in  the  sight  of  God  of  very  inferior  value  to  the  observance  of  the 
moral  law,  and  that  when  separated  from  obedience,  or  offered  with 
the  view  of  obtaining  a  license  to  sin,  they  were  an  abomination  to 
the  Lord ;  but  they  also  foretell,  that  at  the  coming  of  that  person 
who  was  to  bring  in  the  new  covenant,  sacrifice  was  to  cease.     The 
cessation  of  sacrifice  is  intimated  in  a  part  of  Psalm  xl.  which  we 
have  learned  from  the  apostle  to  the  Hebrews  to  consider  as  spoken 
by  the    Messiah :   "  Burnt-offering  and  sin-offering  thou   hast  not 
required.     Then  said  I,  lo  !  I  come  :  in  the  volume  of  the  book  it  is 
written  of  me,  I  delight  to  do  thy  will,  0  my  God."   There  are  many 
passages,  both  of  the  evangelical  prophet  Isaiah,  and  of  the  later  pro- 
phets,  which   are  most   fitly   interpreted   of  this   event;   and  it  is 
explicitly  declared  by  the  prophet  Daniel,  who,  after  marking  pre- 
cisely the  time  at  which  the  Messiah  was  to  be  cut  off,  adds  these 

*  Jer.  iii.  16.  f  Isaiah  xix.  19. 

i  Mai.  i.  II.  §  Isaiah  Ixvi.  21. 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 


453 


words,  "  and  he  shall  cause  the  sacrifice  and  the  oblation  to  cease."* 
It  is  further  to  be  remarked,  that  the  same  prophets  who  foretell  the 
cessation  of  sacrifice  intimate  that  the  person,  at  whose  comuig  it  was 
to  cease,  would  assume  a  character  and  perform  actions  fitted  to 
supply  the  place  of  it.  David  calls  him  a  priest  ;t  Isaiah  says  that 
he  shall  "make  his  soul  an  offering  for  sin  ;"J  and  Daniel,  who 
says  that  the  Messiah  shall  be  cut  off,  but  not  for  himself,  represents 
him  as  making  an  end  of  sins,  making  reconciliation  for  iniquity, 
and  bringing  in  everlasting  righteousness  at  the  time  when,  by  causing 
the  sacrifice  and  oblation  to  cease,  he  seals  up  the  vision  and  the 

prophecy.§ 

In  this  manner  the  general  connexion  between  the  two  dispensa- 
tions is  particularly  applied  to  the  ceremonial  law,  and  we  seem  to  be 
warranted  by  the  language  of  the  Old  Testament  to  expect,  that  this 
very  large  part  of  the  Mosaic  institution  did  not  merely  go  before 
the  gospel,  but  that  it  has  some  peculiar  relation  to  the  remedy  which 
the  gospel  brings.  When  we  recollect  that  in  all  the  works  of  God 
things  are  set  over  against  one  another,  linked  together  by  various 
relations,  the  discovery  of  which  brings  to  our  knowledge  a  fitness 
and  perfection  of  design,  it  appears  to  be  agreeable  to  our  experience, 
as  well  as  our  ideas  of  the  divine  wisdom,  that  when  the  Almighty 
employed  one  religion  to  be  introductory  to  another,  he  should  bind 
them  in  the  most  intimate  manner,  by  making  the  ceremonial,  which 
was  characteristical  of  the  former  religion,  a  figure  and  representation 
of  the  nature  of  that  religion  at  whose  coming  it  was  to  cease.  And 
when  we  recollect  further,  that  many  of  the  prophecies  which 
primarily  respected  David.  Solomon,  Cyrus,  and  other  personages 
under  the  Old  Testament,  received  an  ultimate  and  complete  accom- 
plishment in  Jesus  Christ,  it  may  occur  to  us  as  a  thing  analogous  to 
this  secondary  sense  of  prophecy,  that  the  sacrifices  in  the  ceremonial 
law  were  intended  as  types  and  emblems  of  the  sacrifice  on  the  cross. 
It  is  manifest  that  by  this  kind  of  connexion  the  ceremonial  law, 
besides  accomplishing  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  immediately 
"iven,  becomes  in  an  eminent  degree  subservient  to  that  religion 
which  is  the  end  of  the  law ;  and  the  gospel,  in  addition  to  all  the 
evidences  of  a  divine  original  which  it  brings  with  itself,  derives  much 
importance,  in  the  eyes  of  every  devout  observer,  from  its  being  so 
literally  the  fulfilment  of  a  former  dispensation.  It  is  not  a  sound 
argument  against  the  reality  of  this  kind  of  connexion,  that  the  typical 
use  of  the  ceremonial  law  was  not  distinctly  perceived  by  the  ancient 
Jews.  For  in  all  subjects,  the  nature  and  the  extent  of  the  general 
plan  of  Divine  Providence  keeps  long  in  the  dark  many  points  which 
are  afterwards  brought  to  light.  The  knowledge  of  one  period  of  hie, 
of  one  state  of  society,  of  one  age  of  the  world,  although  sufficient  lor 
every  purpose  which  is  then  of  real  importance,  is  afterwards  found 
to  have  been  incomplete,  and  our  minds  are  enlarged  and  delighted 
by  discovering  properties  and  uses  of  objects,  not  inconsistent  cer- 
tainly with  the  ends  to  which  they  had  been  applied,  but  of  which 
even  those  who  thought  they  understood  the  objects  best  had  hardly 

*  Dan.  ix.  27.  t  P^^'"^  «•  ^■ 

i  Isaiah  liii.  10.  §  Dan.  i.t.  24,  26. 


454  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 

formed  any  conception.  Had  the  ancient  Jews  clearly  understood 
that  the  dispensation  under  which  they  lived  was  subservient  in  all 
its  parts  to  another,  their  respect  for  it  must  have  been  diminished. 
But  it  was  necessary  that  their  attachment  to  the  rudiments  of  faith 
should  be  preserved  entire  till  the  faith  was  ready  to  be  revealed  ; 
and  therefore  the  hints  of  the  new  covenant,  given  from  the  earliest 
times,  and  gradually  explained  as  the  season  of  its  manifestation  drew 
near,  although  sufficient  to  produce  and  to  cherish  amongst  that 
people  the  expectation  of  a  Messiah,  were  not  enough  to  create  any 
degree  of  contempt,  or  even  indifference,  for  the  institutions  of  their 
own  law. 

The  foregoing  speculations  seem  to  render  it  not  improbable,  that 
the  ceremonial  law  of  Moses  and  the  dispensation  of  the  gospel  have 
that  intimate  kind  of  connexion,  which  consists  in  the  former  being 
emblematical  of  the  latter ;  and  these  speculations  are  beautifully 
illustrated  and  confirmed,  by  attending  to  the  manner  in  which  the 
New  Testament  gradually  unfolds  this  typical  nature  of  the  Jewish 
ceremonies.  The  later  prophets,  we  have  seen,  had  announced  that 
sacrifice  was  to  cease,  and  had  said  that  the  Messiah  was  to  make 
his  soul  an  offering  for  sin,  and  to  make  an  end  of  sins.  Accordingly, 
no  sooner  did  Jesus  appear  in  public,  than  John,  the  forerunner  of  the 
Messiah,  marked  him  out  by  these  words,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of 
God,  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world  ;"*  thus  directly  apply- 
ing to  Jesus  as  his  character,  what  Isaiah  had  used  as  a  simile,  "  he 
is  brought  as  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter."!  After  Jesus  had,  by  his 
public  discourses,  by  his  private  intercourse  with  his  disciples,  and  by 
the  succession  of  miracles  which  they  beheld,  confirmed  their  attach- 
ment, and  obtained  a  declaration  of  their  faith  in  him  as  the  Christ, 
he  spake  to  them  privately  of  his  sufferings.  Afterwards  he  said  to 
them  more  plainly,  "  The  Son  of  Man  came  to  give  his  life  a  ransom 
for  many. "J  At  the  last  supper  which  he  ate  with  his  disciples 
before  he  suffered,  he  spoke  of  his  blood  being  shed  for  many  for  the 
remission  of  sins ;  and  upon  that  occasion  he  intimated,  both  by 
action  and  by  words,  the  connexion  between  his  sufferings  and  the 
Jewish  sacrifices.  On  the  first  day  of  unleavened  bread,  when  the 
law  required  the  passover  to  be  killed,  he  sat  down  with  his  disciples 
at  the  domestic  feast  which  every  master  of  a  family  in  Israel  was 
then  holding ;  and  before  he  arose  from  the  feast  he  instituted  the 
memorial  of  his  death. §  This  circumstance  naturally  led  his  disci- 
ples to  connect  that  event  with  the  passover  which  they  were  eating ; 
and  this  inference  was  confirmed  by  that  significant  expression  uttered 
by  Jesus  while  he  was  sitting  with  them,  the  full  import  of  which  we 
now  understand,  "■  With  desire  I  have  desired  to  eat  this  passover  with 
you  before  I  suffer ;  for  I  say  unto  you,  I  will  not  any  more  eat 
thereof  until  it  be  fulfilled  in  the  kingdom  of  God ;"  i.  e.  the  event 
which  is  to  happen  this  night  is  the  fulfilment  of  the  passover. 

Whether  the  apostles  entered  into  the  meaning  of  this  expression 
at  the  lime  of  its  being  uttered,  we  know  not.  For  the  divine  wisdom, 
which  guided  the  minutest  actions  of  our  Lord's  life,  restrained  him 

*  John  i.  29.  f  Isaiah  liii.  7. 

+  Matt.  XX.  28.  §  Luke  xxii.  14—20. 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  455 

from  disclosing  to  them  hastily  the  typical  nature  of  the  Jewish 
ritual.  As  according  to  the  flesh  he  came  of  David,  and  was  thus  born 
under  the  law,  it  was  part  of  his  entire  obedience  to  the  will  of  God, 
to  comply  in  all  things  with  the  law  of  Moses  ;  and  the  principle  of 
his  compliance  was  thus  expressed  by  himself,  when  John  the  Bap- 
tist discovered  a  surprise  at  his  coming  to  be  baptized  by  him,  "  Suf- 
fer it  to  be  so  now,  for  thus  it  becometh  us  to  fulfil  all  righteousness."* 
There  would  have  been  an  unfitness  in  his  appearing  to  disparage 
that  ceremonial,  which  continued  in  force  till  his  death,  while  he  was 
daily  observing  it.  But  in  the  interval  between  his  resurrection  and 
his  ascension,  after  he  had  fulfilled  the  passover  by  dying  on  the 
cross,  he  showed,  by  an  interpretation  of  all  the  hints  which  he  had 
given  during  his  life,  in  what  sense  he  was  the  end  of  the  law. 
"  These  are  the  words  which  I  spake  unto  you  while  I  w-as  yet  with 
you,  that  all  things  must  be  fulfilled  which  were  written  in  the  law 
of  Moses,  and  in  the  prophets,  and  in  the  psalms,  concerning  me."t 
He  had  been  accustomed  while  he  was  with  them  to  apply  to  himself 
many  expressions  in  the  ancient  Scriptures  of  the  Jews ;  but  now  "  he 
opened  their  understandings,  that  they  might  understand  the  Scrip- 
tures :  and  beginning  at  Moses  and  all  the  prophets,  he  expounded 
unto  them  in  all  the  Scriptures  the  things  concerning  himself."  Ac- 
cordingly his  apostles  who  heard  this  discourse,  and  Paul,  who  was 
enlightened  by  a  special  revelation,  appear  in  the  book  of  Acts  build- 
ing their  preaching  of  the  gospel  upon  this  foundation,  that  they  said 
"  none  other  things  than  those  which  Moses  and  the  prophets  did  say 
should  come,  that  Christ  should  suffer,  and  that  he  should  be  the  first 
that  should  rise  from  the  dead."J 

Now,  although  the  prophets  foretell  that  Christ  should  sufter,  there 
is  not  in  the  books  of  Moses,  after  the  original  promise  respecting  the 
seed  of  the  woman,  any  prediction  that  the  Shiloh,  the  Prophet,  the 
Star  out  of  Jacob  there  foretold,  was  to  suffer ;  and  we  are  at  a  loss 
to  conceive  how  any  thing  in  these  books  can  be  considered  as  an 
intimation  of  the  sufferings  of  the  Messiah,  except  the  types  that  are 
to  be  found  in  the  sacrifices  of  the  law.  It  seems  natural,  therefore, 
to  presume,  that  our  Lord  upon  that  occasion,  when  he  opened  the 
understandings  of  his  disciples,  that  they  might  understand  the  Scrip- 
tures, explained  to  them  these  types,  and  that  from  thence  they 
learned  to  speak,  as  they  do,  of  the  typical  nature  of  the  Jewish 
sacrifices. 

John  the  Evangelist,  in  relating  the  circumstances  of  our  Lord's 
death,  introduces  the  last  word  which  he  utlered,  tinuMai,  "it  is 
finished,"  in  a  manner  which  shows  that  he  referred  it  to  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  Scriptures  :  and  having  mentioned,  that  when  the  soldiers 
came  to  Jesus  they  did  not  break  his  legs,  as  they  had  broken  the  legs 
of  those  who  were  crucified  with  him,  the  Evangelist  leads  us  back 
to  a  direction  given  about  the  paschal  lamb,  "  For  these  things  were 
done  that  the  Scriptures  should  be  fulfilled  ;  a  bone  of  him  shall  not 
be  broken. "§  The  Apostle  Paul  says  in  one  place, "  Christ  our  pass- 
over  is  sacrificed  for  us  :"||  in  another  place,  "  Christ  gave  himself  for 

•  Matt.  iii.  15.  f  Luke  xxiv.  44,  45,  27.  +  Acts  xxvi.  22,  23. 

§  John  xix.  26—37.  |j  1  Cor.  v.  7. 


456  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 

US  an  offering  and  a  sacrifice  to  God  for  a  sweet  smelling  savour."* 
He  says  that  the  law  was  a  schoolmaster  to  bring  us  unto  Christ ; 
that  Christ  is  the  end  of  the  law  ;  that  the  meats,  and  drinks,  and 
washings  under  the  law,  were  a  shadow  of  things  to  come,  but  the 
body  is  of  Christ  :f  and  by  all  these  incidental  expressions  he  has 
prepared  us  for  that  full  account  of  this  matter  which  we  receive  in 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 

It  appears  from  several  circumstances,  that  the  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews was  written  a  few  years  before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem ; 
an  event  which  of  necessity  put  an  end  to  the  ceremonial  law,  by 
rendering  the  observance  of  that  law  impracticable.  The  epistle  is 
addressed  to  the  Hebrews,  i.  e.  natural  born  Jews,  who  had  been 
educated  in  reverence  for  the  law,  who  had  suffered  persecution  from 
their  countrymen  for  having  embraced  Christianity,  and  who,  after 
they  had  resisted  this  fiery  trial,  were  assailed  by  reasoning.  The 
unbelieving  Jews  represented  the  gospel  as  an  innovation  upon  a  sys- 
tem which  was  confessedly  of  divine  original,  a  presumptuous  attempt 
to  supersede  the  law  which  the  God  of  Israel,  in  terrible  majesty, 
gave  by  Moses,  and  an  insult  to  the  wisdom  and  piety  with  which 
their  ancestors  had  cherished  the  national  faith.  For  many  years  after 
the  ascension  of  Jesus,  his  apostles  had  shown  much  tenderness  to 
the  prejudices  of  the  Jews.  But  as  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  ap- 
proached, they  found  less  occasion  for  reserve  in  arguing  against  these 
prejudices.  There  was  no  unfitness  in  explaining  the  precarious  sub- 
ordinate nature  of  the  Mosaic  system,  when  the  whole  fabric  was 
just  about  being  dissolved  ;  and  it  pleased  God,  in  the  reply  which 
the  apostle  to  the  Hebrews  enabled  the  Christian  Jews  to  give  to  the 
arguments  of  their  adversaries,  to  furnish  Christians  in  all  ages  with 
a  most  instructive  view  of  the  continuity  of  the  two  dispensations  ; 
a  view  which,  while  it  opens  many  circumstances  respecting  the  use 
of  the  law  of  Moses,  implied  indeed  in  other  parts  of  Scripture,  but 
no  where  else  so  clearly  taught,  assists  us  in  deriving  from  the  con- 
nection between  the  Law  and  the  Gospel  the  fullest  illustration  of  the 
truth  of  that  opinion  concerning  the  nature  of  the  Gospel  remedy, 
Avhich  considers  the  death  of  Christ  as  a  vicarious  sacrifice  for  sin. 

The  plan  of  the  first  ten  chapters  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
may  be  thus  shortly  delineated — The  apostle  begins  with  imfolding 
the  dignity  of  that  Person  by  whom  the  Gospel  was  given ;  the  glory 
which  originally  belonged  to  him,  as  the  Son  of  God,  and  the  Creator 
of  the  world ;  and  the  honour  with  which  he  is  now  crowned,  after 
having  accomplished  that  gracious  purpose,  in  the  conduct  of  which 
he  appeared,  for  a  little,  lower  than  the  angels.  A  message  brought 
by  this  exalted  Person  claims  particular  attention :  Moses  was  faith- 
ful as  a  servant,  but  Christ  comes  as  a  Son  over  his  own  house  ;  and 
all  the  instances  in  which  the  blessings  of  the  Mosaic  dispensation 
were  forfeited  by  unbelief,  and  disobedience  to  the  word  spoken  by 
angels  received  punishment,  are  lessons  of  reverence  and  attention  to 
the  word  spoken  by  Him,  who  has  a  name  that  is  above  every  name. 
The  appearance  of  this  messenger  was  not  unexpected,  for  God  had 
declared  of  old  times  in  the  la^v,  that  he  was  ordained  to  the  office 

*  Ephes.  V.  2.  t  '^al.  iii.  24.   Rom.  x.  4.     Col.  ii.  16,  17. 


DOCTRINE    OP    THE    ATONEMENT.  457 

which  he  undertook.  The  same  dispensation  which  established  the 
Levitical  priesthood  spolie  of  a  time  when  tliat  priesthood  was  to  be 
changed ;  and  taught  those  who  submitted  to  it  to  look  for  one  who 
was  to  arise,  not  according  to  the  lineal  succession  of  the  house  of 
Aaron,  but  who  pertained  to  the  tribe  of  Judah,  a  tribe  which  had 
never  given  attendance  at  the  altar,  and  who  was  called  after  another 
order.  This  new  order  is  named  the  order  of  Melchisedek,  because 
in  the  book  of  Genesis  a  person  of  this  name  is  mentioned,  who,  being 
king  of  Salem,  and  a  priest  of  the  most  high  God,  received  tithes  of 
Abraham.  He  was  a  priest,  therefore,  in  the  days  of  Abraham,  the 
great-grandfather  of  Levi.  But  as  the  house  of  Aaron,  and  the  whole 
tribe  of  Levi  were  descended  from  Abraham,  it  was  not  possible  to 
give  any  more  express  intimation  of  a  change  of  that  priesthood 
which  was  after  the  order  of  Aaron,  than  by  declaring,  that  the  new 
priest  was  after  the  order  of  Melchisedek,  a  priest  whose  descent, 
although  left  in  such  perfect  obscurity  by  Scripture,  that  he  is  said  to 
be  "  without  father,  without  mother,  without  descent,"  could  not 
possibly  be  counted  from  Levi,  because  his  office  existed  in  the  days 
of  Abraham,  that  illustrious  progenitor  to  whom  the  Jews  traced  back 
all  the  privileges  of  their  nation. 

While  intimation  was  thus  given  in  the  law  itself  of  a  complete 
change  of  the  Levitical  priesthood,  no  change  or  succession  was 
spoken  of  in  the  new  order ;  but  it  was  declared  and  confirmed  by 
an  oath,  that  the  person  who  should  arise  after  the  order  of  Melchi- 
sedek was  to  be  a  priest  for  ever.  In  this  respect,  therefore,  he  was 
manifestly  superior  to  all  the  priests  who  had  been  called  after  the 
order  of  Aaron,  that  while  the  individuals  were  not  suffered  to  con- 
tinue, by  reason  of  death,  and  the  whole  order  was  at  length  to  be 
abolished,  he  had  an  unchangeable  priesthood  :  and  he  was  superior 
to  them  in  this  further  respect,  that  all  their  ministrations,  and  all  the 
appurtenances  of  divine  service  which  they  used,  were  only  shadows 
and  faint  images  of  the  manner  in  which  he  was  to  exercise  his  office. 
The  tabernacle  of  Moses  was  indeed  made  according  to  a  pattern 
showed  to  him  by  God  in  the  mount ;  but  the  heavenly  things  to  be 
accomplished  by  the  unchangeable  priesthood,  having  been  ordained 
by  God  from  the  beginning,  were  in  his  contemplation  at  the  time 
when  the  pattern  was  shown  ;  and  the  tabernacle,  formed  in  the  in- 
termediate space  according  to  that  pattern,  was  only  an  example  and 
shadow  of  these  heavenly  things. 

Such  is  a  general  view  of  the  argument  in  the  first  ten  chapters  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  containing  a  complete  answer  to  the  rea- 
sonings of  the  unbelieving  Jews.  They  said  that  the  gospel  was  an 
innovation  upon  the  Mosaic  system,  a  presumptuous  attempt  to  su- 
persede the  revelation  given  to  their  fathers  ;  and  therefore,  that  it 
became  every  person  who  believed  in  the  divine  institution  of  the  law 
of  Moses,  without  examining  the  contents  of  the  new  faith,  instantly 
to  reject  its  claim.  But  the  apostle  shows  that  the  gospel  was  given 
by  a  glorious  Personage,  superior  to  all  the  former  messengers  of 
heaven  ;  a  personage  whose  appearance  had  been  announced  in  the 
law  of  Moses,  whose  office  as  a  priest  had  been  there  declared  to  be 
unchangeable,  and  Avhose  actions  in  fulfilling  that  office  were  shad- 
owed forth  and  prefigured  by  all  the  institutions  of  the  law.  Far 
41  "  3P 


458  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 

therefore  from  there  being  any  impiety  to  the  God  of  Israel,  any  de- 
rogation from  the  respect  due  to  Moses,  any  apostacy  from  the  Jevv^- 
ish  rehgion,  in  embracing  the  gospel,  it  was  the  duty  of  every  obedi- 
ent and  intelligent  disciple  of  Moses  to  receive  him  who  is  the  end 
of  the  law. 

That  branch  of  the  argument,  in  which  the  apostle  represents  the 
sacrifices  of  the  law  of  Moses  as  figures  and  shadows  of  the  sacrifice 
on  the  cross,  deserves  particular  attention.  The  following  passages 
of  the  epistle  will  sufficiently  exhibit  it : — Heb.  viii.  5.  Any^a  is  a  part 
taken  from  a  thing  as  a  method  of  showing  the  rest.  Its  compound 
vrtoSstyfia,  in  tliis  vorso,  is  a  more  obscure  method  of  showing ;  not 
a  specimen  but  a  figure.  2:>cia  presents  the  outlines  of  the  body  from 
which  it  proceeds.  Tvrtoj  is  a  mark  made  upon  an  object  by  striking 
it;  an  impression;  John  xx.  25,  tov  tvTiov  tiov  yjXi^v;  hence  the  likeness 
of  the  striking  body  which  remains  in  the  body  struck ;  in  general,  a 
figure  or  representation. 

Heb.  ix.  9-14. — 9,  rta^aSo^ri,  collocatio,  placing  two  things  by  the 
side  of  one  another,  in  order  to  observe  their  points  of  resemblance 
and  dissimilitude  ;  such  a  representation  of  the  things  that  were  to 
come,  as  it  was  proper  for  persons  living  in  that  time  to  have  before 
them. — 10.  "  Carnal  ordinances,  imposed  on  them  until  the  time  of 
reformation;"  /.  e.  ordinances  which  had  the  effect  of  making  a  per- 
son righteous  before  God,  in  respect  of  the  flesh,  but  did  not  reach 
the  conscience,  lying  upon  them,  imposed,  till  the  fit  season  of  making 
things  right  by  another  covenant. — 11.  "  A  tabernacle  not  made  with 
hands  ;"  /.  e.  not  in  the  manner  in  which  the  tent  of  Moses  was  made. 
This  is  a  circumlocution  by  which,  the  apostle  gives  notice  that  he  is 
using  the  phrase  figuratively  for  the  body  of  Christ. — 13.  The  water 
of  separation,  mentioned  in  Numbers  xix.  was  thus  obtained.  A  red 
heifer  was  killed  and  burnt ;  the  ashes  were  gathered  and  kept  in  a 
clean  place  ;  and  some  of  the  ashes  were  put  into  a  vessel  and  running 
water  added  to  them.  A  bunch  of  hyssop  dipped  in  this  water  was 
employed  to  sprinkle  every  person,  who  upon  any  account  had 
touched  a  dead  body,  before  he  was  permitted  to  approach  the  taber- 
nacle. Every  thing  that  was  separated  from  other  uses  for  the  service 
of  God  was  by  that  separation  holy.  Every  thing  that  was  employed 
for  the  ordinary  purposes  of  life  was,  by  this  common  use,  unfit  for 
the  service  of  God.  Hence  xowo^,  impure  ;  xoivou,,  polhio.  The  sprink- 
ling with  hyssop  did  not  make  the  person  a  better  man  than  he  was, 
or  obtain  remission  of  his  sins ;  it  only  removed  that  accidental  defile- 
ment, or  unfitness  for  the  service  of  God  which  he  had  contracted. — 
14.  5ta  tov  u.viv|.^o.toi  aiwriov.  The  Holy  Ghost  is  represented  throughout 
the  New  Testament  as  having  a  part  in  all  the  actions  of  our  I^ord ; — 
as  given  to  him  without  measure, — and  as  descending  upon  him  at 
his  baptism.  It  is  said  that  our  Lord  was  led  by  the  Spirit, — that  by 
the  Spirit  of  God  he  did  mighty  works, — that  he  was  raised,  quickened, 
justified  by  the  Spirit.  So  here  the  Spirit  supported  him  in  his  sacri- 
fice on  the  cross.  Every  victim  was  required  by  the  law  to  be  blame- 
less. He  was  without  sin.  The  Avater  of  separation  purified  from 
the  touch  of  a  dead  man.  His  offering  purified  from  dead  works,  or 
those  sins  which  defile  the  conscience. 

Heb.  ix.  21-24.  xntov^yia.,  public  service. — 22.  '5;tf5of,  "Almost  all 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  459 

things  are  by  the  law  purged  with  blood."  Poor  persons  were 
allowed,  upon  some  occasions,  to  bring  offerings  in  which  no  animal 
was  slain.  a:"?'5'  referring  to  that  expression  in  the  law,  "  Rlood 
maketh  atonement  for  the  soul." — 24.  avtitvrta  in  1  Pet.  iii.  21,  means 
what  we  call  the  antitype  ;  here,  the  type  or  impression  representing 
another  thing. 

Heb.  X.  11-18. — In  this  passage  the  apostle  argues  from  the  nature 
of  the  offerings  under  the  law,  and  from  the  daily  repetition  of  them, 
that  they  did  not  take  away  sin  ;  and  he  quotes  the  ancient  Scriptures, 
which  promised  forgiveness  of  sin  as  one  of  the  blessings  of  the  new 
covenant,  in  proof  of  the  perfection  of  the  sacrifice  offered  under  that 
covenant. 

The  passages  above  referred  to  suggest  the  following  remarks, 
which  are  so  clearly  grounded  upon  the  words  and  the  reasonings  of 
the  apostle,  that  I  think  it  enough  barely  to  mention  them  without 
adding  any  illustration.  1.  The  apostle  ascribes  a  certain  effect  to 
the  Jewish  sacrifices,  which  he  calls  purifying  the  flesh, and  which  we  find 
it  easy  to  interpret  by  our  knowledge  of  the  Mosaic  law.  2.  This 
effect  was  attained  by  the  shedding  the  blood  of  those  victims  which 
were  offered  day  by  day,  and  year  by  year,  according  to  the  com- 
mandment of  God,  and  by  the  priests  sprinkling  the  blood  upon  the 
altar.  3.  An  effect  of  a  very  superior  kind  is  said  to  be  attained 
under  the  Gospel,  which  the  apostle  calls  purifying  the  conscience, 
making  the  worshippers  perfect,  and  which  he  explains  by  the  remis- 
sion of  sins.  4.  In  describing  these  two  effects,  he  uses  the  two 
words  xaOa^iS^u,  and  a.yi.a^u,,  whicli,  in  the  language  of  ancient  Greece, 
denoted  what  we  call  expiation  by  sacrifice.  5.  Agreeably  to  this 
received  meaning  of  these  words,  he  represents  the  superior  effect  as 
attained  by  the  one  sacrifice  for  sins,  which  the  High  Priest  of  our 
profession  offered,  when  he  gave  his  body  on  the  cross  once  for  all ; 
and  by  his  carrying  his  own  blood  into  heaven.  6.  And  he  repre- 
sents the  manner  of  attaining  the  inferior  effect,  as  intended  by  God 
to  be  a  shadow,  a  figure,  a  type  of  that  manner  of  attaining  the  supe- 
rior effect  which  had  from  the  beginning  entered  into  the  councils  of 
heaven,  and  with  a  view  to  which  all  the  services  that  pertained  to 
the  inferior  effect  had  been  established  according  to  the  pattern  shown 
to  Moses. 

When  we  lay  these  parts  of  the  apostle's  argument  together,  this 
conclusion  seems  clearly  to  follow,  that  in  his  apprehension  the  offer- 
ing of  Christ  upon  the  cross  was  a  true  sacrifice  for  sin,  which  has  as 
real  an  influence  in  procuring  the  forgiveness  of  sin,  and  so  relieving 
the  conscience  from  a  sense  of  guilt,  as  the  sacrifices  under  the  law 
had  in  removing  those  legal  defilements  which  rendered  men  unfit  to 
approach  the  tabernacle. 

As  this  conclusion  is  the  most  direct  confirmation  of  the  Catholic 
opinion,  the  Socinians  have  employed  all  their  ingenuity  to  evade  the 
necessity  of  drawing  it ;  and  their  reasonings  upon  this  subject,  as  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  collect  them,  may  be  reduced  to  the  two  follow- 
ing heads : — 

1.  They  say  that  the  whole  language  and  reasoning  of  the  apostle 
to  the  Hebrews  is  merely  an  allusion  to  Jewish  customs ;  that  it  was 
natural  for  an  apostle  of  Jesus,  who  had  been  bred  at  the  feet  of 


460  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 

Gamaliel,  to  endeavour  to  avail  himself  of  the  education,  in  which 
he  tells  us  he  had  profited  above  his  equals,  in  order  to  do  honour  to 
the  new  faith  which  he  had  embraced ;  that  in  all  his  writings  Paul 
discovers  a  propensity  to  use  bold  figures  of  speech,  and  that  there 
was  a  peculiar  propriety  in  the  figure  which  pervades  this  Epistle, 
because  it  tended  to  magnify  the  religion  of  Jesus  in  the  eyes  of  those 
to  whom  he  was  writing.  Men,  who  had  been  accustomed  to  rever- 
ence the  splendour  of  the  Mosaic  institution,  could  not  instantly  be 
reconciled  to  the  simplicity  and  spirituality  of  the  faith  of  Christ. 
The  apostle,  therefore,  decking  out  the  gospel  in  trappings  borrowed 
from  the  law,  presents  to  the  Hebrews,  a  sacrifice,  a  tabernacle,  and 
a  High  Priest :  and  althougii  he  knew  that  the  only  effect  of  the  death 
of  Christ  is  to  furnish  motives  for  that  repentance,  the  consequence  of 
which  is  forgiveness,  he  accommodates  the  sacrificial  terms  of  the  law, 
to  give  this  effect  a  more  venerable  appearance.  The  prejudices  of 
the  Jews  were  soothed  by  this  accommodation ;  but  it  was  not  intend- 
ed for  other  Christians ;  and  we  miss  the  design  of  a  writer,  whose 
principle  it  was  to  become  all  tilings  to  all  men,  if  we  form  our  notions 
of  the  gospel  from  a  manner  of  expressing  himself,  which  condescen- 
sion to  persons  of  a  particular  denomination  led  him  to  assume. 

This  account  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  cannot  proceed  from 
persons  who  entertain  an  exalted  idea  of  the  inspiration  of  Scripture. 
It  is  indeed  inconsistent  with  the  lowest  degree  of  inspiration  which 
can  be  supposed  necessary  to  render  the  Scriptures  a  safe  guide  into 
all  truth.  The  account  is  incorrect  in  representing  this  view  of  the 
connexion  between  the  sacrifices  of  the  law  and  the  sacrifice  of  the 
crosS;  as  peculiar  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews ;  for  although  particu- 
lar circumstances  led  the  writer  of  that  epistle  to  give  a  fuller  illustra- 
tion of  the  subject  than  is  elsewhere  to  be  found,  yet  we  discover 
traces  of  the  same  connexion,  both  in  the  law  itself,  and  in  different 
places  of  the  New  Testament ;  and  there  is  not  the  smallest  incon- 
sistency between  all  that  is  said  by  this  writer  and  any  thing  that  is 
said  in  any  other  part  of  Scripture.  The  account  is  dishonourable  to 
this  writer,  because  it  represents  him  as  arguing  falsely,  and  using 
both  words  and  reasonings  with  an  intention  to  mislead. 

You  will  be  satisfied  of  the  dishonour  which  this  account  does  to 
the  writer  of  the  epistle,  if  you  attend  to  the  following  circumstances : — 

1.  The  words  xa^at^co  and  ayta^"»  which  had  a  received  meaning  in 
the  sacrifices  of  those  nations  to  whose  language  they  belong,  are 
applied  by  the  apostle,  according  to  that  sense,  to  the  sacrifices  under 
the  law  ;  and  in  the  same  discourse  they  are  applied  to  the  effects  of 
the  death  of  Christ.  But  there  cannot  be  a  greater  abuse  of  figurative 
language  than  to  employ  words,  first  literally,  then  metaphorically, 
and  in  the  progress  of  a  long  argument  often  to  alternate,  the  literal 
and  the  metaphorical  sense  of  them,  without  giving  any  notice  of  the 
change. 

2.  But  the  purport  of  the  apostle's  argument  does  not  admit  of  our 
understanding  these  words  metaphorically.  Whatever  were  the 
motives  which  led  the  apostle  to  argue  in  this  manner,  it  is  unques- 
tionably the  purport  of  his  argument  to  show,  that  Christ  is  a  high 
priest,  that  his  death  was  an  offering,  and  that  this  offering  attained 
the  end  of  sacrifice.     Now,  such  an  argument  requires  the  use  of  the 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  461 

words  xa^at^co  and  ayiafu,  not  in  a  metaphorical,  but  in  the  literal  sense  , 
for  if  these  words  apply  to  the  sacrifices  of  the  law  literally,  and  to 
the  sacrifice  of  Christ  metaphorically,  then  the  whole  argument  is  a 
sophism,  and  the  apostle  is  guilty  of  something  much  worse  than  an 
abuse  of  figures,  he  is  a  false  reasoner. 

3.  The  apostle  says  expressly,  that  the  sacrifices  under  the  law 
were  shadows,  figures,  types  of  the  true  sacrifice  of  the  cross ;  i.  e. 
instead  of  applying  the  words  xaOai^u  and  aytafw,  in  allusion  to  the  law, 
he  maintains  that  the  truth  of  the  terms  is  found  under  the  gospel, 
and  that  the  law  was  an  allusion  to  this  truth.  You  will  observe,  that 
as  a  shadow  must  present  the  outlines  of  the  body  from  which  it  pro- 
ceeds, as  a  fDrtof ,  in  the  primary  sense  of  that  word,  must  express  the 
figure  of  that  body  by  the  stroke  of  which  it  was  formed  ;  so  in  the 
use  which  we  are  accustomed  to  make  of  the  words  type  and  antitype, 
there  must  be  a  resemblance  between  them,  because  it  is  by  means 
of  this  resemblance  that  the  one  thing  becomes  the  type  of  the  other. 
What  we  call  a  symbol  is  an  arbitrary  sign  of  something  past  or  pre- 
sent, whose  meaning  depends  upon  invention ;  and  we  understand 
that  any  one  thing  may  be  made  the  sign  of  another,  as  sounds  of 
thought,  and  written  characters  of  sounds.  But  what  we  call  a  type 
is  a  sign  of  something  future,  whose  nature  is  expressive  of  the  thing 
typified ;  and  there  could  be  no  connexion  between  the  two,  if  the 
tiling  typified  were  destitute  of  that  which  is  characteristical  of  the 
type.  Hence,  when  we  say  the  Jewish  sacrifices  were  typical  of  the 
Messiah,  we  mean  by  the  use  of  the  word  typical,  that  their  nature 
somehow  corresponded  to  the  design  of  his  coming.  Had  they 
attained  the  end  of  sacrifice  completely,  there  would  have  been  no 
need  for  his  becoming  a  sacrifice ;  had  they  not  attained  it  in  any 
measure,  they  would  not  have  been  types  of  his  sacrifice ;  but  by 
purifying  the  flesh,  i.  e.  rendering  it  lawful  and  safe  for  persons  to 
approach  the  tabernacle,  who,  from  legal  uncleanness,  or  sins  of 
ignorance,  could  not  have  approached  it  without  death,  and  yet  leav- 
ing the  consciences  of  the  worshippers  in  the  same  state  as  before,  they 
were  in  their  nature  fitted  to  typify,  ?.  e.  to  exhibit,  by  an  imperfect 
resemblance,  that  sacrifice  which  relieves  the  conscience,  and  by 
which  "  all  that  believe  are  justified  from  all  things,  from  which  they 
could  not  be  justified  by  the  law  of  Moses."  The  logical  propriety 
of  terms,  therefore,  requires  that  we  ascribe  a  certain  effect  to  the 
Jewish  sacrifices,  and  that  we  ascribe  a  higher  effect  of  the  same 
kind  to  the  sacrifice  of  the  cross.  But  this  is  the  very  thing  which 
the  apostle  does ;  for  we  found  by  an  analysis  of  his  argument,  that 
he  speaks  of  both  effects  as  real.  And  thus,  if  we  only  give  the 
words  xo^atgu  and  ayia^u,  in  his  discourse  the  same  interpretation 
which  we  are  accustomed  to  give  them  in  the  writings  of  the  ancient 
Greeks,  he  appears  to  be  strictly  accurate  in  the  use  of  the  term  rvxai; ; 
whereas,  if  we  give  these  two  words  a  new  interpretation,  by  which 
Ave  malce  him  guilty  of  an  abuse  of  figurative  language,  and  a  kind 
of  folse  reasoning,  we  also  fix  upon  him  the  absurdity,  that  he  calls 
one  thing  a  type  of  another,  although  the  thing  typified  wants  that 
which  is  characteristical  of  the  type  ;  so  that  the  type  mentioned  by 
the  apostle,  instead  of  being  an  imperfect  representation,  has  more 
than  the  antitype  ;  and  the  things  to  which  these  names  are  applied 
41* 


462  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 

have  not  that  resemblance  in  kind,  without  which  the  names  have  no 
meaning. 

4.  To  all  that  has  been  said,  it  must  be  added,  in  the  last  place, 
that  the  apostle  is  not  here  handling  an  argument,  but  he  is  address- 
ing a  great  body  of  people,  converted  from  Judaism  to  Christianity ; 
and  he  professes  to  relieve  their  minds  from  the  apprehension  of  im- 
piety in  forsaking  the  law  of  Moses,  by  stating,  that  all  the  sacrifices 
which  had  been  offered  for  ages  according  to  the  law  were  superseded 
by  that  one  sacrifice  on  the  cross,  which,  being  the  truth  shadowed 
forth  by  them,  rendered  further  offering  unnecessary.  The  argument 
was  most  satisfying  to  those  Jews  who  received  it  upon  the  authority 
of  the  apostle.  But  if  he  only  spoke  in  accommodation  to  their  pre- 
judices, he  dealt  unfairly  with  them ;  because  whenever  they  disco- 
vered, by  their  intercourse  with  other  Christians,  that  the  death  of 
Christ  was  in  reality  no  sacrifice,  the  scruples  which  the  apostle  had 
professed  to  remove  would  naturally  revive ;  and  since  he  had  as- 
sumed it  as  a  principle,  that  without  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no 
remission  of  sins,  it  will  appear  to  them  their  safest  course  to  return 
to  that  religion  in  which  they  certainly  knew  that  blood  made  an 
atonement  for  the  soul. 

This  last  reason  is  stated  in  its  full  force  in  a  passage  of  this  epistle, 
xiii.  9 — 14  ;  in  reading  which  it  must  be  remembered,  that  the  cere- 
monies of  the  law  were  familiar  to  the  persons  whom  the  apostle  is 
addressing ;  that  he  combats  teachers  who  endeavoured  to  draw  them 
back  from  the  simplicity  of  the  gospel,  to  the  observance  of  these 
ceremonies ;  and  that  his  epistle  was  written  about  eight  years  before 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem. 

From  these  four  reasons  it  seems  to  follow,  that,  unless  we  hold  the 
author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  to  be  both  an  inconclusive  and 
a  sophistical  reasoner,  we  cannot  admit  the  first  position,  by  which 
the  Socinians  endeavour  to  evade  the  argument  in  favour  of  the 
Catholic  opinion  drawn  from  that  epistle  ;  but  we  must  consider  the 
manner  in  which  the  Jewish  sacrifices  are  there  spoken  of  as  involv- 
ing this  principle,  that  the  offering  on  the  cross  did  efficaciously  take 
away  sin  by  the  substitution  of  a  victim  for  the  sinner. 

2.  But  if  it  should  be  found  impossible  to  resolve  the  reasoning  of 
the  apostle  into  a  bare  accommodation  to  Jewish  customs,  or  a  moral 
lesson, — if  there  must  be  something  substantial  in  that  which  the 
Mosaic  ritual  shadowed  forth,  a  second  position  is  adopted  by  those 
who  deny  the  truth  of  the  Catholic  opinion.  It  is  the  refuge  to  which 
the  early  followers  of  Socinus  betook  themselves,  in  order  to  evade 
the  reality  of  the  sacrifice  of  the  cross ;  and  it  coincides  with  that 
which  I  called  the  middle  opinion  concerning  the  nature  of  the  gos- 
pel remedy. 

They  said  that  under  the  law  the  priest  made  the  atonement ;  that 
it  was  not  the  victim,  which  was  of  little  value,  and  was  slain  by  the 
offerer  himself,  but  the  oblation  of  the  victim  by  the  priest,  which 
procured  forgiveness ;  and  that  on  the  great  day  of  atonement,  the 
most  important  part  of  the  ceremony  was  the  high  priest  entering 
into  the  holy  of  holies,  and  appearing  before  the  mercy-seat  for  the 
people.  They  learned  from  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  that  these 
typical  parts  of  the  law  were  fulfilled  by  the  priesthood  of  Christ ; 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  463 

they  found  the  apostle  stating  tlie  superior  excellence  ot  his  priest- 
hood as  consisting  in  this,  that  he  went  not  into  the  holy  place  made 
with  hands,  but  into  the  true  holy  place,  L  e.  heaven,  there  to  appear 
in  the  presence  of  God  for  us ;  and  they  understood  the  apostle  as 
saying  that  it  is  his  entering  there  which  makes  him  a  priest ;  for  so 
they  interpreted  these  words,  Heb.  viii.  4,  "  If  he  were  on  earth  he 
should  not  be  a  priest."  Upon  these  grounds  they  conceived  that  the 
priesthood  of  Christ  commenced  when  he  ascended  to  heaven,  and 
that  he  is  said  to  be  a  priest  for  ever  upon  this  account  only,  because 
he  continues  without  intermission,  through  his  power  and  favour  with 
God,  to  take  away  the  guilt  of  our  sins.  The  amount,  then,  of  the 
second  position  isj  that  Christ  was  not  truly  a  priest,  and  that  lie  did 
not  oHer  any  real  sacrifice  while  he  was  upon  earth ;  but  that  his  suf- 
ferings were  merely  a  preparation  for  his  priesthood  which  is  exer- 
cised in  heaven. 

The  imperfection  of  this  system  is  obvious  to  any  person  \vho  carries 
the  whole  subject  in  his  mind.  The  priests  indeed  made  atonement, 
but  it  was  by  the  blood  of  the  victim  which  had  been  slain.  The 
high  priest  entered  in  once  a  year  into  the  lioly  place,  but  it  was  with 
the  blood  of  the  goat  and  the  bullock,  both  of  which  he  had  on  that 
day  slain  with  his  own  hand  ;  and  he  reconciled  the  holy  place  by 
sprinkling  it  with  the  blood.  "  Every  high  priest  taken  from  among 
men,"  says  the  apostle,  Heb.  viii.  3,  4, "  is  ordained  for  men  in  things 
pertaining  to  God,  that  he  may  offer  both  gifts  and  sacrifices  for  sin  ; 
wherefore  it  is  of  necessity  that  this  man  have  somewhat  also  to  ofter." 
Jesus  then  performed  the  office  of  a  priest  in  offering  a  sacrifice,  but 
he  did  not  complete  the  office  by  that  act ;  for,  in  order  to  fulfil  the 
types  of  the  law,  it  was  necessary  that  he  should  carry  the  blood 
which  he  had  offered  into  the  holy  place.  Upon  this  account  he  went 
into  heaven  ;  and  this  is  the  meaning  of  these  words  of  the  apostle, 
"  If  he  were  on  earth  he  should  not  be  a  priest,"  i.  e.  if  he  had 
remained  on  earth  after  his  sacrifice,  no  part  of  his  actions  would 
have  corresponded  to  the  entrance  of  the  high  priest  into  the  holy 
place.  But  his  appearance  in  heaven  is  stated,  in  various  places  of 
the  Epistle,  as  subsequent  to  his  sacrifice,  and  as  deriving  its  efficacy 
from  the  blood  which  he  has  carried  thither.  We  are  led  to  consider 
him  as  completely  a  priest,  because  there  are  in  his  case  both  the 
mactation  and  the  oblation  of  a  victim  ;  and  the  nature  of  the 
victim  is  conjoined  with  the  place  where  it  continues  to  be  pre- 
sented to  God,  in  all  the  views  of  the  excellence  of  his  priesthood. 

Thus,  according  to  our  interpretation  of  the  apostle's  reasoning, 
every  part  of  the  Mosaic  ritual  finds  its  accomplishment  in  the  priest- 
hood of  Christ,  and  the  analogy  between  the  two  dispensations  is  so 
entire  and  so  exact,  that  we  are  satisfied  of  the  truth  of  the  whole 
reasoning.  According  to  that  system  which  is  adopted  in  the  second 
position,  a  large  portion  of  the  ceremonial  of  Jewish  sacrifice  has  no 
counterpart  under  the  gospel ;  Jesus  bears  the  name  of  a  priest 
without  having  done  wiiat  is  characteristical  of  that  office  ;  and  that 
method  of  procuring  the  blessings  of  the  gospel,  which  the  Scriptures 
reveal,  is  confounded  with  the  power  and  the  tenderness  which  the 
High  Priest  of  our  profession  exhibits  in  dispensing  them. 


464  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 


Section  V. 


The  argument  upon  which  we  have  dwelt  so  largely  appears  to 
me  conclusive.  But  it  is  not  desirable  that  so  important  an  article  of 
our  faith  as  that  which  the  Catholic  opinion  involves,  should  rest  upon 
a  single  view  of  the  subject,  or  upon  the  pertinency  of  a  particular 
kind  of  phraseology ;  and  therefore,  in  order  to  show  that  this 
opinion  is  unquestionably  the  doctrine  of  Scripture,  and  that  the 
phrases  employed  in  stating  it,  although  not  used  by  the  inspired 
writers,  are  clearly  warranted  by  the  revelation  which  they  have 
given,  it  is  proper  to  take  a  more  enlarged  survey  of  the  language 
and  the  views  upon  this  subject  which  the  Scriptures  present.  We 
shall  meet  in  this  survey  with  some  of  the  sacrificial  terms  which  we 
have  lately  been  considering;  but  if  we  find,  that  even  when  a  re- 
semblance to  the  Jewish  ritual  was  not  the  leading  idea,  the  amount 
of  what  the  inspired  writers  say  concerning  the  gospel  remedy  is  per- 
fectly agreeable  to  the  Catholic  opinion,  we  may  rest  without  hesita- 
tion in  the  conclusion  which  they  taught  us  to  draw  from  that 
resemblance. 

It  is  known  to  those  who  search  the  Scriptures,  that  the  discourses 
of  our  Lord  and  the  writings  of  his  apostles  abound  with  allusions  to 
passages  in  the  Old  Testament,  even  when  no  express  quotation  is 
made ;  and  therefore  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  in  one  passage  the 
ground-work  of  all  that  we  read  in  the  New  Testament  concerning 
the  doctrine  of  atonement.  That  passage  is  Isaiah  liii.  The  prophet, 
in  many  places  of  his  book,  blends  with  the  description  of  the  Mes- 
siah's kingdom  events  of  his  own  time,  as  types  of  that  glorious 
period ;  but  in  this  chapter  he  appears  to  have  lost  sight  of  every 
inferior  personage,  and  his  mind  is  completely  occupied  with  the 
illustrious  deliverer  that  was  to  come  to  Zion,  particularly  with  the 
nature,  the  character,  and  the  effects  of  his  sufferings.  The  ancient 
Jews  understood  this  chapter  to  refer  to  the  Messiah,  although  they 
certainly  did  not  enter  into  the  true  meaning  of  all  the  parts  of  it. 

But  to  us  it  is  interpreted  by  the  manner  in  which  the  writers  of 
the  New  Testament  relate  those  events  which  the  prophets  there 
foretold;  and  when  we  avail  ourselves  of  the  light  which  his  predic- 
tion and  their  commentary  throw  upon  one  another,  we  are  enabled 
to  arrange  that  support  which  the  Catholic  opinion  derives  from  the 
general  language  and  the  views  of  Scripture,  under  the  three  follow- 
ing heads  : — the  bitterness  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ  taken  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  innocence  and  dignity  of  the  sufferer ; — the  character 
uniformly  given  of  his  sufferings  as  a  punishment  for  sin  ; — and  the 
various  descriptions  of  the  effects  of  this  punishment.  These  three 
points,  collected  from  Scripture  in  one  complex  view,  constitute  the 
evidence,  that  the  doctrine  of  pardon  by  the  substitution  of  the  suffer- 
ings of  Christ  in  place  of  the  punishment  due  to  sinners  is  the  doctrine 
of  Scripture. 

1.  The  first  point  to  be  attended  to  is  what  may  be  called  the  value 
of  the  sufferings  of  Christ ;  because  had  they  been  of  little  value,  they 
could  not  have  answered  that  purpose  which  is  assigned  to  them  in 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  465 

the  Catholic  opinion.  I  need  not  particularly  quote  the  well-known 
texts  of  Scripture,  which  place  this  value  in  the  bitterness  of  the 
sufferings  cheerfully  undergone  by  an  innocent  and  exalted  person. 
The  whole  history  of  his  life  is  a  commentary  upon  the  significant 
words  of  the  prophet,  "  He  is  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with 
grief;"  for  he  was  not  a  stranger  to  any  kind  of  affliction,  and,  in  the 
hour  of  his  greatest  distress,  every  alleviation  was  removed  from  him. 
To  the  meanness  of  his  condition,  the  scorn  and  persecution  of  his 
enemies,  the  pains  of  his  body,  and  all  the  visible  circumstances  by 
which  death  to  him  was  aggravated,  there  falls  to  be  added  what  the 
New  Testament  calls  an  agony,  which  is  described,  Mark  xiv.  33, 
34;  Luke  xxii.  41 — 44;  John  xii.  27.     In  these  passages  we  meet 

with  the  following  terms,   yivoi.i(voi  iv  aywta  ;  ■^vx*;  l^ov  ■ffta^axtut,;  rtf^iXvrtoj 

fwj  ^rarou;  sxeaixStiaeat,  to  be  amazed,  or  in  that  state  of  mind  which  we 
express  by  the  word  horror;  to  be  astonished,  stupified  with  grief: 
to  lose  for  a  little  the  power  of  exercising  the  mind ;  aSrjfiomv,  extra 
jjopiili  con.sortiu7n  degere,  hominum  vestigia  vitare,  to  have  the 
mind  stupified  and  absorbed  in  its  own  feelings.  The  expressions 
used  by  the  historians  paint  the  utmost  distress  of  mind,  during  which 
the  human  nature  of  Jesus  shrunk  at  the  prospect  that  lay  before  him  ; 
and  the  apostle,4o  the  Hebrews  manifestly  refers  to  their  description 
when  he  says,  Heb.  v.  7,  "  Who  in  the  days  of  his  flesh,  when  he 
had  offered  up  prayers  and  supplications,  with  strong  crying  ,and 

tears "Those  who  consider  Jesus  as  merely  a  man,  and  who  by 

consequence  must  consider  his  sufferings  as  no  atonement  for  sin,  find  it 
impossible  to  give  a  reasonable  account  why,  in  the  prospect  of  death, 
an  event  which  to  him  surely  was  no  great  evil,  he  should  discover 
an  agitation  of  mind,  so  unlike  that  firmness  which  many  other  men 
have  displayed  in  circumstances  to  outward  appearance  exactl}^ 
similar.  But  those  who  hold  the  Catholic  opinion  consider  this 
agony  as  the  fulfilment  of  the  words  of  Isaiah  liii.  10, "  It  pleased  the 
Lord  to  bruise  him ;"  and  of  these  words,  Isaiah  Ixiii.  3,  where  the 
Messiah  says  of  himself,  "  I  have  trodden  the  wine-press  alone,  and 
of  the  people  there  was  none  with  me."  They  connect  this  agonj'' 
with  the  words  spoken  by  Jesus  on  the  cross,  "  My  God,  my  God, 
why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ?"  and  although  they  presume  not  to 
explain  in  what  it  consisted,  yet  as  they  believe  that  the  wrath  of  God 
due  to  the  sins  of  the  world  was  laid  immediately  upon  Jesus,  they 
find  no  difficulty  in  conceiving  that  his  spirit,  left  without  the  wonted 
measure  of  support  and  comfort  which  it  derived  from  its  union  . 
with  the  Word  and  from  the  presence  of  his  Father,  experienced  a 
darkness  and  desertion  in  comparison  with  which  all  the  sorrow  that 
man  can  inflict  is  light.  Some  have  applied  to  this  agony  that  article 
of  the  creed,  "  he  descended  into  heU."  But  as  we  know  that  these 
words  meant,  according  to  the  sense  of  those  who  first  introduced 
them  into  the  creed,  that  the  soul  of  Jesus  went  into  the  region  of 
departed  spirits  at  the  time  when  his  body  was  laid  in  the  grave,  so 
if  we  believe  there  is  no  such  region,  we  are  not  warranted  by  the 
language  of  Scripture  to  apply  to  the  sufferings  of  Christ  an  expres- 
sion which  will  seem  to  us  to  convey  that  they  were  the  same  in 
kind  as  the  punishment  of  the  damned. 

Whatever  was  the  nature  of  the  agony  which  shook  and  troubled 

3  Q 


"i^Q  DOCTRINE    or    THE    ATONEMENT. 

the  spirit  of  Jesus,  it  was  connected  with  entire  resignation.     He  said 
in  tile  time  of  it,  "  Not  as  I  will,  but  as  thou  wilt ;  for  this  cause  came 
I  to  this  hour :"  and  at  all  other  times  lie  spoke  of  his  sufferings  with 
a  readiness  to  encounter  them,  which  magnifies  his  character,  and 
adds  to  their  value.     The  innocence  of  Jesus  was  illustrated  by  his 
sufferings  ;  for  as  the  prophet  Isaiah  had  said,  liii.  8,  9,  according  to 
Bishop  Lowth's  translation,  "  he  was  taken  away  by  an  oppressive 
judgment ;"  "  he  had  done  no  violence,  neither  was  any  deceit  in  his 
mouth ;"  so  it  appeared  upon  the  trial  which  he  underwent,  that  all 
the  malice  of  his  enemies  could  not  convict  him  of  sin.     One  of  his 
companions  on  the  cross,  while  he  acknowledged  that  he  himself 
received  the  just  reward  of  his  deeds,  declared  of  Jesus  tliat  he  had 
done  nothing  amiss  ;  and  the  disciple  who  betrayed  him,  after  having 
been  intimately  acquainted  with  his  private  as  well  as  his  public  life,' 
is  introduced  in  the  gospels  repenting  of  his  foul  deed,  and  bearing 
the  most  unexceptionable  testimony  to  his  Master,  in  these  words, 
'•  I  have  sinned  in  that  I  have  betrayed  the  innocent  blood."     In  this 
manner  does  the  New  Testament  place  the  innocence  of  Jesus  fully 
in  our  view,  at  the  very  time  when  it  describes  his  sufferings.     But  it 
represents  him  as  much  more  than  innocent ;  for,  as  I  stated  formerly 
in  relation  to  the  importance  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Hypostatical 
Union,  the  general  strain  of  the  New  Testament  leads  us  to  conjoin 
the  peculiar  value  which  is  there  affixed  to  the  sufferings  of  Jesus 
with  the  peculiar  dignity  of  his  person ;  and  we  can  clearly  discern, 
in  those  purposes  of  the  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God  which  the 
Scriptures  declare,  the  reason  why  they  have  dwelt  so  largely  upon 
the  divinity  of  his  character.     Thus  his  condescension  is  said  to  con- 
sist in  this,  that  he  who  was  in  the  form  of  God,  and  thought  it  not 
robbery  to  be  equal  with  God,  humbled  himself,  and  became  obedient 
to  the  death  of  the  cross  ;*  "hereby  perceive  we,"  says  John,  "  the 
love  of  God,  because  he  laid  down  his  life  for  us  ;"t  the  love  of  the 
Father  is  commended  to  us  in  different  places,  by  his  giving  his  only 
begotten  Son,  his  beloved  Son,  and  delivering  him  to  the  death  for 
us  ;  and  Jesus  is  never  classed  with  martyrs  or  other  righteous  men, 
who  "  loved  not  their  lives  unto  the  death  ;"  but  the  apostles,  in 
speaking  of  his  blood,  affix  to  it  a  preciousness  infinitely  beyond  that 
of  any  blood  which  ever  was  shed. 

2.  The  second  point  to  be  collected  from  a  general  survey  of  the 
language  and  the  views  of  Scripture  is  this,  that  the  sufferings  of 
Christ,  the  peculiar  bitterness  of  which  derived  such  a  value  from  the 
innocence  and  dignity  of  the  sufferer,  are  not  stated  as  mere  calamity, 
but  are  always  described  under  the  characters  which  belong  to  a 
punishment  of  sin.  God  is  never  represented  as  exercising  in  the 
sufferings  of  his  Son  that  right  of  sovereignty  which  belongs  to  the 
Lord  and  Proprietor  of  all,  but  as  inflicting  what  was  due  to  the 
transgression  of  liis  law  ;  and  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  essentially  distin- 
guished from  all  other  men  in  this  respect,  that  he  did  not  know  sin, 
is  represented  in  these  sufferings  as  bearing  the  sins  of  others. 

The  different  expressions  by  which  this  character  of  the  sufferings 
of  Christ  is  intimated  may  be  reduced  to  two  general  classes  : 

*  Phil.  ii.  6—8.  j  IJohn  iii,  16. 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  467 

1.  The  first  includes  all  the  prepositions  in  the  Greek  language 
that  are  employed  to  mark  substitution.     As  it  is  said  by  Isaiah  "  he 
was  wounded  for  our  transgressions,"  so  it  is  said  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment that  "  he  was  delivered  for  our  offences,  that  he  died  for  us,  that 
he  suffered  for  sins,  the  just  for  the   unjust.''*     These  expressions 
certainly  suggest  the  notion  of  a  substitution,  in  which  the  sufferings 
and  death  of  one  person  are  instead  of  the  sufferings  and  death  whicli 
the  sins  of  others  deserved.     But  Socinus  has  led  the  way  to  all  who 
hold  any  part  of  his  system,  in  attempting  to  elude  this  notion,  by 
saying,  that  Christ's  suffering  for  sins  means  nothing  more  than  his 
suffering  for  this  end,  that  we  might  be  led  to  forsake  our  sins  ;  and 
that  his  dying  for  us  only  means  his  dying  for  our  advantage.     No 
person  who  is  accustomed  to  study  language,  will  assert  in  answer  to 
this  interpretation,  that  for  necessarily  implies  substitution,  because 
every  scholar  knows  that  even  when   he  is   able   to  ascertain  the 
primary  meaning  of  a  preposition,  he  often  finds  that  primary  mean- 
ing so  qualified  by  the  words  with  which  the  preposition  is  joined, 
that  in  different  situations  it   appears  totally  different.     We  say  in 
English,  Christ  suffered  for  sins,  and  Christ  suffered  for  us  ;  but  every 
one  understands  the  preposition  for  to  have  different  meanings  in 
these  two  phrases.    We  explain  the  first,  Christ  suffered  upon  account 
of  sins ;  the  second,  Christ  suffered  instead  of  the  sinners.     And  this 
ambiguity  is  not  peculiar  to  the  English  ;  in  Greek  also  the  same  pre- 
position vTite,  is  employed  to  express  these  different  ideas ;  for  we 
read,  1  Pet.  ii.  21,2  Cor.  v.  15,  x^tai^oj  s rtai9f r,  artf^aj/f i/ v^f^  j^iuw ;  1  Cor. 
XV,  3,  a.TCiBaviv  vTiie,  I'M!/  aua^t'i.ui'  /yjucoi/.    The  propcr  meaning  of  vTue,  is  over, 
above.     It  suggests  primarily  the  notion  of  covering  ;  and  this  may 
be  applied,  either  to  the  covering  a  person  from  danger,  or  the  cover- 
ing a  thing  from  sight.     The  phrase  vrtte,  jy^twi'  may  denote  any  kind  of 
benefit  which  we  derive   from  another  person  ;  but  it  marks  with 
peculiar   fitness   \\\s  sustaining   that    harm    which   we  should  have 
sustained,  had  we  not  been  covered  by  him.    It  cannot  be  denied  that 
classical  writers  use  vme^  in  situations  where  a  substitution  is  plainly 
implied  ;  and  the  Scriptures  intimate  that  there  is  a  peculiar  emphasis 
in  the  application  of  this  preposition  to  the  sufferings  of  Christ.     For 
although  the  apostle  Paul,  Col.  i.  24,  speaks  of  fois rta5)7fia(^t  juov  ii7t«^  i-ucov, 
yet  he  asks,  1  Cor.  i.  13,  |U»:  iiaiXo;f(jT'ar^w9>7  iJrtf^rfioi/;  intimating,  that 
even  although  his  enemies  should  crucify  him,  his  crucifixion  could 
not  give  him  that  kind  of  connexion  with  Christians  which  arose  from 
the  crucifixion  of  Christ.    In  the  other  phrase,  ■i'rtt^  d^to^rtwi',  vHte,  cannot 
denote  advantage  ;  and  without  a  violent  ellipsis  it  cannot  be  under- 
stood of  the  final  cause;  for  the  end  of  Christ's  sufferings  was  not  our 
sins,  but  the  remission  of  our  sins.     But  it  is  naturally  imderstood, 
according  to  a  frequent  use  of  this  preposition,  of  what  we  call  the 
antecedent  cause;  that  cause  which,  having  a  previous  existence, 
produces   an    action.      Sins  existed    before    Christ   died,   and   their 
demerit  produced  his  sufterings ;   therefore    it   is   said,   a.niBa.vtv  vnte, 
afia^tiuv,  as  we  read  in  Isocrates,  '^f^  Lv  Sovtfi  •rot;  ^totj  Stxaj,*  and  often  in 
luVit'w,pro  injuriis  ulcisci.     The  antecedent  cause  is  expressed  in 

*   Kom.  IV.  25  ;  v.  8.     1  Pet.  iii.  18. 
f  Isoc.  Plat.  p.  716.  Edit.  BasiL 


468  BOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 

different  places  of  Isaiah  liii.  by  the  preposition  ^ta,  the  preposition 

most    commonly  used   in    that   sense.       Et^avfiati-aOr;  8i,a  tas  aiA-a^Ha^  t^fxMv — 

bi,a  ra;  aio^ttcaj  avtav  rta^idoOr; ;  and  the  apostle  Paul  appears  to  have  copied 
this  expression,  Rom.  iv.  25  ;  yet,  in  that  very  verse,  ^m  is  also  used 
to  mark  the  final  cause  ;  for  while  our  ofl'ences  were  the  antecedent 
cause  which  produced  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  our  justification  is  the 
end  obtained  by  his  resurrection,  n^^t  is  also  used  in  the  Greek 
Testament  for  this  purpose,  as  Rom.  viii.  3;  1  Peter  iii.  18.  nf^i 
ai.ia^tiMv  means,  in  relation  to  our  sins  ;  and  the  nature  of  the  relation 
is  to  be  gathered  from  the  Septuagint,  where  what  is  rendered  in  our 
English  Bible,  "  he  shall  bring  for  his  sin  which  he  hath  sinned,"  runs 
in  the  Greek,  otati  rfs^t  rj^j  aixa^tMi  jjj  wH'^^-  This  expression,  therefore, 
is  one  of  the  many  instances  in  which  the  New  Testament  leads  us 
back  to  the  sacrifices  of  the  law. 

There  is  one  Greek  preposition  yet  remaining,  avth  which  our  Lord 
himself  uses,  Matt.  xx.  28 ;  from  whence  the  apostle  Paul,  1  Tim.  ii. 
6,  probably  formed  the  compound  word  avtavt^ov.  It  is  well  known 
that  avti,  which  perfectly  expresses  that  one  thing  is  set  over  against 
another,  conveys  the  nature  of  commutation,  substitution,  succession  ; 
and  it  was  impossible  to  find  any  preposition  which  could  have 
marked  more  precisely  this  idea,  that  the  life  of  Christ  is  given  instead 
of  many.  Even  a-vth  however,  may  be  used  by  the  best  writers  in  a 
looser  sense,  for  the  advantage  of;  and  no  scholar  would  choose  to 
rest  an  important  article  of  faith  upon  the  strict  acceptation  of  a  pre- 
position. We  do  not  therefore  argue,  that  because  we  find  v^f^,  Sta, 
and  avn  employed  upon  this  subject,  the  Catholic  opinion  is  unques- 
tionably the  doctrine  of  Scripture.  But  we  maintain,  that  if  there 
was  in  the  death  of  Christ  a  substitution  of  his  sufferings  for  the  pun- 
ishment of  sin,  it  could  not  have  been  more  naturally  or  significantly 
expressed  than  by  these  prepositions ;  and  that  the  meaning  which  a 
reader  whose  mind  is  unwarped  by  system  feels  himself  disposed  to 
affix  to  them,  and  the  violent  interpretations  which  are  necessary  in 
order  to  evade  that  meaning,  create  a  strong  presumption  in  favour 
of  the  truth  of  this  opinion. 

2.  But  there  is  a  second  class  of  expressions  in  Scripture,  in  which 
that  character  of  a  punishment  for  sin  which  seems  to  be  signified  by 
the  use  of  these  prepositions,  is  directly  applied  to  the  sufferings  of 
Christ. 

Isaiah,  after  having  said  "  he  was  wounded  for  our  transgressions, 
and  he  was  bruised  for  our  iniquities,"  adds,  "rtai5«a  ti^^r^vyji  sh'  avtov,  fcp 
ftwxojrtt  ttvrov  ij^ifts  laOtjusv ;  the  chastisement  of  our  peace  was  upon  him, 
by  his  stripes  we  are  healed."  Again,  "ai/owfi,  he  shall  bear  their 
iniquities,  avrjvcyxs,  he  bare  the  sin  of  many."  This  language  of  the 
prophet  is  copied,  1  Peter  ii.  24,  and  it  is  referred  to,  Heb.  ix.  28. 
The  significancy  of  the  preposition  ava  in  the  compound  verb  avt^vcyxs 
lies  in  this,  that  as  Jesus  was  lifted  up  on  the  cross,  he  may  be  said  to 
have  carried  our  sins  upward  Avhen  he  bore  them ;  and  that  this  cir- 
cumstance was  attended  to  in  the  use  of  this  compound  verb  appears 
not  improbable,  when  we  find  the  apostle,  Heb.  vii.  27,  applying  the 
same  verb  aro^fgw  first  to  the  sacrifices  of  the  law  which  were  lifted 
upon  the  altar,  and  then  to  the  offering  of  Christ  upon  the  cross. 

There  are  two  ways  in  which  Socinus  and  his  followers  endeavour 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  469 

to  evade  the  force  of  the  expression  avi^viyxtv  dfia^ttoj.  They  admit  that 
according  to  the  usnal  sense  of  the  verb  the  phrase  is  properly  ren- 
dered as  in  our  translation,  "he  bare  our  sins."  But  they  say  that, 
as  the  nature  of  the  thing  does  not  admit  of  a  Uteral  translation,  we 
are  to  consider  the  phrase  as  equivalent  to  another  which  is  used  in 
different  places  by  the  apostle  John,  "his  taking  away  sins,"  i.  e.  his 
leading  us  to  forsake  them.  But  it  is  a  forced  mode  of  interpreting 
Scripture,  to  have  recourse  to  an  unusual  sense  of  a  phrase,  when 
that  sense  manifestly  omits  a  part  of  the  information  given  concerning 
the  subject  to  which  the  phrase  is  applied.  For  although  it  be  true 
that  Jesus  is  said,  John  i.  29, 1  John  iii.  5,  o.i^tw  a^o^tiuj,  yet  the  precise 
mode  of  taking  them  away  is  declared  to  be  by  bearing  them  ;  and 
although  the  scape-goat,  which  carried  the  sins  of  the  children  of 
Israel  into  the  wilderness  on  the  day  of  atonement,  may  be  considered 
as  a  type  of  Christ's  taking  away  sin,  yet  the  scape-goat  was  only 
one  part  of  the  ceremonies  prescribed  for  that  day ;  and  when  all  the 
ceremonies  are  laid  together,  if  the  scape-goat  denoted  that  the  sins 
were  taken  away,  for  the  very  same  reason,  the  other  goat  which 
was  killed  on  that  day  must  be  considered  as  a  type  of  his  blood  being 
shed  for  sin. 

The  other  way  in  which  Socinus  and  his  followers  endeavour  to 
evade  the  force  of  the  expression  avtiviyxtv  d^o^naj,  is  by  saying  that 
bearing  our  iniquities,  if  that  translation  be  admitted,  means  nothing 
more  than  that  they  were  the  occasion  of  his  suffering ;  as  a  person 
is  said  in  the  Old  Testament  to  bear  the  sins  of  his  ancestors,  when 
he  suffers  calamities  in  his  person  or  his  fortune,  which  he  would  not 
have  endured  if  they  had  been  innocent.  But  this  method  of  evading 
the  natural  sense  of  the  phrase  by  no  means  answers  the  purpose  for 
which  it  is  resorted  to.  For  it  may  be  observed  in  general,  that  that 
i:»art  of  the  constitution  of  nature,  by  which  posterity  may  be  thus 
said  to  bear  the  sins  of  their  ancestors,  is  in  reality  an  extension  of 
the  punishment  of  sin,  which  is  declared  by  God  in  the  second  com- 
mandment, "  visiting  the  iniquities  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children." 
This  extension  of  the  punishment  of  sin  demonstrates  in  a  striking 
manner  the  painful  nature  of  transgression,  and  calls  in  the  natural 
affection  of  parents  for  their  offspring  as  a  guard  to  their  own  hnio- 
cence.  In  every  case  therefore,  where  bearing  the  sins  of  others  is 
allowed  to  mean  suffering  of  which  these  sins  are  the  occasion,  that 
suffering  is  truly  the  punishment  of  sin.  But  with  regard  to  this  par- 
ticular case,  it  is  to  be  observed  farther,  that  we  are  not  left  to  sup- 
pose that  the  connexion  between  sin  and  the  sutTerings  of  Christ  was 
incidental,  or  merely  the  result  of  the  general  constitution  of  nature  ; 
for  we  are  taught  by  a  variety  of  the  most  precise  expressions,  that 
this  connexion  was  specially  constituted  by  God,  and  that  in  it  are  to 
be  fomid  the  reason  and  the  intention  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ. 
Isaiah  says,  "  the  chastisement  of  our  peace  was  upon  him  ;"  but 
chastisement  always  means  suffering  connected  with  a  fault,  intended 
either  for  the  correction  of  the  person  who  endures  it,  or  for  an  ex- 
ample to  others.  As  chastisement  which  includes  death  cannot  be 
designed  to  correct  the  sufferer,  and  as  Jesus  stood  in  no  need  of  cor- 
rection, the  chastisement  whicli  he  endured  must  be  considered  as 
exemplary;  and  its  being  called  "the  chastisement  of  our  peace" 
42 


470  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 

clearly  means  that  the  punishment,  without  which  we  could  not  be 
restored  to  peace  with  God,  was  borne  by  him.  The  same  thing  is 
more  fully  expressed  by  Isaiah,  as  his  words  are  rendered  by  Bishop 
Lovvth.  "The  Lord  made  to  meet  upon  him  the  iniquities  of  us  all. 
It  was  required  of  him,  and  he  was  made  answerable." 

There  are  two  striking  expressions  to  this  purpose  used  by  the 
apostle  Paul.  The  one  is  in  2  Cor.  v.  21.  The  apostle  vindicates 
the  personal  innocence  of  his  Master  by  saying,  that  he  did  not  know 
sin.  At  the  same  time,  in  order  to  show  that  he  was  counted  and 
treated  as  a  sinner,  not  merely  in  the  judgment  of  men,  but  in  the 
judgment  and  by  the  appointment  of  God,  he  says,  that  God  hath  made 
him  to  be  sin.  This  most  significant  manner  of  marking  the  coimexion 
between  his  sufferings  and  sin  is  taken  from  the  Septuagint,  Lev.  iv. 
29  ;  V.  9  ;  where  a  sin-olfering  is  often  called  a.^a^-tr,ua.,  a.ixae,tw.,  because 
it  was  offered  for  sin  ;  and  the  Latin  writers  intimate  the  same  con- 
nexion in  a  similar  manner,  when  they  wse  piacuhimhoXhiox  i\ie 
crime,  piacula  commissa,  and  for  the  victim  by  whose  death  the 
crime  was  supposed  to  be  expiated. 

The  other  expression  of  the  apostle  Paul  is,  Gal.  iii.  10,  13.  The 
reason  assigned  for  the  kind  of  death  which  Jesus  died  clearly  implies 
a  substitution  for  sinners.  The  Jews  employed  other  metliods  of 
taking  away  the  life  of  a  criminal.  But  they  did,  in  some  cases, 
hang  upon  a  tree  the  body  of  a  person  who  had  been  put  to  death 
for  a  crime.  They  were  forbidden  by  their  law,  however,  to  alknv 
the  body  to  remain  all  night  upon  the  tree.  Deut.  xxi.  22,  23.  "  If 
a  man  have  committed  a  sin  worthy  of  death,  and  he  be  to  be  put  to 
death,  and  thou  hang  him  on  a  tree;  his  body  shall  not  remain  all  night 
upon  the  tree,  but  thou  shalt  in  any  wise  bury  him  that  day,  (for  he 
that  is  hanged  is  accursed  of  God,)  that  thy  land  be  not  defiled."  The 
reason  of  this  order  is  plainly  no  part  of  the  civil  punishment ;  tliat 
was  completed  by  the  death  of  the  criminal,  and  by  the  infamy  of 
his  hanging  upon  a  tree  ;  it  is  merely  a  declaration  of  the  light  in 
which  the  person  who  had  suffered  this  civil  punishment  was  viewed 
by  God.  The  law  also  said,  "  Cursed  is  every  one  that  continueth 
not  in  all  things  that  are  written  in  the  book  of  the  law  to  do  them." 
All  men,  as  transgressors  of  the  law,  were  subject  to  this  curse ;  and 
Jesus,  in  order  to  redeem  them  from  the  curse,  was  made  a  curse  for 
them,  by  hanging  on  a  tree ;  for  when  we  consider  that  he  who  had 
power  to  lay  down  his  life,  had  certainly  power  to  choose  the  manner 
of  laying  it  down,  and  that  the  Scriptures  expressly  say,  "  he  was 
delivered  by  the  determinate  counsel  and  foreknowledge  of  God,"* 
we  cannot  but  consider  his  choosing  to  hang  upon  a  tree,  a  situation 
declared  by  the  ceremonial  law  to  be  accursed  of  God,  as  intended  to 
demonstrate  to  the  world,  that  although  he  himself  continued  in  all 
things  written  in  the  law  to  do  them,  his  death  was  not  merely  the 
infliction  of  human  law  upon  an  innocent  man,  but  a  suffering  which 
in  the  sight  of  God  was  penal. 

By  this  variety  of  the  most  marked  expressions  do  the  Scriptures 
present  to  us  the  sufferings  of  Christ  under  the  character  of  punish- 
ment, i.  e.  as  suffering  which  could  not  from  the  nature  of  things,  be 

*  Acts  ii.  23. 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  471 

the  very  punishment  which  the  sinner  deserved,  but  which  was  laid 
upon  an  innocent  person  for  the  sins  of  otliers. 

3.  To  complete  the  argument  in  favour  of  the  Catholic  opinion 
which  arises  from  a  general  survey  of  the  language  and  views  of 
Scripture,  we  have  now  to  attend  to  the  different  classes  of  expres- 
sion by  which  the  effects  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ  are  described, 

1.  The  first  class  comprehends  all  those  expressions  in  which  the 
words  reconciliation,  propitiation,  atonement,  and  making  peace,  are 
connected  with  the  sufferings  of  Christ.  Of  this  kind  are  the  follow- 
ing: Col.  i.  19,  20.  1  John  ii.  2:  iv.  10.  Rom.  iii.  25;  v.  11.  "It 
pleased  the  Father,  having  made  peace  through  the  blood  of  his  cross, 
by  him  to  reconcile  all  things  unto  himself.  He  hath  set  him  forth  to 
be  a  propitiation  throngh  faith  in  his  blood.  By  him  we  have 
now  received  the  atonement." 

The  verbs  translated  reconcile  are  xafax^xicrtyto,  artoxarttX>xiww;  and  the 
noun  rendered  atonement  [s  xataTJKayrj.  The  verbs  mean  nothing  more 
than  a  change  from  one  state  to  another,  but  the  situation  in  which 
they  are  introduced  determines  the  change  to  be  from  enmity  to 
friendship.  The  words  rendered  propitiation  are  derived  from  I'tajxw; 
a  verb  known  in  the  Greek  classics  to  denote  prop  it  iu7n  reddo,  the 
action  of  the  person,  who  in  some  appointed  method,  tnrned  away  the 
wrath  of  a  deity  ;  and  a  verb  used  by  the  authors  of  the  Septuagint 
to  express  the  action  of  the  priest,  who  by  presenting  the  sin-offering 
made  atonement  for  the  offerer.  As  these  actions  are  precisely  similar, 
both  are  expressed  by  the  verb  in  the  middle  voice.  Homer  says, 
of,)  r^uiv  "Exat^yov  Ixau-ytM.,  tf^a  ,)i^ai '■>*  and  it  is  Said  of  the  priest  in  the 
Septuagint,  flaa^fat,  or  ^laamro,  rff^i  aixa^tias.-f  But  when  the  interces- 
sion of  Moses  had  upon  one  occasion  turned  away  the  wrath  of  God, 
this  is  expressed  by  the  verb  in  the  passive,  aa^drj  Kv^i,oi.X  As  the  use 
of  the  verb  l-Ka-txio  in  the  Septuagint  is  thus  exactly  agreeable  to  the 
classical  sense  of  it,  it  seems  natural  to  understand,  in  the  same  sense, 
the  words  derived  from  that  verb  which  are  applied  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament to  express  the  effects  of  the  death  of  Christ.  The  words  are, 
ixarraoj,  which  having  been  applied  in  the  law  to  the  sin-offering  is 
applied  1  John  ii.  2.  and  iv.  10.  to  our  Saviour;  and  aaitr^^iov,  Rom. 
iii.  25,  which  may  be  rendered,  as  in  our  English  Bible,  propitiation, 
by  supplying  ^H"a,  but  which  from  the  analogy  o(  x^i.tr^^i-oi',  i5ov\svfr;^t,ov, 
^vaiaftrj^cov,  supplying  lir,fia,  sliould  rather  be  translated  propitiatory  or 
mercy-seat ;  a  sense  of  the  word  which  has  been  eagerly  laid  hold  of 
by  some  of  the  Socinians,  but  which  appears  to  be  not  less  adverse  to 
their  system  than  the  word  propitiation,  because  the  mercy-seat  never 
was  approached  without  blood.  There  is  only  one  place  in  the 
New  Testament,  Heb.  ii.  17,  in  which  the  verb  ixa^xw  is  applied  to 
our  Saviour.  Although  the  construction  be  not  exactly  the  same  as 
'in  the  Septuagint,  where  the  noun  is  governed  by  ^f^t,  it  is  plain  that 
'the  sense  of  the  verb  is  totally  changed  if  it  be  translated,  as  the 
Socinians  propose,  taking  away  sin,  i.  e.  destroying  its  power  in  the 
sinner ;  for  here  is  a  third  person  intervening  between  God  and  the 
sins  of  the  people,  whose  action  in  turning  away  wrath  is  ex])ressed, 
as  in  Homer  and  in  the  Septuagint,  by  the  middle  voice  of  txazxti. 

*  Horn.  II.  i.  147.  f  Levit.  v.  t  Exod.  xxxii.  11. 


472  DOCTRINE    OP    THE    ATONEMENT. 

It  appears  then,  that  the  amount  of  all  the  expressions,  compre- 
hended under  the  first  class,  is  precisely  that  which  the  apostles  have 
sometimes  stated,  when,  speaking  of  the  death  of  Christ,  they  say, 
"  we  are  saved  from  wrath  by  him  :"  and  no  person  who  reads  the 
Scriptures  can  be  at  a  loss  to  know  what  that  wrath  is.  For  although, 
in  the  refinement  of  some  modern  systems,  it  is  counted  a  degradation 
of  the  Supreme  Being  to  ascribe  to  him  what  has  been  called  punitive 
justice,  there  are  no  views  of  the  divine  government  more  frequent  or 
more  clear  in  Scripture,  than  those  upon  which  this  attribute  is  rested. 
When  we  open  the  Old  Testament,  we  find  justice  and  judgment 
accompanying  mercy  in  the  descriptions  of  the  Almighty,  and  many 
of  the  passages  which  have  been  quoted,  in  proof  of  the  placability  of 
the  divine  nature,  contain  this  clause  ;  "  who  will  by  no  means  clear 
the  guilty."*  The  history  of  the  Old  Testament  abounds  with 
examples,  in  which  the  hatred  of  sin  often  ascribed  to  the  Almighty 
was  made  manifest  by  awful  punishments  of  the  wicked ;  and  one  of 
these  examples  is  thus  interpreted  by  Jude ;  Sodom  and  Gomorrah 

Tt^oxuvtat,  Ssiyjiia,  rtrgo$  auoviov  Sixr^v  vTtsxovaat,-]'       JollU  the    Baptist    iutroduceS 

the  new  dispensation,  by  declaring  that  if  any  one  believed  not  on 
the  Son  of  God,  «7  o^ytj  ®£ov  ixsva  ««'  avtov-X  The  character  of  the  new 
dispensation  is  thus  drawn  by  Paul,  Rom.  i.  IS,  artoxaj^vrttitai  70^  o^yr; 

©£ox)  art'  ov^avov  irii,  rtaoav  a:si6i\.av  xm  a^Lxiav  arSgwrtwj''  not  a  transient  emotion, 

but  a  fixed  purpose  to  punish  transgression.  This  expression  of  the 
law,  f^oi  fxStxjjcftj,  fycd  avrartoficocru,  is  quoted  as  the  principle  of  that 
punishment  of  which  he  shall  be  thought  worthy  who  despises  the 
gospel. §     Retributive  justice  is  thus  accurately  described,  2  Thess,  i. 

6,   Etrtfg  bixMov  rta^tt  ©f9  owtartoSovrnt  toi^  ^-KiSov^vv  vjxai  ^Xl'^w    and    although 

immediate  and  temporal  calamities  are  not  the  standing  method  of 
executing  retributive  justice,  as  they  were  in  part  under  the  former 
dispensation,  yet  the  future  judgment  which  the  gospel  reveals,  and 
unto  which  the  wicked  are  said  to  be  reserved,  is  called  -^h-i^o.  o^yr^i,  and 
is  described  both  by  our  Lord  and  his  apostles,  in  terms  which  imply 
the  most  complete  display  of  what  those  who  hold  the  Catholic 
opinion  mean  iDy  the  punitive  justice  of  the  Supreme  Lawgiver, 

Such  are  the  descriptions  of  the  Almighty  which  pervade  the 
Scriptures,  and  they  clearly  explain  to  us  that  eftect  of  the  death  of 
Christ  which  is  marked  by  the  first  class  of  expressions.  The  gospel, 
proceeding  upon  the  truth  of  these  descriptions,  assumes,  as  its  prin- 
ciple, that  without  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no  remission  of  sins  ; 
and  declaring  that  the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats  could  not  take  away 
sins,  it  deduces  from  thence  the  necessity  of  a  better  sacrifice.  It 
asserts,  Heb.  ii.  10,  that  it  became  him  by  whom  and  through  whom 
are  all  things,  to  make  the  Captain  of  salvation  perfect  through 
sufferings  ;  iTiiiniv  avtc^,  i.  e.  that  there  was  a  fitness  in  them  resulting 
from  the  character  of  the  Supreme  Ruler ;  and  by  representing  them  as 
vicarious  punishment,  with  which  reconciliation  and  atonement  are  con- 
nected, it  teaches  clearly  that  the  wrath  of  God  is  turned  away  from  the 
sinner,  by  the  punishment  which  he  deserved  being  laid  upon  another. 

The  Socinians  endeavour  to  evade  the  argument  drawn  from  the 

*  Exod.  xxxiv.  6,  7.  f  Jude  7. 

*  John  iii.  36.  §  Heb.  x.  28—30. 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  473 

first  class  of  expressions,  by  maintaining  that  reconciliation  means 
notiiing  more  than  tlie  taking  away  the  enmity  wliich  we  entertained 
against  God  ;  that  it  is  nowliere  said  in  Scriptnre  that  God  is  recon- 
ciled to  us  by  Christ's  death,  but  that  we  are  everywhere  said  to  be 
reconciled  to  God  ;  that  the  sufferings  of  Christ  can  produce  no  change 
in  God,  and  that  the  change  must  be  brought  about  in  man  :  that 
there  can  be  no  need  of  reconciling  God  to  man,  when  he  had  already 
shown  his  love  to  man  so  far  as  to  send  his  Son  to  reconcile  man  to 
God.     But  in  addition  to  what  has  been  said  of  the  punitive  justice 
of  God,  I  would  farther  observe,  that  as  the  term  which  we  translate 
reconciliation  implies  a   previous   enmity   or   variance   which   was 
mutual,  so  the  Scriptures  explicitly  declare,  by  all  those  views  of  the 
Almighty  which  I  have  been  collecting,  that  there  was  an  enmity  on 
God's  part ;  and  the  exhortation  to  lay  aside  the  enmity  on  our  part 
proceeds  upon  this  foundation,  that  the  enmity  on  God's  part  is  taken 
away  by  the  death  of  his  Son,    AtaT^attsneai,  and  words  connected  with 
it  are  five  times  applied  in  the  New  Testament  with  respect  to  God  : 
Rom.  V.  10,  11  ;  xi.  15;  Ephes.  ii.  16;  Col.  i.  20,  21.     In  this  last 
passage  particularly  there  is  implied  a  previous  enmity  or  variance 
which  was  mutual.     The  words  are  twice  used  with  respect  to  man  ; 
Matt.  V.  24  ;  1  Cor.  vii.  11.     In  both  these  passages  the  meaning  is, 
see  that  he  be  reconciled  to  thee  ;  for  in  both  the  person  addressed  has 
done  the  injury.     The  verb  5i«x7.ar-r£c0at  occurs  in  the  same  sense  in 
the  Septuagint  version  of  1  Sara.  xxix.  4.     If  you  read  2  Cor.  v.  IS 
— 21,  the  passage  upon  which  the  Socinians  ground  their  argument, 
you  will  be  satisfied  that  their  method  of  interpreting  reconciliation 
leaves  out  half  its  meaning.    Here  is  a  previous  act  of  God,  who  hath 
reconciled  all  things  to  himself  by  Jesus  Christ,  who  does  not  count  to 
men  their  trespasses,  and  who  committed  to  the  apostles  of  Jesus  the 
word  or  the  ministry  of  reconciliation  ;  and  subsequent  to  this  act  of 
God  there  is  the  execution  of  that  ministry,  by  their  beseeching  men 
to  be  reconciled  to  God.     The  ministry  is  distinct  from  the  act  of  God, 
because  God  does  not  immediately  receive  all  sinners  into  favour  by 
his  Son,  but  requires  something  of  those  to  whom  the  word  of  recon- 
cihation  is  published,  in  order  to  their  being  saved  by  it.     But  the 
ministry  could  not  have  existed  had  not  the  act  of  God,  reconciling  all 
things  to  himself,  previously  taken  place  ;  and  accordingly  the  very 
argument  by  which  the  apostle  urges  the  exhortation  committed  to 
him  is  this ;  "  for  he  hath  made  him  to  be  sin  for  us,"  i,  e.  God  hath 
provided  a  method  by  which  we  may  be  assured  that  his  anger  is 
turned  away  from  us;  it  only  therefore  remains  that  ye  return  to  him. 
2.  The  second  class  comprehends  those  expressions  in  which  we 
read  of  redemption;  as  1  Peter  i.  18  ;  Eph.  i.  7.    "  Ye  Avere  redeemed 
with  the  precious  blood  of  Christ ;  we  have  redemption  through  liis 
blood."     As  our  English  word  redeem  literally  means,  I  buy  back, 
so  xi/fgow  ortoXDT'^Mffts,  the  Greek  words  used  in  the  New  Testament,  are 
properly  applied  to  the  action  of  setting  a  captive  free  by  paying 
y.vt^ov,  a  ransom ;  and  thus  the  sufferings  of  Christ  are  presented  under 
the  particular  view  of  a  price,  by  the  payment  of  which  we  are  set  free. 
,  Those  who  deny  the  truth  of  the  Catholic  opinion  attempt  to  with- 
draw the  support  which  it  appears  to  receive  from  this  class  of  ex- 
pressions by  the  following  reasoning.     It  is  impossible,  they  say,  to 
42*  3  R 


474  DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT. 

apply  these  expressions  in  their  literal  acceptation  to  the  efiect  of  the 
sufferings  of  Christ.  For  as  a  ransom  is  always  paid  to  the  person 
by  whom  the  captive  is  detained,  and  as  we  were  the  servants  of 
Satan,  these  expressions,  literally  understood,  would  imply  that  the 
death  of  Christ  was  a  price  paid  to  Satan.  Since  we  must  depart 
from  the  literal  sense,  it  seems  most  natural  to  understand  redemption 
as  equivalent  to  deliverance ;  for  we  read  in  the  Old  Testament  of 
God's  redeeming  his  people  from  trouble,  from  death,  from  danger, 
when  no  price  is  supposed  to  have  been  given ;  and  Moses,  who  was 
the  instrument  employed  by  God  to  deliver  his  people  from  the 
bondage  of  Egypt,  is  called.  Acts  vii.  35,  rvt^u^trn.  But  if  redemption 
means  nothing  more  than  a  deliverance  from  sin,  as  effectually  as  if 
a  ransom  had  been  paid,  the  second  class  of  expressions  gives  no  real 
support  to  the  Catholic  opinion ;  and  is  not  inconsistent  either  with 
the  Socinian  opinion,  which  ascribes  the  deliverance  to  the  influence 
of  the  doctrine  and  precepts  of  the  Gospel,  or  with  the  Middle  opinion, 
which  ascribes  it  to  the  power  acquired  by  the  Redeemer. 

This  reasoning  proceeds  upon  a  principle  which  is  readily  admitted, 
that  both  the  English  and  the  Greek  words  are  often  extended  beyond 
their  original  signification.  Although  they  denoted  primarily  deliver- 
ance from  captivity  by  paying  a  ransom,  they  are  applied  to  deliver- 
ance from  any  evil,  and  they  are  used  to  express  deliverance  by  any 
means.  Almost  all  other  words,  which  originally  denoted  a  particular 
manner  of  doing  a  thing,  are  susceptible  of  a  similar  extension  of 
meaning,  and  it  is  the  business  of  sound  criticism  to  determine,  by 
considering  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  how  far  the  primary  sig- 
nification is  to  be  retained,  or  with  what  qualifications  it  is  to  be 
understood  in  every  particular  application.  Now  when  we  judge  in 
this  manner  of  the  second  class  of  expressions,  the  following  remarks 
naturally  present  themselves. 

L  It  is  not  necessary  to  depart  from  their  literal  meaning,  when 
they  are  applied  to  the  effect  of  the  death  of  Christ.  For  according 
to  the  true  statement  of  the  Catholic  opinion,  we  are  considered  as 
under  the  sentence  of  condemnation  which  our  sins  deserved,  as 
prisoners  waiting  the  execution  of  the  sentence,  and  as  released  by 
the  death  of  Christ  from  this  condition.  Deliverance  from  the  dominion 
of  sin  and  the  power  of  Satan  is  a  secondary  effect,  a  consequence  of 
the  application  of  the  remedy ;  redemption  of  our  bodies  from  the 
grave  is  another  effect  still  more  remote.  Both  are  mentioned  in 
Scripture ;  but  the  immediate  effect  of  the  death  of  Christ  is,  our 
deliverance  from  punishment,  what  the  apostle  calls  the  curse  of  the 
law ;  and  this  punishment  being  in  the  power  of  the  lawgiver  by 
whom  it  was  to  be  inflicted,  the  ransom,  in  consideration  of  which  it 
is  remitted  and  the  condemned  are  set  free,  may  be  said  to  be  given 
to  him.  2.  Although  a  captive  may  be  released  without  any  ransom, 
and  although  ^v"?  or  verbs  derived  from  'Kvt^ov,  may  be  employed  most 
naturally  to  express  such  a  gratuitous  release,  yet  this  extension  of 
the  primary  meaning  of  these  words  is  excluded  from  the  case  to 
which  they  are  applied  in  the  New  Testament,  because  a  "kvh^ov  is 
there  expressly  mentioned.  When  a  Greek  author,  in  relating  the 
release  of  a  prisoner,  speaks  repeatedly  of  anowa,  or  %vt^a,,  as  Homer 
does  in  the  first  book  of  the  Iliad,  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  the  re- 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  475 

demption  was  without  price.  Every  one  feels  this  effect  of  intro- 
ducing the  noun  ^vt^ov,  wlien  the  captive  was  detained  by  force  under 
the  power  of  an  enemy  ;  and  the  significancy  of  the  noim  is  not  in  the 
least  diminished,  when  the  prisoner  is  redeemed  from  a  captivity 
which  the  Scriptures  represent  as  judicial.  The  xtT^oj/  indeed,  in  that 
case,  is  not  a  price  from  which  the  lawgiver  is  to  derive  any  advan- 
tage ;  it  is  the  satisfaction  to  justice  upon  which  he  consents  to  remit 
the  sentence  ;  but  still  the  mention  of  a  >.vr^ov  is  absolutely  inconsistent 
with  a  gratuitous  remission.  3.  The  Septuagint  has  used  the  word 
7.vr^ov  in  two  places,  to  denote  the  consideration  upon  which  a  judicial 
sentence  was  remitted.  There  was  the  ^vr^a  ■^vxrji,  Exod.  xxx.  12-16, 
called  in  our  translation  the  atonement-money ;  half  a  shekel  given 
for  tlie  service  of  the  sanctuary,  by  every  one  who  was  numbered, 
upon  all  occasions  when  the  number  of  the  people  was  taken,  that 
there  might  be  no  plague  among  them.  There  was  also  ^vt^a  rt^iitotoxMv. 
The  first-born  of  every  animal  was  sacred  to  the  Lord.  But  God 
declared.  Numb.  iii.  12,46-51,  that  he  took  the  whole  tribe  of  Levi, 
instead  of  the  first-born  of  all  the  tribes,  on  which  account  they  are 
called  ^vt^a  rfgwrof oxwi' ;  and  as  the  whole  number  of  the  tribe  of  Levi 
fell  short  of  the  first-born  males  of  all  the  other  tribes  by  some  hun- 
dreds, the  Lord  required  for  every  one  of  this  odd  number  the  sum  of 
five  shekels,  which  is  called  in  our  translation,  the  redemption-money, 
in  the  Greek,  xvt^a  f wv  nT^eom^ovTutv.  Here,  then,  is  ^vr^oy,  which  is 
known  to  denote  in  classical  writers,  a  ransom  paid  in  order  to  pro- 
cure the  release  of  a  captive,  applied  in  the  Septuagint,  by  a  most 
natural  extension  of  meaning,  to  the  consideration  given  for  deliver- 
ance from  death ;  an  evil  which  the  person  so  delivered  could,  in  no 
other  Avay,  have  escaped,  any  more  than  the  captive  could  have  re- 
covered his  liberty  without  the  ransom ;  and  the  same  idea  is  followed 
out  in  the  New  Testament.  For  as  Paul  says,  1  Cor.  vi.  20,  r^yo^aoOr^ts 
tiurjr,  and  as  Peter,  i.  18,  in  describing  the  price,  has  a  manifest  refer- 
ence to  the  atonement-money  and  redemption-money  of  the  law,  so 
tlie  price  by  which  we  are  bought  and  redeemed  is  called,  Matt.  xx. 
28,  UTgofcwnrtoxxw;  and  1  Tim.  ii.  6,  a^tavr^ov  iftf^  navtuiv.  Whether, 
then,  we  interpret  the  New  Testament  according  to  the  classical 
Greek,  or  according  to  that  Avhich  has  been  called  the  Hellenistical 
Greek,  /.  e.  the  Greek  spoken  by  those  Hebrews  who,  living  mostly 
in  the  Grecian  cities,  used  that  universal  language,  but  corrupted  it 
by  many  Hebrew  idioms ;  we  cannot  avoid  considering  the  second 
class  of  expressions  as  suggesting  that  something  was  given  for  our 
deliverance.  And  thus,  the  second  class  of  expressions,  by  which  the 
Scriptures  mark  the  effects  of  the  death  of  Christ,  exactly  coincides  as 
to  its  amount  with  the  first.  The  first  class  represents  the  wrath 
which  the  sins  of  mankind  deserved,  as  turned  away  by  the  sufferings 
which  another  endured ;  the  second  class  represents  prisoners  under 
sentence  of  death  for  sin  as  set  free,  upon  account  of  the  sufferings  by 
which  another  paid  a  ransom  for  their  souls. 

3.  The  third  class  compreiiends  all  those  passages,  in  which  for- 
giveness of  sins  is  connected  with  the  death  of  Christ.  The  words 
commonly  used  in  the  Greek  Testament  for  this  purpose  are  a^u:;Ut  and 
a^saci.  The  verb,  which  signifies  viitto  a  me,  maybe  applied  in  many 
different  situations  ;  the  meaning  is  always  understood  to  be  qualified 


476  DOCTRINE    OP    THE    ATONEMENT. 

by  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  and  may  easily  be  accommodated  to 
that  which  we  mean  by  forgiveness.  For,  as  every  sin  involves  an 
obUgation  to  punishment,  when  the  Lawgiver  sends  away  from  him 
the  sin,  lie  cancels  the  obligation  and  declares  his  resolution  not  to 
inflict  the  punishment  which  the  transgression  of  his  law  deserved. 

Tlie  Socinians  argue  from  the  frequent  use  of  this  expression  in  the 
New  Testament,  that  forgiveness  of  sin  is  an  act  of  the  same  kind 
with  the  remission  of  a  debt.  A(j)tri^i  is  applied,  in  classical  writers, 
to  both  acts  ;  for  we  read  a^ftj^fit  astov  z^eovi,  and  o^t^^t  as  tov  tyx%rjixa-tos :* 
and  our  Lord  seems  to  teach  us  that  there  is  no  difference  between 
the  acts  by  giving  sins  the  name  of  debts,  and  applying  to  them  under 
this  name  the  verb  a^i-}]^^.  Thus,  one  of  the  petitions  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer  is,  a^£s  ^/ity  ta  o^ii'Krjixa.ta  ^ni^v ;  and  in  the  parable,  Matt,  xviii.  the  - 
Almighty  is  represented  as  a  master  who  says  to  the  servant  that 
owed  him  ten  thousand  talents,  Ttarsawrju  orpsat^v  sxsivrjv  a^tjxa  aoi.  This 
manner  of  expression  certainly  proceeds  upon  an  obvious  resemblance 
between  the  two  subjects:  the  creditor  has  a  perfect  right  to  demand 
payment  of  his  debt ;  the  lawgiver  has  a  perfect  right  to  inflict  punish- 
ment upon  the  transgression  of  the  law;  and  therefore,  when  the  one 
remits  the  debt,  and  the  other  forgives  the  transgression,  they  do  what 
no  person  is  entitled  to  require  of  them.  But  the  New  Testament,  in 
order  to  guard  us  against  inferring  from  this  resemblance,  that  the 
act  of  the  Supreme  Lawgiver  in  forgiving  sin  is  of  the  same  kind  with 
the  act  of  a  creditor  who  remits  a  debt  without  asking  payment,  con- 
nects the  forgiveness  of  sins  with  the  blood  of  Christ,  which  is  else- 
where declared  to  have  been  shed  as  a  punishment  of  sin.  For  it  is 
not  only  said  that  remission  of  sins  is  one  of  the  blessings  of  the  new 
covenant  preached  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  expressions  which  might  be 
reconciled  with  the  Socinian  system  that  the  Gospel  is  merely  a  de- 
claration of  forgiveness :  but  it  is  said.  Acts  xiii.  38,  Siatovtov,  through 
the  means  of  this  ma.n,v[ji.iv  a^eaiia^ia^tLuv  xatayyiTj^ttai.  And  the  means 
employed  by  this  man  are  explained  in  such  passages  as  the  follow- 
ing :  1  John  i.  7,  "  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  us  from  all 
sin  ;"  Rev.  i.  5,  "  To  him  that  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  his  own 
blood."  And  still  more  expressly.  Matt.  xxvi.  28,  and  Ephes.  i.  7; 
in  which  last  passage  the  remission  of  sin  is  introduced  as  the  expli- 
cation of  that  redemption  or  release  from  the  sentence  of  the  law, 
which  was  purchased  by  the  blood  of  Christ,  and  both  are  ascribed 
to  the  riches  of  tlie  grace  of  God.  It  is  plain  therefore,  that  to  the 
writers  of  the  New  Testament  there  did  not  appear  any  inconsistency 
between  the  forgiveness  of  sins  and  the  laying  the  punishment  of  them 
upon  another;  and  by  declaring  the  intimate  connexion  between 
these  two,  they  give  their  sanction  to  that  leading  principle  in  the 
statement  of  the  Catholic  opinion,  which  distinguishes  the  act  of  a 
lawgiver  who  in  forgiving  sins  has  respect  to  the  authority  of  the 
law,  from  the  act  of  a  creditor  who  in  remitting  a  debt  disposes  of  his 
property  at  his  pleasure. 

4.  The  last  expression  by  which  the  Scriptures  mark  the  death  of 
Christ  is  that  in  which  we  are  said  to  be  justified  by  his  blood,  and 
through  faith  in  his  blood.  — 

*  Scapulse  Lexicon,  in  verb,  a^ijj;ut. 


I 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  477 

I  mean  not  to  speak  at  present  of  many  questions  respecting  that 
act  of  God  called  justification,  which  will  find  their  proper  place 
under  the  application  of  the  Gospel  remedy.  But  as  the  change  upon 
our  condition,  which  is  implied  in  the  word  justification,  and  which  is 
ascribed  to  the  efficacy  of  the  blood  of  Christ,  corresponds  most  exactly 
with  the  principles  upon  which  the  reasonableness  of  the  Catholic 
opinion  rests,  I  cannot  better  conclude  the  defence  of  that  opinion, 
than  by  illustrating  this  particular  view  of  the  subject.  And  for  that 
purpose  I  shall  take,  as  the  ground  of  my  observations,  that  part  of 
the  apostle  Paul's  writings,  in  which  he  discourses  fully  of  justifica- 
tion through  the  death  of  Christ,  I  mean  Rom.  iii.  19 — 31. 

The  word  Stxaiow  is  used  both  in  the  Septuagint  and  in  the  Greek 
Testament,  in  a  sense  to  which  nothing  perfectly  analogous  occurs  in 
classical  writers.  The  sense  is  called  forensic,  /.  e.  it  expresses  tlie 
act  of  a  Lawgiver  or  judge  pronouncing  a  person  righteous  in  the  eye 
of  the  law,  so  as  to  be  actjuitted  from  all  obligation  to  punishment. 

Rom.  viii.    33,   Ttj  tyxa?iffffi.  xar'a  ixXtxti^v  0fou  ;  ©soj  o  Stxatowv.  ■ftj  6  xa-rax^trujv  ; 

the  word  is  used  in  the  same  sense  by  the  Psalmist,  Ps.  cxliii.  2. 

Kac  ^ri  ciac'K9t]i  «tj  x^toif  ^tara  tov  Bov'Kov  (Ton,  ott,  ov  SixaiuOtjattai  iviortiov  ffov  rtaj  ^wv. 

The  apostle,  who  had  just  been  quoting  the  ancient  Scriptures  of  the 
Jews,  seems  to  have  had  this  passage  of  the  Psalms  in  his  view, 
when  he  says,  Rom.  iii.  20,  510*1  t|  f^yw>'  cojuou  ov  ^ixMOjOt^actai.  Ttaaa  ca^% 

fwrtfoc  avr'ov.  6ta  ya^  i/o^uoD  Erttyi'cooij  d,ua^f  laj.      This  is  the  COnclusioU  from  the 

preceding  part  of  his  discourse,  in  which  he  has  proved  that  all,  both 
Jews  and  Gentiles,  are  under  sin,  and  the  whole  world  inohixoi  tcp  ®iu. 
It  is  plain  thereibre,  that  the  justification  or  acquittal  of  men  in  the 
sight  of  God  cannot  arise  out  of  the  works  of  the  law ;  for  if,  as  the 
apostle  has  shown,  a  law  was  given  by  revelation  to  the  Jews,  and 
was  written  upon  the  hearts  of  the  Gentiles,  it  would  appear  when 
they  came  before  their  Judge,  that  all  of  them  knew  what  sin  was, 
and  therefore  that  all  of  them  deserved  to  be  condemned  for  being 
sinners.  But  how  can  those  who  deserve  to  be  condemned  as  sinners 
be  justified  by  a  righteous  God  ?  The  apostle  had  asserted,  Rom.  i. 
17,  that  a  method  of  doing  this  was  revealed  in  the  gospel  :  which 
method  is  the  explication  of  that  saying  found  in  the  law,  "  The  just 
by  faith  shall  live."  But  before  he  comes  to  illustrate  and  confirm 
his  assertion,  he  throws  in  a  long  discourse,  the  purport  of  which  is 
to  show  that  there  is  not  upon  earth  a  person  Sixowj  t|  t^yuv,  and  there- 
fore that  if  there  is  such  a  thing  as  justification,  it  cannot  be  Siavofiov. 
Having  established  this  point,  which  is  the  foundation  of  the  gospel, 
he  repeats  his  assertion  in  the  21st  verse,  with  an  addition,  which  he 
is  now  entitled  to  make  ;  ;kK'5  »'o,"ov'  i-  e.  abstractedly  from  law,  inde- 
pendently of  the  precepts  contained  in  the  Mosaic  system,  or  written 
on  the  hearts  of  men  ;  and  yet  not  in  opposition  to  the  law,  for  this 
method  of  justifying  men  was  witnessed,  i.  e.  foretold  and  foreshown 
by  the  law  and  the  prophets.  The  method  of  justifying  men,  which 
is  independent  of  law,  and  yet  was  witnessed  by  the  law,  is  called 
most  significantly,  bi.xaioawr;@tov.  The  meaning  of  this  name  is  in  part 
explained  by  its  being  opposed,  Rom.  x.  3,  to  iSta  Stxaiofrirj?.  The 
apostle  has  shown  that  i5ia  StxawouMj,  or,  ^watoatr*?  5ia  vo^uov.  Gal.  ii.  21, 
does  not  exist ;  and  therefore,  the  method  of  justifying  men  may  most 
properly  be  called  S(.x(uoowi^  ©£od,  because  it  must  be  such  as  God  is 


478  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT. 

pleased  to  appoint.  But  this  name  implies  further  that  it  is  a  method 
becoming  that  God  who  is  just ;  a  part  of  the  significancy  of  the 
name  which  the  apostle  places  fully  in  our  view,  when  he  comes  to 
explain  the  method.  But  before  he  gives  the  exphcation,  he  dis- 
tinguishes the  method  which  he  is  going  to  explain  from  justification 
flf^ywr  or  Si'i  vofiov,  by  this  addition,  Sua  TtujT'fwj  it^aov  x.^i6tov;  and  lie  says 
it  extends  to  all  who  believe,  whether  Jews  or  Gentiles,  because  in 
this  respect  there  was  no  distinction  between  them,  that  all  stood  in 
need  of  the  revelation  of  such  a  method,  since  by  having  sinned  they 
had  come  short  of  that  approbation  which  proceeds  from  God,  and 
their  actions,  however  agreeable  to  the  maxims  and  customs  of  the 
world,  could  not,  when  tried  in  his  righteous  judgment,  entitle  them 
to  a  sentence  of  acquittal. 

The  necessity  of  a  method  of  justifying  men,  not  formerly  revealed 
being  now  fully  proved,  and  the  method  being  discriminated  from 
every  other  by  the  names  applied  to  it,  the  apostle  proceeds  to  illus- 
trate the  propriety  of  these  names,  by  explaining  what  it  is.  His  ex- 
plication is  found  in  the  24th,  2  5th,  and  26th  verses.  The  apostle 
has  introduced  into  this  short  description  the  great  principles  upon 
which  the  reasonableness  of  the  Catholic  opinion  rests,  and  the  chief 
of  those  Scripture  expressions  by  which  the  truth  of  it  is  proved.  He 
begins  with  ascribing  this  method  of  justifying  men  to  the  free  grace 
of  God.  As  far  as  they  are  concerned,  justification  is  granted  to 
them  Sio^fttJ',  as  a  free  gift ;  because  their  works  did  not  entitle  them  to 
acquittal,  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  good-will  of  the  Lawgiver,  they 
must  have  been  condemned.  But  this  free  gift  is  dispensed  in  a  par- 
ticular manner.  The  Lawgiver  does  not  simply  justify,  but  he  justi- 
fies through  the  redemption  that  is  in  or  by  Jesus  Christ.  Artoxvfgucrtj 
suggests  that  the  v:io8ixov  were  delivered  from  the  execution  of  the 
sentence  of  the  law  by  the  payment  of  a  ransom ;  and  necessarily 
implies  the  good  will  of  the  ransomer.  This  interpretation  of  the 
word  is  confirmed  by  our  being  told  immediately  after,  that  the  vTtoSixoi, 
were  delivered,  not  merely  by  the  power,  but  by  the  blood  of  the 
ransomer ;  for  the  apostle  adds,  "  whom  God  set  forth,  or  exhibited  to 

the  AVOrld,  iTMa-tr^^iov  6ta  trj;  rttijrfwj  tv  Tfa  avtov  alfxari.'''      W^hcthcr  I'Kantrj^uov  be 

translated  a  propitiation  or  a  propitiatory,  the  amount  is  the  same. 
Either  way  his  blood  is  the  mean  of  turning  away  wrath ;  and  we 
found  formerly  that  there  is  not  only  consistency,  but  the  most  inti- 
mate connexion  between  his  blood  propitiating  the  lawgiver,  and. 
being  the  ransom  by  which  the  vTtoSuxoi  are  set  free. 

The  purpose  for  which  God  chose  this  particular  manner  of  dis- 
playing his  grace  in  justifying  sinners  is  next  mentioned.  Eic  tvSei^iv 
ttji  SoxMocivvrji  avtov',  rtgoj  tvSii^Lv  -trj^  Sixtuonvvrji  orrou.  This  repetition  is  a 
proof  that  the  two  intervening  clauses  are  to  be  considered  as  a 
parenthesis,  thrown  in  to  illustrate  the  propriety  of  this  method  of 
declaring  the  righteousness  of  God.  The  intervening  clauses  are  thus 
rendered  in  our  translation  ;  "  for  the  remission  of  sins  that  are  past, 
through  the  forbearance  of  God :"  but  they  might  be  more  literally 
rendered,  "  upon  account  of  the  passing  by  of  former  sins  in  the  for- 
bearance of  God."  n^oysyovotiov  marks  the  sins  committed  before 
setting  forth  the  propitiation,  i.  e.  before  the  time  of  the  Gospel.  The 
Tto^eav;  of  these  sins  is  rendered  in  our  translation,  the  remission  of 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    ATONEMENT.  479 

them ;  yet  it  is  remarkable  that  the  apostle  does  not  here  use  a^cjii, 
the  word  used  for  remission,  both  by  our  Lord  and  by  the  apostle 
himself,  at  all  other  times,  and  formed  from  a^i-rjui,  the  verb  used  in 
the  Septuagint  for  forgiving  sin.  It  is  probable  that  the  apostle  had  a 
reason  for  this  singularity ;  and  many  attempts  have  been  made  to 
find  a  reason  in  the  ditferent  signification  of  the  two  words.  The 
truth  is,  that  the  joining  a^taij  and  rto^focj  to  a.ixa^tr;fxafuv  is  an  applica- 
tion of  both  words,  almost  peculiar  to  the  sacred  writers  ;  and  that 
neither  the  etymology  of  fta^i^rjui,  nor  the  practice  of  classical  authors 
entitles  us  to  say  that  it  marks  a  less  complete  degree  of  forgiveness 
than  a^irnxa.  Tliis  passage,  therefore,  gives  no  countenance  to  a  sys- 
tem which  has  been  formed  with  regard  to  the  extent  of  the  Gospel- 
remedy,  that  those  who  lived  under  the  Mosaic  dispensation,  did  not 
obtain  entire  deliverance  from  the  punishment  of  sin  till  Christ  came  ; 
and  there  is  no  other  passage  which  warrants  us  to  consider  the  for- 
giveness of  sins  committed  before  that  period,  as  different  in  kind, 
with  respect  to  its  efiects  upon  the  sinner,  from  the  forgiveness  of  sins 
committed  after  it.  But  when  it  is  recollected  that  the  sacrifices 
offered  by  the  Jews  did  not  purify  the  conscience,  and  that  the  heathen 
who  had  no  direction  from  heaven  often  violated  the  laws  of  morality 
in  the  manner  of  offering  their  sacrifices,  it  is  manifest  that  the  for- 
giveness which  Avas  dispensed  before  the  Gospel  could  not  be  in  con- 
sideration of  any  satisfaction  which  was  then  made  to  the  divine 
justice  ;  and,  therefore,  that  this  time  may  be  called  aj'03;»7  ©for,  a  time 
of  forbearance,  or  as  the  word  is  often  rendered  in  classical  writers, 
induciae,  a  truce,  during  which  the  punishments  due  to  the  sins  of 
men  were  suspended  in  so  far,  that  the  human  race  was  allowed  to 
exist,  and  to  enjoy  the  bounties  of  Providence,  although  the  whole 
world  was  guilty  before  God  ;  and  many,  whose  names  are  mentioned 
in  Scripture  with  honour,  obtained  forgiveness,  although  we  cannot 
avoid  considering  them  also  as  concluded  under  sin,  because  there  is 
not  a  just  man  upon  earth  that  liveth  and  sinneth  not. 

The  forgiveness  granted  during  this  truce  may  most  fitly  be  called 
Tta^fctt;;  because,  however  complete  in  respect  of  the  persons  to  whom 
it  was  granted,  it  "sent  by  their  side,"  transmitted  to  another  time, 
the  punishment  which  their  sins  deserved.  This  interpretation  of  the 
word  corresponds  exactly  with  an  expression  of  the  same  apostle  in 
his  discoifrse  at  Athens  ;  Acts  xvii.  30.     Tovj  yav  ow  x^ovovi  tr;i  aymaj 

i>rtf^t.6cov  o  ©foj,   tavvv  rCa^ay/i'KT^ei,    T'oiy   av^^iortocj  rtait,  rtavTa^^ou  (ittavotiv.        And 

these  two  expressions,  when  thus  considered  as  explaining  one 
another,  place  in  a  striking  light  the  significancy  of  the  two  clauses 
which  I  called  a  parenthesis.  A  truce,  during  which,  there  was  a 
suspension  of  the  punishment  due  to  sin,  and  the  supreme  Lawgiver 
overlooked  transgressions,  rendered  the  more  necessary  a  demonstra- 
tion of  his  justice  ;  and  therefore,  in  the  time  that  now  is,  when  the 
purposes  for  which  the  truce  was  continued  so  long  are  accomplished, 
and  to  rfKr^i^pLo.  fov  xiovov,  the  fulness  of  time  foretold  by  ancient  prophets 
is  arrived,  he  hath  set  forth  his  Son  as  a  propitiation,  who,  in  shedding 
his  blood,  endured  the  wrath  due  to  sins  which  had  been  committed, 
to  the  end  that  God,  when  he  now  justifies  graciously  those  who 
could  not  be  justified  by  their  own  works,  might  appear  to  be 
righteous.     Now  we  see  that  the  sins  which  God  appeared  to  pass 


480  DOCTKINE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT. 

by  in  former  times,  when  he  granted  forgiveness,  were  not  forgiven 
without  the  shedding  of  that  blood  which  was  of  infinitely  greater 
value  than  the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats,  being  the  propitiation  ordained 
and  accepted  of  God,  and  in  the  fulness  of  time  set  forth,  through 
faith  in  which  all  that  believe  are  justified. 

The  apostle,  after  stating  that  boasting  is  effectually  excluded  by 
the  method  of  justification  which  does  not  arise  out  of  works,  and 
that  every  charge  of  partiality  in  the  Supreme  Being  is  removed  by 
the  riches  of  that  grace  which  extends  without  distinction  to  all  that 

believe,   subjoins,  voiiov  ow  xata^yov/Aiv  Sia  trj;  rticfffw?  ;  f*9;  yfi'orT'o'  aT^'Ka  voiuof 

latiofiiv.  The  objection  is  a  natural  one.  If  the  method  of  justifying 
men,  which  God  has  now  set  forth,  is  x'^^'-i  vofiov,  apart  from  law,  we 
seem  to  render  the  law  idle,  useless ;  and  we  encourage  men  to  trans- 
gress it.  Far  from  it,  answers  the  apostle.  By  the  punishment,  in 
this  propitiation,  of  past  sins  that  had  seemed  to  be  overlooked,  and 
by  justification  through  faith  in  the  blood  of  Christ,  we  establish  the 
law  ;  for  God  thus  demonstrates  to  the  world  that  transgressors  have 
no  hope  of  escaping  with  impunity ;  whereas,  if  no  such  propitiation 
had  been  set  forth,  the  impunity  of  the  old  world,  and  the  justification 
of  those  who  could  not  be  justified  by  their  own  works,  might  have 
encouraged  men  to  continue  in  sin. 

Other  interpretations  of  this  passage  have  been  given.  But  if  it 
appears  that  by  understanding  every  word  in  its  natural  and  usual 
acceptation,  we  bring  out  a  sense  of  the  whole  passage  consistent 
with  the  context,  and  agreeable  to  other  parts  of  the  Apostle's 
writings,  there  is  the  strongest  internal  evidence  that  we  have 
interpreted  the  apostle  rightly ;  and,  in  that  case,  there  is  here  an 
apostle  of  Jesus  giving,  in  a  full  and  formal  discourse,  the  most 
explicit  confirmation  of  the  Catholic  opinion.  He  presents  to  us  the 
Supreme  Being  under  the  character  of  a  lawgiver,  and  he  states  the 
death  of  Christ  as  an  event  intended  to  establish  the  law  by  exhibit- 
ing the  punitive  justice  of  the  lawgiver.  At  the  same  time,  far  from 
considering  this  method  of  vindicating  the  divine  authority  as  incon- 
sistent with  the  love  of  God  to  man,  he  ascribes  the  justification 
which  is  thus  dispensed,  to  the  free  grace  of  God.  He  does  not,  as 
the  Socinians  do,  place  the  love  of  God  in  this,  that  he  forgave  sins 
without  reference  to  any  other  being,  but  he  says,  Rom.  v.  8,  that 
"  God  commendeth  his  love  to  us,  in  that,  while  we  were  sinners, 
Christ  died  for  us ;"  and  he  does  not,  like  those  who  hold  the  middle 
opinion,  rest  our  deliverance  from  the  evils  of  sin  merely  upon  the 
power  acquired  by  our  Redeemer,  but,  having  presented,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  death  of  Christ  under  the  character  of  a  punishment  by 
which  the  justice  of  the  lawgiver  is  demonstrated,  he  unfolds  the  same 
idea  when  he  says,  Rom.  v.  9,  11,  "  Being  now  justified  by  his  blood, 
we  shall  be  saved  from  wrath  through  him  ;  and  not  only  so,  but  we 
also  joy  in  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  we  have 
now  received  the  atonement." 

Grotius  de  Satisfactione  Christi. 
Slillingfleet  on  the  Sufferingg  of  Christ. 
Clarke. 


DOCTRINE    OP    THE    ATONEMENT.  481 

Tomkins'  Jesus  Christ  the  Mediator. 

Elliot's   Vicarious  Sacrifice. 

Law's  Theory  of  Religion. 

Warburton. 

Macknight's  Comtn.  on  the  Hebrews,  and  Essay  on  the  Mediation  of  Christ. 

Magee  on  the  Atonement. 


43  o  .5 


482  '  ETERNAL    LIFE 


CHAPTER  IV. 


ETERNAL    LIFE. 


In  order  to  complete  the  view  contained  in  the  CathoUc  opinion  of 
the  nature  of  the  Gospel  remedy,  we  have  yet  to  consider  in  what 
manner  it  connects  the  hope  of  life  eternal  with  the  interposition  of 
Jesus  Christ, 

According  to  the  Socinian  opinion,  Jesus  Christ  is  simply  the  mes- 
senger who  brought  from  God,  together  with  the  assurance  of  pardon, 
the  promise  of  life  eternal  to  all  who  repent ;  and  according  to  the 
middle  opinion,  he  received  from  his  Father,  in  recompense  for  his 
sulierings,  the  power  of  giving  eternal  life,  so  that  all  those  who  re- 
ceive this  inestimable  gift  receive  it  upon  his  account  as  the  partakers 
of  his  reward.     There  is  another  opinion  upon  this  subject  found 
amongst  the  many  liypotheses  with  which  the  works  of  the  ingenious 
and  eccentric  Bishop  Warburton  abound.     It  is  mentioned  occasion- 
ally in  former  parts  of  his  works,  and  from  him  it  descended  to  Bishop 
Hurd,  and  some  of  his  other  admirers  amongst  the  English  clergy ; 
but  he   reserved  the  full  elucidation  of  it  to  the  ninth  book  of  the 
Divine  Legation  of  Moses,  which  was  published  by  Bishop  Hurd  after 
his  death,  as  a  supplement  to  his  works.     This  ninth  book,  which 
professes  to  be  an  attempt  to  explain  the  nature  and  genius  of  the 
Christian  religion,  and  "'  to  furnish  the  key  or  clue  which  is  to  open 
to  us,  and  to  lead  us  through  all  the  recesses  and  intricacies  of  the  last 
dispensation  of  God,"  unfolds  with  much  pomp,  but  with  a  very 
slender  degree  of  evidence,  the  following  system,  the  amount  of  which 
may  be  given  in  a  few  words.      Warburton  considers  pardon  on 
repentance  as  a  doctrine  of  natural  religion,  which  is  published  indeed 
in  the  Gospel,  but  which  did  not  in  any  measure  depend  upon  the 
vicarious  sacrifice  of  Christ,  because  the  law  of  nature  teaches  us  that 
repentance  is  the  means  of  recovering  the  favour  of  God,  when  it  has 
been  forfeited  by  a  breach  of  that  law.     So  far  he  coincides  with  the 
Socinians.     But  he  differs  from  them  in  asserting,  and  in  proving 
most  ably,  that  the  death  of  Christ  was  truly  a  vicarious  sacrifice  ;  and 
the  peculiarity  of  his  system  lies  in  his  finding  room  for  the  necessity  of 
such  a  sacrifice,  although  he  contends  that  from  the  principles  of  natural 
religion  it  may  be  collected  that  God  will,  on  the  sincere  repentance  of 
offenders,  receive  them  again  into  favour.    The  place  which  he  finds  for 
it  is  this.     Immortal  life,  he  says,  is  a  thing  extraneous  to  our  nature  ; 
not  necessarily  inferred  from  the  relation  between  the  Creator  and 
the  creature  ;  and  no  part  of  the  natural  reward  of  good  conduct.    It 
was  not  conferred  upon  man  when  he  was  first  created,  but  was  the 
sanction  of  that  particular  covenant  which  God  made  with  our  first 


ETERNAL    LIFE.  483 

parents  some  time  after  their  creation ;  when  he  placed  them  in  the 
garden  of  Eden.  It  is  a  free  gift  which  was  originally  suspended 
upon  the  condition  of  obeying  a  positive  command,  which  was  for- 
feited by  the  transgression  of  that  command,  and  which  is  restored  in 
the  Gospel.  The  whole  character  of  the  Gospel,  according  to  War- 
burton,  lies  in  this,  that  it  is  the  restoration  of  the  free  gift  of  immor- 
tality ;  and  laith  in  the  blood  of  the  Son  of  God  is  the  positive  com- 
mand, upon  which  God  the  giver  has  been  pleased  to  suspend  his 
gift.  Abstinence  from  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil 
was  the  condition  of  the  original  grant ;  faith  in  the  blood  of  the  Son 
of  God,  as  a  vicarious  sacrifice,  is  the  condition  upon  which  the  resto- 
ration of  the  grant  is  suspended;  both  are  positive  commands, 
deriving  all  their  value  from  the  pleasure  of  him  who  appointed  them, 
but  for  that  very  reason  both  are  indispensable  conditions  of  the  gift. 

If  there  is  any  truth  in  the  principles  upon  which  we  rested  the 
doctrine  of  atonement,  this  account  of  the  Gospel  is  a  most  incomplete 
theory  ;  and  I  have  mentioned  it  only  because  the  contrast  may  serve 
to  illustrate  that  part  of  the  Catholic  opinion  which  I  am  now  going 
to  state.  In  Warburton's  system,  the  gift  of  immortality  which  was 
purchased  by  the  sufferings  of  Christ  is  detached  from  the  pardon 
preached  in  his  name,  the  former  being  peculiar  to  the  Gospel,  the 
latter  being  the  common  doctrine  of  natural  religion  ;  and  redemption 
and  justification  are  appropriated,  in  this  system,  to  the  price  paid  and 
accepted  for  tiie  particular  gift  of  eternal  life,  without  being  supposed 
to  have  any  reference  to  the  means  of  restoring  the  sinner  to  the 
favour  of  God  in  general.  The  Catholic  opinion  on  the  other  hand, 
takes  the  gift  of  eternal  life  which  is  the  termination  of  the  remedy, 
in  connexion  with  all  the  steps  that  prepare  and  qualify  us  for  the 
termination;  and,  by  thus  embracing  the  whole  of  the  Gospel  revela- 
tion, instead  of  forming  a  system  upon  a  partial  view,  it  both  appears 
to  give  a  natural  interpretation  of  the  separate  branches,  and  also 
derives  much  support  from  the  harmony  with  which  they  unite. 

There  is  not  in  this  part  of  the  Catholic  opinion  that  opposition  to 
other  systems  which  we  found  in  the  former  part.  The  Catholic 
opinion  agrees  with  the  Socinian  as  to  the  promise  of  eternal  life, 
which  God  has  given  us  in  Christ ;  with  the  middle  as  to  the  power 
of  the  Redeemer  in  conferring  it ;  with  Warburton's  system  as  to  the 
free  restoration  of  that  which  had  been  forfeited,  and  could  not  be 
claimed.  Rut  it  differs  from  all  the  three  in  comprehending  points 
which  they  omit,  and  in  marking  connexions  which  they  overlook  ; 
and  therefore,  I  have  not  here  to  engage  in  tliat  kind  of  controversial 
discussion  whicli  was  necessary  in  stating  the  doctrine  of  atonement, 
but  merely  to  give  a  delineation  of  what  those  who  hold  the  Catholic 
opinion  consider  as  a  complete  account  of  the  nature  of  the  Gospel 
remedy. 

The  foundation  of  the  hope  of  eternal  life  is  laid  in  what  the  Scrip- 
tures call  reconciliation.  For  if  all  men  are  under  the  sentence  of 
condemnation,  and  so  children  of  wrath,  that  sentence  nuist  be 
reversed  in  order  to  their  being  delivered  from  wrath,  before  they  can 
look  forward  with  the  expectation  of  good  to  other  states  of  being. 
This  order  is  beautifully  stated  by  the  apostle  Paul  in  several  passages, 
such  as  the  following.     Rom.  v.  1,  2,  ''Therefore  being  justified  by 


484  ETERNAL    LIFE. 

faith,  we  have  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by 
whom  also  we  have  access  by  faith  into  this  grace  wherein  we  stand, 
and  rejoice  in  the  hope  of  the  glory  of  God."  The  condemnation 
pronounced  upon  the  first  transgression  included  a  sentence  of  death ; 
"  dust  thou  art,  and  unto  dust  shall  thou  return  ;"  a  sentence  which 
although  not  immediately  executed  upon  the  transgressors,  has  ever 
since  retained  its  power  over  their  posterity  ;  for  death,  which  entered 
into  the  world  by  sin,  6t>j^f,  passeth  upon  all  men.  If  this  event, 
which  withdraws  men  from  their  abode  upon  earth,  and  puts  an  end 
to  the  present  exertion  of  their  faculties,  were  in  reality,  what  it 
appears  to  be,  the  termination  of  their  existence,  the  evils  introduced 
by  sin  could  not  be  said  to  receive  a  remedy,  because  this  part  of  the 
sentence  of  condemnation,  although  suspended  for  a  little,  would  in 
the  end  be  fully  executed.  The  Gospel,  therefore,  professing  to  bring 
a  remedy  for  these  evils,  and  yet  not  professing  to  deliver  men  from 
returning  to  the  dust,  reveals  a  resurrection  of  the  body  from  the  dust, 
with  which  it  is  mingled  after  death,  and  thus  opens  to  man  the  pos- 
sibility of  receiving  hereafter,  in  his  whole  nature,  that  complete 
remedy  which  is  not  administered  here.  This  prolongation  of  exist- 
ence, beyond  the  period  when  it  is  forfeited  by  that  sentence  to  which 
all  the  posterity  of  Adam  are  subject,  may  be  stated  as  the  first  branch 
of  the  reversal  of  the  sentence  ;  and  in  the  New  Testament  it  is  uni- 
formly ascribed  to  the  interposition  of  Jesus.     Heb.  ii.  14,  "He  took 

part  of  flesh    and  blood  "»  Sta  -tov  ^vatov  xa.ta^yrirjrj  tov  to  x^ato^  ixovta  tov 

^vatov,  rovteatt  tov  8ia^o\ov ;  that  through  death  he  might  render  unavail- 
ing the  power  of  him  who  has  the  power  of  death."     2  Tim.  i.  10, 

xata^yr^'javtoi  ficv  tov  ^vatov,  ^^ti'^avto^   8s  ^lot^v  xac  ct4)5a^(5ta»'  6ta  tov   svayys%cov. 

1  Cor.  XV,  57,  "  Thanks  be  to  God  who  halh  given  us  the  victory  over 
death  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

It  is  not  meant  by  these  expressions  that  the  world  had  no  hope 
of  immortality  till  Jesus  came.  From  the  beginning  of  the  world,  in 
all  countries,  and  in  every  state  of  society,  men  have  looked  forward 
to  another  life.  Although  the  promise  of  life  eternal  formed  no  part 
of  the  sanction  of  the  law  of  Moses,  yet  the  hope  of  such  a  life  is  often 
expressed  in  the  Psalms,  and  by  the  prophets  :  it  had  become  a  part 
of  the  national  faith  of  the  Jews  before  Jesus  came,  and  we  find  both 
our  Lord  and  his  Apostles  adducing  proofs  of  a  future  state  out  of 
their  ancient  Scriptures.  Jesus,  therefore,  is  said  to  have  brought 
life  and  immortality  to  light,  not  that  he  was  the  first  who  taught  it, 
— not  merely  because  his  manner  of  teaching  it  was  free  from  the 
obscurity  and  hesitation  which  appeared  in  every  former  teacher  who 
spoke  of  this  subject, — but  principally  because  that  which  he  did  took 
away  the  obstacles  which  no  other  had  power  to  remove.  Death 
intervenes  by  a  judicial  sentence  between  the  present  life  and  that 
future  life  for  which  man  looks.  No  other  teacher  had  authority  to 
say  that  this  judicial  sentence  would  be  reversed  by  a  restoration  of 
the  life  which  it  took  away.  But  Jesus,  having  by  his  death  procured 
an  acquittal  from  the  sentence,  renders  death  ineflectual  for  the 
purpose  of  preventing  the  future  life  of  man  ;  so  that  immortality 
when  taught  by  him  may  be  as  readily  embraced  and  as  firmly 
believed  as  if  death  did  not  intervene. 

But,  although  an  acquittal  from  the  sentence  of  death  is  necessary 


ETERNAL    LIFE.  485 

in  order  to  our  future  existence,  the  hope  of  what  we  call  life  eternal 
does  not  necessarily  arise  from  this  acquittal.     For  mere  existence  in 
a  future  state,  even  when  supposed  to  be  free  from  those  pains  which 
would  render  it  a  curse  instead  of  a  blessing,  does  not  satisfy  the 
desires  of  the  human  soul.     In  looking  forward  to  other  states  of 
being,  it  pants  for  enjoying  there  the  happiness  of  its  nature  ;  and  it 
is  manifest  that  there  is  a  wide  dilference  between  a  prolongation  of 
life  after  it  had  been  forfeited,  and  a  right  to  the  greatest  blessing 
which  the  Father  of  spirits  can  bestow — the  perpetual  enjoyment  in 
his  presence  of  those  benefits  which  he  may  resume  when  he  will, 
and  of  a  measure  of  them  supposed  to  be  infinitely  superior  to  all  that 
he  is  seen  at  present  to  bestow.     It  is  agreed,  therefore,  by  Christians 
of  all  denominations,  that  what  we  call  eternal  life  is  the  gift  of  God ; 
an  expression  which  they  have  learnt  from  the  Apostle  Paul,  who  uses 
it  in  a  situation  which  shows  that  he  meant  to  give  it  all  its  signifi- 
cancy.     Rom.  vi.  20.     "  The  wages  of  sin  is  death ;  but  the  gift  of 
God,  fo  ;Ka<nJ|ua  fov  0£OD,  is  eternal  life  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord." 
The  hope  of  a  gift  does  not  go  beyond  probability  without  a  promise 
from  the  giver;  and  therefore  all   Christians  agree  in  considering 
eternal  life  as  the  promise  which  God  hath  promised  us.     But  those 
who  hold  the  Catholic  opinion  are  distinguished  from  the  Socinians, 
by  connecting  this  promise  with  that  which  Christ  has  done,  i.  e.  by 
considering  this  gift  of  God  as  not  only  promised  to  men  by  Jesus 
Christ,  but  as  given  them  upon  his  account.     In  this  respect,  the 
Catholic  and  the  middle  opinions  appear  to  agree.     But  while  the 
middle  opinion  considers  this  gift  as  conferred  by  the  power  of  the 
Redeemer  upon  those  whom  he  chooses  to  make  the  partners  of  his 
reward,  the  Catholic  opinion  establishes  a  more  intimate  connexion 
between  our  right  to  eternal  life,  and  that  which  was  done  by  our 
Saviour  upon  earth. 

Concerning  the  nature  of  this  connexion,  there  is  some  variety  in 
the  language  of  those  who  hold  the  Catholic  opinion.  A  distinction 
has  been  made  between  the  passive  and  the  active  obedience  of 
Christ.  Those  who  made  the  distinction,  understood  by  the  passive 
obedience  of  Christ  all  the  sufferings  which  he  underwent  for  our 
sins  ;  by  his  active  obedience,  all  the  piety,  resignation,  humility,  and 
benevolence,  which  rendered  his  life  the  most  perfect  pattern  of 
righteousness.  The  former  being  penal  were  considered  as  the  satis- 
faction to  the  justice  of  God  ;  the  latter,  being  a  fulfilment  of  the  law 
which  says,  "  the  man  that  doeth  them  shall  live  in  them,"  were  con- 
sidered as  meritorious  of  a  reward.  It  was  said  therefore,  that  we  are 
saved  from  wrath  by  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  and  that  we  acquire  a 
right  to  eternal  life  through  the  merits  of  his  obedience.  But,  in  this, 
as  in  many  other  instances,  an  attempt  was  made  to  distinguish  things 
naturally  indivisible.  The  passive  and  the  active  obedience  of  Christ 
cannot  be  disjoined.  For  in  all  that  Jesus  suffered  there  was 
obedience  to  God  and  good  will  to  man,  and  the  virtues  of  his  charac- 
ter were  illustrated  and  enhanced  by  the  situation  in  which  he  display- 
ed them. 

The  great  body  of  Catholic  divines,  therefore,  have  followed  the 
sacred  writers,  to  whom  this  distinction  is  altogether  unknown.  They 
generally  ascribe  our  redemption  to  the  blood  of  Christ,  because  his 
43* 


486  ETERNAL    LIFE, 

death  was  the  most  illustrious  act  of  obedience,  and  the  conchision  of 
the  hfe  which  for  our  sakes  he  had  led  upon  earth ;  hut  they  show 
us  by  various  expressions,  that  they  do  not  exclude  the  efficacy  of  the 
sorrows  and  the  virtues  of  that  life.  Thus  the  Apostle  says,  Rom.  v. 
19,  "  By  the  obedience  of  one  shall  many  be  made  righteous ;"  an 
expression  which  does  not,  as  those  who  hold  the  middle  opinion 
maintain,  resolve  the  sufferings  which  we  call  penal  merely  into  a 
virtuous  exertion,  but  which  conjoins  this  last  act  with  all  the  submis- 
sion to  God  displayed  by  Jesus  from  his  incarnation /"f;ir?''^a>a^ov.  Phil, 
ii.  8.  In  like  manner,  the  Scriptures,  in  order  to  show  that  the  efficacy 
of  the  death  of  Christ  was  not  confined  to  the  deliverance  from 
punishment,  which  is  generally  spoken  of  as  the  immediate  effect  of 
that  event,  represent  it  in  different  places  as  having  procured  for  us 
also  eternal  life.  Heb.  ix.  12,  15,  "  By  his  own  blood  he  entered 
in  once  into  the  holy  place,  having  obtained  eternal  redemption  for 
us.  He  is  the  mediator  of  the  new  testament,  thnt,  by  means  of 
death,  they  which  are  called  might  receive  the  promise  of  eternal 
inheritance."  1  Thess.  v.  9,  10,  "  Christ  died  for  us,  that,  whether 
we  wake  or  sleep,"  i.  e.  whether  we  be  found  alive  or  dead  at  the 
general  resurrection,  "  we  should  live  together  with  him." 

Thus,  in  the  language  of  the  New  Testament,  Acts  xxvi.  18,  a^jstj 
aua^tiuv  and  xxt]^oi  IV  toLg  •yjyia.'jfifvoci;  are  Conjoined  as  flowing  together 
from  the  interposition  of  Christ :  and  agreeably  to  this  language,  the 
active  and  passive  obedience  of  Christ,  words  seldom  used  in 
modern  times,  are  considered  as  constituting  together  what  are  called 
his  merits, — what  the  Apostle,  Rom.  v.  18,  calls  tv  Sixatuua,  which  he 
opposes  to  the  ^v  na^aTttuixa  of  Adam.  He  does  not  mean  one  single 
act  of  Jesus,  but  the  merit  or  righteousness  arising  -out  of  all  his 
actions  and  all  his  sufferings  taken  in  one  complex  view,  through 
which  righteousness  the  free  gift  comes  upon  all  men,  «?  StxatwcH- ^co»;? . 
For  Jesus  who  was  infinitely  blessed  and  glorious  in  himself,  and 
who,  possessing  all  things  from  the  beginning,  Avas  incapable  of 
receiving  a  personal  reward,  undertook  that  economy  which  the  Scrip- 
tures reveal  for  our  sakes ;  and  all  the  merit  arising  out  of  the  execu- 
tion of  it  is  imputed  or  transferred  to  us,  i.  e.  counted  as  ours,  so  that 
we  derive  the  benefit  of  it.  He  was  made  "  sin  for  us,  that  we  might 
be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  him."  2  Cor.  v.  21.  The  same 
thing  is  expressed,  Gal.  iv.  4,  5.  Jesus  was  made  under  the  law  in 
two  respects ;  in  respect  of  the  sanction  of  the  law,  the  curse  due  to 
transgressors  which  he  endured,  and  in  respect  of  the  precepts  both 
of  the  ceremonial  and  of  the  moral  law  which  he  fulfilled.  In  his 
sufferings  and  in  his  actions,  he  did  the  will  of  his  Father ;  and  this 
obedience,  being  yielded  in  the  human  nature  which  he  assumed  in 
order  to  accomplish  our  deliverance,  is  considered  as  yielded  in  our 
stead  and  for  our  sakes ;  the  merit  of  it  is  counted  to  those  to  whom 
the  remedy  of  the  Gospel  is  applied,  so  that  upon  account  of  it  we  are 
both  delivered  from  the  curse  of  the  law,  and  "  receive  the  adoption 
of  sons."  This  last  expression,  which  is  commonly  used  in  the  New 
Testament  to  mark  the  change  produced  upon  the  condition  of  Chris- 
tians by  Christ's  having  made  peace,  manifestly  includes  that  right  to 
eternal  life  which  they  acquire  through  him.  From  enemies  they 
become  "  children  of  God,  and  if  children,  then  heirs,  heirs  of  God, 


ETERNAL   LJFE.  487 

and  joint  heirs  with  Christ."  Heaven  is  the  house  of  their  Father, 
their  city,  tlioir  countr}^,  or,  as  our  Lord  has  expressed  it,  "  the  king- 
dom prepared  for  them  from  the  foundation  of  the  world,"  which 
they  are  called  to  inherit. 

liut,  if  that  account  of  the  effect  of  Adam's  transgression  upon 
which  the  Catholic  opinion  proceeds  be  founded  in  Scripture,  his 
posterity  are  not  qualified  to  take  possession  of  this  inheritance.  The 
corruption  wliich  they  inherit  from  their  ancestor,  being  an  estrange- 
ment from  the  fountain  of  life,  upon  which  account  it  is  known  by 
the  name  of  spiritual  death,  is  diametrically  opposite  to  that  intimate 
communion  with  God  implied  in  life  eternal ;  and  as  this  corruption 
is  sufficient,  independently  of  all  outward  evils,  to  make  men  wretched 
upon  earth,  so,  if  it  were  carried  with  them  beyond  the  grave,  they 
would  find,  even  in  that  state  where  pure  spirits  enjoy  supreme 
felicity,  the  misery  inseparable  from  sin.  That  the  remedy,  therefore, 
may  correspond  to  the  extent  of  the  disease,  and  that  Jesus  may  truly 
accomplish  the  purpose  for  which  it  is  said  he  was  manifested  by 
destroying  the  works  of  the  devil,  it  is  not  enough  that  he  abolished 
death,  or  rendered  death  ineffectual  for  preventing  the  future  life  of 
man,  and  purchased  by  his  merits  an  everlasting  reward ;  his  religion 
must  also  confer  upon  his  followers  those  qualifications  and  disposi- 
tions by  which  they  may  be  meet  for  entering  into  life.  Whether 
this  change  upon  the  character  of  men  is  accomplished  by  the  moral 
influence  of  doctrine,  precept,  and  example,  or  by  the  efficacious  in- 
fluence of  the  Spirit,  and  how  this  last,  which  the  Scriptures  seem  to 
declare,  can  be  reconciled  with  that  liberty  which  enters  into  all  our 
conceptions  of  an  accountable  agent,  are  questions  which  belong  to 
that  division  of  our  subject  which  I  called  the  application  of  the 
remedy.  But  that  there  is  such  a  change,  in  whatever  manner  it  be 
eflected,  is  unequivocally  declared  in  such  expressions  as  the  following. 
All  those  whom  Christ  delivers  Irom  punishment,  and  to  whom  he 
gives  a  right  to  eternal  life,  are  "  made  free  from  sin ;"  they  "  become 
the  servants  of  God  ;"  they  "put  off"  the  old  man  which  is  corrupt;" 
they  "  put  on  the  new  man  which  is  renewed  after  the  image  of  God;" 
they  are  "  dead  unto  sin,  and  alive  unto  God  through  Jesus  Christ ;  a 
peculiar  people,  zealous  of  good  works."*  These  expressions,  and 
many  others  of  the  same  kind,  paint  a  character  of  mind,  and  a  gene- 
ral tenor  of  life,  which  constitute  the  beauty,  the  health,  and  dignity 
of  the  human  soul,  and  from  which  there  result  that  "  peace  which 
passeth  all  understanding"  here,  and  the  capacity  of  enjoying  supreme 
felicity  hereafter. 

From  what  has  been  said  the  propriety  is  evident,  with  which  the 
two  words  salvation  and  redemption  are  employed  to  denote  eternal 
life  purchased  by  Christ ;  as  Heb.  v.  9,  "  being  made  perfect  he  became 
the  author  of  eternal  salvation,  atno?  mtr]ita^  aiunov,  unto  all  them  that 
obey  him."  And  Heb.  ix.  12,  "  having  obtained  eternal  redemption, 
aiwRttf  /.vT'^ujtv  si^aasvot; ."  As  the  happiuess  of  heaven  is  obtained  for 
us  in  the  same  manner  with  the  acquittal  from  the  sentence  of  con- 
demnation, and  is  the  entire  removal  of  the  evils  which  sin  had  intro- 
duced, this  completion  of  the  undertaking  of  the  Redeemer  is  most 

*  Rom.vi.     Ephes.  iv.  21— 24.     Titus  ii.  13,  14. 


488  ETERNAL    LIFE. 

fitly  designed  by  the  words  Avhich  primarily  denoted  the  acquittal : 
and  the  epithet  atwwo?  is  significant  of  the  very  same  thing  which  John 
has  expressed  in  the  description  of  the  city  of  the  living  God,  where 
the  tree  of  life  grows,  the  leaves  of  which  are  for  the  healino'  of  the 
nations ;  Kev.  xxn.  3,  Kat  riav  xatavaSs^a.  ovx  istai,  tti,  i,  e.  the  ci\rse  pro- 
nounced upon  man,  when  he  was  driven  from  the  tree  of  life,  is 
completely  removed  when  he  is  re-admitted  to  it,  and  it  shall  return 
no  more. 

Thus  Jesus,  by  giving  what  is  called  Rev.  xxii.  14,  "  a  right  to  the 
tree  of  life,"  does  indeed  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil :  he  is  the 
second  Adam,  who  restores  all  that  the  first  had  forfeited ;  and  the 
completeness  of  the  remedy  which  he  brought  cannot  be  better  ex- 
pressed than  in  the  words  of  Paul,  Rom.  v.  21,  "that  as  sin  hath 
reigned  unto  death,  even  so  might  grace  reign  through  righteousness 
unto  eternal  life  by  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord." 

We  have  now  seen  the  manner  in  which  the  hope  of  eternal  life, 
or  a  right  to  the  tree  of  life,  is  connected  with  what  Christ  did  upon 
earth.  But  a  right  so  infinitely  above  their  deserts,  conferred  by  the 
free  grace  of  God  upon  those  who  were  under  sentence  of  condemna- 
tion, transcends  all  our  experience  of  the  divine  goodness,  and  all  our 
conceptions  of  generosity  :  and  therefore,  "  God,  willing  to  show  more 
abundantly  unto  the  heirs  of  promise  the  immutability  of  his  counsel," 
hath  confirmed  this  right  by  all  the  discoveries  given  in  Scripture  of 
the  present  condition  of  that  person  from  whose  merits  it  is  derived. 

The  resurrection  of  Jesus  may  be  mentioned  as  the  first  branch  of 
the  confirmation  of  that  right  acquired  for  us  by  his  death.  Had 
Jesus,  after  dying  for  our  sins,  continued  under  the  power  of  the  grave, 
doubts  must  have  arisen  in  every  mind  impressed  with  a  sense  of 
guilt,  whether  his  blood  was  able  to  take  away  the  sins  of  the  world. 
But  when  all  the  sufferings  which  he  endured  as  the  punishment  of 
sin  were  concluded  by  his  being  restored  to  life,  here  was  a  fact  pre- 
sented to  the  senses  of  mankind,  containing  plain  and  incontestible 
evidence  that  the  effects  ascribed  to  his  sufferings  were  attained ;  be- 
cause the  Supreme  Lawgiver,  in  loosing  him  from  the  pains  of 
death,  declared  that  he  accepted  that  atonement  which  his  death 
offered.  Accordingly  it  is  said,  Rom.  iv.  25,  that  Christ  "  was 
delivered  for  our  offences,  and  was  raised  again  for  our  justifi- 
cation :"  i.  e.  we  know  by  his  resurrection  that  we  who  had  offended 
are,  upon  account  of  his  sufferings,  accounted  righteous  before  God ; 
and  it  is  said,  1  Pet.  i.  3,  that  "  God  hath  begotten  us  again  unto 
a  lively  hope,  by  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead ;" 
i.  e.  his  resurrection  is  an  experimental  assurance  of  our  victory  over 
death. 

But  the  Scriptures  reveal  much  more  than  the  resurrection  of  Jesus, 
or  his  bare  return  to  life :  and  the  full  security  given  in  the  Gospel 
for  our  attaining  the  exalted  reward,  which  is  included  in  the  com- 
plete redemption  procured  by  his  death,  is  found  in  all  the  circum- 
stances that  are  revealed  concerning  the  life  which  he  now  lives  with 
God.  For  if,  as  the  apostle  reasons,  Rom.  v.  10,  "when  we  were 
enemies  we  were  reconciled  to  God  by  the  death  of  his  Son ;  much 
more  being  reconciled  we  shall  be  saved  by  his  life  ;"  i.  e.  if  his  death 


ETERNAL    LIFE.  489 

had  the  effect  of  propitiating  the  divine  wrath,  much  more  shall  his 
life  insure  eternal  salvation  to  those  who  are  now  no  longer  enemies. 
Eternal  life  having  been  acquired  for  us  by  the  death  of  Christ,  and 
yet  behig  a  distant  reward,  the  Gospel  affords  us  tliis  most  satisfying 
security  tor  its  being  at  length  conferred,  that  the  person  who  died  to 
acquire  it  is  alive  for  evermore,  and  has  the  keys  of  hell  and  of 
death.* 

It  is  not  necessary,  in  this  place,  to  dwell  upon  the  illustration  of 
tlie  various  points  which  belong  to  this  subject,  I  shall  only  bring 
them  together  in  one  view,  to  sliow  distinctly  how  they  unite  hi  con- 
stituting that  security  of  which  I  now  speak. 

Jesus  Christ,  who  gave  his  flesh  for  the  life  of  the  world,  is  himself 
the  giver  of  life.  He  is  revealed  as  the  Creator  of  the  world,  from 
whom  the  life  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  orighially  proceeded. 
He  displayed  upon  earth  the  power  of  raising  from  the  dead  whom 
he  would ;  he  directs  us  to  consider  these  occasional  exertions  as  a 
specimen  of  that  power  with  Avhich  he  shall  raise  all  men  at  the  last 
day  ;  and  he  says  that  "  power  is  given  him  over  all  flesh,  that  he 
should  give  eternal  life  to  as  many  as  the  Father  hath  given  him."t 
There  can  be  no  doubt,  therefore,  that  the  Son  of  God,  "  who  hath 
life  in  himself,  is  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost  them  that  come  unto 
God  by  him." 

That  he  is  willing  to  exert  his  power  in  giving  eternal  life  to  those 
whom  he  redeemed,  is  an  inference  clearly  deduced  from  his  death. 
A  Being,  who  did  the  will  of  the  Father,  in  dying  that  we  might  live 
,  through  liim,  who  revived  that  he  might  be  Lord  of  all,  and  wliose 
purposes  do  not  admit  of  alteration,  either  from  the  mutability  of  his 
own  mind,  or  from  external  opposition,  cannot  be  conceived  to  leave 
unfinished  the  gracious  purpose  for  which  he  suffered,  but  will  in  due 
time  put  us  in  possession  of  the  right  which  he  acquired  for  us  at  such 
a  price. 

The  force  of  this  inference  is  illustrated  by  the  various  language  in 
which  the  Scriptures  express  the  intimate  connexion  between  Christ 
and  the  persons  for  whom  he  died.  They  are  those  whom  God  hath 
given  him ;  the  subjects  of  his  kingdom ;  the  members  of  his  body  ; 
the  flock  which  he  gathers  into  his  fold,  and  which  he  defends  from 
every  enemy ;  his  sheep  who  hear  the  voice  of  the  good  shepherd, 
and  follow  him.  In  the  felicity  which  this  peculiar  people,  whom  he 
hath  purchased  for  himself  by  his  own  blood,  attain  through  him,  he 
sees  the  travail  of  his  soul ;  and  the  praises  which  are  represented  in 
the  book  of  the  Revelation,  as  proceeding  from  the  company  which 
he  hath  redeemed  to  God,  publish  the  glory  of  his  name  to  tlie  whole 
inteUigent  creation.  He  was  not  ashamed  to  call  them  brethren,  for 
he  took  part  with  them  of  flesh  and  blood ;  and  even  now  that  he  is 
set  down  on  the  right  hand  of  God,  he  has  not  laid  aside  the  nature 
which  he  assumed ;  for  he  is  still  called  the  Son  of  Man.  lie  appears 
in  the  presence  of  God  for  us,  a  merciful  and  faithful  high  priest ;  and, 
touched  with  the  feeling  of  our  infirmities,  he  niaketh  intercession  for 
us,  and  is  our  advocate  with  the  Father.     Not  that  he  uses  any  words 

*  Rev.  i.  17,  18.  +  John  xvii.  2. 

3T 


490  ETERNAL    LIFE. 

to  move  God ;  but  that,  in  virtue  of  the  blood  which  he  shed  on  the 
cross,  and  with  which  he  is  said  now  to  sprinlde  the  mercy-seat  in 
heaven,  he  procured  us  access  to  the  Father,  and  presents  our  prayers 
and  services,  which,  when  offered  in  his  name,  are  "  spiritual  sacrifices 
acceptable  to  God  by  him." 

Tlie  high  priest  of  the  Jews  entering  upon  the  day  of  atonement 
into  the  holy  of  holies,  with  the  blood  of  the  bullock  and  the  goat, 
and  with  the  names  of  the  children  of  Israel  upon  his  breastplate,  was 
a  striking  type  of  the  intercession  of  Christ.  But  there  are  two  essen- 
tial points  in  which  the  antitype  excels  the  type.  The  one  is,  that 
the  high  priest  of  the  Jews  entered  once  a-year  upon  a  stated  day ; 
but  the  intercession  of  Jesus  continueth  forever,  (Heb.  vii.  24,  25,)  so 
that  at  all  times  we  may  "  come  boldly  to  the  throne  of  grace."  The 
other  is,  that  none  but  the  high  priest  ever  entered  ;  whereas  Jesus, 
who  entered  into  the  true  holy  place,  after  having  obtained  eternal 
redemption,  has,  by  his  entering,  opened  and  made  manifest  a  way 
for  us.  He  is  our  forerunner,  Tt^oS^o^oi  ini^  ruiM,  Heb.  vi.  20:  our 
hope  "entereth  into  that  within  the  vail,"  whither  he  is  gone;  and 
although  we  yet  remain  in  the  outer  court  while  he  is  making  inter- 
cession, we  know  assuredly  from  his  words,  that  where  he  is,  there 
shall  also  his  servants  be.*  This  assurance  is  confirmed  by  the 
nature  of  the  blessings  which  his  intercession  procures.  When  he 
ascended  on  high,  he  received  gifts  for  men,  which  are  continually 
imparted  to  those  who  derive  from  him  a  right  to  eternal  life. 
The  Holy  Spirit,  by  whom  these  gifts  are  distributed,  is  called  the 
Spirit  of  Jesus,  and  is  said  to  be  sent  by  him  :f  and  he  is  not  only  the 
source  of  comfort,  and  the  cherisher  of  hope,  but  he  is  expressly 
styled,  Eph.  i.  14,  a;,/ja(?wv  tjjs  x%.Tn^ovoi.aai  r,au>v,  "  the  earnest  of  our  inheri- 
tance." The  significancy  of  this  expression  will  appear  by  attending 
to  the  difference  between  an  earnest  and  a  pledge.  A  pledge  is  a 
security  for  some  future  payment,  which  is  delivered  up  as  soon  as 
the  payment  is  made ;  and  therefore  it  may  be,  and  generally  is,  of  a 
kind  totally  different  from  the  payment.  An  earnest  is  a  part  of  The 
payment  given  as  an  acknowledgement  that  the  whole  is  due,  the 
same  in  kind  with  that  which  is  to  follow.  In  this  sense  the  Spirit  is 
called  the  earnest  of  our  inheritance,  because  the  life  formed  upon 
earth  by  the  influences  of  the  Spirit  is  the  temper  of  heaven  already 
begun  in  the  soul.  It  is  much  more  than  a  preparation  for  heaven  : 
it  is  an  assurance  which  a  Christian  has  within  himself,  given  to  him 
by  the  Lord  of  life,  that  he  shall  certainly  reach  heaven.  For  as  the 
apostle  speaks,  Col.  iii.  3,  4,  that  life  which  we  lead  is  supported  by 
the  invisible  influences  of  the  Spirit,  whom  Christ,  who  sits  on  the 
right  hand  of  God,  sends  in  the  hearts  of  his  people.  The  springs 
of  this  life  are  withdrawn  from  the  eyes  of  men  ;  but  they  are  hidden 
with  Christ ;  and  they  will  become  manifest  at  that  time,  when  he  by 
whom  we  live  shall  appear,  and  we,  who  have  risen  with  him  to  a 
new  life,  shall  be  partakers  of  his  glory. 

While  Christians  are  thus  sealed  by  the  Spirit  unto  the  day  of 
redemption,  Jesus  is  in   heaven  preparing  a  place  for  them.     He 

*  John  xiv.  3.  f  1  Pet.  i.  11.  John  xv.  26. 


ETERNAL    LIFE.  491 

directs  by  the  power  that  is  committed  to  him  every  event  for  the 
good  of  that  churcli  whicli  he  purchased  for  iiimself;  and  when  all 
the  purposes  of  divine  Providence  are  accomplished,  he  shall  be 
revealed  from  heaven  as  the  judge  of  men.  We  are  to  appear 
before  the  tribunal  of  him  who  died,  that  we  might  live,  and  we  are 
to  receive  from  his  hands  the  crown  of  life. 

The  particulars  which  I  have  now  brought  together,  unfold 
the  full  amount  of  that  expression  of  Peter,  "  Thou  Iiast  the 
words  of  eternal  life  i'"^  and  of  that  expression  of  John,  "  this 
is  the  record,  that  God  hath  given  us  eternal  life,  and  this  life 
is  in  his  Son."t  It  was  purchased  for  us  by  him ;  the  power  of 
conferring  it  resides  in  him;  he  prepares  us  for  it,  and  he  will  at 
length  bestow  it. 

From  this  view  of  the  connection  between  the  hope  of  eternal  life, 
and  the  interposition  of  Christ,  (here  arises  also  the  significancy  of 
that  name  which  is  given  to  him,  the  mediator  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, tlie  mediator  between  God  and  man;  ^(citrn.  Pleb.  ix.  15.  1 
Tim.  ii.  6.  He  is  not  merely  Ii^ter-mincitis  Dei,  the  messenger  who, 
coming  from  God  to  man,  declared  the  divine  purpose  ;  but  he  is  a 
person,  who,  standing  in  the  middle  bet\veen  God  and  his  ofiending 
creatures,  otiers  on  our  part  a  satisfaction  to  the  divine  justice,  and 
brings  us  from  God  an  assurance  that  the  satisfaction  is  accepted. 
He  becomes  in  this  way,  Heb.  vii.  22,xg«rToro5  Sta^jjxj^jfyyiof,  the  surety 
of  a  better  covenant,  which  being  confirmed  by  the  death  of  the 
surety,  acquires  the  nature  of  a  testament,  an  irrevocable  deed, 
because  the  death  loses  its  effect  unless  the  blessings  of  the  cove- 
nant are  conferred  upon  those  for  whom  the  surety  died.  Yet 
by  his  reviving  after  he  died,  he  becomes  himself  the  dispenser  of 
these  blessings,  and  is  in  this  most  eminent  sense  a  mediator,  that 
having  procured  us  access  to  the  Father  by  his  death,  he  ever  lives 
to  make  intercession.  His  mediation  is  efl'ectual,  because  it  proceeds 
upon  the  merit  of  what  he  did  for  our  salces ;  all  the  riches  of  divine 
'grace  are  connected  with  this  merit ;  and  the  nature  of  the  gospel 
remedy  may  be  thus  described  according  to  the  Catholic  0])inion  : — it 
is  pardon  and  eternal  life,  or  a  complete  redemption  from  the  evils  of 
sin,  obtained  and  conferred  through  the  mediation  of  a  person,  who 
having  offered  himself  a  sacrifice  for  sin,  and  being  now  set  doAvn  at 
the  right  hand  of  God,  is  emphatically  styled  "the  Captain  of  Salva- 
tion, the  author  and  finisher  of  faith." 

To  those  who  have  a  slight  impression  of  the  nature  of  that  condi- 
tion which  called  for  the  remedy,  there  may  appear  to  be  a  super- 
fluity of  condescension  in  tliis  mediation.  But  they  who  think  of  the 
fears  and  suspicions  which  are  natural  to  guilt,  which  are  often 
described  in  Scripture,  and  which  are  there  confirmed  by  an  awful 
exhibition  of  the  punitive  justice  of  the  Lawgiver,  will  perceive  the 
utility  and  fitness  of  all  that  provision  which  is  made  for  overcoming 
the  distrust  and  reviving  the  hopes  of  those  who  are  justified  by  the 
blood  of  Christ.  By  the  gracious  condescending  views  which  are 
given  of  the  present  condition  of  that  person  who  died  for  sins,  in 

*  John  vi.  68.  f   1  John  v.  11. 


"^^^  ETERNAL   LIFE. 

order  to  procure  for  men  the  most  glorious  regard,  the  gospel  becomes 
the  religion  of  those  to  whom  it  is  addressed,  the  humble,  the  contrite 
the  poor  m  spirit:  and  by  Jesus,  we  "believe  in  God,  who  raised  his 

mighf beV  God' -'  "^'"^  ^^""^  ^^  ^^''^'  '^"'  ""^'  ^^''^  ""^  ^^^P^^ 

*  1  Pet.  i.  21. 


EXTENT    OF    THE    REMEDY.  493 


CHAPTER  V. 


EXTENT    OP   THE    REMEDY. 


Having  treated  of  the  nature  of  the  remedy  which  the  gospel 
brings,  I  proceed  now  to  give  an  account  of  the  different  opinions 
which  have  been  held  concerning  the  extent  of  that  remedy.  But 
before  I  enter  upon  the  controverted  questions  on  this  subject,  I  wish 
to  direct  your  attention  to  two  preliminary  points.  In  the  first  all 
Christians  agree ;  and  the  differences  respecting  the  second  do  not 
distinguish  any  great  bodies  of  Christians,  but  are  confined  to  a  few 
individuals. 


Section  I. 

The  first  preliminary  point  is,  that  the  gospel  appears  framed  and 
designed  by  God  to  be  the  religion  of  the  whole  human  race. 

As  the  Almighty  Father  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  to  dwell 
upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  we  cannot  suppose  that  the  paternal 
affection,  with  which  he  looked  down  upon  those  whom  he  formed 
after  his  own  image,  will  be  in  the  smallest  degree  affected  by  the 
varieties  of  climate  and  situation;  and  all  the  conceptions  of  enlight- 
ened reason  lead  us  to  presume,  that  if  their  moral  state  render  them 
the  objects  of  his  compassion,  the  exercise  of  that  compassion  will  not 
be  bounded  by  any  lines  so  capricious  as  those  which  the  confines 
of  different  states  mark  upon  the  globe.  Accordingly,  the  declara- 
tion made  by  the  Almighty  immediately  after  the  first  transgression 
intimates  by  the  form  of  the  expression,  an  idea  most  becoming  the 
sovereignty  of  Him  who  speaks,  that  all  the  children  of  Adam  were 
somehow  to  partake  of  the  fruits  of  that  victory  which  the  seed  of  the 
woman  was  to  gain  over  the  tempter,  and  the  promise  made  to 
Abraham,  that  in  his  seed  all  the  families  of  the  earth  were  to  be 
blessed,  conveys  the  most  explicit  assurance,  that,  at  some  future  time, 
a  dispensation,  commensurate  in  extent  with  the  population  of  the 
earth,  was  to  proceed  from  the  descendants  of  Abraham. 

The  dispensation  given  by  Moses  to  the  posterity  of  the  patriarch  was 
of  a  very  different  kind.  It  was  confined,  by  the  terms  of  its  promul- 
gation, to  the  land  of  Judea :  the  various  ceremonies  which  it  pre- 
scribed were  such  as  the  inhabitants  of  countries  remote  from  Jerusa- 
lem could  not  perform;  and  the  object  of  all  the  institutions  was  to 
preserve,  in  a  small  district,  a  peculiar  people,  holy  unto  tlie  Lord  ; 
44 


494  EXTENT  OP  THE  REMEDY. 

while  the  rest  of  the  world  were  left  in  ignorance  and  idolatry.  The 
partiality,  from  which  this  local  dispensation  appears  at  first  sight  to 
have  flowed,  is  a  favourite  subject  of  declamation  with  deistical 
Avriters.  It  is  stated  as  an  unanswerable  proof  that  the  Jewish 
religion  is  unworthy  of  the  Supreme  Being.  The  boasted  peculiarity 
of  the  children  of  Israel  is  ranked  by  these  writers  amongst  the  other 
forms  of  superstition,  which  national  vanity  and  a  concurrence  of 
circumstances  maintained  for  ages  in  particular  districts  ;  and  as  Jesus 
and  his  apostles  assert  the  divine  authority  of  Moses,  and  build 
Christianity  upon  the  law  given  by  him,  their  claims  of  being  the 
messengers  of  Heaven  are  represented  as  very  much  shaken  by  this 
degradation  of  Judaism. 

Tliis  plausible  objection  is  fully  answered  in  all  the  able  defences 
of  Christianity;  particularly  by  Leland,  in  his  View  of  Deistical 
Writers,  and  by  Clarke,  both  in  his  Evidences  of  Religion,  and  in 
some  of  his  Sermons.  The  subject  is  also  treated  in  Shaw's  Philoso- 
phy of  Judaism;  in  Law's  Considerations  on  the  Theory  of  Religion; 
in  Jortin's  Discourses  on  the  Truth  of  the  Christian  Religion  ;  in 
Warburton's  Divine  Legation  of  Moses  ;  and  in  various  treatises  on 
the  harmony  of  the  divine  dispensations.  I  shall  endeavour  to  state, 
in  a  short  compass,  the  idea  which  these  writers  have  fully  eluci- 
dated. 

The  children  of  Israel  were  not  distinguished  by  a  special  revela- 
tion upon  account  of  any  peculiar  excellence  of  character,  which 
rendered  them,  more  than  other  nations,  the  objects  of  the  divine 
favour  ;  but  they  were  raised  up,  in  the  wisdom  of  Providence,  as  the 
nistruments  of  preserving  in  the  world,  amidst  abounding  idolatry, 
the  knowledge  and  worship  of  the  true  God,  and  of  conveying  to 
future  ages  the  hope  of  that  Deliverer  who  had  been  promised  from 
the  beginning.  To  qualify  them  for  this  important  ollice,  they  were 
separated  from  the  surrounding  heathen  by  circumcision,  by  a 
burdensome  ritual,  and  by  many  express  prohibitions  against  inter- 
marrying with  their  neighbours.  But  it  was  not  meant  that  they 
should  remain  unknown.  The  geographical  situation  of  the  land, 
which  God  had  given  them,  brought  them  within  the  view  of  those 
nations  who  make  the  most  conspicuous  figure  in  ancient  history. 
The  commerce  which  they  were  obliged  to  maintain  with  other 
nations,  the  fortunes  of  some  individuals  of  that  chosen  race,  and 
many  circumstances  in  the  history  of  the  nation,  particularly  their 
captivities  and  their  dispersions,  drew  the  attention  of  the  world  to 
the  singularities  of  their  establishment.  Some  knowledge  of  their  law 
was,  by  these  means,  carried  abroad  ;  and  from  the  land  of  Judea,  as 
from  a  light  shining  in  a  dark  place,  there  proceeded  rays,  which,  in 
the  midst  of  heathen  superstition,  prevented  the  darkness  from  being 
universal.  It  is  difficult  to  estimate  the  degree  of  aid  which  the  efforts 
of  human  reason  derived  from  the  revelation  granted  to  the  people 
of  Israel.  But  the  researches  of  Bryant,  in  his  Ancient  Mythology, 
and  of  other  learned  men,  seem  to  place  it  beyond  doubt,  that  this 
aid  was  more  considerable  than  a  superficial  uninformed  observer 
would  apprehend.  And  when  we  consider  the  successive  changes  in 
the  political  state  of  the  Jews,  and  the  situation  of  the  Roman  empire 
at  the  time  of  the  birth  of  that  extraordinary  personage,  of  whom 


EXTENT    OF    THE    REMEDY.  495 

there  had  been  a  general  expectation,  there  appears  to  be  the  best 
reason  for  regarding  the  whole  conduct  of  the  Ahuighty  towards  his 
chosen  people,  as  part  of  that  preparation  by  which  he  opened  to  the 
world  the  universal  and  spiritual  religion,  which,  in  the  fulness  of 
time,  was  published  by  his  Son, — a  preparation,  which  in  none  of  its 
parts  was  so  rapid  as  to  our  imaginations  may  appear  desirable,  but 
which  it  would  be  presumptuous  in  us,  upon  that  account,  to 
pronounce  unsuitable  to  the  circumstances  of  the  case. 

The  law  of  Moses,  then,  was  a  local  dispensation  intervening 
between  the  promise  made  to  Abraham,  that  in  his  seed  all  the  fami- 
lies of  the  earth  should  be  blessed,  and  the  fulfilment  of  the  promise. 
It  originated  in  the  promise ;  it  announced  the  great  event,  which 
was  the  accomplishment  of  the  promise,  and  it  terminated  with  that 
event.  A  great  part  of  the  study  of  a  Christian  divine  lies  in  tracing 
the  connexion  between  the  preparatory  dispensation,  and  that  to 
which  it  pointed  ;  and  the  more  intimately  that  he  is  acquainted  with 
this  connexion,  the  better  able  will  he  be  to  vindicate  the  God  of  the 
Jews  from  the  charge  of  partiality.  One  thing  is  obvious,  that  this 
narrow  confined  religion  gave  notice  of  a  dispensation  that  was  to  be 
universal.  David  says,  in  Psalm  xxii.  which  is  a  continued  prophecy 
of  the  Messiah,  "All  the  ends  of  the  world  shall  remember  and  turn 
to  the  Lord  ;  all  the  kindreds  of  the  nations  shall  worship  before  him ;" 
and  the  succession  of  Jewish  prophets  intimate,  by  various  expres- 
sions, that  the  partial  instruction,  which  the  law  of  Moses  afforded, 
was  to  be  succeeded  by  a  kind  of  teaching  not  confined  to  any  one 
people,  but  under  which  nations  that  had  been  strangers  to  the  true 
God  were  to  know  and  worsliip  him. 

It  is  true  that  the  national  vanity  of  the  Jews,  flattered  by  their 
peculiar  privileges,  gave  other  interpretations  of  such  prophecies. 
They  either  conceived  that  the  dispensation  of  the  Messiah,  by  sub- 
jecting the  nations  of  the  earth  to  their  dominion,  was  to  exalt  them 
to  the  empire  of  the  world,  then  held  by  the  Romans;  or,  if  their 
minds  did  rise  to  some  conception  of  a  spiritual  change  upon  the 
world,  it  went  no  further  than  this,  that  other  nations  were  to  ex- 
change the  idolatry  in  which  they  had  been  educated  for  an  observ- 
ance of  the  ceremonies  given  of  old  from  Mount  Sinai.  They  did  not 
think  that  the  chosen  people  of  God  could  ever  be  made  to  descend 
to  that  equality  with  the  heathen,  which  is  implied  in  supposing  that 
the  offerings  made  in  other  countries  are  as  acceptable  to  God  as 
those  presented  at  Jerusalem.  Far  less  did  it  occur  to  their  minds 
that  the  whole  city  was  to  be  laid  waste,  and  the  temple  of  Solomon 
razed  to  the  ground:  and  that  this  effectual  abolition  of  the  cere- 
monies of  the  law  was  to  prepare  the  world  for  receiving  a  spiritual 
religion,  clearly  discriminated  from  that  local  system.  These  pre- 
judices of  the  Jews,  founded  upon  a  literal  interpretation  of  their  own 
sacred  books,  and  possessing  the  minds  of  all  ranks,  required  much 
attention  at  the  first  publication  of  the  gospel.  For  Jesus  appeared 
as  the  Messiah  of  the  Jews,  claiming  to  be  that  Son  of  David  whom 
their  prophets  had  described  as  a  mighty  prince  ;  and  his  religion, 
deriving  a  great  part  of  its  internal  evidence  from  its  perfect  consis- 
tency with  that  former  revelation  of  which  it  is  the  fulfilment,  was  to 
go  forth  from  Judea  to  enlighten  the  ends  of  the  earth.     The  order 


496  EXTENT  OF  THE  REMEDY. 

of  Providence,  then,  required  that  Christianity  should  be  preached 
first  to  the  Jews  ;  and  it  was  necessary  that,  if  they  did  not  embrace 
the  promise  made  to  their  fathers,  the  manner  of  its  being  preached 
to  them  should  be  such  as  to  render  their  infidelity  inexcusable,  and 
to  vindicate  the  justice  of  the  severe  punishment  ordained  for  their 
nation. 

Tliis  is  the  key  to  a  great  part  of  the  New  Testament ;  and  I  do  not 
know  any  views  which  persons  who  expound  the  Scriptures  to  the 
people  have  more  frequent  occasion  to  bring  forward  and  to  apply, 
than  those  which  I  have  now  stated.  From  these  views  we  derive 
the  reason  of  our  Lord's  confining  his  personal  ministry  to  the  Jews, 
and  forbidding  the  apostles,  when  he  sent  them  forth  during  his  abode 
upon  earth,  to  go  into  the  way  of  the  Gentiles.  From  hence  we  are 
able  to  account  for  the  slow  opening  of  the  universal  character  of 
Christianity ;  and  we  learn  to  admire  the  skill  and  address  with 
which  our  Lord  employed  general  expressions,  parables,  and  action, 
gradually  to  unfold  this  offensive  truth.  The  name  by  which  he 
commonly  designed  himself,  "  the  Son  of  Man,"  was  most  expressive 
of  his  connexion  with  the  whole  human  race.  In  his  discourses  with 
the  Jews,  he  frequently  called  himself  the  light  of  the  world,  and 
many  words  dropped  from  him,  which,  howsoever  they  were  under- 
stood by  his  hearers,  appear  to  us  intended  to  mark  the  full  extent  of 
his  gracious  undertaking.*  "  Other  sheep  I  have  which  are  not  of  this 
fold  ;  them  also  I  must  bring,  and  there  shall  be  one  fold  and  one 
shepherd."  "  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,"  referring  to  the  manner  of  his 
death  on  the  cross,  "  will  draw  all  men  to  me."t  Several  of  his 
parables  convey  under  a  thin  disguise  the  future  extension  of  his  king- 
dom, the  rejection  of  those  who  thought  they  had  an  exclusive  title 
to  its  privileges,  and  the  introduction  of  those  whom  the  Jews  held  in 
contempt.J  Our  Lord  began  his  public  ministry  at  Jerusalem  by 
driving  the  buyers  and  sellers  out  of  the  temple ;  and  he  repeated 
this  action  a  little  before  his  crucifixion.  The  action  appears  to  an 
ordinary  reader  to  be  merely  a  transport  of  zeal.  But  if  you  read  the 
enlightened  commentary  of  Bishop  Hurd  at  the  end  of  the  first 
volume  of  his  sermons,  you  will  regard  it  in  a  much  higher  light,  as 
a  symbolical  action,  intimating  in  the  most  significant  manner  that  the 
house  of  God  was  to  become,  under  the  Christian  dispensation,  a 
house  of  prayer  for  all  nations.  The  only  place  in  the  temple  allotted 
for  the  devout  heathen,  or  proselytes  of  the  gate,  who  chose  to  come 
up  to  Jerusalem,  that  they  might  there  worship  the  God  of  Israel, 
was  an  outer  court,  in  which  many  things  necessary  for  the  service 
of  the  temple  were  exposed  to  sale.  Our  Lord,  by  driving  the  buyers 
and  sellers  out  of  this  court,  vindicated  the  rights  of  the  Gentiles,  who 
had  been  insulted  during  their  devotions  by  the  uproar  of  a  fair;  and 
although  he  did  not  proceed  so  far  as  to  bring  them  into  the  sanctuary, 
yet  by  this  mark  of  his  attention  he  gave  a  pledge  of  the  fulness  of 
that  grace  which  was  soon  to  be  revealed  to  them. 

Accordingly  the  commission  given  to  the  apostles  immediately 
before  his  ascension,  was  unlimited.  "  Go,  make  disciples  of  all  na- 
tions.    Ye  shall  be  witnesses  to  me  unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the 

*  Mat.  viii.  11.  ]  John  x.  16  ;  xii.  33.  t  Mat.  xs.  xxi.  xxii. 


EXTENT  OF  THE  REMEDT.  497 

earth.  And  he  said  unto  them,  that  repentance  and  remission  of 
sins  should  be  preached  in  his  name  among  all  nations,  beginning  at 
Jerusalem."*  The  gift  of  tongues,  conferred  upon  them  ten  days  after 
his  ascension,  qualified  them  for  executing  this  unlimited  commis- 
sion :  and  the  miracles,  which  they  were  enabled  to  perform,  consti- 
tuted an  evidence  of  their  divine  mission  equally  intelligible  to  men 
in  all  countries,  and  fitted  to  bring  universal  conviction.  Paul,  who 
was  addod  to  the  number  of  the  apostles  after  the  ascension  of  Jesus, 
was  told  by  a  special  revelation  at  the  time  of  his  conversion,  that 
he  was  to  be  sent  far  from  Jerusalem  to  the  Gentiles  ;t  and  Acts  x. 
relates  the  manner  in  which  the  minds  of  the  other  apostles,  who  still 
retained  many  of  the  prejudices  of  the  Jews,  were  opened  to  conceive 
the  true  character  of  the  gospel,  and  to  understand  the  extent  of  their 
own  commission.  Peter  was  instructed  in  a  vision  not  to  call  that 
unclean  which  God  hath  cleansed  ;  he  then  received  a  command  to 
preach  the  gospel  to  Cornelius,  a  devout  heathen  ;  and  his  preaching 
was  accompanied  with  a  descent  of  the  miraculous  gifts  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  upon  Cornelius  and  his  family.  These  three  circumstances, 
the  vision,  the  command,  and  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  appeared 
to  the  other  apostles  to  constitute  a  full  vindication  of  his  conduct ; 
and  although  they  had  blamed  Peter  when  they  first  heard  of  his 
going  in  to  the  Gentiles,  they  were  satisfied,  after  he  expounded  to 
them  the  whole  matter,  that  by  the  gospel  there  is  "  granted  to  the 
Gentiles  also  repentance  unto  life." 

As  soon  as  this  enlarged  idea  took  possession  of  their  minds,  it 
formed  one  great  subject  of  their  discourses  and  their  writings ;  and 
we  see  them  labouring  to  bring  it  forth  to  the  admiration  of  the  world. 
While  Paul  avails  himself  of  his  Jewish  learning  to  prove  that  the 
Gospel  is  the  end  of  the  law,  his  epistles  abound  with  the  declaration 
of  that  mystery,  i.  e.  that  part  of  the  conduct  of  divine  Providence 
formerly  unknown,  which  had  been  revealed  to  him,  that  the  Gentiles 
should  be  fellow-heirs,  and  partakers  of  the  same  promise  in  Christ 
by  the  Gospel.  He  magnifies  the  grace  of  God,  who  now  appears 
not  the  God  of  the  Jews,  but  the  God  of  the  Gentiles  also,  "  rich  in 
mercy  to  all  that  call  upon  him ;"  and  he  dwells  upon  this  distinguish- 
ing excellence  of  the  Gospel,  that  under  it  there  is  neither  Jew  nor 
Greek,  circumcision  nor  uncircumcision,  but  that  Christ  is  all  in  all. 
The  Evangelist  John,  who  wrote  his  Gospel  long  after  the  rest,  in 
relating  a  saying  of  Caiaphas  the  high  priest,  adds  these  words  of  him- 
self, that  Jesus  Christ  "  should  die  not  for  that  nation  only,  but  that 
also  he  should  gather  together  in  one  the  children  of  God  which  were 
scattered  abroad  ;"t  and  in  the  book  of  the  Revelation,  where  he 
writes  by  the  commandment  of  Jesus  the  things  shown  to  him  in 
vision  which  were  to  be  hereafter,  he  mentions  an  angel  whom  he 
saw  flying  in  heaven,  having  the  Gospel  to  preach  to  them  that  dwell 
upon  the  earth  ;  and  he  says  that  he  beheld  a  great  multitude  of  all 
nations,  and  kindreds,  and  people,  and  tongues,  standing  before  the 
throne  and  before  the  Lamb.§ 

I  have  thought  it  of  importance  thus  to  bring  together,  in  one  view, 

•  Mat.  xxviii.  19.     Acts  i.  8.     Luke  xxiv.  46,  47.  f  Acts  xxii.  21. 

t  John  xi.  40 — 52.  §  Rev.  xiv.  6;  vii.  9. 

44*  3  U 


498  EXTENT  OF  THE  REMEDY. 

the  Scripture  account  of  Christianity  as  an  universal  reUgion, — as 
offering  a  remedy  which,  in  this  respect,  corresponds  to  the  disease, 
that  it  is  not  confined  to  any  one  nation,  but  may  be  embraced  by 
men  of  every  country.  It  is  a  branch  of  the  evidence  of  Christianity, 
that  there  is  nothing  m  its  nature  to  prevent  the  universal  publication 
of  it,  and  that  there  is  a  tendency  in  the  general  course  of  things  to 
bring  about  this  event.  And  although  the  accomplishment  of  the 
l>rediction,  that  it  is  to  be  preached  to  all  nations,  has  been  delayed, 
there  cannot  fairly  be  drawn  by  reasoning  or  analogy  any  presump- 
tion that  the  prediction  will  never  be  accomplished.  We  are  thus 
warranted  to  apply  to  the  Christian  religion  that  character  which  it 
assumes  to  itself  as  the  religion  of  mankind ;  we  discern  one  sense  in 
which  it  may  with  propriety  be  said  that  "  God  will  have  all  men  to 
be  saved,  and  that  Christ  is  the  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  the  whole 
world ;"  and  we  perceive  the  significancy  of  that  expression  of  Paul, 
"  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ ;  for  it  is  the  power  of 
God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  believeth,  to  the  Jew  first,  and 
also  to  the  Greek." 


Section  II. 

The  second  preliminary  point  is,  that  the  extent  of  the  remedy 
brought  in  the  Gospel  is  limited  by  the  terms  in  which  it  is  offered. 
As  Jesus  gave  his  apostles  a  commission  to  preach  repentance  and 
remission  of  sins  in  his  name  among  all  nations,  they  executed  their 
commission  in  such  words  as  these,  "  Repent  and  be  converted,  that 
your  sins  may  be  blotted  out.  Believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
thou  shalt  be  saved."  "  I  testified,"  says  Paul,  "  both  to  the  Jews, 
and  also  to  the  Greeks,  repentance  towards  God,  and  faith  towards 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."* 

From  these  passages,  which  accord  with  the  general  strain  of  the 
New  Testament,  it  seems  to  follow,  that  the  Gospel,  which  is  the 
religion  of  sinners,  and  professes  to  bring  a  remedy  for  the  evils  of  sin, 
is  a  remedy  only  to  those  who  repent  and  believe.  Although  different 
sects  of  Christians,  therefore,  may  disagree  as  to  the  description  of 
repentance  and  faith,  as  to  the  manner  in  which  they  are  produced, 
and  the  connexion  between  them  and  the  efficacy  of  what  Christ  did ; 
it  does  not  appear  possible  that  any  sect  which  receives  the  Scriptures 
can  deny  that  a  certain  character  or  state  of  mind,  which  is  there  ex- 
pressed by  repentance  and  faith,  is  required  in  all  who  partake  of  the 
remedy,  and  consequently  that  the  extent  of  the  remedy  is  limited  by 
this  requisition. 

This  acknowledged  point,  that  whosoever  repents  and  believes  shall 
be  saved,  is  the  great  subject  of  preaching :  and  as  it  is  the  only  point 
respecting  the  extent  of  the  remedy,  which  is  clearly  and  incontro- 
vertibly  revealed  in  Scripture,  so  it  is  of  infinitely  greater  importance 
than  all  the  controverted  points.  They  are  matters  of  speculation, 
upon  which  it  is  natural  for  the  human  mind  to  form  some  opinion. 

*  Actsiii.  19;  xvi,  31;  xx.  21. 


EXTENT  OP  THE  REMEDY.  499 

The  opinion  may  be  more  or  less  agreeable  to  the  most  rational  con- 
ceptions of  the  divine  attributes,  to  the  views  incidentally  given  in 
Scripture,  and  to  the  great  end  of  Christianity.  There  is  truth  or 
error,  there  is  consistency  or  inconsistency  in  the  sentiments  enter- 
tained upon  this  as  upon  all  other  subjects;  and  as  the  Church  of 
Scotland  has  adopted  a  particular  system  of  opinions  concerning  the 
extent  of  the  remedy,  it  is  decent  and  fit  that  those  who  desire  to  be 
her  ministers  should  be  well  acquainted  with  the  grounds  of  that  sys- 
tem. Bat  it  is  not  necessary  that  these  grounds,  or  tliat  the  system 
itself  should  be  explained  to  the  people.  We  fulfil  the  office  which  is 
committed  to  the  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  when  we  call  our  hearers 
to  repent  and  believe,  in  order  that  they  may  be  saved ;  and  all  those 
teachers,  who  agree  as  to  the  character  of  the  person  by  whom  the 
remedy  was  brought,  and  as  to  the  nature  of  the  remedy,  may  dis- 
charge this  duty  with  the  same  fidelity  and  the  same  energy,  although 
they  differ  in  their  speculations  as  to  many  points  that  respect  the  ex- 
tent of  the  remedy. 

The  Socinians,  who  differ  from  all  other  Christians  as  to  the  nature 
of  the  remedy,  cannot  be  expected  to  agree  with  them  as  to  the  ex- 
tent of  it.  Considering  the  pardon  of  those  who  repent  as  flowing  from 
tlie  essential  goodness  of  God,  without  reference  to  any  thing  that 
Christ  has  done,  they  must  conceive  that  pardon  is  dispensed  at  all 
times,  and  in  all  places,  with  equal  liberality  ;  and  considering  eternal 
life  not  as  purchased  by  Jesus  Christ,  but  as  the  free  gift  of  God  to 
creatures  naturally  mortal,  they  conceive  that  this  gift  will  be  bestowed 
upon  all  virtuous  men  that  have  lived  from  the  beginning  of  the  world 
under  any  dispensation  of  religion.  They  allow  that  Christianity  was 
of  great  advantage  to  the  world  by  bringing  assurance  of  these  truths  ; 
and  that  those  who  lived  in  the  ancient  world  were  in  the  same  situa- 
tion with  the  inhabitants  of  countries  where  the  Gospel  has  never 
been  published,  without  that  comfort  under  a  consciousness  of  infirmi- 
ties, and  those  incitements  to  well-doing,  which  Christians  may  derive 
from  the  Gospel.  But  if,  on  this  account  merely,  they  fail  in  their 
duty,  their  situation  will  plead  indulgence  for  their  failings;  and  if 
they  attain  nearly  the  same  degree  of  virtue  as  Christians  without  the 
same  advantages,  they  are  still  better  entitled  to  partake  of  that  exu- 
berant grace  by  which  our  Father  in  heaven  rewards  the  services  of 
his  children. 

There  is  a  system  with  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  remedy,  which 
considers  the  loss  of  immortality  as  the  only  forfeiture  incurred  by  the 
sin  of  Adam,  and  the  restoration  of  forfeited  life  as  the  blessing  ])ur- 
chascd  by  Christ.  Those  who  hold  this  system  are  led  by  their  prin- 
ciples to  consider  the  purchase  of  the  second  Adam,  as  of  the  same 
extent  with  the  forfeiture  of  the  first:  they  allow,  with  the  Socinians, 
that  those  who  never  heard  of  Christianity  are  destitute  of  many 
advantages  for  the  improvement  of  their  minds  which  that  revelation 
affords :  hut  they  do  not  conceive  that  the  extent  of  the  remedy  is,  in 
any  measure,  dependent  upon  the  extent  of  the  publication.  They 
bring  down  the  etfect  of  the  death  of  Christ  to  a  right  which  he  has 
acquired  of  giving  immortality  to  a  race  of  beings  by  whom  it  had 
been  forfeited,  and  they  look  upon  an  universal  resurrection  as  the 
accomplishment  of  his  undertaking. 


500  EXTENT  OF  THE  REMEDY. 

If  both  these  systems  are  essentially  defective  as  to  the  nature  of 
the  remedy,  there  must  also  be  a  defect  in  their  manner  of  stating 
the  extent  of  it.  Christians  who  consider  the  death  of  Christ  as  an 
atonement,  upon  account  of  which  the  sins  of  those  that  repent  are 
forgiven,  have  many  points  to  take  into  view  before  they  can  deter- 
mine the  manner  in  which  this  atonement  reaches  either  those  to 
whom  it  has  been  preached,  or  those  to  whom  it  has  not.  But 
although  we  are  not  prepared  for  stating  that  system  with  regard  to 
the  condition  of  persons  who  have  not  lieard  of  the  Gospel,  which 
results  from  the  Catholic  opinion  concerning  the  nature  of  the  remedy, 
it  may  be  proper  to  mention,  under  this  second  preliminary  point,  a 
splendid  speculation  concerning  the  final  state  of  the  wicked,  which 
has  arisen  out  of  some  of  the  principles  formerly  delineated. 

If,  according  to  the  Socinian  system,  the  essential  goodness  of  God 
incline  him  at  all  times  to  pardon  transgression,  we  cannot  suppose 
that  he  will  prolong  the  existence  of  creatures  naturally  mortal,  only 
that  he  may  continue,  through  all  eternity,  to  punish  the  sins  com- 
mitted during  a  few  years  upon  earth :  and  if,  according  to  the  middle 
system,  it  is  the  character  of  the  Gospel  to  restore  forfeited  life  to  the 
whole  human  race,  it  seems  to  follow,  that  the  restored  life  cannot,  in 
any  case,  be  merely  the  capacity  of  enduring  everlasting  punishment, 
since,  upon  that  supposition,  the  restoration  of  life,  which  is  stated  as 
a  universal  blessing,  would  to  many  be  the  greatest  curse.  These 
two  systems,  therefore,  tend  to  produce  the  belief  that  those  who  have 
been  wicked  shall,  after  a  certain  time,  be  either  annihilated  or  re- 
formed. 

The  annihilation  of  soul  and  body,  according  to  the  Socinian  system, 
is  the  natural  mortality  of  man  left  to  operate  upon  those  who  reject 
the  offer  of  eternal  life  made  in  the  Gospel ;  according  to  the  middle 
system,  it  is  the  curse  which  Adam  conveyed  to  his  posterity,  which 
the  Gospel  offers  to  remove  from  all,  and  which  it  effectually  removes 
from  those  who  have  lived  virtuously.  As  the  sins  of  those  who 
reject  this  offer  deserve  a  punishment  more  severe  than  any  that  is 
inflicted  in  this  life,  they  are  raised  at  the  last  day  that  they  may 
receive  according  to  their  deeds ;  but  after  they  have  endured  a  suffi- 
cient measure  of  punishment,  they  are  left  to  relapse  into  that  death, 
that  extinction  of  being,  in  which  the  whole  human  race  would  have 
remained,  had  it  not  been  for  the  grace  of  the  Gospel.  If  the  souls 
and  bodies  of  all  that  have  been  wicked  are  at  length  annihilated,  the 
final  effect  of  the  sins  committed  in  this  life  will  be  a  loss  of  existence 
in  the  universe,  but  not  a  perpetuity  of  misery ;  for,  after  a  certain 
time,  no  beings  of  the  human  race  shall  exist,  but  those  who,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  virtues  which  they  had  displayed  upon  earth,  are 
made  happy  for  ever. 

Others  conceive  that  the  wicked  shall  not  be  annihilated,  but,  after 
a  certain  time,  reformed.  Considering  the  soul  of  man  as  naturally 
immortal,  and  thinking  it  unworthy  of  the  ruler  of  the  universe  to 
adopt,  as  a  method  of  conducting  his  government,  the  destruction  of 
a  number  of  beings  whom  he  had  made  to  live  for  ever,  they  endea- 
vour to  reconcile  the  future  misery  of  the  wicked  with  their  system 
concerning  the  nature  of  the  Gospel  remedy,  by  supposing  that  the 
punishments  which  are   endured  after  death,  being  intended,  like 


EXTENT    OF    THE    REMEDY.  501 

many  of  the  calamities  of  this  hfe,  to  correct  the  vices  of  those  upon 
whom  they  are  inflicted,  shall  terminate  in  their  reformation.  If  it  be 
admitted  that  goodness  constitutes  the  whole  moral  character  of  the 
Deity,  that,  as  with  respect  to  his  understanding  he  is  light,  so  with 
respect  to  his  will  he  is  love,  and  nothing  but  love,  it  will  follow,  that 
what  are  commonly  called  his  other  attributes  are  only  modifications 
of  goodness,  the  necessary  result  of  this  primary  attribute  ;  that  justice, 
which  is  generally  stated  as  opposite  to  goodness,  is  nothing  else  but 
a  constant  desire  of  giving  to  his  reasonable  creatures  what  their 
moral  state  requires.  Those  who  are  docile  and  tractable,  he  lead5 
by  gentle  methods  to  the  perfection  of  their  nature ;  those  whose 
passions  are  impetuous,  and  whose  hearts  are  hard,  he  subdues  by 
afllictions,  that  they  may  become  partakers  of  his  holiness.  The  dis- 
cipline of  this  life,  which  often  appears  harsh,  is  only  the  expression 
of  his  fatherly  love  administering  salutary  chastisement ;  and  as  this 
discipline  does  not  produce  its  effect  with  regard  to  all  during  the  sbort 
time  that  is  allotted  to  them  upon  earth,  he  continues  the  chastise- 
ment in  a  future  state,  where  it  is  administered  with  a  severity  suited 
to  the  depravity  of  the  sufterer,  and  is  prolonged  till  sin  be  completely 
destroyed.  If  all  the  wicked  are  at  length  thus  reformed  after  death, 
the  final  effect  of  his  transgressions  that  have  been  committed  upon 
earth,  is  neither  the  destruction  nor  the  everlasting  misery  of  any 
human  being  :  for  the  misery  endured  after  death,  which  is  described 
in  Scripture  by  many  lively  images,  gradually  works  the  correction 
of  that  moral  evil  from  which  it  sprung ;  and  when  it  has  accom- 
phshed  this  end,  every  sinner  will  be  rescued  from  the  consequences 
of  his  transgression,  and  all  the  children  of  Adam  placed  in  a  state  of 
unalterable  virtue  and  happiness. 

A  view  of  the  termination  of  future  punishment,  which  appears  to 
be  agreeable  to  the  most  enlarged  conceptions  of  the  divine  goodness 
that  reason  can  form,  is  supposed  to  derive  much  confirmation  from 
those  descriptions  of  the  divine  clemency  with  which  the  Scriptures 
abound  ;  from  its  being  said  that  the  mercy  of  the  Lord  endureth  for 
ever,  that  he  will  not  forsake  the  works  of  his  hands,  that  he  will 
have  all  men  to  be  saved  and  to  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  ; 
and  from  our  Lord's  employing,  Matt.  xxv.  46,  as  the  name  of  the 
everlasting  punishment  reserved  for  the  wicked,  the  word  xo^.a^ij, 
which  is  the  vox  signata  in  Greek  for  that  kind  of  punishment  which 
is  meant  for  the  correction  of  him  who  has  behaved  ill,  that  he  may 
behave  better  in  time  to  come,  and  which  may  be  called  everlasting, 
if  it  endures  without  intermission  till  he  be  corrected. 

This  opinion,  concerning  the  final  reformation  of  the  wicked  by 
means  of  the  punishments  of  a  future  state,  is  traced  back  to  Origen, 
a  father  of  the  third  century,  to  whose  extensive  erudition  and 
indefatigable  industry,  the  Christian  world  is  much  indebted,  but 
whose  fancy,  which  in  many  respects  was  not  tutored  and  chastised 
by  sound  judgment,  produced  various  mystical  interpretations  of 
Scripture,  and  whose  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  heathen  philo- 
sophy was  often  employed  to  adulterate  the  simplicity  of  the  gospel. 
The  Platonic  and  Stoic  philosophers  spoke  of  a  certain  period  of  ages, 
to  which  we  arc  accustomed  to  give  the  name  of  annus  niagnus, 
after  the  completion  of  which  they  conceived  that  all  things  would 


502  EXTENT    OF    THE    REMEDY. 

return  to  the  state  in  which  they  were  at  the  creation.  It  is  not 
agreed  amongst  the  learned,  whether  Origen  adopted  this  idea  so 
completely  as  to  believe  that  there  is  a  succession  of  worlds,  a  resolu- 
tion of  all  things  into  their  first  principles,  and  a  reproduction  of  them 
in  continual  rotation.  But  he  certainly  believed  that  the  punishments 
of  the  wicked  in  a  future  state  would,  after  some  ages,  produce  an 
amendment  of  character,  and  that  in  consequence  of  this  amendment, 
all  the  spirits  who  had  endured  these  punishments  would  in  time, 
some  at  a  nearer,  and  some  at  a  more  remote  period,  join  those  spirits 
who  had  suffered  nothing  after  death. 

The  authority  of  Origen  gave  a  degree  of  currency  to  this  opinion. 
It  is  said  to  have  been  held  by  some  writers  in  the  dark  ages.  It  was 
revived  about  two  hundred  years  ago  by  its  conformity  to  the  leading 
principles  of  Socinianism  ;  and,  not  to  mention  many  smaller  treatises, 
it  was  lately  exhibited  in  a  most  elegant  and  pleasing  dress,  in  a 
French  book  entitled, "  Le  plan  de  Dieu  envers  les  hommes,  par  Petit 
Pierre."  This  opinion  has  not  been  confined  to  Socinians.  Many 
who  hold  the  doctrine  of  atonement  have  discovered  a  propensity  to 
embrace  an  opinion,  which  seems  lo  magnify  the  effect  of  the  inter- 
position of  Christ ;  at  least  they  are  disposed  to  consider  the  eternity 
of  hell  torments  as  a  problematical  point  which  the  Scriptures  have 
not  decided  ;  and  some  benevolent  writers  have  laboured  to  bring 
forth  an  idea,  which  they  call  in  a  Scripture  phrase  the  restitution  of 
all  things.  It  appears  to  them  that  so  glorious  a  being  as  the  Son  of 
God  must  have  come  into  the  world,  and  endured  the  sufferings 
which  marked  his  life,  for  some  design  more  excellent,  and  more 
Avorthy  of  the  Father  of  all  than  the  redemption  of  a  part  of  mankind. 
They  suppose,  therefore,  that  his  mediation  is  operating,  altliough 
they  cannot  explain  how,  for  the  universal  restoration  of  the  human 
race  ;  that  he  is  the  agent  employed  in  extirpating  moral  evil  from  the 
creation  of  God  ;  that  this  is  the  reason  of  the  name  given  him  in  the 
Septuagint  translation  of  a  part  of  the  celebrated  prophecy  of  the 

INIeSSiah,   in    Isaiah    ix.  xat  xa^^^T'tt^  to  ovofta  avfon,  MfyaZ-j^j  [JouXj^'i  ayysTLo;  :   not 

as  it  is  rendered  in  our  English  Bibles, "  His  name  shall  be  called 
Wonderful,  Counsellor,"  but  "  His  name  shall  be  called  the  messenger 
of  the  great  design  ;"  that  his  kingdom  shall  continue  till  the  great 
design  be  accomplished ;  and  that  when  he  has  made  an  end  of  sin, 
and  reconciled  all  things  in  heaven  and  earth  to  his  Father,  he  will 
deliver  up  the  kingdom;  and  righteousness,  peace,  and  happiness 
will  for  ever  pervade  the  whole  intelligent  creation. 

These  are  delightful  prospects ;  and  a  heart,  which  is  disposed  by 
its  own  good  affections  to  take  an  interest  in  the  prosperity  of  other 
beincrs,  is  ready  to  entertain  them  upon  very  slender  evidence.  But 
it  is  of  much  importance  for  students  in  divinity  to  remember  that 
these  prospects  do  not  constitute  an  essential  part  of  theology.  They 
extend  far,  very  far  indeed,  beyond  the  limits  of  our  observation  or 
our  capacities.  They  rest  upon  conjectures,  not  upon  reasoning ; 
upon  incidental  expressions  of  Scripture,  which  admit  of  other  inter- 
pretations ;  upon  analogies  which  even  when  they  are  most  pointed 
and  numerous,  amount  only  to  probability,  which  are  easily  over- 
strained by  a  mind  elevated  witli  the  magnificence  of  the  subject,  or 
warmed  with  philanthropy,  and  which,  without  much  caution,  lead 


EXTENT    OF    THE    REMEDY.  503 

to  fanciful  theories,  and  to  conclusions  that  are  found  to  be  false. 
Whenever  we  presume  to  determine  what  is  proper  to  be  done  in  the 
government  of  the  universe,  we  attempt  to  comprehend  a  subject, 
which  embraces  numberless  relations  that  are  perfectly  unknown  to 
us.  Such  speculations  may  be  pleasing,  and  they  may  be  plausible  ; 
but  they  are  the  speculations  of  creatures  who  forget  that  they  "  are 
but  of  yesterday  and  know  nothing,"  and  who,  stepping  beyond  the 
humble  and  sober  province  that  is  allotted  to  man,  presume  to  instruct 
the  Ancient  of  days.  It  is  the  character  of  sound  theology,  not  to 
subject  the  administration  of  God  to  our  conjectures  and  theories ; 
but,  in  the  firm  persuasion  that  he  is  able  to  do  all  his  pleasure,  and 
that  he  will  do  that  which  is  right,  to  inquire  with  reverence  and  with 
diligence  what  he  has  done,  and  what  he  has  said  he  will  do,  and  to 
make  the  information  which  Scripture  affords  upon  these  points,  the 
measure  of  our  hopes,  and  the  rule  of  our  conduct. 

Although,  therefore,  I  judge  it  proper,  in  opening  that  great  division 
of  the  subjects  of  theological  controversy  upon  which  we  now  enter, 
to  mention  speculations  that  have  been  indulged  concerning  the  final 
condition  of  those  who  reject  the  salvation  of  the  gospel,  it  is  not  to  be 
supposed  that  these  speculations  constitute  the  points  which  divide  the 
opinions  of  the  Christian  world  in  regard  to  the  extent  of  the  remedy. 
They  are  the  speculations  of  individual  writers,  or  they  arise  incident- 
ally from  general  systems.  But  they  are  not  the  characteristical  tenets 
of  any  great  body  of  Christians  ;  and  whatever  similarity  there  may 
appear  in  the  name,  the  questions  concerning  universal  and  particular 
redemption  have  a  very  different  object. 

With  these  questions  I  begin  the  statement  of  that  system  of  doc- 
trine in  regard  to  the  extent  of  the  remedy,  which  is  called  Calvinistic, 
by  holding  which,  the  Church  of  Scotland  is  distinguished  from  the 
Arminians,  from  the  Lutheran  churches,  and  from  a  very  great  part 
of  the  members  of  the  Church  of  England. 

Leland's  View  of  the  Debtical  Writers. 

Shaw's  Philosophy  of  Judaism. 

Clarke's  Evidences  and  Sermons. 

Law's  Theory  of  Religion. 

Jortin's  Discourses. 

Warburton's  Divine  Legation  of  Moses. 

Kurd's  Sermons. 


I 


JO 


BOOK  IV. 


OPINIONS   CONCERNING   THE    NATURE,    THE    EXTENT, 

AND    THE    APPLICATION    OF    THE    REMEDY 

BROUGHT    BY    THE    GOSPEL. 


CHAPTER  VL 


PARTICULAR    REDEMPTION. 


Br  the  Calvinistic  tenets  is  meant  that  system  of  doctrine  with 
regard  to  the  extent  of  the  remedy,  which  distinguishes  those  who 
embrace  all  the  opinions  of  Calvin,  from  those  Christians  who  agree 
with  him  only  as  to  the  divinity  of  Christ  and  the  atonement,  I  shall 
not  attempt  to  open  the  whole  system  at  once ;  but  I  shall  go  step  by 
step  through  the  points  of  difference  between  it  and  other  systems,  in 
the  order  which  appears  to  me  the  most  natural.  In  this  way  we 
shall  not  reach  all  the  parts  of  the  Calvinistic  system,  till  we  have 
gone  through  the  third  great  division  of  the  subjects  of  theological 
controversy,  I  mean  the  application  of  the  remedy ;  and  we  shall  then 
be  able,  by  a  short  retrospective  view  of  the  ground  over  which  we 
have  travelled,  to  form  a  precise  connected  idea  of  the  whole.  Accord- 
ing to  this  manner  of  exhibiting  the  Calvinistic  system,  I  begin  with 
stating  the  question  concerning  universal  and  particular  redemption  ; 
in  other  words,  whether  Christ  died  for  all  men,  or  only  for  those  who 
shall  finally  be  saved  by  him. 

The  two  sides  of  this  question  do  not  imply  any  difference  of 
opinion  with  regard  to  the  sufficiency  of  the  death  of  Christ,  or  with 
regard  to  the  number  and  character  of  those  who  shall  eventually  be 
saved.  They  who  hold  the  one  and  the  other  side  of  the  question 
agree,  that  although  tl>e  sufferings  of  Christ  have  a  value  sufficient  to 
atone  for  the  sins  of  all  the  children  of  Adam,  from  the  beginning  to 
the  end  of  time,  yet  those  only  shall  be  saved  by  this  atonement  who 
repent  and  believe  in  him.  But  they  differ  as  to  the  destination  of 
the  death  of  Christ ;  whether  in  the  purpose  of  the  Father  and  the 
45  3X  505 


506  PARTICULAR    REDEMPTION. 

will  of  the  Son  it  respected  all  mankind,  or  only  those  persons  to 
whom  the  benefit  of  it  is  at  length  to  be  applied. 

The  doctrine  of  universal  redemption  is  mentioned  as  one  of  the 
distinguishing  tenets  of  the  Pelagians.  It  forms  the  subject  of  one  of 
the  five  points  which  comprehend  the  Arminian  system.  It  is  held 
by  all  the  Lutheran  churches.  It  seems  to  be  taught  in  one  of  the 
articles  of  the  church  of  England,  and  several  parts  of  the  Liturgy; 
and  it  is  avowed  by  the  great  body  of  English  divines  as  the  doctrine 
of  Scripture  and  of  their  church.  This  doctrine  will  be  understood 
from  the  second  of  the  five  Arminian  points,  which  is  thus  expressed: 
"Jesus  Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  died  for  all  men,  and  for 
every  individual,  so  as  to  obtain  for  all,  by  his  death,  reconciliation 
and  remission  of  sins ;  upon  this  condition,  however,  that  none  in 
reality  enjoys  the  benefit  of  this  remission  but  the  man  who  believes." 
Dr.  Whitby,  in  his  discourse  on  the  five  points,  thus  explains  the  doc- 
trine: "When  we  say  Christ  died  for  all,  we  do  not  mean  that  he 
hath  purchased  actual  pardon  or  reconciliation  or  life  for  all ;  this 
being  in  effect  to  say  that  he  procured  an  actual  remission  of  sins  to 
unbelievers,  and  actually  reconciled  God  to  the  impenitent  and  dis- 
obedient, which  is  impossible.  He  only,  by  his  death,  hath  put  all 
men  in  a  capacity  of  being  justified  and  pardoned,  and  so  of  being 
reconciled  to,  and  having  peace  with  God,  upon  their  turning  to  God, 
and  having  faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  the  death  of  Christ  having 
rendered  it  consistent  with  the  justice  and  wisdom  of  God,  with  the 
honour  of  his  Majesty,  and  with  the  ends  of  government,  to  pardon 
the  penitent  believer." 

According  to  this  doctrine,  the  death  of  Christ  is  an  universal 
remedy  for  that  condition  in  which  the  posterity  of  Adam  are  involved 
by  sin — a  remedy  equally  intended  for  the  benefit  of  all.  It  removes 
the  obstacles  which  the  justice  of  God  opposed  to  their  deliverance. 
It  puts  all  into  a  condition  in  which  they  may  be  saved,  and  it  leaves 
their  actual  salvation  to  depend  upon  their  faith.  The  remedy  may 
in  this  way  be  much  more  extensive  than  the  application  of  it.  But 
even  although  the  offer  of  pardon  were  rejected  by  all,  it  would  not 
follow  that  the  atonement  made  by  the  death  of  Christ  was  unneces- 
sary, for  the  offer  could  not  have  been  given  without  it ;  and  what- 
ever reception  the  gospel  may  meet  with,  the  love  of  God  is  equally 
conspicuous  in  having  provided  a  method  by  which  he  may  enter 
into  a  new  covenant  whh  all  who  had  sinned. 

This  doctrine  appears  to  represent  the  Father  of  all  in  a  light  most 
suitable  to  that  character,  as  regarding  his  children  with  an  equal  eye, 
providing,  without  respect  of  persons,  a  remedy  for  their  disease,  and 
extending  his  compassion  as  far  as  their  misery  reaches.  And  it 
appears  to  represent  the  satisfaction  which  Christ  offered  to  Divine 
justice,  as  opening  a  way  for  the  love  of  God  to  the  whole  human 
race  being  made  manifest  by  the  most  enlarged  exercise  of  mercy. 
These  views  are  supported  by  the  general  strain  of  Scripture,  and  by 
many  very  significant  expressions  which  occur  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment.* It  is  said  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Saviour  of  the  world  ;  that 
he  died  for  all ;  that  he  gave  himself  a  ransom  for  all  ;  that  he  tasted 

*  John  i.  29  ;  iiL  16.     1  Tim.  ii.  4 ;  iv.  10.     3  Pet.  iii.  9. 


PARTICULAR    REDEMPTION.  507 

death  for  every  man.*  The  extent  of  the  grace  of  God  in  our  justifi- 
cation seems  to  be  compared  witii  the  extent  of  the  ctfects  of  Adam's 
sin  in  our  condemnution.t  Large  societies  of  persons  professing 
Christianity,  all  of  wiiom  we  cannot  suppose  to  be  of  the  number  of 
tliose  who  shall  be  finally  saved,  are  addressed  in  the  Epistles  as  those 
for  whom  Cin-ist  gave  himself;  and  there  are  expressions  in  some  of 
the  Epistles  which  seem  to  intimate  that  lie  died  even  for  those  who 
perish.+  False  teaciiers,  who  brought  in  damnable  heresies,  are  said, 
2  Pet.  ii.  1,  to  have  been  bought  by  the  Lord.  All  to  whom  the 
gospel  is  revealed  are  commanded  to  believe  in  Christ  for  the  remis- 
sion of  sins,  which  seems  to  imply  that  he  has  made  atonement  for 
their  sins ;  and  to  give  thanks  for  Christ,  which  seems  to  imply  that 
he  is  an  universal  Saviour,  Jesus  marvelled  at  the  unbelief  of  tliose 
among  whom  lie  hved ;  he  upbraided  them  because  they  repented 
not ;  lie  besought  men  to  come  to  him  ;  and  he  bewailed  the  folly  of 
the  Jews,  saying,  as  he  wept  over  their  city,  "  if  thou  hadst  known  in 
this  thy  day  the  tilings  which  belong  to  thy  peace."§  Even  the 
Ahiiighty,  both  in  tlie  Old  and  in  the  New  Testament,  condescendi* 
to  use  entreaties  and  expostulations,  as  well  as  commands^  "  What 
could  have  been  done  more  to  my  vineyard  that  I  have  not  done  in 
it  ?  0  that  my  people  had  hearkened  unto  me  !"||  "God  hath  given 
unto  us,"  says  the  Apostle,  "  the  ministry  of  reconciliation,  to  wit, 
that  God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  himself.  Now 
then  we  are  ambassadors  for  Christ  as  though  God  did  beseech  you 
by  us,  we  pray  you  in  Christ's  stead,  be  ye  reconciled  to  God. "II  The 
establishment  of  a  gospel  ministry  continues  this  ambassadorship  in 
every  Christian  country,  and  may  be  regarded  as  a  standing  witness 
of  the  universality  of  redemption,  because  these  expostulations,  which 
the  servants  of  Christ  are  commissioned  to  use  in  the  name  of  God, 
appear  to  be  without  meaning,  unless  we  suppose  that  God  hath  done 
every  thing  on  his  part,  and  that  it  rests  only  with  us  to  embrace  the 
remedy  which  is  offered. 

In  giving  this  general  view  of  the  arguments  by  which  the  advocates 
for  the  doctrine  of  universal  redemption  support  their  opinion,  I  have 
separated  them  as  much  as  possible  from  those  more  intricate  questions 
of  theology  which  will  meet  us  as  we  advance.  But  even  from  the 
.simple  manner  in  which  I  have  stated  them,  it  is  plain  that  they  admit 
of  much  amplification.  Some  of  them  are  susceptible  of  rhetorical 
embellishment ;  others  lead  into  a  large  field  of  Scripture  criticism  : 
and  there  are  others,  the  force  of  which  cannot  be  estimated  till  after 
a  review  of  the  whole  Calvinistic  system.  These  arguments  are 
spread  out  at  length,  not  only  by  professed  Arminian  writers,  but  by 
many  English  divines,  particularly  in  Barrow's  Sermons  upon  the 
doctrine  of  universal  redemption,  and  in  the  second  of  Whitby's  dis- 
courses upon  the  five  points,  entitled  the  Extent  of  Christ's  Redemp- 
tion. These  two  writers  have  given  a  collection  of  all  the  texts  of 
Scripture  which  appear  to  establish  this  doctrine,  and  a  very  favour- 

•  John  vi.  51.     1  Tim.  ii.  C.     Heb.  ii.  9.     1  John  ii.  2. 

f  Rom.  V.  18.  i  1  Cor.  viii,  11.    Rom.  xiv.  15. 

§  Mark  vi.  6.  Matth.  xi.  20,  28.  Luke  xix.  41,  42. 

a  Isa.  V.  4.     Psal.  Ixxxi.  13.  ^  2  Cor.  v.  18,  19,  20. 


508 


PARTICULAR    REDEMPTION. 


able  specimen  of  the  mode  of  reasoning  by  which  it  is  commonly- 
supported. 

Any  person  who  examines  with  candour  the  arguments  now  stated, 
will  acknowledge  that  they  have  considerable  weight.  I  mention 
this,  because  I  do  not  know  any  lesson  more  becoming  students  of 
divinity,  than  this — not  to  despise  the  reasonings  of  those  with  whose 
opinions  they  do  not  entirely  agree.  The  longer  they  study  theologi- 
cal controversy  with  that  sobriety  and  fairness  of  mind  which  is 
essential  to  the  character  of  every  inquirer  after  truth,  they  will 
perceive  the  more  clearly  how  little  acquainted  with  the  weakness  of 
the  human  understanding,  and  with  the  intricacy  of  many  of  the 
points  that  have  divided  the  Christian  world,  are  those  who  state  their 
opinions  in  the  petulant  dogmatical  manner  often  assumed  by  smat- 
terers  in  knowledge,  as  if  there  were  not  a  shadow  of  reason  but  upon 
their  own  side.  In  the  question  which  we  are  now  treating,  it 
requires  a  thorough  acquaintance  with  the  Calvinistic  system,  and 
much  compass  of  thought,  to  apprehend  the  full  force  of  the  answers 
that  may  be  given  to  the  arguments  for  universal  redemption  ;  and  I 
warn  you  rather  to  wait  for  the  conviction  which  will  arise  from  a 
view  of  all  the  parts  of  that  system,  than  to  expect  that  arguments 
equally  plausible,  in  favour  of  particular  redemption,  are  immediately 
to  be  stated.  The  following  observations,  however,  will,  upon 
reflection,  open  the  sources  of  these  arguments. 

1.  Those  who  hold  that  the  destination  and  intention  of  the  death 
of  Christ  respected  only  such  as  shall  finally  be  saved  by  him,  appear 
to  be  warranted  by  many  expressions  which  occur  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament ;  such  as  the  following  :  John  x.  11,  15,  "I  lay  down  my  life 
for  the  sheep  ;"  that  is,  as  the  expression  is  explained  in  the  context, 
for  those  who  "hear  and  follow  me;"  John  xi.  52 ;  xv.  12,  13,  14  ; 
Eph.  V.  25. 

2.  As  the  persons,  to  whom  the  intention  of  Christ's  death  appears 
in  such  expressions  to  be  restrained,  are  found  in  all  places  of  the 
world,  there  is  a  propriety  and  significancy  in  the  general  phrases 
employed  elsewhere  to  denote  them :  and  when  some  of  the  texts 
commonly  urged  in  proof  of  universal  redemption  are  examined  par- 
ticularly, there  will  be  discovered,  in  the  context,  circumstances  v%'hich 
indicate  that  the  general  expressions  there  used  were  intended  to 
mark  the  indiscriminate  extension  of  the  blessings  of  the  Gospel  to 
men  of  all  nations.  Thus,  because  the  benefit  of  the  Jewish  sacrifices 
was  confined  to  that  nation,  John  the  Baptist,  when  he  saw  Jesus 
coming  to  him,  marked  him  out  to  the  people  as  "  the  Lamb  of  God, 
which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world  ;"*  that  is,  of  all  those  in 
every  place  who  are  forgiven. — So  John,  in  his  first  epistle,  speaking 
as  a  Jew,  says  of  Jesus,  "  he  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins ;  and  not 
for  ours  only,"  that  is, not  for  the  sins  of  us  Jews  only,  "but  also  for 
the  sins  of  the  whole  world."t — So  the  apostle  Paul  says  of  Jesus,  he 
"  gave  himself  a  ransom  for  all,  to  be  testified  in  due  time. "J  But  if 
we  attend  to  the  scope  of  the  discourse,  of  which  these  words  make 
a  part,  which  is  an  exhortation  to  pray  for  all  men,  and  a  command 
to  all  men  in  every  place  to  pray,  it  will  be  perceived  that  the  apos- 

*  John  i.  29.  f  1  John  ii.  2.  f  1  Tim.  ii.  6. 


PARTICULAR    REDEMPTION.  509 

tie's  argument  does  not  necessarily  require  any  farther  meaning  to  be 
atfixed  to  tliese  words  than  this, — that  Christ  gave  himself  a  ransom 
not  merely  for  that  peculiar  people,  who  are  sometimes  called  in  the 
Old  Testament  the  "  ransomed  of  the  Lord,"  but  for  all  hi  every  place 
who  shall  obtain  redemption. 

3.  Although  deliverance  from  the  evils  of  sin,  the  great  blessing 
purchased  by  the  death  of  Christ,  is  peculiar  to  those  who  shall 
finally  be  saved  by  him,  yet  there  are  blessings  which  the  publication 
of  the  Gospel  has  imparted  to  others ;  and  there  is  strict  propriety  in 
saying  that  the  love  of  God  to  mankind  which  appears  in  creation 
and  providence,  and  by  which  God  is  good  to  all,  has  produced  the 
manifestation  and  the  death  of  Clu'ist,  although  the  benefits  intended 
by  that  event  for  those  who  shall  finally  be  saved  are  very  much 
superior  to  the  benefits  which  it  may  be  the  instrument  of  conveying 
to  the  whole  human  race.  To  a  great  part  of  the  world  the  Gospel 
has  communicated  the  most  valuable  knowledge :  it  has  delivered 
many  nations  from  gross  superstition  and  idolatry  ;  it  has  explained 
the  duties  of  men  more  clearly  than  any  other  method  of  instruction  : 
it  furnishes  restraints  upon  vice  and  incentives  to  virtuous  exertion, 
that  are  unknown  to  civil  legislation ;  and  by  all  these  methods  it  con- 
tributes to  the  prosperity  of  society,  and  to  the  welfare  of  the  indi- 
vidual. These  common  benefits  of  Christianity  are  sufficient  to 
explain  many  expressions  in  the  epistles  addressed  to  Christian 
societies,  without  our  being  obliged  to  suppose  that  all  the  members 
of  these  societies  were  in  the  end  to  inherit  eternal  life.  In  respect  of 
these  common  benefits,  we  understand  the  following  passages,  Heb. 
vi.  4,  Heb.  x.  29,  and  2  Peter  ii.  1.  For  all  who  had  an  opportunity 
of  hearing  the  Gospel,  had  tasted  the  good  word  of  God,  and  the 
powers  of  the  world  to  come  ;  they  were  sanctified  through  the  blood 
of  the  covenant ;  and,  in  the  language  of  Peter  in  his  first  epistle,  they 
were  "  redeemed  with  the  blood  of  Christ,  from  their  vain  conver- 
sation which  they  had  received  by  tradition  from  their  fathers." 
Amongst  the  number  thus  redeemed,  were  the  false  teachers  of  whom 
he  speaks  in  his  second  epistle.  They  had  relinquished  the  errors  in 
which  they  were  educated  :  they  had  professed  themselves  the  serv- 
ants of  Jesus,  and  were  bound  to  him  as  their  Lord ;  but  by  bringing 
in  damnable  heresies,  they  denied  the  Lord  that  bought  them.  The 
apostle  Paul  seems  to  refer  to  this  distinction  between  the  common 
benefits  which  all  professing  Christians  derive  from  the  death  of 
Christ,  and  the  complete  salvation  of  those  who  are  called  his  sheep 
and  his  friends,  when  he  says,  1  Tim.  iv.  10,  "  God  is  the  Saviour  of 
all  men ;"  not  only  in  respect  of  his  persevering  providence,  but  in 
respect  of  that  xa^^'-i  ffwf »?ctoj  which,  through  the  kindness  and  love  of 
God  our  Saviour,  hath  appeared  to  all  men ; — "  specially  of  them  that 
believed,"  that  is,  he  is  in  a  much  more  eminent  sense  the  Saviour  of 
them  that  believe,  than  of  other  men. 

4.  It  should  be  considered,  that  although  the  advocates  for  uni- 
versal redemption  do  not  allow  that  there  is  any  weight  in  the  two 
preceding  observations,  yet  they  are  obliged,  upon  their  own  princi- 
ples, to  admit  that  many  of  those  expressions,  from  which  they  infer 
that  Christ  died  intentionally  for  all  men,  require  a  limitation.  For 
if  faith  in  Christ  be  the  condition  upon  which  men  become  partakers 
45* 


510  PARTICULAR    REDEMPTION. 

of  the  propitiation  which  he  offered  to  God,  it  seems  to  follow  that  all 
who  have  not  the  means  of  attaining  this  faith  are  excluded  from  the 
benefit  of  the  propitiation.     But  it  is  certain  that  the  ancient  heathen 
world  did  not  know  the  nature  of  that  dispensation,  the  promise  of 
which  was  confined  to  the  Jews ;  and  it  is  manifest  that  a  great  part 
of  the  world  at  this  day  have  never  heard  of  the  Gospel.     Were  the 
offer  of  pardon  that  is  contained  in  the  Gospel  actually  made  to  all 
the  children  of  Adam,  there  would  be  an  appearance  of  truth  in  say- 
ing that  all  men  were  thereby  put  into  a  condition  in  which  they 
might  be  saved,  and  that  it  depended  upon  themselves  whether  or 
not  they  embraced  the  offer.     But  if  the  efficacy  of  the  remedy  is 
inseparably  connected  with  its  being  accepted,  it  cannot  be,  in  the 
intention  of  the  Almighty,  an  universal  remedy,since  he  has  withheld 
the  means  of  accepting  it  from  many  of  those  for  whom  it  was  said 
to  have  been  provided.     The  words  of  the  apostle,  then,  "  God  will 
have  all  men  to  be  saved,  and  to  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth, 
must  receive  from  the  event  an   interpretation  different  from  that 
which  is  the  most  obvious ;  and  all  the  other  texts  urged  in  favour  of 
universal  redemption  are  in  like  manner  limited  by  the  imperfect 
publication  of  the  Gospel.     The  Arminians  themselves  acknowledge 
that  there  is  a  secret  which  they  cannot  penetrate, — a  deep  and  un- 
searchable counsel,  in  leaving  so  many  nations  without  the  possibility 
of  attaining  to  the  truth ;  and  all  their  attempts  to  reconcile  an  inten- 
tion in  God  to  save  the  inhabitants  of  these  nations,  with  the  gross- 
ness  of  the  superstition  in  which  they  are  involved,  and  the  insuperable 
obstacles  which  education,  example,  habit,  and  situation  oppose  to 
their  believing  in   Christ,  are  unsatisfying  and  defective ;   because 
they  either  proceed  upon  the  principles  of  the  Socinian  doctrine,  that 
men  may  every  where  be  saved  by  acting  up  to  the  light  of  nature, 
or  they  approach  to  some  parts  of  the  Calvinistic  system,  respecting 
the  effectual  and  irresistible  operation  of  the  grace  of  God  upon  the 
soul ;  which  the  Arminians  profess  to  renounce. 

5.  To  those  who  hold  the  doctrine  of  particular  redemption  it  ap- 
pears that  the  event,  in  those  countries  where  the  gospel  has  been 
published,  clearly  indicates  that  there  was  not,  in  the  Almighty,  an 
intention  of  saving  all  men  by  the  death  of  Christ.  For  it  is  plain 
that  many  of  those  who  have  every  opportunity  of  believing  in  Christ 
either  reject  his  religion,  or  show  by  their  conduct  that  they  do  not 
possess  that  faith  which  entitles  them  to  partake  in  the  benefits  of 
ins  death.  With  regard  to  them,  therefore,  his  death  is  in  vain  ;  and 
if  God  intended  that  they  should  be  saved,  his  intention  fails  of  its 
effect.  But  it  seems  when  we  hold  such  a  language,  that  we  speak 
in  a  manner  unbecoming  our  circumstances,  and  inconsistent  with 
those  views  of  the  Almighty  which  are  suggested  by  reason,  and  are 
clearly  taught  in  Scripture.  "Known  to  God  are  all  his  works  from 
the  beginning."  The  whole  scheme  of  the  universe,  which  derived 
its  existence  from  his  pleasure,  was  present  to  the  Creator  at  the  instant 
when  he  said,  "  Let  1  here  be  light."  The  actions  of  his  creatures, 
which  form  a  most  important  part  of  tiiat  scheme,  were  to  him  the 
object  of 'a  foreknowledge  infinitely  more  clear  and  certain  than  our 
knowledge  of  that  which  is  before  our  eyes.  The  perfections  of  his 
nature  exclude  the  possibility  of  any  change  in  the  divine  mind  ;  and 


PARTICULAR    REDEMPTION.  511 

those  events  which  to  us  appear  the  most  unexpected  and  irregular, 
fulfil  "  the  purpose  of  Him  who  worketh  all  things  after  the  counsel 
of  his  will." 

If  these  views  of  the  Almighty  are  just,  and  if  our  minds  are  able 
to  follow  out  the  consequences  which  necessarily  result  from  them, 
we  cannot  conceive  him  susceptible  of  that  disappointment,  regret, 
and  alteration  of  measures  which  we  often  experience  by  the  failure 
of  our  schemes  ;  but  we  must  admit  that  the  original  intention  of  the 
Creator  and  Ruler  of  the  universe  always  coincides  with  the  event 
which  takes  place  under  his  administration.  Since  many,  therefore, 
to  whom  the  gospel  is  published,  appear,  as  far  as  we  can  judge  from 
our  own  observation,  and  from  the  complaints  of  Scripture,  to  remain 
under  the  wrath  of  God,  we  do  not  seem  to  draw  an  unwarrantable 
conclusion,  when  we  infer  from  the  event,  that  it  was  not  a  part  of 
the  intention  of  the  Almighty  to  deliver  them  from  wrath  by  the 
death  of  his  Son.  In  the  same  manner  as  many  who  have  the  means 
of  improvement  do  not  attain  knowledge  or  skill,  and  some  who  have 
talents  and  opportunities  for  rising  to  wealth  and  honour  pass  their 
days  in  obscurity  and  indigence  ;  so  many  to  whom  the  offer  of  eternal 
life  is  made  through  Jesus  Christ  put  it  far  from  them.  In  both  cases 
the  blessings  of  God  are  abused,  and  men  do  not  reap  the  temporal 
and  spiritual  benefits,  which,  had  it  not  been  for  their  own  fault,  they 
might  have  reaped  ;  but  in  neither  case  is  the  intention  of  God  dis- 
appointed. For  he  foresaw  the  use  which  they  would  make  of  his 
blessings,  and  all  the  consequences  of  their  conduct  entered  into  the 
plan  of  his  government. 

These  views  of  the  Almighty  seem  to  correct  that  desire  of  magni- 
fying the  love  of  God  to  mankind,  which  has  led  many  to  ascribe  to 
him  an  intention  of  saving  all  men,  although  he  knew  that  a  great 
part  of  the  human  race  were  not  to  be  saved.  They  seem  to  suggest, 
in  place  of  this  defective  intention,  a  destination  more  worthy  of  the 
sovereignty  of  the  Creator, — a  destination  of  saving  those  who  shall 
in  the  end  be  saved  ;  and  there  are  many  places  of  Scripture  in  which 
the  destination,  that  we  are  led  in  this  manner  to  deduce  from  the 
perfection  of  the  divine  nature,  seems  to  be  intimated.  I  refer  at 
present  only  to  John  vi.  where  our  Lord  says  repeatedly,  that  he  gave 
his  life  for  the  world,  and  where  he  speaks  also  of  those  whom  the 
Father  hath  given  him.  "  The  bread  of  God  is  he  who  cometh  down 
from  heaven,  and  giveth  life  unto  the  world.  The  bread  that  I  will 
give  is  my  flesh,  which  I  will  give  for  the  life  of  the  world.  All  that 
the  Father  giveth  mc  shall  come  to  me.  This  is  the  Father's  will, 
that  of  all  which  he  hath  given  me  I  should  lose  nothing,  but  should 
raise  it  up  again  at  the  last  day."  Here  are  the  doctrines  of  particular 
and  of  universal  redemption  seemingly  taught  in  the  same  discourse. 
The  expressions  of  the  one  kind  must  be  employed  to  qualify  the 
expressions  of  the  other  kind  ;  and  it  cannot  be  said  that  we  pervert 
Scripture,  when,  adhering  to  the  particular  destination  of  saving  those 
who  shall  be  saved,  which  reason  teaches  and  Jesus  Christ  declares, 
we  give  the  other  expressions  such  an  interpretation  as  renders  them 
consistent  with  that  destination. 

This  fifth  observation  has  conducted  us  to  the  threshold  of  those 
intricate  questions  in  theology,  which  arise  out  of  the  difierent  con- 


512  PARTICULAR    REDEMPTION. 

ceptions  formed  by  Christians  of  the  nature  and  the  manner  of  the 
divine  foreknowledge.  To  the  views  entertained  of  this  attribute,  we 
may  trace  the  different  opinions  concerning  the  doctrine  of  predes- 
tination ;  and  therefore  from  this  point  I  shall  begin,  under  a  deep 
sense  of  the  difficulty  of  the  subject,  and  of  the  reverence  and  humility 
with  which  it  becomes  us  to  speak  of  the  counsels  of  the  Almighty, 
to  state  these  opinions. 

Barrow's  Sermons. 

Whitby  on  the  Arminian  Points. 


OPINIONS    CONCERNING    PREDESTINATION.  513 


CHAPTER  VII. 


OPINIONS    CONCERNING    PREDESTINATION. 


Section  I. 

The  opinion  which  is  to  be  stated  first,  because  it  appears  to  be 
the  most  simple,  may  be  called  the  Socinian.  It  is  the  system  of 
those  who  attempt  to  get  rid  of  all  the  difficulties  in  which  the  divine 
foreknowledge  seems  to  involve  the  subject,  by  denying  that  this 
attribute  belongs  to  the  Almighty  to  the  extent  in  which  it  is  usually 
understood.  Socinus  and  his  immediate  followers  admitted  that  God 
knows  all  things  which  are  knowable.  But  they  abridged  the  objects 
of  divine  knowledge,  by  withdrawing  from  that  number  those  events 
whose  future  existence  they  considered  as  uncertain.  Their  manner 
of  reasoning  was  this.  Every  thing  that  now  is,  has  a  real  existence, 
which  is  the  subject  of  knowledge.  Every  thing  that  is  past  had  at 
some  former  time  a  real  existence,  which  is  also  the  subject  of  know- 
ledge. Every  thing  that  is  necessarily  to  happen  at  some  future  time 
may  be  known  by  a  mind  capable  of  tracing  the  nature  of  the  con- 
nexion, by  which  it  proceeds  out  of  that  which  now  is.  Thus  all  the 
changes  in  the  material  world  arise,  according  to  certain  general  laws, 
out  of  its  present  condition.  If  any  being,  therefore,  is  perfectly 
acquainted  with  that  condition,  and  with  the  operation  of  those  laws, 
he  sees  the  future  in  the  present ;  and,  in  general,  every  event,  the 
futurition  of  which  is  certain,  may  be  the  subject  of  infallible  know- 
ledge. But  there  are  events  which  appeared  to  Socinus  contingent, 
in  this  sense  of  the  word,  that  they  do  not  arise  from  any  thing  pre- 
ceding, as  their  cause.  They  may  be,  or  they  may  not  be  ;  and  as  he 
thought  that  they  were  not  certainly  future,  he  thought  also  that  it 
was  impossible  for  any  being  to  know  certainly  beforehand  that  they 
were  to  happen.  Amongst  this  number  he  ranked  the  determinations 
of  free  agents,  all  those  actions  which  proceed  from  the  will  of  man. 
For  as  the  actions  of  men  follow  the  choice  which  they  have  made, 
and  as  he  who  chose  one  thing  might  have  chosen  another,  it  appears 
that  there  is  no  previous  circumstance  necessarily  and  unavoidably 
producing  this  or  that  action  ;  and  from  hence  Socinus  inferred  that 
every  thing  done  by  men  acting  freely  is,  by  its  nature,  incapable  of 

3  Y 


514  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    PREDESTINATION. 

being  the  subject  of  that  iiifalUble  foreknowledge  commonly  ascribed 
to  the  Almighty. 

According  to  this  system,  there  cannot  be  any  such  degree  with 
regard  to  the  salvation  of  particular  persons  as  is  meant  by  the  word 
predestination.  For  as  the  remission  of  sins  is  connected  in  Scripture 
with  faith  and  repentance,  and  as  the  determinations  of  free  agents 
are  supposed  to  be  unknown  to  God,  he  must  be  ignorant  whether 
any  persons  will  attain  that  character,  without  which  they  cannot  be 
saved.  The  only  decree  respecting  the  salvation  of  men,  which 
Socinus  admits  to  have  been  made  from  the  beginning,  and  to  be 
unchangeable,  is  this  general  conditional  decree,  that  whosoever 
repents  and  believes  in  Jesus  shall  have  eternal  life.  This  decree  is 
applied  to  particular  persons,  when  they  appear  to  possess  the  charac- 
ter which  it  describes ;  and  by  this  application,  what  in  its  original 
form  was  merely  the  declaration  of  a  condition,  becomes  an  absolute 
peremptory  decree,  giving  eternal  life  to  those  who  have  been  faithful 
unto  death.  But  it  is  unknown  to  God  what  number  of  such  persons 
there  may  be,  or  whether  there  may  be  any.  Although  he  has  pro- 
vided means  for  the  recovery  of  mankind,  he  is  as  ignorant  of  the 
efficacy  or  the  result  of  these  means  as  any  of  the  children  of  men  ; 
and  all  the  expressions  in  Scripture,  which  we  are  accustomed  to 
consider  as  spoken  after  the  manner  of  men,  are  understood  by 
Socinus  to  be  the  literal  descriptions  of  the  state  of  a  being,  who 
waits  with  anxiety  for  what  men  will  do,  who  is  grieved  at  tlieir 
obstinacy,  who  repents  that  he  has  done  so  much  for  them,  and  who 
is  liable  to  meet  with  total  disappointment  in  the  end  which  he  pro- 
posed to  himself. 

If  this  system  appears  to  remove  some  of  the  difficulties  which 
attend  other  systems,  it  purchases  this  advantage  by  bringing  the 
character  of  the  Deity  so  far  down  to  a  level  with  human  weakness, 
as  to  sap  the  foundations  of  religion.  If  God  does  not  foresee  the 
determinations  of  free  agents,  he  cannot  foresee  the  consequences  of 
their  determinations.  But  if  it  be  considered  how  very  much  the 
state  of  the  moral  world  depends  upon  actions  that  proceed  from 
choice,  how  far  the  history  of  the  human  race  has,  from  the  beginning, 
been  affected  by  the  conduct  of  creatures  who  might  have  acted 
otherwise,  we  must  be  sensible  that  a  being  who  had  not  the  fore- 
knowledge of  that  conduct  was,  from  the  beginning,  ignorant  of  by 
much  the  greatest  part  of  the  transactions  that  were  to  take  place  in 
the  world  which  he  made.  The  whole  train  of  prosperous  and 
calamitous  events  that  were  to  befal  families  and  nations  was  hidden 
from  his  eyes.  Instead  of  appearing  in  the  exalted  light  of  the  author 
of  a  plan  by  which  the  affairs  of  the  universe  are  ordained  and 
arranged  for  the  good  of  his  creatures,  he  becomes  a  spectator  of 
unlooked-for  occurrences,  and  his  power  and  w-isdom  are  employed 
merely  in  directing  events  as  they  arise  to  his  view.  His  measures 
are  perpetually  traversed  by  evils  which  he  had  not  foreseen ;  and 
while  he  is  occupied  from  day  to  day  in  applying  remedies  to  the 
disorders  which  he  discovers  in  different  parts  of  liis  works,  new 
emergencies  show  that  some  other  remedy  might  have  been  better 
suited  to  the  case. 

From  the  following  expressions  of  Socinus,  it  will  appear  that  I 


OPINIONS    CONCERNING    PREDESTINATION.  515 

have  not  exaggerated,  in  painting  that  degradation  of  the  Deity  which 
necessarily  results  from  abridging  his  foreknowledge. — "  No  ab- 
surdity," says  Socinus, "  will  follow  from  supposing  that  God  does  not 
know  all  things  before  they  happen.  For  of  what  use  is  this  know- 
ledge ?  Is  it  not  enough  that  God  perpetually  governs  all  things,  and 
that  nothing  can  be  done  against  his  will ;  that  he  is  always  so  present 
by  his  wisdom  and  power,  that  he  can  both  discern  the  attempts  of 
men,  and  hinder  them  if  he  pleases  ;  that  he  can  turn  all  that  man 
can  do  to  his  own  glory ;  and  that  he  may,  when  he  sees  proper, 
appoint  beforehand  in  what  manner  he  shall  accommodate  his  actions 
to  the  attempts  which  man  may  make  ?"*  The  answer  to  all  such 
questions  is  this,  that  it  is  irreverent,  and  contrary  to  the  idea  of  an 
infinitely  perfect  Being,  to  ask ;  is  it  not  enough  for  him,  that  even 
we  are  able  to  form  the  notion  of  a  much  higher  degree  of  perfection 
than  is  stated  in  the  questions ;  that  the  characters  of  Creator  and 
Ruler  of  the  universe  imply  much  more ;  and  that  the  Scriptures 
uniformly  ascribe  to  God  the  foreknowledge  of  the  determinations  of 
free  agents?  The  moral  conduct  of  many  individuals  was  foretold 
before  they  were  born  ;  the  behaviour  of  the  people  of  Israel  for  a 
succession  of  ages,  the  treatment  which  they  were  to  receive  from 
the  Egyptians,  the  Babylonians,  and  other  nations  ;  the  peculiar  kinds 
of  wickedness  which  were  to  prevail  in  the  neighbouring  kingdoms ; 
the  obstinacy  of  the  Jews  in  rejecting  the  Messiah  ;  the  circumstances 
of  his  sufferings  ;  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  corruptions 
of  Christianity, — all  these  are  the  subjects  of  predictions  so  particular, 
as  to  show  the  most  intimate  knowledge  of  the  future  sentiments  and 
actions  of  men ;  for  the  events  which  I  have  enumerated,  and  many 
others  which  occur  in  reading  the  prophetical  parts  of  Scripture,  are 
of  such  a  kind  that  they  derive  their  complexion  and  character,  not 
from  any  circumstances  in  the  material  world,  but  from  the  volitions 
and  determinations  of  the  free  agents,  who  were  concerned  in  bringing 
them  about. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  the  predictions  of  Scripture  declare  only 
what  is  probable.  For,  besides  the  apparent  improbability  of  many 
of  the  events  foretold,  and  the  immense  extent  of  time,  and  space, 
and  operation,  to  which  the  predictions  reach,  it  is  obvious  that  all 
of  them  are  delivered,  not  in  the  language  of  conjecture,  but  with 
the  most  solemn  asseveration,  in  the  name  of  the  God  of  truth ;  and 
it  is  hard  to  form  any  conception  more  unworthy  of  the  Supreme 
Being,  than  that  he  should  conduct  his  government  by  declaring  as 
certain,  future  events,  concerning  which  he  himself,  at  the  time  of 
the  declaration,  was  doubtful. 

Socinus,  and  some  later  writers  who  tread  in  his  steps,  sensible  that 
the  probability  of  the  events  foretold  does  not  afford  a  satisfying  ac- 
count of  the  predictions  that  are  found  in  Scripture,  have  recourse  to 
a  system,  with  regard  to  the  exertion  of  the  divine  foreknowledge  in 
particular  cases,  of  which  I  shall  endeavour  to  give  a  fair  exposition. 
They  hold  that  God  is  able  to  foresee  future  events  whensoever  he 
pleases,  because  he  can  make  a  particular  ordination  with  respect  to 
them ;  by  which  means,  events  in  their  own  nature  contingent  be- 

*  Socini  Praelect.  cap.  8. 


516  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    PREDESTINATION. 

come  certainly  future,  and  so  are  the  subject  of  infallible  foreknow- 
ledge. Thus  many  blessings  foretold  in  Scripture  are  good  things 
which  God  had  resolved  to  send  by  the  actions  of  men  :  many  evils 
foretold  are  punishments  which  he  had  resolved  to  inflict  by  the  same 
means ;  many  sins  foretold  are  the  consequence  of  his  punishing  for- 
mer sin,  by  withdrawing  that  grace  which  would  have  restrained 
from  future  transgression ;  and  the  whole  series  of  predictions,  that 
respect  the  Messiah,  results  from  the  ordination  of  the  Almighty  con- 
cerning the  deliverance  of  mankind.  But  we  must  not  infer,  it  is 
said,  from  those  extraordinary  cases  in  which  God  chooses  to  fore- 
ordain, and  consequently  to  foresee  what  is  future,  that  his  foreknow- 
ledge of  future  events  is  universal.  The  greater  part  of  the  deter- 
minations of  free  agents  he  leaves  in  their  natural  state  of  uncertainty : 
they  may  choose  one  course,  or  they  may  choose  another ;  and  the 
course  which  they  are  to  follow  is  unknown  to  him  till  they  have 
made  their  choice. 

It  is  admitted  by  tlie  framers  of  this  new  system,  that  the  ordina- 
tion of  God  gives  events  that  certainty  which  renders  them  capable 
of  being  foreknown ;  and  this  principle  is  borrowed  from  that  system 
of  theology  which  it  was  their  object  to  overturn.     What  is  peculiar 
to  them  is,  that  they  confine  this  ordination  to  particular  extraordinary 
■   cases,  and  suppose  all  others  exempted  from  it.  But  a  foreknowledge, 
exerted  at  some  times  and  not  at  others,  constitutes  a  most  imperfect 
kind  of  government.     For  the  occasion  of  its  being  exerted  at  any 
particular  season  can  be  nothing  else  but  the  state  of  the  world  at 
that  season ;  but  as  this  state  arises  out  of  that  which  went  before, 
and  as  the  propriety  of  the  measures  taken  in  reference  to  it  is  very 
much  affected  by  that  which  is  to  come  after,  a  being,  who  is  sup- 
posed ignorant  of  the  great  series  of  events  in  the  universe,  is  un- 
qualified for  making  any  extraordinary  interposition.     The  framers 
of  the  new  system  were  obliged  to  account  for  the  multitude  of  pre- 
dictions respecting  the  Messiah,  by  ascribing  the  whole  scheme  of  his 
appearance  to  the  ordination  of  the  Almighty.     But  that  scheme, 
according  to  the  account  given  of  it  in  Scripture,  embraces  the  intro- 
duction, the  propagation,  and  the  removal  of  sin,  i.  e.  the  whole  his- 
tory of  the  determinations  of  the  human  race,  or  of  their  moral 
conduct  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  time.     The  ordination  of 
this  scheme,  therefore,  necessarily  includes  the  foreknowledge  of  the 
moral  conduct  of  men ;  and  we  cannot  withdraw  that  moral  conduct 
from  the  number  of  the  objects  foreknown  by  God,  without  suppos- 
ing that  he  was  unacquainted  with  the  reasons  of  that  scheme  which 
we  allow  that  he  ordained. 

It  appears,  then,  that  the  partial  admission  of  the  divine  foreknow- 
ledge, to  which  necessity  has  driven  the  Socinians,  does  not  answer 
the  purpose  for  which  it  was  resorted  to  ;  and  that  this  system  car- 
ries with  it  its  own  confutation,  in  presuming  to  restrict  the  opera- 
tions of  the  Supreme  Mind.  Reason  and  Scripture  concur  in  teaching 
that  no  bounds  can  be  set  to  the  Almighty.  Our  faculties  may  be 
unable  to  rise  to  the  exalted  conception  of  a"  Supreme  Mind,  to  Avhom 
all  things  that  have  been,  that  now  are,  and  that  shall  be,  are  equally 
present.  But  the  plain  declarations  of  Scripture  supersede  our  specu- 
lations.    There  we  read  that  all  his  works  are  known  to  him  from 


OPINIONS    CONCERNING    PREDESTINATION.  517 

the  beginning  ;*  that  all  things  are  naked  and  open  in  his  sight  ;t  that 
the  purposes  of  his  heart  endure  throughout  all  generations.  J  T'^e 
power  of  foretelling  future  events,  which  reason  teaches  to  be  essen- 
tial to  his  nature,  is  there  claimed  by  him  as  his  prerogative  ;§  it  is 
often  occasionally  exerted  in  uttering  predictions :  and  as  well  from 
the  nature  of  these  predictions,  as  from  the  manner  in  which  the 
power  is  elsewhere  spoken  of,  we  are  led  to  conclude  that  it  implies 
a  perception  of  all  the  actions  of  his  creatures,  which  is  not  subject 
to  mistake,  which  is  incapable  of  receiving  any  accession,  and  which 
extends  with  equal  clearness  and  facility  through  every  portion  of 
space,  and  every  point  of  duration. 

That  abridgment  of  tlie  objects  of  the  divine  foreknowledge,  which 
was  first  introduced  by  Socinus,  and  is  peculiar  to  those  who  follow 
him,  has  not  been  adopted  by  all  who  are  called  Socinians.  Dr. 
Priestley  writes  thus,  in  the  first  part  of  his  Institutes  of  Natural  and 
Revealed  Religion,  which  treats  of  the  being  and  attributes  of  God. 
"  God  having  made  all  things,  and  exerting  his  influence  over  all 
things,  must  know  all  things,  and  consequently  be  omniscient.  Also, 
since  he  not  only  ordained,  but  constantly  supports  all  the  laws  of 
nature,  he  must  be  able  to  foresee  what  will  be  the  result  of  them,  at 
any  distance  of  time  ;  just  as  a  man  who  makes  a  clock  can  tell  when 
it  will  strike.  All  future  events,  therefore,  must  be  as  perfectly  known 
to  the  Divine  Mind  as  those  that  are  present ;  and  as  we  cannot  con- 
ceive tiiat  he  should  be  liable  to  forgetfulness,  we  may  concluJe  that 
all  things,  past,  present,  and  to  come,  are  equally  known  to  him ;  so 
that  his  knowledge  is  infinite."  Dr.  Priestley  takes  no  notice  of  the 
distinction  which  Socinus  made  between  those  events  which,  arisinar 
from  necessary  causes,  are  certainly  to  be,  and  those  which  Socinus 
called  contingent,  such  as  the  determinations  of  free  agents.  The 
reason  is,  that  Dr.  Priestley,  being  a  professed  materialist,  considered 
the  operations  of  mind  as  taking  place  according  to  the  same  laws  of 
nature  with  the  motions  of  body. 

There  does  not  appear  to  him  any  more  uncertainty  in  the  one 
than  in  the  other,  and  therefore  both  are,  in  his  opinion,  equally  the 
objects  of  divine  foreknowledge.  If  the  doctrine  of  the  universal 
prescience  of  God  unavoidably  involves  the  principles  of  materialism, 
it  must  be  renounced  by  all  who  hold  that  the  soul  is  essentially  dis- 
tinct from  the  body.  But  if  the  doctrine  can  be  defended  without 
having  recourse  to  these  principles,  it  is  not  a  sound  argument  against 
the  truth  of  the  doctrine,  whatever  discredit  it  may  thereby  suffer  in 
the  opinion  of  the  ignorant  or  careless,  that  a  materialist  finds  it  per- 
fectly reconcileable  with  his  system. 


Section  II. 


Arminius,  who  lived  in  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
may  be  regarded  as  the  founder  of  the  system  of  opinions  generally 
held  by  those,  who,  while  they  admit  the  dignity  of  our  Saviour's  per- 

*  Acts  XV.  18.  t  Heb.  iv.  13.  t  Ps.  xxxiii.  II.  §  Isa.  xlvi.  9,  10. 

46 


518  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    PREDESTINATION. 

son,  and  the  doctrine  of  atonement,  do  not  hold  the  other  doctrines  of 
Calvinism.    He  and  his  followers  renomiced  the  peculiar  tenets  of  So- 
cinus  with  regard  to  the  divine  prescience.     They  considered  the  most 
contingent  future  events  as  known  to  God :  but  the  power,  by  which 
such  events  are  foreknown,  appears  to  them  essentially  different  from 
the  foresight  of  those  events,  which  arise  by  a  continued  chain  of  causes. 
It  is  a  power  of  which  they  do  not  pretend  to  form  any  distinct  concep- 
tion, which  they  are  content  to  resolve  into  the  supereminent  excel- 
lence of  the  divine  nature,  and  the  existence  of  which  they  do  not 
attempt  to  establish  by  reasoning,  but  simply  deduce  from  experience. 
The  Scriptures,  we  have  seen,  abound  with  predictions  of  a  series  of 
contingent  events,  involving  numberless  determinations  of  free  agents. 
But  if  contingent  events  were  certainly  foretold,  it  is  manifest  that 
they  were  certainly  foreknown  by  that  Being  from  whom  the  predic- 
tion proceeded ;  and  if  the  fact  be  once  established,  that  God  fore- 
knows contingent  events,  it  is  admitted  by  the  Arminians,  that  all  the 
difficulty,  which  we  feel  in  accounting  for  the  manner  of  the  fact, 
does  not  constitute  any  argument  against  the  truth  of  (he  fact.     So- 
cinus  proceeded  upon  a  maxim  which  has  been  repeated  after  Aris- 
totle in  many  a  system  of  logic. — De  futuris  contingentihus  non 
datur  determinata  Veritas.  ■   Entertaining  no  doubt  of  the  truth  of 
this  maxim,  he  apprehended  that  the  certain  foreknowledge  of  events 
destroyed  their  contingency,  and  therefore  he  concluded  it  to  be  im- 
possible, or  a  contradiction  in  terms,  for  contingent  events  to  be  cer- 
tainly foreknown.     But  Arminius  and  his  followers  learnt  to  correct 
the  maxim  of  Aristotle  ;  and  it  is  now  universally  understood  amongst 
philosophers,  that  future  events,  which  are  in  their  own  nature  con- 
tingent, may  be  certain,  and  consequently  may  be  foreknown.     This 
will  be  understood  from  a  familiar  example.     Whether  I  am  to  write 
a  letter  to-morrow  or  not  is  a  matter  purely  contingent.     If  no  foreign 
cause  interpose  to  take  from  me  the  power  which  I  now  possess,  I 
may  write,  or  I  may  refrain  from  writing.     Both  events  are  equally 
possible  ;  but  one  of  the  events  will  certainly  happen;  and  of  the  two 
propositions,  I  wiU  write  to-morrow,  I  will  not  write  to-morrow, one, 
although  I  do  not  know  which,  is  at  this  moment  true.     The  truth 
which  now  exists,  whether  it  be  perceived  by  any  being  or  not,  will 
be  known  at  the  end  of  to-morrow  to  me,  and  to  any  person  who 
attends  to  my  employments  through  the  day :  and  if  there  is  any 
being  who  possesses  the  faculty  of  knowing  the  truth  beforehand,  the 
determination  of  my  mind  is  not  in  the  least  affected  by  his  know- 
ledge.    Although  it  is  certain  when  the  day  begins  what  I  am  to  do, 
and  although  the  event  which  is  then  certain  may  be  known  to  some 
being  whose  understanding  is  more  enlarged  than  mine,  I  feel  no 
restraint  through  the  course  of  the  day ;  but  I  write  or  I  do  not  write, 
I  read  or  I  do  not  read,  I  go  abroad  or  I  remain  at  home,  according 
to  circumstances. 

We  say,  then,  that  contingency  is  inconsistent  with  that  necessary 
determination  to  one  event  which  excludes  the  possibility  of  another ; 
but  we  say  that  it  is  not  inconsistent  with  the  certainty,  that  of  two 
events,  either  of  which  might  happen,  one  is  to  happen  ;  and  there- 
fore we  hold  there  is  no  contradiction  in  saying  that  a  contingent 
event  may  be  certainly  foreknown.     For  as  Dr.  Clarke  writes,  "  Fore- 


OPINIONS    CONCERNING    PREDESTINATION.  519 

knowledge  has  no  influence  at  all  upon  the  thmgs  foreknown  ;  and  it 
has  therefore  no  influence  upon  them,  because  things  would  be  just  as 
they  were,  and  no  otherwise,  though  there  were  no  foreknowledge. 
It  does  not  cause  things  to  be. — The  futurity  of  free  actions  is  exactly 
the  same,  and  in  the  nature  of  the  things  themselves,  of  the  like  cer- 
tainty in  event,  whether  they  can,  or  whether  they  could  not,  be  fore- 
known."* 

It  is  this  possibility  of  foreseeing  future  contingencies,  such  as  are 
the  determinations  of  free  agents,  which  distinguishes  the  Arminian 
system  of  predestination  from  the  Socinian.  Both  systems  proceed 
upon  the  general  declaratory  decree,  that  "  whosoever  believeth  in 
Jesus  Christ  shall  be  saved,"  as  the  first  in  order,  and  as  becoming 
peremptory  with  regard  to  every  individual  after  he  has  persevered 
in  faith.  But  whereas  the  Socinian  scheme  supposes  the  number  and 
the  names  of  the  individuals  that  shall  be  saved,  to  have  been  from 
the  beginning  unknown  to  God,  and  consequently  the  decrees  respect- 
ing them  to  be  made  at  such  times  as  their  faith  appears  to  him,  the 
Arminians  do  not  conceive  so  unworthily  of  God  as  to  think  that  any 
thing  new  and  unexpected  can  present  itself  to  his  mind,  and  that 
his  decrees  are  successively  made  according  to  emergencies ;  but  they 
consider  all  the  grounds  upon  which  the  conditional  decree  is  at  length 
to  become  peremptory  with  regard  to  uidividuals,  as  from  the  begin- 
ning known  to  God.  The  amount  of  their  tenets  may  be  thus  shortly 
stated :  God,  who  wills  all  men  to  be  saved,  and  who  gave  his  Son 
to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him 
should  not  perish,  foresaw,  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  the 
use  which  men  would  make  of  the  means  of  salvation  provided  for 
them  in  Christ.  Upon  the  foresight  of  the  faith  and  good  works  of 
some,  he  determined,  from  all  eternity,  to  give  them,  upon  account  of 
Christ,  and  through  Christ,  eternal  Ufe  ;  and  upon  the  foresight  of  the 
unbelief  and  impenitence  of  others,  he  determined,  from  all  eternity, 
to  leave  them  in  sin  and  subject  to  condemnation. 

According  to  this  system,  predestination,  or  the  decree  that  some 
persons  shall  be  saved,  and  others  condemned,  rests  upon  the  pre- 
science of  God,  by  which,  says  Arminius,  in  the  declaration  of  his 
opinion,  God  knew,  from  eternity,  what  persons,  under  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  means  necessary  for  producing  faith  and  repentance, 
were  to  believe,  and  what  persons  were  not  to  believe.  By  all  who 
hold  this  system,  such  a  decree  is  represented  as  exhibiting  at  once 
the  goodness  and  the  justice  of  God :  his  goodness  in  providing  a 
Saviour,  and  oflering  the  means  of  salvatioii ;  his  justice,  in  reward- 
ing men  according  to  their  works,  giving  eternal  life  to  those  who 
make  a  proper  use  of  the  means,  and  condemning  only  those  who 
abuse  them.  There  is,  in  the  language  of  the  Arminians,  an  antece- 
dent will  in  God  to  save  all  men ;  that  is,  a  will  previous  to  the  con- 
sideration of  the  circumstances  of  individuals,  that  all  men  may  be 
saved;  a  will  which  does  not  rest  in  bare  desire, what  the  schoolmen 
call  V  elk  it  as, hwi  appears  carried  forth  into  action  in  tlie  means  which 
he  has  provided  to  accomplish  the  end.  There  is  in  God  a  conse- 
quent will  to  save  only  some  persons,  and  to  condemn  others  ;  that  is, 

*  Sermon  on  Omniscience  of  GoJ. 


520  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    PREDESTINATION. 

a  will  consequent  upon  the  consideration  of  the  conduct  of  individuals, 
and  corresponding  to  that  conduct.  The  difference,  say  the  Arminians, 
between  the  antecedent  and  the  consequent  will  of  God,  is  owing 
entirely  to  the  sins  of  men ;  every  thing  has  been  done  by  him  that 
is  necessary  for  their  salvation ;  and  if  they  did  their  part,  the  ante- 
cedent and  the  consequent  will  of  God  would  coincide,  and  all  men 
would  be  saved. 

And  thus,  by  admitting  that  the  actions  of  moral  agents  may  be 
free,  although  they  are  foreknown,  and  by  building  upon  the  divine 
foreknowledge  of  these  free  actions,  the  decree  respecting  the  final 
condition  of  mankind,  the  honour  of  the  divine  perfections  appears  to 
be  maintained ;  the  limitation  of  the  extent  of  the  remedy  in  the 
Gospel  is  seen  to  arise  from  no  other  cause  but  the  fault  of  those  to 
whom  it  is  ofiered,  and  the  strongest  motives  are  held  forth  to  engage 
us  to  "give  all  diligence  in  making  our  election  sure."  But  plausi- 
ble and  unexceptionable  as  this  system  at  first  sight  appears,  there 
are  difficulties  under  which  it  labours,  and  imperfections  that  adhere 
to  it,  which  will  open  upon  us  by  degrees  as  we  proceed  in  the  expo- 
sition of  the  Calvinistic  system  of  predestination. 


Section  III. 

The  characteristical  feature  of  the  Calvinistic  system  is,  that 
entire  dependence  of  the  creature  upon  the  Creator,  which  it  uni- 
formly asserts,  by  considering  the  Avill  of  the  Supreme  Being  as  the 
cause  of  every  thing  that  now  exists,  or  that  is  to  exist  at  any  future 
time.  This  principle  is  fruitful  of  consequences  which,  when  they 
are  followed  out  and  applied,  give  to  the  doctrines  of  Christianity 
that  peculiar  complexion  known  by  the  name  of  Calvinism ;  and  from 
this  principle  results  that  view  of  the  divine  prescience  which  is  the 
ground-work  of  the  doctrine  of  predestination  that  I  am  noAV  to  deli- 
neate. 

Of  things  impossible  there  can  be  no  knowledge.  The  same 
character,  by  which  they  must  remain  for  ever  in  the  class  of  nonen- 
tities, so  that  not  even  omnipotence  can  bring  them  into  existence, 
withdraws  them  from  the  number  of  those  objects  of  which  any  mind 
can  form  a  distinct  conception.  But  all  things  that  are  possible  may 
be  conceived ;  and  the  more  perfect  any  understanding  is,  the  more 
complete  is  the  representation  of  things  possible  in  that  understanding. 
To  the  Supreme  Mind,  therefore,  there  are  distinctly  represented,  not 
only  all  the  single  objects  which  may  be  brought  into  existence,  but 
also  all  the  possible  combinations  of  single  objects,  their  relations,  and 
their  mutual  influences  on  the  systems  of  which  they  may  compose  a 
part.  Out  of  this  representation  of  possibilities  which  is  implied  in 
the  perfection  of  the  divine  understanding,  the  Supreme  Being  selects 
those  single  objects,  and  those  combinations  of  objects,  which  he 
chooses  to  bring  into  existence  ;  and  every  circumstance  in  the  man- 
ner of  the  existence  of  that  which  is  to  be,  thus  depending  entirely 
on  his  will,  is  known  to  him,  because  he  has  decreed  that  it  shall  be. 

The  representation  of  all  things  possible  in  the  divine  understanding 


OPINIONS    CONCERNING    PREDESTINATION.  521 

has  been  called  by  iheologians  Scientia  simpUcis  intelUgcntix :  and 
the  knowledge  which  God,  from  eternity,  had  of  all  that  ho  was  to 
produce  has  been  called  scientia  visionis.  Amongst  the  objects  of 
the  former  knowledge  are  to  be  ranked  all  those  things,  the  reality  of 
which  would  have  been  the  same,  although  no  creature  had  ever 
been  produced,  such  as  the  existence  of  God,  his  attributes,  and  all 
those  abstract  propositions  which  are  eternally  and  immutably  true. 
We  attain  the  knowledge  of  abstract  propositions  by  rising  to  tliem 
from  the  contemplation  of  particular  objects :  but  this  is  a  tedious 
method,  suited  to  the  imperfection  of  our  natures.  The  truth  of  the 
propositions  is  totally  independent  of  the  existence  of  the  particular 
objects  by  which  they  are  suggested  to  us.  That  three  angles  of  a 
triangle  are  equal  to  two  right  angles  would  be  true,  although  no 
triangle  had  ever  been  drawn.  By  a  perfect  mind  the  truth  of  such 
general  propositions  is  recognised  before  the  objects  are  produced ; 
and  the  knowledge  which  the  Supreme  Being  has  of  the  possibilities 
of  things,  necessarily  involves  a  knowledge  of  these  abstract  proposi- 
tions ;  because  the  very  circumstance  which  renders  the  existence  of 
many  things  impossible  is,  that  they  cannot  exist  without  a  contradic- 
tion to  some  of  those  abstract  propositions  which  are  always  true.  In 
defining  scientia  visionis,  I  called  it  the  knowledge  which  God,  from 
eternity,  had  of  all  that  he  was  to  produce.  The  reason  why  the 
words  '  from  eternity'  were  inserted  in  the  definition,  requires  particu- 
lar attention  upon  this  subject.  Since  the  infinite  perfection  of  the 
nature  of  God  excludes  the  idea  of  change  in  his  purposes,  of  increase 
to  his  knowledge,  or  of  succession  in  his  perception  of  objects,  it  fol- 
lows, that  the  choice,  out  of  things  possible,  of  those  which  he  deter- 
liiined  to  bring  into  existence,  was  not  made  in  time,  at  the  successive 
periods  at  which  his  creatures  appeared  ;  but  that  the  whole  plan  of 
what  was  to  be  produced  was  forever  present  to  his  mind.  There 
was  a  time  when  all  the  objects  of  the  scientia  visionis  were  future. 
At  that  time  their  futurition,  that  is,  their  being  to  pass  in  succession 
from  the  state  of  possibility  to  the  state  of  existence,  was  known  to 
God,  merely  as  being  the  result  of  his  own  determination.  After  the 
execution  of  this  determination  commenced,  some  of  the  objects  of 
the  scientia  visionis  became  past ;  others  became  present,  and  others 
continued  future.  But  all  are  equally  in  the  view  of  the  divine  mind. 
There  is  to  him  no  more  fatigue  or  imperfection  in  the  remembrance 
of  what  is  past,  or  the  foresight  of  what  is  future,  than  in  the  percep- 
tion of  what  now  is.  Indeed,  there  is  an  impropriety  in  using  the 
M''ords  remembrance  or  foresight,  when  we  speak  of  the  knowledge 
of  God  ;  and  it  is  only  the  narrowness  of  our  conceptions,  and  the 
poverty  of  our  language,  which  compel  us  to  apply  such  terms  to  his 
clear,  unvarying  intuition  of  the  whole  series  of  objects  which  derive 
their  existence  from  his  pleasure. 

The  two  kinds  of  knowledge  which  have  now  been  explained,  are 
understood,  in  the  Calvinistic  system,  to  comprehend  all  that  can  be 
known.  There  are  no  conceivable  objects  but  those  of  which  it  can 
be  affirmed,  either  that  they  may  be,  or  that  they  may  not  be.  Of 
things  which  may  not  be,  this  only  can  1)e  distinctly  known,  that  they 
are  impossible ;  and  a  being,  who  knows  all  the  things  that  may  be, 
knows  also  what  are  the  things  which  may  not  be ;  for  every  thing 
46*  "     3  Z 


522  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    PREDESTINATION. 

that  does  not  enter  into  the  complete  representation  of  things  possi- 
ble, which  is  present  to  his  mind,  is  known,  by  that  circumstance,  to 
be  impossible.  Scienfia  simplicis  intelligentise,  then,  exhausts  the 
subjects  of  knowledge,  in  respect  of  the  possibility  or  impossibility 
of  their  existence  ;  but  it  does  not  imply  any  knowledge  of  the  actual 
existence  of  those  things  which  are  possible ;  for  from  this  proposi- 
tion, a  thing  may  be,  this  other  proposition,  it  shall  be,  does  by  no 
means  follow.  Hence  scientia  simplicis  intelligentise  was  called 
by  the  schoolmen  scientia  indefinita,  as  not  determining  the  exist- 
ence or  the  non-existence  of  any  object  out  of  the  Deity.  But  sci- 
entia visionis,  on  the  other  hand,  was  called  scientia  dejinita,  because 
the  existence  of  all  the  objects  of  this  knowledge,  whether  they  be 
past,  present,  or  future,  is  determinate  ;  in  .other  Avords,  it  is  not  more 
certain  that  what  is  past  has  had  an  existence,  and  that  what  is  pre- 
sent now  exists,  than  that  what  God  foresees  as  future  shall  exist 
hereafter.  If,  therefore,  scientia  visionis  be  joined  to  scientia  sim- 
plicis intelligentiae,  every  thhig  that  can  be  known  is  comprehended; 
in  other  words,  if  nothing  can  exist  without  the  will  of  the  First 
Cause,  and  if  the  First  Cause,  who  knows  all  things  that  are  possible, 
knows  also  what  things  he  wills  to  produce,  then  he  knows  every 
thiug.  There  is  nothing  that  does  not  fall  under  one  or  other  of  these 
kinds  of  knowledge.  We  have  already  seen  that  all  which  can  be 
known  of  things  that  may  not  be,  belongs  to  the  scientia  simplicis 
ijitelligentix;  and  of  the  things  that  may  be,  either  a  thing  is  pos- 
sible, but  not  future,  and  then  it  belongs  to  this  kind  of  knowledge 
also  ;  or  it  both  may  be,  and  shall  be,  and  then  it  belongs  to  the  sci- 
entia visionis.  To  state  the  thing  still  more  plainly,  all  things  which 
may  exist  are  either  things  which  shall  be,  or  things  which  shall  not 
be  :  the  latter  remain  amongst  things  possible,  the  objects  of  scientia 
si7)iplicis  intelligentix ;  the  former  pass  from  the  number  of  things 
barely  possible  into  the  number  of  the  objects  of  scientia  visio)iis. 

Those  who  consider  all  the  objects  of  knowledge  as  comprehended 
under  one  or  other  of  the  kinds  that  have  been  explained,  are  natu- 
rally conducted  to  that  enlarged  conception  of  the  extent  of  the  divine 
decree,  from  which  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  of  predestination  unavoid- 
ably follows.  The  divine  decree  is  the  determination  of  the  divine 
will  to  produce  the  universe,  that  is,  the  whole  series  of  beings  and 
events  that  were  then  future.  The  parts  of  this  series  arise  in  suc- 
cession ;  but  all  were,  from  eternity,  present  to  the  divine  mind ;  and 
no  cause  that  was  at  any  time  to  operate,  or  no  eftect  that  was  at  any 
time  to  be  produced  in  the  universe,  can  be  excluded  from  the  origi- 
nal decree,  without  supposing  that  the  decree  was  at  first  imperfect, 
and  afterwards  received  accessions.  The  determination  to  produce 
this  world,  understanding  by  that  word  the  whole  combination  of 
beings,  and  causes,  and  effects,  that  were  to  come  into  existence, 
arose  out  of  the  view  of  all  possible  worlds,  and  proceeded  upon 
reasons  to  us  unsearchable,  by  which  this  world  that  now  exists  ap- 
peared to  the  divine  wisdom  the  fittest  to  be  produced.  I  say,  the 
determination  to  produce  this  world  proceeded  upon  reasons ;  be- 
cause we  must  suppose  that,  in  forming  the  decree,  a  choice  was  ex- 
erted, that  the  Supreme  Being  was  at  liberty  to  resolve  either  that  he  • 
would  create,  or  that  he  would  not  create ;  that  he  would  give  his 


OPINIONS    CONCERNING    PREDESTINATION.  523 

work  this  form  or  that  form,  as  he  chose ;  otherwise  we  withdraw 
the  universe  from  the  direction  of  a  Supreme  Intelligence,  and  sub- 
ject all  things  to  blind  fatality.  But  if  a  choice  was  exerted  in  form- 
ing the  decree,  the  choice  must  have  proceeded  upon  reasons ;  for  a 
choice  made  by  a  wise  being,  without  any  ground  of  choice,  is  a 
contradiction  in  terms.  At  the  same  time  it  is  to  be  remembered, 
that  as  nothing  then  existed  but  the  Supreme  Being,  the  only  reason 
which  could  determine  him  in  choosing  what  he  was  to  produce,  was 
its  appearing  to  him  fitter  for  accomplishing  the  end  which  he  pro- 
posed to  himself,  than  any  thing  else  Avhich  he  might  have  produced. 
Hence  scicntia  visionis  is  called  by  theologians  scientia  libera.  To 
scientia  simplicis  intelligentise  they  gave  the  epithet  naturalis,  be- 
cause the  knowledge  of  all  things  possible  arises  necessarily  from  the 
nature  of  the  Supreme  INIind  ;  but  to  scientia  visionis  they  gave  the 
epithet  libera,  because  the  qualities  and  extent  of  its  objects  are  de- 
termined, not  by  any  necessity  of  nature,  but  by  the  will  of  the  Deity. 
Although,  in  forming  the  divine  decree,  there  was  a  choice  of  this 
world,  proceeding  upon  a  representation  of  all  possible  worlds,  it  is 
not  to  be  conceived  that  there  was  any  interval  between  the  choice 
and  the  representation,  or  any  succession  in  the  parts  of  the  choice. 
In  the  divine  mind,  there  was  an  intuitive  view  of  that  immense 
subject,  whicli  it  is  not  only  impossible  for  our  minds  to  comprehend 
at  once,  but  in  travelling  through  the  parts  of  which  we  are  instantly 
bewildered;  and  one  decree,  embracing  at  once  the  end  and  the 
means,  ordained,  with  perfect  wisdom,  all  that  was  to  be. 

The  condition  of  the  human  race  entered  into  this  decree.  It  is 
not,  perhaps,  the  most  important  part  of  it  when  we  speak  of  the  for- 
mation of  the  universe,  but  it  is  a  part  which,  even  were  it  more  in- 
significant than  it  is,  could  not  be  overlooked  by  the  Almighty  whose 
attention  extends  to  all  his  works,  and  which  appears,  by  those  dis- 
pensations of  his  providence  that  have  been  made  known  to  us,  to  be 
interesting  in  his  eyes.  A  decree  respecting  the  condition  of  the 
human  race  includes  the  history  of  every  individual :  the  time  of  his 
appearing  upon  the  earth  ;  the  manner  of  his  existence  while  lie  is  an 
inhabitant  of  the  earth,  as  it  is  diversified  by  the  actions  which  he 
performs,  and  by  the  events,  whether  prosperous  or  calamitous,  which 
befall  him  ;  and  the  manner  of  his  existence  after  he  leaves  the  earth, 
that  is,  his  future  happiness  or  misery.  A  decree  respecting  the  con- 
dition of  the  human  race  also  includes  the  relations  of  the  individuals 
to  one  another :  it  fixes  their  connexions  in  society,  which  have  a  great 
influence  upon  their  happiness  and  their  improvement ;  and  it  must 
be  conceived  as  extending  to  the  important  events  recorded  in  Scrip- 
ture, in  which  the  whole  species  have  a  concern.  Of  this  kind  is  the 
sin  of  our  first  parents,  the  consequence  of  that  sin  reaching  to  all 
their  posterity,  the  mediation  of  Jesus  Christ  appointed  by  God  as  a 
remedy  for  these  consequences,  the  final  salvation,  through  this  Me- 
diator, of  one  part  of  the  descendants  of  Adam,  and  the  final  condem- 
nation of  another  part,  notwithstanding  the  remedy.  These  events 
arise  at  long  intervals  of  time,  by  a  gradual  preparation  of  circum- 
stances, and  the  operation  of  various  means.  But  by  the  Creator,  to 
whose  mind  the  end  and  the  means  were  at  once  present,  these  events 
were  beheld  in  intimate  connexion  whh  one  another,  and  in  conjunc- 


524  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    PREDESTINATION. 

tion  with  many  other  events  to  us  unknown  ;  and  consequently  all  of 
them,  however  far  removed  from  one  another  as  to  the  thne  of  their 
actual  existence,  were  comprehended  in  that  one  decree  by  which  he 
determined  to  produce  the  world. 

Hence  it  may  be  observed  how  idly  they  are  employed,  who  pre- 
sume to  settle  the  order  of  the  divine  decrees,  and  how  insignificant 
are  the  controversies  upon  this  subject,  which  in  the  days  of  our  fathers 
divided  those  who  were  agreed  as  to  the  general  principles  of  Calvin- 
ism. One  side  were  called  Supralapsarians,  because  in  their  concep- 
tions of  the  order  of  the  divine  decrees  respecting  the  human  race,  they 
ascended  above  the  fall,  and  considered  God  as  regarding  men  before 
they  were  created,  and  as  resolving  to  manifest  his  attributes  by  the 
whole  series  of  events  which  he  ordained  concerning  the  race,  from 
the  creation  of  Adam  till  the  consummation  of  all  things.  The  other 
side  were  called  Sublapsarians,  because  they  rose  no  higher  than  the 
fall,  but  considered  God  as  regarding  men  in  the  wretched  situation  to 
which  that  event  had  reduced  them,  as  providing  means  for  their  re- 
covery, and  as  conducting  some  to  eternal  life  by  these  means, 
while  he  left  others  in  misery.  The  distinction  was  allowed,  even  at 
the  time  when  it  engrossed  the  attention  of  theologians,  not  to  be  es- 
sential :  but  the  good  sense  of  modern  times  has  almost  effaced  the 
remembrance  of  it ;  because  it  is  now  understood  that  we  may  em- 
ploy such  illustrations  and  arrangements  of  the  subject  as  we  find 
most  useful  to  assist  our  conceptions,  and  that  we  may  differ  from  one 
another  in  these  illustrations  and  arrangements,  without  forsaking  the 
general  principles  which  I  have  been  delineating  ;  provided  we 
remember  that,  although  the  narrowness  of  our  faculties  obliges  us 
to  conceive  of  the  divine  decree  in  parts,  these  parts  were  in  the  divine 
mind  without  separation  and  without  priority  ;  and  that,  whether  we 
ascend  higher  or  lower  in  our  statement  of  that  part  of  the  divine  de- 
cree which  we  call  the  doctrine  of  predestination,  that  doctrine  is  inti- 
mately connected  with  a  series  of  events,  the  beginning  and  the  end 
of  which  our  minds  are  incapable  of  following. 

Having  thus  unfolded  that  view  of  the  divine  foreknowledge  upon 
which  the  doctrine  of  predestination  rests  in  the  Calvinistic  system,  I 
shall  next  explain  some  of  the  terms  commonly  used  by  those  who 
hold  this  doctrine,  that  the  true  meaning  of  the  Calvinists  may  be 
fully  understood,  before  we  proceed  to  compare  their  system  with 
those  formerly  stated,  or  to  examine  the  difficulties  with  which  it  is 
attended.  For  this  purpose,  I  quote  the  following  words  of  our  Con- 
fession of  Faith,  chapter  iii. 

"  3.  By  the  decree  of  God,  for  the  manifestation  of  his  glory,  some 
men  and  angels  are  predestinated  unto  everlasting  life,  and  others  fore- 
ordained to  everlasting  death.  ^j 

"  4.  These  angels  and  men,  thus  predestinated  and  foreordained, 
are  particularly  and  unchangeably  designed ;  and  their  number  is  so 
certain  and  definite,  that  it  cannot  be  either  increased  or  diminished. 

"  5.  Those  of  mankind  that  are  predestinated  unto  hfe,  God,  before 
the  foundation  of  the  world  was  laid,  according  to  his  eternal  and  im- 
mutable purpose,  and  the  secret  counsel  and  good  pleasure  of  his  will, 
hath  chosen  in  Christ,  unto  everlasting  glory,  out  of  his  mere  free 
grace  and  love,  without  any  foresight  of  faith  or  good  works,  or  per- 


OPINIONS    CONCERNING    PREDESTINATION.  525 

severance  in  either  of  them,  or  any  other  thing  in  the  creature,  as 
conditions  or  causes  moving  him  thereunto  ;  and  all  to  the  praise  of 
his  glorious  grace. 

"  6.  As  God  hath  appointed  the  elect  unto  glory,  so  hath  he,  by 
the  eternal  and  most  free  purpose  of  his  will,  foreordained  all  the 
means  thereunto.  Wherefore  they  who  are  elected,  being  fallen  in 
Adam,  are  redeemed  by  Christ,  are  effectually  called  unto  faith  in 
Christ,  by  his  Spirit  working  in  due  season ;  are  justified,  adopted, 
sanctified,  and  kept  by  his  power  through  faith  unto  salvation. 
Neither  are  any  other  redeemed  by  Christ,  effectually  called,  justified, 
adopted,  sanctified,  and  saved,  but  the  elect  only. 

"  7.  The  rest  of  mankind,  God  was  pleased,  according  to  the  un- 
searchable counsel  of  his  own  will,  whereby  he  extendeth  or  with- 
holdeth  mercy  as  he  pleaseth,  for  the  glory  of  his  sovereign  power 
over  his  creatures,  to  pass  by,  and  to  ordain  them  to  dishonour  and 
wrath  for  their  sin,  to  the  praise  of  his  glorious  justice." 

I  quote  also  the  seventeenth  article  of  the  Church  of  England,  in 
the  meaning  and  even  in  the  expression  of  which,  there  is  a  striking 
agreement  with  part  of  the  preceding  paragraphs  from  the  Confession 
of  Faith. 

"  Predestination  to  life  is  the  everlasting  purpose  of  God,  whereby 
(before  the  foundations  of  the  world  were  laid)  he  hath  constantly 
decreed  by  his  counsel,  secret  to  us,  to  deliver  from  curse  and  dam- 
nation those  whom  he  hath  chosen  in  Christ  out  of  mankind,  and  to 
bring  them  by  Christ  to  everlasting  salvation,  as  vessels  made  to  ho- 
nour. Wherefore  they  which  be  endued  with  so  excellent  a  benefit 
of  God,  be  called  according  to  God's  purpose,  by  his  Spirit  working 
in  due  season  :  they,  through  grace,  obey  the  calling  :  they  be  justi- 
fied freely :  they  be  made  sons  of  God  by  adoption :  they  be  made 
like  the  image  of  his  only-begotten  Son  Jesus  Christ :  they  walk  re- 
ligiously in  good  works ;  and  at  lengtli,  by  God's  mercy,  they  attain 
to  everlasting  felicity." 

These  quotations  suggest  the  following  propositions,  which  may  be 
considered  as  constituting  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  of  predestination, 
and  in  which  there  is  an  explication  of  most  of  the  terms. 

1.  God  chose  out  of  the  whole  body  of  mankind,  whom  he  viewed 
in  his  eternal  decree  as  involved  in  guilt  and  misery,  certain  persons 
who  are  called  the  elect,  whose  names  are  known  to  him,  and  whose 
number,  being  unchangeably  fixed  by  his  decree,  can  neither  be  in- 
creased nor  diminished ;  so  that  the  whole  extent  of  the  remedy 
offered  in  the  gospel  is  conceived  to  have  been  determined  beforehand 
by  the  divine  decree. 

2.  As  all  the  children  of  Adam  were  involved  in  the  same  guilt 
and  misery,  the  persons  thus  chosen  had  nothing  in  themselves  to 
render  them  more  worthy  of  being  elected  than  any  others ;  and 
therefore  the  decree  of  election  is  called  in  the  Calvinistic  system  ab- 
solute, by  which  word  is  meant,  that  it  arises  entirely  from  the  good 
pleasure  of  God,  because  all  the  circumstances  which  distinguish  the 
elect  from  others  are  the  fruit  of  their  election. 

3.  For  the  persons  thus  chosen,  God,  from  the  beginning,  appoint- 
ed the  means  of  their  being  delivered  from  corruption  and  guilt ;  and 


526  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    PREDESTINATION. 

by  these  means,  effectually  applied  in  due  season,  he  conducts  them 
at  length  to  everlasting  life, 

4.  Jesus  Christ  was  ordained  by  God  to  be  the  Saviour  of  these 
/  persons,  and  God  gave  them  to  him  to  be  redeemed  by  his  blood,  to 
I    be  called  by  his  Spirit,  and  finally  to  be  glorified  with  him.     All  that 

=  Christ  did  in  the  character  of  Mediator,  was  in  consequence  of  this 
original  appointment  of  the  Father,  which  has  received  from  many 

I  divines  the  name  of  the  Covenant  of  Redemption ;  a  phrase  M'hich 
suggests  the  idea  of  a  mutual  stipulation  between  Christ  and  the 
Father,  in  which  Christ  undertook  all  that  work  which  he  executed 
in  his  human  nature,  and  which  he  continues  to  execute  in  heaven, 
in  order  to  save  the  elect ;  and  the  Father  promised  that  the  persons 
for  whom  Christ  died  should  be  saved  by  his  death.  According  to 
the  tenor  of  this  covenant  of  redemption,  the  merits  of  Christ  are  not 
considered  as  the  cause  of  the  decree  of  election,  but  as  a  part  of  that 
decree ;  in  other  words,  God  was  not  moved  by  the  mediation  of 
Christ  to  choose  certain  persons  out  of  the  great  body  of  mankind  to 
be  saved ;  but  having  chosen  them,  he  conveys  all  the  means  of  sal- 
vation through  the  channel  of  this  mediation. 

5.  From  the  election  of  certain  persons,  it  necessarily  follows  that 
all  the  rest  of  the  race  of  Adam  are  left  in  guilt  and  misery.  The 
exercise  of  the  divine  sovereignty,  in  regard  to  those  who  are  not 
elected,  is  called  Reprobation ;  and  the  condition  of  all  having  been 
originally  the  same,  reprobation  is  called  absolute  in  the  same  sense 
with  election.  In  reprobation,  there  are  two  acts,  which  the  Calvin- 
ists  are  careful  to  distinguish.  The  one  is  called  Preterition,  the 
passing  by  those  who  are  not  elected,  and  withholding  from  them 
those  means  of  grace  which  are  provided  for  the  elect.  The  other  is 
called  Condemnation,  the  act  of  condemning  those  who  have  been 
passed  by,  for  the  sins  which  they  commit.  In  the  former  act,  God 
exercises  his  good  pleasure,  dispensing  his  benefits  as  he  will :  in  the 
latter  act,  he  appears  as  a  Judge,  inflicting  upon  men  that  sentence 
which  their  sins  deserve.  If  he  had  bestowed  upon  them  the  same 
assistance  which  he  prepared  for  others,  they  would  have  been  pre- 
served from  that  sentence  :  but  as  their  sins  proceeded  from  their  own 
corruption,  they  are  thereby  rendered  worthy  of  punishment ;  and 
the  justice  of  the  Supreme  Ruler  is  manifested  in  condemning  them, 
as  his  mercy  is  manifested  in  saving  the  elect. 


Section  IV. 

I  SHALL  in  this  section  advert  to  the  points  of  difference  in  the  three 
systems  which  have  been  mentioned,  and  to  the  difficulties  in  which 
the  peculiarities  of  the  two  systems,  that  admit  of  being  compared, 
are  supposed  to  involve  those  by  whom  they  are  defended. 

The  Socinian  and  Calvinistic  systems  are  so  diametrically  opposite, 
that  they  do  not  admit  of  being  compared.  For  the  Socinian,  with- 
drawing future  contingent  events  from  the  foreknowledge  of  the  Su- 
preme Being,  either  proceeds  upon  the  principles  of  materialism, 


OPINIONS    CONCERNING    PREDESTINATION.  527 

according  to  which  the  actions  of  men  are  events  of  the  same  order, 
arising  miavoidably  by  the  same  laws  of  nature,  with  the  phenomena 
of  the  heavens  and  the  earth ;  or  it  exchides  the  possibility  of  an 
eternal  decree  respecting  the  future  condition  of  men.  The  first  of 
these  alternatives  is  adopted  by  Dr.  Priestley  :  the  second  was  adopt- 
ed by  Socinus  and  his  followers.  But  neither  the  one  nor  the  other 
presents  what  can  appear,  to  those  who  hold  the  received  principles 
of  natural  religion,  a  system  of  predestination.  Accordingly  Socinus 
says,*  that  all  those  places  of  Scripture,  which  treat  of  the  divine 
decree  of  saving  certain  men,  are  to  be  so  explained,  Ut  non  certi  qui- 
dam  homines  nominatim  intelligaiihir,  sed  genus  quoddani  homi- 
num.  And  one  of  his  followers,  speaking  in  the  name  of  the 
Socinians,  says,  that  they  reject,  as  hurtful  to  piety  and  contrary  to 
Scripture,  both  the  predestination  and  reprobation  of  individuals,  and 
also  the  foreknowledge  that  some  are  to  make  a  right  use  of  their 
liberty,  and  others  to  abuse  it;  and  that  they  assert  nothing  more 
than  this,  that  God  has  predestinated  to  eternal  life  all  whosoever 
shall,  to  the  utmost  of  their  power,  continue  to  the  end  in  obedience 
to  his  precepts,  and  that  he  has  reprobated  all  whosoever  shall  not 
obey.  Itaque  electio  ef  reprobafio  in  genere  prorsus  est  certa  et 
immutabilis,  i?i  individuo  autem  mutahilis  est.\ 

The  Arminian  system  agrees  with  the  Calvinistic  in  admitting  that 
contingent  events,  such  as  the  determinations  and  actions  of  men,  are 
foreseen  by  God  ;  and  this  fundamental  principle,  without  which 
there  can  be  no  predestination,  being  common  to  both,  it  is  possible 
to  compare  the  manner  of  its  being  applied  in  the  two  systems.  Both 
agree  in  admitting  that  there  is  a  peremptory  decree  by  which  the  Su- 
preme Being,  from  all  eternity,  unalterably  fixed  the  everlasting  con- 
dition of  man  ;  but  the  precise  ditierence  between  them  is  this.  The 
vVrminians  hold  that  God  made  this  peremptory  decree  upon  the  fore- 
sight of  the  faith  and  good  works  of  some,  of  the  infidelity  and  impe- 
nitence of  others ;  i.  e.  God,  foreseeing  from  all  eternity  that  some 
would  repent  and  believe,  elected  them  to  everlasting  life  ;  and  fore- 
seeing that  others  would  contiiuie  in  sin  and  unbelief,  left  them  to 
perish.  The  Calvinists,  on  the  other  hand,  say,  that  the  foith  and 
good  works  of  the  elect  are  the  consequences  of  their  election,  and  are 
foreseen  by  God,  because  he  determined  to  produce  them  ;  that,  being 
the  fruits  of  his  determination,  they  cannot  be  regarded  as  the  cause 
of  it ;  and  therefore  that  the  election  of  some,  and  the  reprobation  of 
others,  are  to  be  resolved  into  the  good  pleasure  of  God,  acting  indeed 
upon  the  wisest  reasons,  but  not  originally  moved  by  the  foresight 
of  any  circumstance  in  the  former  rendering  them  more  worthy  of 
being  elected  than  the  latter. 

The  first  thing  to  be  attended  to,  in  comparing  these  two  systems, 
is  the  manner  of  that  foresight  upon  which  the  Arminian  system  rests, 
and  from  which  result  all  the  points  of  difference  between  it  and  the 
Calvinistic.  It  is  a  foresight  of  the  faith  and  good  works  of  some,  in 
consequence  of  which  they  are  elected  ;  of  the  infidelity  and  impeni- 
tence of  others,  in  consequence  of  which  they  are  reprobated.  But 
this  is  a  foresight  which  the  Arminians  do  not  class  either  under 

*  Socin.  Prselcct.  cap.  13.  |  Stapfer.  iii.  415. 


528  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    PREDESTINATION. 

scientia  simpUcis  intclligenti9e,ox  under  sciejifia  visionis  : — not  un- 
der the  first,  which  is  conversant  about  things  possible,  or  those  ab- 
stract relations  which  are  independent  of  actual  existence ;  Avhereas 
this  foresight  is  conversant  about  objects  which  are  certainly  to  exist, 
and  whose  future  existence,  as  foreseen  by  God,  has  power  to  pro- 
duce a  decree : — not  under  the  second,  which  is  the  knowledge  of  all 
things  that  God  has  determined  to  produce  ;  whereas  this  foresight  is 
conceived  to  be  antecedent  to  the  determination  of  God,  being  the 
cause  of  his  decree  respecting  the  condition  of  those  persons  whose 
conduct  is  foreseen. 

To  this  kind  of  foresight,  thus  distinguished  from  scientia  simpU- 
cis intelligentiae,  and  from  scientia  visionis,  they  gave  the  name  of 
scientia  media,  considering  it  as  in  the  middle  between  the  two. 
The  term  was  first  invented  by  Molina,  a  Spanish  Jesuit,  and  a  pro- 
fessor of  divinity  in  Portugal.  It  was  the  leading  principle  of  a  book 
which  he  published  in  1588,  entitled,  "Liberi  arbitrii  concordia  cum 
gratias  donis,  divina  proescientia,  providentia,  predestinatione,  et  repro- 
.batione  :"  and  it  has  been  adopted  by  all  who  hold  the  system  of  Ar- 
ininius.  Scientia  media  is  the  knowledge,  neither  of  events  that  are 
barely  possible,  nor  of  events  that  are  absolutely  decreed  by  God,  but 
of  events  that  are  to  happen  upon  certain  conditions.  When  it  is  ap- 
plied to  the  doctrine  of  predestination,  there  arises  out  of  it  the  follow- 
ing system.  God  from  eternity  took  into  his  view  the  natural  dispo- 
sitions of  men,  the  circumstances  in  which  they  were  to  be  placed,  and 
the  objects  which  were  to  be  presented  to  them.  From  this  view,  he 
foresaw  the  conduct  which  they  were  to  pursue,  and  he  made  their 
conduct,  thus  foreseen,  the  measure  according  to  which  he  determined 
to  administer  the  means  of  grace,  and  to  fix  their  everlasting  happi- 
ness or  misery.  To  state  the  matter  more  shortly  :  God  foresees  what 
the  conduct  of  men  will  be  in  certain  situations ;  upon  this  foresight 
he  determines  their  situations ;  and  thus  by  scientia  media  the  free 
agency  of  man  is  reconciled  with  that  prescience,  which  is  implied  in 
the  conception  of  a  perfect  Mind,  who  rules  the  universe. 

The  Calvinists  do  not  admit  that  the  kind  of  knowledge,  called  by 
this  new  name,  is  really  diiferent  from  the  two  species  formerly  stated, 
under  which  it  appears  to  them  that  all  the  objects  which  can  be 
known  are  comprehended :  and  the  reasoning  which  they  employ  is 
to  this  purpose.  If  it  is  meant  by  scientia  media  that  God  knows 
every  supposable  case ;  that  all  the  combinations  which  can  arise 
in  every  situation  were  present  to  his  mind ;  and  that  he  is  as  well 
acquainted  with  what  might  have  happened  in  any  given  circum- 
stances as  with  what  will  happen;  this  is  scientia  simplicis  intelli- 
gentise.  If  by  scientia  media,  or,  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  condi- 
tionate  foreknowledge,  be  meant  that  God  sees  what  is  to  be,  not 
singly,  but  as  depending  upon  something  going  before  it,  this  is 
scientia  visionis.  For  nothing  stands  alone  and  unrelated  in  the  uni- 
verse :  every  event  arises  out  of  something  antecedent,  and  is  fruitful 
of  consequences.  What  is  called  hypothetical  necessity,  by  which  no 
more  is  meant  than  this,  if  one  thing  is,  another  shall  be,  pervades  the 
whole  system  of  creation,  and  is  the  very  thing  which  constitutes  a 
system.  Events,  therefore,  are  not  to  be  considered  as  the  less  or- 
dained by  God,  because  they  are  dependent  upon  conditions,  since 


OPINIONS    CONCERNING    PREDESTINATION.  529 

the  conditions  are  of  his  appointment,  and  the  manner  in  which  tlie 
event  depends  upon  the  conditions  is  known  to  him  ;  so  that  if  the  con- 
duct of  men  be  considered  as  arising  out  of  their  circumstances,  their 
temper,  and  the  objects  presented  to  them,  it  is  as  much  a  branch  of  the 
scientia  visionu  as  the  circumstances,  the  temper,  and  the  objects  out 
of  which  it  arises.  But  if  by  scientia  media  we  mean  not  merely 
the  knowledge  of  all  that  is  possible,  not  merely  the  knowledge  of  all 
future  events  in  connexion  with  all  present  circumstances,  but  the 
knowledge  of  an  event  that  is  to  be,  although  it  did  not  enter  into  the 
decree  of  God,  it  follows,  from  the  principles  stated  in  the  preceding 
section,  that  there  can  be  no  such  knowledge.  For,  1.  every  future 
«vent  derives  its  futurition  from  the  decree  of  God.  To  say,  there- 
fore, that  God  sees  an  event  before  he  has  decreed  that  it  shall  be,  is 
to  say  that  he  views  as  future,  an  event  which  is  merely  possible  ;  in 
other  words,  that  he  views  an  event  not  as  it  is.  But,  2.  could  we 
suppose  that  some  events  were  future,  which  God  had  not  decreed, 
his  knowledge  of  these  events  would  be  reduced  to  that  kind  of  con- 
jecture which  we  form  with  regard  to  what  shall  be,  from  attending 
to  all  the  previous  circumstances  out  of  which  it  may  be  conceived  to 
arise,  instead  of  being  that  clear,  infallible,  intuitive  prescience  of  the 
whole  series  of  causes  and  effects,  which  seems  essential  to  the  per- 
fection of  the  divine  understanding.  And  still  farther,  3.  supposina- 
that,  in  some  inconceivable  manner,  future  events,  not  decreed  by 
him,  were  as  certainly  foreknown  as  those  which  he  had  decreed, 
here  would  be  a  part  of  the  universe  withdrawn  from  the  government 
of  the  Supreme  Ruler  ;  something  that  is  to  come  into  existence  inde- 
pendently of  him,  the  futurition  of  which,  being  antecedent  to  his 
will,  becomes  the  rule  of  his  determination. 

Upon  these  principles  the  Calvinists,  maintaining  the  sovereignty 
of  the  Deity,  reject  the  third  sense  of  scientia  media,  which  is  the 
only  sense  that  is  of  any  use  in  the  Arminian  system.  They  conceive 
it  impossible  that  any  thing,  which  is  to  be  in  the  creation,  can  be  the 
foundation  of  the  divine  decree  concerning  the  creature,  because 
every  circumstance  respecting  the  existence  of  the  creature  is  depen- 
dent upon  the  divine  will ;  and  they  adhere  to  their  own  division  of 
the  divine  knowledge  as  complete,  because  the  things  which  may  be, 
and  the  things  which  God  hath  willed  to  be,  comprehend  all  the 
objects  that  can  be  known. 

There  are  several  passages  of  Scripture  which  the  Arminians  adduce 
in  proof  of  scientia  media.  Of  this  kind  is  the  following.  1  Sam. 
xxiii.  10 — 13.  "  David  said,  0  Lord  God  of  Israel,,  thy  servant  hath 
certainly  heard  that  Saul  seeketh  to  come  to  Keilah,  to  destroy  the 
city  for  my  sake.  Will  the  men  of  Keilah  deliver  me  up  into  his 
hands  ?  Will  Saul  come  down,  as  thy  servant  hath  heard  ?  And  the 
Lord  said, He  will  come  down:  they  will  deliver  thee  up.  Then 
David  arose  and  departed  out  of  Keilah :  and  it  was  told  Saul  that 
David  was  escaped  from  Keilah,  and  he  foreborc  to  go  forth." 
Saul's  coming  down,  and  the  people's  delivering  up  David,  depended 
upon  the  condition  of  David's  remaining  in  the  city.  As  the  condition 
did  not  take  place,  the  event  did  not  happen  :  and  therefore  here,  it  is 
said,  is  an  instance  of  an  event  not  decreed  by  God,  for  then  it  must 
have  happened,  yet  foretold  by  him ;  in  other  words,  here,  it  is  said, 
47  4  A 


530  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    PREDESTINATION. 

is  an  instance  of  scientia  media,  the  foreknowledge  of  an  event 
depending  upon  a  condition.  But  the  Calvinists  consider  this  as  an 
instance  of  scientia  simplicis  intelligentise.  Amidst  the  possible  com- 
binations of  objects  which  are  present  to  the  divine  mind,  this  was 
one,  that  if  David  remained  in  Keilah,  Saul  would  come  down,  and 
the  people  of  the  city  would  deliver  him  up.  The  connexion  between 
his  remaining,  Saul's  coming  down,  and  the  conduct  of  the  people, 
was  what  God  saw ;  and  at  the  request  of  David  he  declared  that 
connexion.  But  we  must  entertain  as  low  an  opinion  of  the  divine 
foreknowledge  as  the  Socinians  do,  if  we  suppose  that  he  foresaw  the 
actual  existence  of  any  of  the  events  thus  connected.  To  the  scientia 
simplicis  iyiielligentiae  there  appeared  a  chain,  of  which  David's  re- 
maining in  Keilah  was  one  link :  to  the  scientia  visio?iis  there 
appeared  another  chain,  of  which  it  was  not  a  link.  God  knew  what 
would  have  happened  in  the  one  case  ;  he  knew  what  was  to  happen 
in  the  other:  but  it  is  a  sophism  to  say  that  he  foresaw  what  would 
have  happened,  when  he  knew  it  was  not  to  happen  ;  and  this  sophism 
is  at  the  bottom  of  all  the  reasonings  adduced  to  prove  that  there  is 
in  God  the  certain  foreknowledge  of  any  events  but  those  which  he 
has  decreed  to  be. 

In  the  same  manner  the  Calvinists  explain  that  expression  of  our 
Lord,  Mat.  xi.  21,  which  appears  to  be  a  still  clearer  instance  of 
scientia  media.  "  Woe  unto  thee,  Chorazin,  woe  unto  thee,  Beth- 
saidah ;  for  if  the  mighty  works  which  were  done  in  you  had  been 
done  in  Tyre  and  Sidon,  they  would  have  repented  long  ago  in  sack- 
cloth and  ashes."  Here  is  a  declaration,  consequently  a  knowledge, 
of  the  event  which  would  have  happened,  had  the  constitution  of  the 
universe  admitted  of  the  works  of  our  Lord  being  done  in  Tyre  and 
Sidon.  This  event  was  possible,  before  the  Creator  adopted  that  con- 
stitution of  the  universe  which  now  is :  it  would  have  taken  place 
had  a  particular  constitution  been  adopted ;  but  its  existence  being 
excluded  by  the  decree  which,  adopting  the  present  constitution, 
includes  the  objects  about  which  scientia  visionis  is  conversant,  it 
remains  amongst  the  objects  of  scientia  simplicis  intelligentise.  So 
all  the  promises  of  happiness  which  men  shall  realize  if  they  prove 
obedient,  all  the  expressions  of  regret  at  their  missing  the  happiness 
which  they  might  have  attained  if  they  had  been  obedient,  and  all 
the  threatenings  of  misery  which  they  shall  incur  if  they  disobey, — all 
conditional  propositions  of  this  kind,  with  which  the  Scriptures  abound, 
are  to  be  considered  not  as  intimations  of  the  knowledge  which  God 
lias  of  the  futurition  of  any  of  these  events,  but  merely  as  enunciations 
of  one  branch  of  that  hypothetical  necessity  which  pervades  the  sys- 
tem of  the  universe — the  branch  by  which  happiness  is  connected 
with  virtue,  and  misery  with  vice. 

Such  is  the  different  manner  in  which  the  Arminians  and  the  Cal- 
vinists conceive  of  the  foreknowledge  of  God.  The  Arminians, 
admitting  that  all  events,  of  whatever  kind,  are  foreknown  by  the 
Supreme  Being,  but  desirous  to  exempt  the  actions  of  men  from  the 
influence  of  his  decree,  have  adopted  the  term  scientia  media,  in 
order  to  express  a  species  of  knowledge  in  the  divine  mind  difierent 
from  scientia  simplicis  intelligentise,  and  from  scientia  visionis. 
But  to  the  Calvinists,  this  new  term,  invented  by  Molina,  appears  to 


OPINIONS    CONCERNING    PREDESTINATION.  531 

be  an  attempt  to  establish  a  distinction  where  there  is  not  a  differ- 
ence :  for  according  to  tliem,  every  thing  that  is  to  exist  is  decreed  by 
God ;  it  derives  its  futurition  from  his  decree,  and  it  is  foreseen  be- 
cause it  is  decreed. 

This  ditlerence  in  the  manner  of  conceiving  of  the  divine  fore- 
knowledge is  the  foundation  of  the  difference  between  the  Arminian 
and  the  Calvinistic  systems,  all  the  distinguishing  features  of  which 
are  instantly  perceived,  when  the  different  conceptions  of  the  divine 
foreknowledge,  that  have  been  explained,  are  applied  to  the  great 
subject  about  which  the  systems  are  conversant.     The  plan  of  the 
Arminian  system  is  this.     God,  having  decreed  to  give  his  Son  to  be 
the  Saviour  of  all  men,  having  determined  to  save  by  Jesus  Christ 
them  that  repent  and  believe,  and  having  fixed  a  certain  administra- 
tion of  the  means  of  grace  sufficient  to  bring  all  men  to  salvation, 
foresaw  what  persons  would,  under  this  administration,  repent  and 
believe,  and  them  he  elected  to  everlasting  life.     The  plan  of  the 
Calvinistic  system  is  this.     God  having,  from  all  eternity,  chosen  a 
certain  number  of  persons,  did,  hi  time,  give  his  Son  to  be  their  Sa- 
viour ;  he  bestows  upon  them,  through  him,  that  grace  which  eftect- 
ually  determines  them  to  repent  and  believe,  and  so  eftectually  conducts 
them,  by  faith  and  good  works,  to  everlasting  life.     In  the  Arminian 
system,  the  faith  and  good  works  of  some  persons  are  viewed  as  in- 
dependent of  the  decree  by  which  they  are  elected.  In  the  Calvinistic 
system,  they  are  considered  as  the  fruit  of  election ;  and  they  were, 
from  eternity,  known  to  God,  because  they  were,  in  time,  to  be  pro- 
duced by  the  execution  of  his  decree.     In  the  Arminian  system,  it  is 
conceived  that,  although  there  are  many  who  do  not  repent  and  be- 
lieve, yet  means  sufficient  to  bring  men  to  salvation  are  administered 
to  all ;  from  which  it  follows,  that,  antecedently  to  the  decree  of  elec- 
tion, these  elected  persons  must  have  been  considered  as  distinguished 
from  others,  by  some  predisposition  in  respect  to  faith  and  good 
works ;  so  that  the  doctrine  of  original  sin  can  be  admitted  into  this 
system  only  under  such  limitations  as  render  it  consistent  with  such 
predisposition.     In  the  Calvinistic  system,  predestination  being  an 
appointment  to  the  means  as  well  as  to  the  end,  and  all  the  condi- 
tions of  salvation  being  given  with  Christ,  by  the  decree  of  election, 
to  those  who  are  elected,  every  conception  of  any  original  superiority, 
or  any  ground  of  boasting,  by  nature,  is  excluded ;  and  the  doctrine 
of  original  sin  is  admitted  to  the  extent  of  representing  all  men  as 
involved  in  the  same  guilt  and  misery,  as  equally  unable  to  extricate 
themselves,  and  as  discriminated  from  one  another  by  the  mere  good 
pleasure  of  God.     In  the  Arminian  system,  Christ  being  conceived 
as  given  by  God  to  be  the  Saviour  of  all  the  children  of  Adam,  and 
as  having  purchased  for  all  men  a  sufficient  administration  of  the 
means  of  grace,  what  is  called  impef  ratio  sahitis  maybe  of  much  wider 
extent  than  what  is  called  appUcatio  sahitis.     God  wills  all  men  to 
be  saved,  upon  condition  that  they  repent  and  believe  ;  but  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  condition  is  conceived,  in  this  system,  to  depend  upon 
man ;  and,  therefore,  the  purpose  which,  in  the  eternal  counsel  of 
divine  love,  extended  to  all,  is  attained  with  regard  to  many,  or  to 
few,  according  to  the  use  which  they  make  of  the  means  of  grace 
afforded  them.     In  the  Calvinistic  system,  what  is  called  appUcatio 


532  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    PREDESTINATION. 

saluHs  is  conceived  to  be  of  equal  extent  with  impetratio  salutis. 
To  all  those  whom  God  from  the  beginning  decreed  to  save,  he  affords 
the  means  which  infallibly  conduct  them  to  salvation :  it  is  not  in  the 
power  of  man  to  increase  or  diminish  their  number ;  and  the  divine 
purpose  is  effectual  to  the  very  extent  to  which  it  was  originally 
formed. 

This  view  of  the  points  of  difference  between  the  Arminian  and 
Calvinistic  systems,  suggests  the  principal  difficulties  that  are  peculiar 
to  each,  which  I  shall  in  this  place  barely  mention.  The  difficulties 
under  which  the  Arminian  system  labours,  are  three. 

1 .  It  is  not  easy  to  reconcile  the  infinite  diversity  of  situations,  and 
the  very  unfavourable  circumstances  in  which  many  nations,  and 
some  individuals  of  all  nations  are  placed,  with  one  fundamental  po- 
sition of  the  Arminian  system,  that  to  all  men  there  are  administered 
means  sufficient  to  bring  them  to  salvation. 

2.  It  is  not  easy  to  reconcile  those  views  of  the  degeneracy  of  human 
nature,  and  those  lessons  of  humility  and  self-abasement  in  the  sight 
of  God  which  both  Scripture  and  reason  inculcate,  with  another  fun- 
damental position  of  that  system,  that  the  faith  and  good  works  of 
those  who  are  elected,  did  not  flow  from  their  election,  but  were  fore- 
seen by  God  as  the  grounds  of  it. 

3.  It  is  not  easy  to  reconcile  the  immutability  and  efficacy  of  the 
divine  counsel,  which  enter  into  our  conceptions  of  the  First  Cause, 
with  a  purpose  to  save  all,  suspended  upon  a  condition  which  is  not 
fulfilled  with  regard  to  many. 

The  difficulties  attending  the  Calvinistic  system,  however  much 
they  may  have  the  appearance  of  being  multiplied  by  a  variety  of 
expressions,  are  reducible  to  two. 

1.  It  appears  to  be  inconsistent  with  the  nature  of  man,  to  destroy 
his  liberty,  and  to  supersede  his  exertions,  that  they  who  are  elected 
should  be  eftectually  determined  to  repent  and  believe. 

2.  It  appears  inconsistent  with  the  goodness  and  justice  of  God, 
that  when  all  were  involved  in  the  same  guilt  and  misery,  he  should 
ordain  the  effectual  means  of  being  delivered  out  of  that  condition 
only  to  a  part  of  the  human  race,  leaving  the  rest  infallibly  to  perish. 
And  if  this  be  a  true  account  of  the  divine  dispensation,  it  seems  to 
be  a  necessary  consequence,  that  all  the  moral  evil  which  is  in  the 
world,  and  all  the  misery  arising  from  that  moral  evil,  either  here  or 
hereafter,  are  to  be  ascribed  to  God. 

I  have  mentioned  the  difficulties  peculiar  to  the  two  systems  in  this 
place,  because  they  are  suggested  by  the  general  view  already  given 
of  the  points  of  difference  between  them.  But,  in  order  to  discern 
the  force  of  the  difficulties,  and  to  judge  of  the  attempts  that  have 
been  made  to  remove  them,  it  is  necessary  to  attend  more  particu- 
larly to  the  account  that  is  given,  in  each  system,  of  the  application 
of  the  remedy.  I  shall  proceed,  therefore,  now  to  this  third  subject 
of  discussion,  respecting  the  gospel  remedy ;  and,  from  the  complete 
view  which  we  shall  thus  attain,  of  the  characteristical  features  of 
the  two  systems,  we  shall  be  qualified  to  estimate  the  difficulties  that 
adhere  to  each,  and  prepared  to  weigh  the  amount  of  the  evidence 
which  each  professes  to  derive  from  Scripture. 


OPINIONS  CONCERNING  THE  APPLICATION  OF  THE  REMEDY.         533 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


OPINIONS    CONCERNING   THE    APPLICATION    OF    THE    REMEDY, 


As  it  is  nnquestionably  the  doctrine  of  Scripture,  that  none  partake 
of  the  salvation  which  the  Gospel  was  given  to  afford,  but  those  who 
repent  and  believe,  we  are  entitled  to  say  that  the  remedy  offered  in 
tlie  Gospel  is  connected  with  a  certain  character  of  mind.  The  extent 
of  the  remedy  being  thus  limited  in  so  far  that  it  reaches  only  to  per- 
sons of  that  character,  I  employ  the  phrase.  The  Application  of  the 
Remedy,  in  order  to  express  the  production  of  that  character ;  and  I 
consider  systems  as  differing  from  one  another  in  respect  of  the  appli- 
cation of  the  remedy,  when  they  differ  as  to  the  manner  in  whicli  the 
character  is  produced. 

From  the  distinguishing  features  of  the  Socinian  system,  it  will  bo 
perceived  that,  as  it  denies  several  of  those  fundamental  principles  on 
which  the  Arminians  and  Calvinists  agree,  it  cannot  be  compared 
with  them  in  respect  to  the  application  of  the  remedy.  The  Sociuians 
adopt  that  doctrine  which  was  introduced  by  Pelagius  about  the  be- 
ginning of  the  fifth  century,  that  the  moral  powers  of  human  nature 
are  not  in  the  least  injured  by  the  sin  of  our  first  parents,  but  that  all 
the  children  of  Adam  are  as  able  to  yield  a  perfect  obedience  to  the 
commands  of  God  as  he  was  at  his  creation.  They  admit  that  men 
may  be  led,  by  the  strength  of  passion,  by  unfavourable  circumstances, 
and  by  imitation,  into  such  sins  as  separate  them  from  the  favour  of 
God,  and  render  it  difficult  for  them  to  return  to  the  obedience  of  his 
laws ;  but  they  hold  that  this  difficulty  never  amounts  to  a  moral  im- 
possibility ;  and  that  at  what  time  soever  a  sinner  forsakes  his  trans- 
gressions, he  is  forgiven,  not  upon  account  of  what  Christ  did,  but 
from  the  essential  goodness  of  the  divine  nature.  They  acknowledge 
that  the  Gospel  gives  to  a  sinful  world  more  gracious  and  more 
effectual  assistance  in  returning  to  their  duty,  than  ever  was  afforded 
before  ;  but  they  consider  this  assistance  as  arising  solely  from  the 
clear  revelation  there  given  of  the  nature  and  the  will  of  God,  from 
the  example  there  proposed,  and  from  the  hope  of  eternal  life,  that 
gift  of  God  which  is  peculiar  to  this  religion.  By  its  doctrines  and 
its  promises,  it  presents  to  the  human  mind  the  strongest  motives  to 
obedience.  All,  therefore,  who  live  in  a  Christian  country,  enjoy  an 
outward  assistance  in  the  discharge  of  their  duty,  of  very  great  value  ; 
and  those  who  receive  the  Gospel  as  the  word  of  God,  feel  the  power 
of  it  in  their  hearts.  This  inward  power,  the  influence  of  the  doctrine 
of  Christ  upon  the  mind,  the  Socinians  understand  to  be,  in  many 
places  of  the  New  Testament,  the  whole  import  of  these  expressions, 
47* 


534  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE 

"the  Spirit  of  God,"  the  "Spirit  of  Hfe,"  the  "Spirit  of  the  Lord." 
For  as  they  deny  that  the  Spirit  is  a  person  distinct  from  the  Father 
and  the  Son,  they  are  obhged  to  consider  all  the  expressions  from 
which  the  Trinitarians  infer  the  personality  of  the  Spirit,  as  figures, 
or  circumlocutions  ;  and  when  it  is  said,  "  we  walk  after  the  Spirit — 
the  Spirit  of  life  makes  us  free — where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there 
is  liberty — ye  are  washed  and  sanctified  by  the  Spirit  of  our  God," 
they  find  it  easy  to  evade  the  argument  which  these  and  numberless 
phrases  of  the  same  kind  are  supposed  to  contain,  by  understanding  the 
meaning  of  the  sacred  writers  to  be  no  more  than  this,  that  the  influ- 
ence of  the  doctrine  and  promises  of  the  Gospel  upon  the  mind,  when 
they  are  firmly  believed  and  cordially  embraced,  produces  such 
eflects. 

From  these  fundamental  principles  of  the  Socinian  system  it  follows, 
that  the  application  of  the  remedy  is  conceived  in  that  system  to  be 
purely  the  work  of  man  ;  that,  as  even  without  the  advantages  which 
the  Gospel  aflTords,  he  may,  in  every  situation,  by  the  mere  use  of  his 
natural  powers,  do  what  is  of  itself  sufficient  to  deliver  him  from  the 
evils  of  sin,  so  his  improving  the  assistance  communicated  by  the 
Christian  revelation,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  attain  the  character  con- 
nected with  the  enjoyment  of  its  blessings,  arises  not  in  any  degree 
from  the  agency  of  a  superior  being  upon  his  mind,  but  is  an  exer- 
cise of  his  own  power  depending  wholly  upon  himself.*  It  is  one  of 
those  future  contingencies  which  the  Socinians  suppose  to  be  with- 
drawn from  the  divine  foresight ;  and  predestination  according  to 
them  is  nothing  more  than  the  purpose  of  calling  both  Jews  and  Gen- 
tiles to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  and  the  hope  of  eternal  life  by 
Jesus  Christ — a  purpose  which  God  from  the  beginning  formed,  with- 
out knowing  whether  the  execution  of  this  purpose  would  have  the 
eftect  of  bringing  any  individual  to  heaven.  Neither  the  extent  nor 
the  application  of  the  remedy  entered  into  his  decree ;  but  God  did 
all  that  he  proposed  to  do  by  giving  the  revelation,  leaving  to  men  to 
make  use  of  it  as  they  thought  fit,  and  to  receive  such  reward  and 
such  punishment  as  they  shall  appear  to  him  to  deserve. 

This  system,  which  as  I  said  before  attempts  to  get  rid  of  difficul- 
ties by  degrading  the  character  of  the  Supreme  Being,  and  excluding 
some  of  the  first  principles  of  religion,  does  not  fall  within  a  compa- 
rative view  of  the  difterent  systems  of  predestination ;  and  there  re- 
main to  be  considered  only  two  opinions  concerning  what  I  call  the 
application  of  the  remedy,  which  we  distinguish  by  tlie  names  of  Ar- 
minian  and  Calvin istic.  Of  each  of  these  opinions  I  shall  give  a  fair 
statement ;  by  which  I  mean,  that  I  shall  endeavour  to  show  in  what 
manner  the  Arminian  opinion  is  separated  from  Socinian  principles 
by  those  who  hold  it,  and  in  what  light  the  Calvinistic  opinion  is  re- 
presented by  those  who  appear  to  understand  best  the  grounds  upon 
which  it  may  be  defended ;  and  from  this  fair  statement  I  shall  pro- 
ceed to  canvass  the  difficulties,  formerly  mentioned,  which  adliere  to 
these  two  systems  of  predestination. 

The  Arminians  and  Calvinists  differ  as  to  the  measure  of  that  injury 
which  the  moral  powers  of  human  nature  received  from  the  trans- 

*   A  Deo  habemus  quod  homines  sumus,  a  nobis  ipsis  quod  justi. — Pelagius. 


APPLICATION    OF    THE    REMEDY.  535 

gression  of  our  first  parents :  but  they  agree  in  acknowledging  that 
man  has  fallen  from  his  original  rectitude  ;  that  there  is  an  universal 
corruption  of  the  whole  race,  the  influence  of  which  extends  to  the 
understanding,  the  will,  and  the  affections  ;  that  in  this  state  no  man 
is  of  himself  capable  of  giving  any  uniform  and  eflectual  resistance  to 
temptation,  of  extricating  himself  from  the  dominion  of  sin,  or  of 
attaining,  by  the  exercise  of  his  own  powers,  the  character  which  is 
connected  with  a  full  participation  of  the  blessings  of  the  Gospel. 
They  agree  that  the  Father  of  spirits  can  act  upon  the  minds  of  men 
so  as  to  administer  a  remedy  to  this  corruption,  and  to  recover  them 
to  the  practice  of  virtue ;  and  they  think  it  probable,  even  from  the 
light  of  nature,  that  he  will  exert  his  divine  power,  and  employ  that 
various  access  which  his  continual  presence  with  his  creatures  gives 
him,  in  accomplishing  this  gracious  purpose.  They  find  the  hope  of 
this  expressed,  as  a  dictate  of  reason,  in  many  passages  of  heathen 
writers  ;  they  find  it  inspiring  all  the  prayers  for  divine  assistance 
which  occur  both  in  the  Old  and  in  the  New  Testament ;  and  they 
find  it  confirmed  by  many  promises,  which  good  men  under  the  dis- 
pensation of  the  law  embraced,  but  the  complete  fulfilment  of  which 
was  looked  for  as  one  of  the  peculiar  characters  of  that  better  dispen- 
sation which  the  law  announced.  When  they  read  these  words  of 
Jeremiah,  quoted  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  x.  16,  17,  "This  is 
the  covenant  that  I  will  make  with  them  after  those  days,  saith  the 
Lord,  I  will  put  my  laws  into  their  hearts,  and  in  their  minds  will  I 
write  them :  and  their  sins  and  iniquities  will  I  remember  no  more," 
— they  conceive  the  prophet  and  the  apostle  to  have  understood,  that 
with  the  pardon  of  sin — that  blessing  which  was  typified  by  the  sac- 
rifices of  the  law,  but  is  truly  obtained  by  the  sacrifice  of  the  cross, — 
there  is  conjoined  under  the  Gospel  an  influence  exerted  by  the  Al- 
mighty upon  the  hearts  and  the  minds  of  Christians ;  and  that  these 
two  taken  together  make  up  the  character  and  the  excellency  of  that 
better  covenant  which  came  in  place  of  the  first.  The  Arminians  and 
Calvinists  agree  farther,  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  a  person  distinct  from 
the  Father  and  the  Son ;  that  he  is  a  divine  person ;  and  that  he 
bears  a  part  in  accomplishing  the  salvation  of  mankind  ;  that  he  in- 
spired the  prophets,  who  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  spake  of 
this  salvation,  and  cherished  the  expectation  of  it  in  the  breasts  of 
pious  men ;  that  having  been  given  without  measure  to  the  man 
Christ  Jesus,  he  descended,  in  fulfilment  of  his  promise  at  the  day  of 
Pentecost,  upon  his  apostles,  and  endowed  them  with' those  extraor- 
dinary powers  which  were  necessary  for  the  successful  publication  of 
the  Gospel ;  that  he  continues  to  be  the  fountain  of  all  spiritual  in- 
fluence— the  distributor  of  those  gifts  to  men  which  Jesus  Christ  re- 
ceived ;  and  that  the  Father  in  all  ages,  upon  account  of  the  interces- 
sion of  the  Son,  gives  the  Holy  Spirit  to  his  children.  The  Arminians 
and  the  Calvinists  agree,  that  by  the  distribution  of  these  gifts,  the 
Holy  Ghost  exercises  the  oflice  of  the  Sanctifier  and  Comforter  of 
Christians  ;  that  he  opens  their  understandings  ;  that  he  renews  them 
in  the  spirit  of  their  minds  ;  that  he  inclines  their  hearts  to  obey  the 
truth  ;  that  he  helps  their  infirmities ;  that  all  the  graces  in  whidi 
they  abound  are  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit ;  and  that  as  many  as  are  the 
children  of  God  are  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God.     They  agree  farther  in 


536  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE 

expressing  these  influences  of  the  Spirit  by  the  word  Grace.  The 
Socinians  contend  that  this  use  of  the  word  is  not  warranted  by  Scrip- 
ture ;  that  the  word  in  general  signifies  favour  ;  that  it  is  apphed  in  a 
variety  of  meanings  ;  but  that  as  there  is  no  unequivocal  instance  of 
the  sacred  writers  employing  this  word  to  express  an  influence  ex- 
erted by  God  upon  the  mind,  all  that  is  said  in  the  systems  of  theology 
about  grace  is  founded  upon  a  perversion  of  Scripture.  To  the  Ar- 
minians  and  Calvinists,  on  the  other  hand,  it  appears  that  there  are 
passages  in  the  New  Testament,  where  the  sense  requires  that  the 
word  be  understood  with  the  meaning  which  they  affix  to  it.  Of  this 
kind  are  Heb.  iv.  16,  1  Cor.  xv.  10.  The  controversy  about  the 
Scripture  meaning  of  the  word  grace  is  not  of  much  importance. 
Although  in  this,  as  in  many  other  instances,  the  Scriptures  may  have 
been  quoted  and  applied  more  from  a  regard  to  the  sound  than  to  the 
sense,  and  although  the  word  grace  may  have  been  often  understood 
to  mean  an  influence  upon  the  mind,  when  the  sacred  writers  were 
speaking  of  the  favour  of  God  in  general,  or  of  the  dispensation  of  the 
Gospel,  which,  being  the  brightest  display  of  his  favour  to  man,  is 
often  called  the  Grace  of  God,  yet  this  does  not  aftbrd  any  kind  of 
argument  against  the  reality  of  what  is  termed  in  theological  lan- 
guage, grace,  or  even  against  the  propriety  of  that  use  of  the  word. 
For  it  matters  little  what  words  are  employed  upon  any  subject,  pro- 
vided the  sense  affixed  to  them  be  clearly  defined ;  and  if  there  is 
various  evidence  in  Scripture,  as  the  Arminians  and  Calvinists  agree 
in  believing,  that  the  Spirit  of  God  does  act  immediately  upon  the 
mind  of  man,  there  is  no  word  by  which  an  influence  so  fraught  with 
blessings  can  be  more  fitly  marked  than  by  the  general  word  a;ac's» 
grace  ;  even  although  the  passages,  where  the  sacred  writers  have 
applied  the  word  in  that  sense,  were  more  equivocal  than  they 
really  are. 

With  all  these  points  of  agreement,  the  difference  between  the  Ar- 
minian  and  Calvinistic  systems,  as  to  the  application  of  the  remedy, 
is  most  material,  because  it  respects  the  nature  and  the  efficacy  of 
that  influence  upon  the  mind,  which  in  both  systems  is  called  by  the 
name  of  grace.  The  Arminians,  who  believe  that  the  death  of  Christ 
was  an  atonement  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world,  which  by  redeem- 
ing all  men  from  the  curse  put  them  into  a  situation  in  which  they 
may  be  saved,  believe,  in  conformity  to  this  fundamental  principle, 
that  the  death  of  Christ  also  purchased  for  all  men  means  sufficient 
to  bring  them  to  salvation.  And  therefore,  as  they  acknowledge  that 
the  corruption  of  human  nature  opposes  obstacles  to  faith  and  re- 
pentance, which  our  natural  powers  are  unable  of  themselves  to  sur- 
mount, they  believe  that  the  grace  purchased  by  Christ  restores  all 
men  to  a  situation,  in  which  they  may  do  those  works  which  are  well 
pleasing  to  God.  This  grace  is  called  common,  because  it  is  given 
indifferently  to  all ;  preventing,  because  it  comes  before  our  own  en- 
deavours ;  exciting,  because  it  stirs  up  our  powers,  naturally  sluggish 
and  averse  from  God.  Of  some  measure  of  this  grace,  no  man  in 
any  situation  is  supposed  to  be  destitute.  It  accompanies  the  light  of 
nature  in  heathen  countries,  as  well  as  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  hi 
those  which  are  Christian ;  and  every  one  who  improves  the  mea- 
sure given  him  is  thereby  prepared  for  more.     From  the  smaUest 


APPLICATION    OF    THE    REMEDY.  537 

degrees  of  this  grace,  and  the  most  unfavourable  circumstances  in 
which  it  can  be  given,  those  Avho  are  not  wanting  to  themselves  are 
certainly  conducted  to  such  degrees  as  produce  faith  and  repentance ; 
and  all,  whose  minds  have  been  regenerated  by  this  exciting  grace, 
receive  what  the  Armhiians  call  subsequent  and  co-operating  grace  ; 
— subsequent,  because  it  follows  after  conversion  ; — co-operating,  be- 
cause it  concurs  with  human  exertions  in  producing  those  moral 
virtues,  which,  having  originated  in  that  grace  which  is  preventing, 
and  being  carried  on  to  perfection  by  that  which  is  subsequent,  are 
fitly  called  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit. 

As  higher  degrees  of  grace  are  supposed  to  be  given  in  consequence 
of  the  improvement  of  those  which  were  previous,  the  Arminians 
consider  the  efficacy  of  all  grace  as  depending  upon  the  reception 
which  it  meets  with.  They  cannot  say  that  it  is  of  the  nature  of  grace 
to  be  effectual ;  for  although,  according  to  their  system,  it  be  given  to 
all  with  such  impartiality,  that  he  who  believes  had  not  originally  a 
larger  portion  of  grace  than  he  who  does  not  believe,  yet  there  are 
many  in  whom  it  does  not  produce  faith  and  repentance.  It  is  purely, 
therefore,  from  the  event  that  grace  is  to  be  distinguished  as  effectual 
or  ineffectual ;  and  the  same  grace  being  given  to  all,  there  is  no 
other  cause  to  which  the  difference  in  the  event  can  be  ascribed,  than 
the  difference  in  the  character  of  those  by  whom  it  is  received.  As 
the  event  of  the  grace  of  God  is  conceived  to  depend  upon  men,  it 
follows,  according  to  this  system,  that  the  grace  of  God  may  be  re- 
sisted, i.  e.  the  obstacles  opposed  by  the  perverseness  of  the  human 
will  may  be  such  as  finally  to  prevent  the  eftect  of  this  grace.  Ac- 
cordingly, the  Arminians  find  themselves  obliged  to  give  such  an 
account  of  the  nature  of  grace  as  admits  of  its  being  resistible.  It 
was  thus  described  by  the  first  Arminians  : — "  Lenis  suasio  ;  nobilis- 
simus  agendi  modus  in  conversione  hominum,  qua3  fiat  suasionibus, 
morali  ratione  consensum  voluntatis  producens."  The  English  phrase 
answering  to  this  description  is  Moral  Suasion  ;  and  the  meaning  of 
the  phrase  is  thus  explained  by  the  best  Arminian  writers.  They 
conceive  that  all  that  impossibility  of  keeping  the  commandments  of 
God,  which  arises  from  the  corruption  of  human  nature,  is  removed 
by  the  grace  of  God ;  and  that,  while  the  word  of  God  proposes  ex- 
hortations, warnings,  and  inducements,  to  man  thus  restored  to  the 
capacity  of  doing  what  is  required  of  him,  the  Spirit  of  God  opens 
his  understanding  to  discern  the  force  of  these  things,  and  is  continu- 
ally present  with  him,  suggesting  good  thoughts,  inspiring  good  de- 
sires, and  by  the  most  seasonable,  friendly,  and  gentle  counsel, 
inclining  his  mind  to  his  duty.  This  seasonable,  friendly,  and  gentle 
counsel  is  called  moral  suasion  ;  but  this  counsel  may  be  rejected ;  for 
herein,  say  the  Arminians,  consists  the  liberty  of  man,  that  with  every 
possible  reason  before  him  to  choose  one  course  he  may  choose  an- 
other, and  the  influence  of  any  other  being  cannot  be  of  such  a  kind 
as  certainly  and  effectually  to  determine  his  choice,  without  destroy- 
ing his  nature.  After  all  the  assistance  and  direction,  therefore,  which 
he  can  derive  from  the  grace  of  God,  he  may  believe  or  he  may  not 
believe ;  he  may  return  to  the  habitual  practice  of  sin  after  he  has 
been  converted  ;  and,  by  abusing  those  means  of  grace  which  he  had 
formerly  improved,  he  may  in  the  end  fail  of  attaining  salvation. 

4B 


538  ■  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE 

The  account,  which  I  have  now  given  of  the  Arminian  doctrine 
with  regard  to  the  nature  and  efficacy  of  the  grace  of  God,  is  agree- 
able to  the  three  last  of  the  five  articles  in  which  the  early  Arminians 
stated  their  system.  In  these  articles  they  discover  an  anxiety  to 
vindicate  themselves  from  the  charge  of  Pelagianism,  or  from  the 
appearance  of  ascribing  so  much  to  the  natural  powers  of  man,  as  to 
render  the  grace  of  God  unnecessary. 

3.  Man  has  not  saving  faith  from  himself,  and,  being  in  a  state  of 
depravity  and  sin,  he  cannot,  by  the  exercise  of  his  own  free  will, 
think  or  do  any  thing  that  is  truly  good ;  but  it  is  necessary  that  he 
be  regenerated  and  renewed  by  God  in  Christ  through  his  Holy 
Spirit,  in  his  mind,  his  aftections,  or  his  will,  and  all  liis  faculties,  that 
he  may  understand,  think,  will,  and  perform  any  good  thing ;  accord- 
ing to  that  saying  of  Christ,  "  Without  me  ye  can  do  nothing." 

4.  The  fourth  article,  after  saying  that  this  grace  of  God  is  the  be- 
ginning, the  progress,  and  the  perfection  of  all  good,  so  that  all  our 
good  works  are  to  be  ascribed  to  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ,  adds 
these  words :  Bnt  as  to  the  manner  of  the  operation  of  this  grace,  it 
is  not  irresistible :  for  it  is  said  in  Scripture  of  many,  that  they  resist- 
ed the  Holy  Spirit. 

5.  The  fifth  article,  after  mentioning  the  strength  and  assistance 
furnished  to  those  who  are  united  to  Christ  by  a  true  faith,  expresses 
a  doabt  whether  they  may  not  by  their  own  negligence  make  ship- 
wreck of  a  good  conscience,  and  forfeit  their  interest  in  Christ.  The 
later  Arminians  laid  aside  the  language  of  doubt  upon  this  subject, 
and  said  without  hesitation,  that  those  who,  being  united  to  Christ  by 
faith,  had  been  partakers  of  his  grace,  might,  through  their  own  fault, 
fall  from  a  state  of  grace. 

The  Calvinistic  system  gives  a  very  different  view  of  the  applica- 
tion of  the  remedy ;  and  the  difference  may  be  traced  back  to  its 
fundamental  principle,  that  Christ  did  not  die  for  all  men,  but  for 
those  of  every  nation  who  are  in  the  end  to  be  saved.  Them  only 
he  delivers  from  the  curse,  and  for  them  only  he  purchases  those  in- 
fluences of  the  Spirit  by  which  faith  and  repentance  are  produced. 
Others  enjoy  in  common  with  them  the  gifts  of  nature,  the  bounties 
of  providence,  the  light  of  conscience  ;  and  all  who  live  in  a  Christian 
country,  by  the  motives  proposed  in  the  Gospel,  and  by  the  ordinances 
of  religion  may  be  restrained  from  many  open  sins,  and  excited  to 
many  good  actions.  But  that  grace,  which  forms  in  the  mind  of  man 
the  character  connected  with  salvation,  is  confined  to  those  whom 
God  hath  chosen.  Being  conferred  in  execution  of  an  unchangeable 
decree,  it  cannot  fail  of  attaining  its  eflect ;  and,  being  the  action  of 
the  Creator  upon  the  mind  of  the  creature,  it  is  able  to  surmount  all 
that  opposition  and  resistance  which  arises  from  the  corruption  of 
human  nature.  It  is  distinguished  by  the  Calvinists  from  that  con- 
tinual influence  which  the  Supreme  Cause  exerts  throughout  his  cre- 
ation, and  by  which  he  upholds  his  creatures  in  being,  preserves  the 
faculties  which  he  gave  them,  and  may  in  some  sense,  be  said  to  con- 
cur with  all  their  actions.  And  it  is  conceived  to  be  an  extraordinary 
supernatural  influence  of  the  Creator,  by  Avhich  the  disorders  which 
sin  had  introduced  into  the  faculties  of  human  nature  are  corrected, 
and  the  mind  is  transformed  and  renewed,  and  created  again  unto 


APPLICATION    OF    THE    REMEDY.  539 

good  works.  There  have  not  been  wanting  some  who  have  attempted 
to  explahi  the  manner  of  this  supernatural  intlucnce.  But  the  wiser 
Calvinists,  without  entangling  themselves  in  an  inextricable  labyrinth 
of  expressions  which  after  every  attempt  to  affix  clear  ideas  to  them 
must  remain  unintelligible,  rest  in  that  caution  which  our  Lord  gave 
when  he  spoke  to  Nicodemus  upon  this  subject.  John  iii.  7,  8. 
'•  INIarvel  not  that  I  said  unto  thee,  Ye  must  be  born  again.  The 
wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou  hearest  the  sound  thereof, 
but  canst  not  tell  whence  it  cometh,  and  whither  it  goeth :  so  is  every 
one  that  is  born  of  the  Spirit."  Although  we  cannot  give  a  satisfying 
account  of  the  causes  why  the  wind  blows  at  a  particular  season 
from  one  quarter,  or  why  it  ceases  just  when  it  does,  we  do  not  doubt 
of  the  fact,  because  we  see  and  feel  its  effects.  So,  although  the 
manner  of  the  operation  of  the  Spirit  is  not  an  object  of  sense,  and 
cannot  be  explained  by  words,  we  may  be  assured  of  the  reality  of 
the  operation  from  its  effects.  When  we  see  such  a  change  upon  the 
disposition  and  the  life  of  the  regenerate,  as  cannot  be  accounted  for 
by  any  natm-al  means,  we  are  led  to  acknowledge  the  power  of  the 
Divine  Agent  by  whom  the  change  was  produced ;  and  we  perceive 
the  propriety  with  which  the  Scriptures,  in  speaking  of  this  change, 
make  use  of  such  expressions  as  being  born  again,  creation,  resurrec- 
tion. For  the  figure  used  in  these  expressions  tends  to  mislead,  unless 
the  action  marked  by  them  implies  an  exertion  of  power,  the  effect  of 
which  is  independent  of  any  co-operation  or  any  resistance  in  the 
subject  of  the  action ;  and  therefore  they  may  be  considered  as  indi- 
cating such  an  operation  of  the  Spirit,  as  effectually  removes  that 
corruption  of  the  powers  of  human  nature  which  nothing  less  can 
remedy. 

This  supernatural  influence  is  seldom  exerted  without  the  use  of 
means ;  in  other  words,  although  the  means  of  removing  the  corrup- 
tion of  human  nature  derive  their  efficacy  entirely  from  the  Spirit  of 
God,  yet,  in  accomplishing  this  object,  the  Spirit  of  God  ordinarily 
employs  the  exhortations,  the  promises  and  the  threatenings  of  the 
word  of  God,  the  council  and  example  of  good  men,  and  all  those 
instruments  which  have  a  tendency  to  improve  the  human  mind. 
Hence  that  change  which  is  the  work  of  the  Spirit,  is  not  instantane- 
ous, but  consists  of  many  previous  steps,  of  many  preparatory  dispo- 
sitions and  affections,  and  of  a  gradual  progress  in  goodness ; — by  all 
which  a  man  is  conducted  from  that  state  of  degeneracy  which  is 
natural  to  the  posterity  of  Adam,  to  the  possession  of  that  character 
without  which  none  can  be  saved.  His  understanding  is  enlightened 
with  the  knowledge  of  the  truth ;  his  will  is  inclined  to  follow  the 
dictates  of  his  understanding ;  he  pursues  a  certain  line  of  conduct, 
because  it  is  his  choice  ;  and  he  has  the  feeling  of  the  most  perfect 
liberty,  because  he  becomes  willing  to  do  that  from  which  formerly 
he  was  averse.  Augustine  expressed  the  effect  of  this  influence  by 
the  significant  phrase,  victrix  delectatio  ;  a  delight  in  the  command- 
ments of  God,  which  overcomes  every  inferior  appetite  ;  and  all  the 
Calvinists,  when  they  speak  of  the  efficacy  of  divine  grace,  would  be 
understood  to  mean  that  the  grace  of  God  acts  upon  man,  not  as  a 
machine,  but  as  a  reasonable  being. 

As  the  grace  of  God,  which  is  conceived  to  derive  its  efficacy  from 


540  OPINIONS    CONCERNING    THE 

his  power  of  fulfilling  his  purpose  in  those  for  whom  it  is  destined, 
overcomes  all  the  opposition  with  which  it  is  at  first  received,  so  it 
continues  to  be  exerted  amidst  all  the  frailty  and  corruption  which 
adhere  to  human  nature  in  a  present  state.  It  is  not  exerted  to  such 
a  degree  as  to  preserve  any  man  from  every  kind  of  sin.  For  God 
is  pleased  to  teach  Christians  humility,  by  keeping  up  the  remem- 
brance of  that  state  out  of  which  they  were  delivered,  and  to  quicken 
their  aspirations  after  higher  degrees  of  goodness,  by  leaving  them 
to  struggle  with  temptation,  and  to  feel  manifold  infirmities.  But 
although  no  man  is  enabled  in  this  life  to  attain  to  perfection,  the 
grace  of  God  preserves  those  to  whom  it  is  given,  from  drawing  back 
to  perdition.  The  doctrine  of  the  perseverance  of  the  saints  flows 
necessarily  from  that  decree,  by  which  they  were  from  eternity  chosen 
to  salvation,  and  from  the  manner  in  which  according  to  the  Calvin- 
istic  system  the  decree  was  executed  ;  and  all  the  principles  of  the 
system  must  be  renounced  before  we  can  believe  that  any  of  those  for 
whom  Christ  died,  and  who  consequently  became  partakers  of  his 
grace,  can  fall  from  that  grace  either  finally — by  which  is  meant  that 
they  shall  not  in  the  end  be  saved, — or  totally,  by  which  is  meant 
that  they  shall  at  any  period  of  their  lives  commit  sins  so  heinous  and 
so  presumptuous,  and  persist  in  them  so  obstinately,  as  at  that  period 
to  forfeit  entirely  the  divine  favour. 

All  the  parts  of  that  delineation  which  I  have  now  given,  are  found 
in  Chapters  IX.  X.  XVII.  of  the  Confession  of  Faith.  The  whole 
doctrine  is  not  expressed  in  the  tenth  Article  of  the  Church  of  England  r 
but  we  consider  it  to  be  implied  in  the  seventeenth.  ■ 


ARMINIAN    AND    CALVINISTIC  SYSTEMS    COMPARED.  541 


CHAPTER  IX. 


ARMINIAN   AND    CALVINISTIC    SYSTEMS    COMPARED. 


After  the  view  which  I  have  given  of  the  two  great  systems  of 
opinion  concerning  the  extent  and  the  appUcation  of  that  remedy 
which  the  gospel  brings,  we  are  prepared  to  estimate  tlie  difficulties 
that  adhere  to  them.  As  every  system,  which,  with  our  limited 
information,  we  can  hold  upon  subjects  so  extensive  and  so  magnifi- 
cent, must  be  attended  with  difficulties,  it  is  not  incumbent  upon  us 
to  answer  all  the  questions  which  our  system  may  suggest ;  and  we 
have  given  a  sufficient  answer  to  many  of  them,  when  we  show  that 
the  same  questions,  or  others  not  more  easily  solved,  are  suggested  by 
the  opposite  system.  But  as  difficulties  are  of  real  weight  when  they 
imply  a  contradiction  to  some  received  truth,  we  are  called  to  defend 
the  system  of  opinion  which  we  hold,  by  showing  that  it  is  not 
subversive  of  the  nature  of  man  or  inconsistent  with  the  nature  of 
God. 


Section  I. 

The  Arminian  system  appears  upon  a  general  view,  most  satisfy- 
ing to  a  pious  and  benevolent  mind.  Pardon  procured  by  the  death 
of  Christ  for  all  that  repent  and  believe,  when  conjoined  with  an 
administration  of  the  means  of  grace  sufficient  to  bring  all  men  to 
faith  and  repentance,  forms  a  remedy  suited  to  the  extent  of  the 
disease  ;  a  remedy  from  which  none  are  excluded  by  any  circumstance 
foreign  to  themselves,  and  which,  if  it  does  not  in  the  end  deliver  all 
from  the  evils  of  sin,  fails,  not  through  any  defect  in  its  own  nature 
or  any  partiality  in  the  Being  from  whom  it  proceeded,  but  purely 
through  the  obstinacy  and  perverseness  of  those  to  whom  it  is  offered. 
But  while  this  account  of  the  gospel  appears  to  derive,  from  its 
correspondence  with  our  notions  of  the  goodness  and  justice  of  God, 
the  strongest  internal  recommendation,  it  is  found  to  labour  under 
these  three  difficulties.  1.  The  supposition  of  an  administration  of 
the  means  of  grace  sufficient  to  bring  all  men  to  faith  and  repentance, 
upon  which  this  system  proceeds,  appears  to  be  contradicted  by  fact. 
2.  This  system,  while  in  words  it  ascribes  all  to  the  grace  of  God, 
does  in  etfect  resolve  our  salvation  into  something  independent  of  that 
grace.  3.  This  system  seems  to  imply  a  failure  in  the  purposes  of  the 
48 


542  ARMINIAN    AND    CALVINISTIC 

Almighty,  which   is  not  easily  reconciled  with  oiir  notions  of  his 
sovereignty. 

1.  It  does  not  appear  agreeable  to  fact,  that  there  is  an  administra- 
tion of  the  means  of  grace  sufficient  to  bring  all  men  to  faith  and 
repentance.  For  although  there  is  nothing  in  the  nature  of  the  gospel 
to  prevent  it  from  becoming  an  universal  religion,  yet  the  fact  is  that 
by  much  the  greatest  part  of  the  world  does  not  enjoy  the  benefit  of 
its  instructions.*  And  although  the  imperfect  propagation  of  the 
g9spel  may  be  owing  to  the  corruption  and  indifference  of  Christians, 
yet  with  regard  to  the  inhabitants  of  those  nations  to  whom  the  most 
distant  intimation  of  its  existence  never  extended,  it  cannot  surely  be 
said  that  there  has  been  any  want  of  inquiry  on  their  part.  The 
Arminians  are  obliged  to  resolve  this  manifest  inequality  in  dispensing 
the  advantages  for  attaining  faith  and  repentance  into  the  sovereignty 
of  God,  who  imparts  his  free  gifts  to  whom  he  will.  Still  however 
they  do  not  abandon  their  principle  ;  for  they  contend  that  the  grace 
of  God  accompanies  the  light  of  nature,  and  that  all  who  improve 
this  universal  revelation  are  conducted  by  that  grace  to  higher  degrees 
of  knowledge.  But  here  also  the  fact  does  not  appear  to  accord  with 
their  system.  For  the  light  of  nature,  although  universal,  is  most 
unequal.  In  many  countries  superstition  is  rendered  so  inveterate  by 
education,  custom,  and  example,  and  the  state  of  society  is  so 
unfavourable  to  the  improvement  of  the  mind,  that  none  of  the 
inhabitants  has  the  means  of  extricating  himself  from  error ;  and  even 
in  those  more  enlightened  parts  of  the  world,  where,  by  the  cultivation 
of  the  powers  of  reason  or  the  advantages  of  foreign  instruction,  men 
have  risen  to  more  honourable  conceptions  of  the  Deity,  there  does 
not  appear  any  possibility  of  their  attaining  to  the  faith  of  Christ. 
For,  as  the  apostle  speaks,  Rom.  x.  17, "Faith  cometh  by  hearing, 
and  hearing  by  the  word  of  God.  How  shall  they  believe  in  him  of 
whom  they  have  not  heard  ?  and  how  shall  they  hear  without  a 
preacher  ?"  The  Socinians,  indeed,  say,  that  all  in  every  situation 
who  act  up  to  the  light  afforded  them,  may  be  saved,  without  regard 
being  had  to  the  merits  of  Christ.  But  this  opinion  the  Arminians 
strongly  disclaim,  and  choose  rather  to  say,  that  those  who  improve 
the  measure  of  knowledge  derived  from  the  works  of  nature,  and 
the  grace  of  God  which  accompanies  it,  are,  in  some  extraordinary 
manner,  made  acquainted  with  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  so  as  to  attain 
before  they  die  that  faith  in  him  which  the  means  afforded  them  could 
not  produce.  And  thus  the  Arminians  are  obliged,  with  regard  to 
the  greatest  part  of  mankind,  to  give  up  their  fundamental  position, 
that  sufficient  means  of  grace  are  administered  to  all,  and  to  have 
recourse  to  the  production  of  faith  by  an  immediate  impression  of 
the  Spirit  of  God  upon  the  mind.  The  Arminians,  feeling  the  force 
of  this  difficulty,  leave — piously  and  wisely  leave — the  fate  of  that 
great  part  of  mankind  who  do  not  enjoy  the  gospel  to  the  mercy  of 
God  in  Christ ;  and,  in  their  confessions  of  faith,  they  confine  their 
doctrine  concerning  the  universal  application  of  the  remedy,  to  those 
who  are  called  by  the  word.  To  this  call  they  give  the  name  of  an 
election  to  grace  and  to  the  means  of  salvation,  which  they  distinguish 

*  Book  I.  Ch.  ix.  4. 


I 


STSTElVrS    COMPARED.  543 

from  an  election  to  glory.  Election  to  glory  is  the  destination  of 
eternal  happiness  to  those  who  persevere  in  faith  and  good  works. 
Election  to  grace  is  understood  to  be  common  to  all  who  live  in  a 
Christian  country,  and  to  imply  the  giving  to  every  one,  by  the 
preaching  of  the  word  and  the  power  of  the  Spirit  accompanying  it, 
that  grace  which  is  sufficient  to  produce  faith  and  to  promote  repent- 
ance unto  life. 

But  even  after  the  Arminians  have  thus  corrected  and  limited  their 
doctrine  with  regard  to  the  sufficiency  of  the  means  of  grace,  there 
remain  two  objections  to  it  in  point  of  fact.  The  first  arises  from  the 
very  unequal  circumstances  in  which  the  inhabitants  of  different 
Christian  countries  are  placed.  In  some  countries  the  Scriptures  are 
given  to  the  people,  that  they  may  search  them  ;  in  others,  they  are 
withheld.  In  some  countries  the  gospel  is  exhibited  in  a  corrupt  form, 
which  tends  to  degrade  the  understanding  and  pervert  the  moral 
,  conduct ;  in  others,  it  is  presented  in  its  native  simplicity,  as  cherish- 
ing every  exalted  affection  and  forming  the  mind  to  virtue.  In  the 
same  countries  there  are  infinite  diversities  amongst  individuals  as  to 
their  intellectual  powers,  the  measure  of  their  information,  their 
employments,  their  pursuits,  their  education,  their  society,  the  induce- 
ments to  act  properly,  or  the  temptations  to  sin  which  arise  from  their 
manner  of  life.  All  these  circumstances,  having  an  effect  upon  the 
moral  character,  must  be  regarded  in  the  Arminian  system  as  a 
branch  of  the  administration  of  the  means  of  grace,  because  they  are 
instruments  which  the  Spirit  of  God  may  employ  in  that  moral 
influence  which  he  is  considered  as  exerting  over  the  mhid  of  man. 
By  means  of  these  circumstances,  some  are  placed  in  a  more  favour- 
able situation  for  attaining  faith  than  others;  the  same  moral  suasion, 
by  which  some  are  preserved  from  almost  any  approach  to  iniquity, 
becomes  insufficient  to  restrain  others  from  gross  transgression  ;  and 
the  Sovereign  of  the  universe,  who  has  ordained  all  these  circum- 
stances, thus  appears  to  discriminate,  in  respect  of  the  means  of  salva- 
tion, those  very  persons  who  in  this  system  are  said  to  be  equally 
elected  to  grace.  It  may  be  said,  indeed,  that  the  secret  operation  of 
divine  grace  counterbalances  the  diversity  of  outward  circumstances  ; 
so  that,  taking  the  internal  assistance  and  the  external  means  together, 
all  who  live  in  a  Christian  country  are  upon  a  footing.  This  is  the 
method  of  answering  the  objection  adopted  by  Grotius,  and  other  able 
defenders  of  Arminianism.  But  it  is  a  departure  from  the  principles 
of  that  system ;  for  it  is  substituting,  in  place  of  an  administration  of 
the  means  of  grace  sufficient  for  all,  an  administration,  in  many 
instances  defective  ;  and,  in  place  of  an  internal  grace  common  and 
equal  to  all,  a  grace  imparted  differently  to  different  persons,  accord- 
ing to  circumstances. 

The  second  objection,  in  point  of  fact,  to  the  supposition  that  in 
every  Christian  country  there  is  such  an  administration  of  the  means 
of  grace  as  is  sufficient  to  bring  all  men  to  faith,  arises  from  this 
undeniable  truth,  that,  amongst  those  to  whom  the  gospel  is  preached, 
and  in  whose  circumstances  there  is  not  that  kind  of  diversity  which 
can  account  for  the  difference,  some  believe  and  some  do  not  believe. 
Some,  with  all  the  outward  advantages  which  the  publication  of  the 
gospel  affords,  continue  the  servants  of  sin  ;  whilst  others  attain,  by 


544  ARMINIAN   AND    CALVINISTIC 

the  same  advantages,  that  measure  of  perfection  which  is  consistent 
with  the  present  slate  of  humanity.  From  this  fact  the  Calvinists  infer 
the  reaUty  of  an  inward  discriminating  grace,  which  appears  to  them 
the  only  satisfying  account  of  the  different  fruits  that  proceed  from  the 
same  external  advantages,  and  which,  although  it  is  not,  like  the 
diversity  of  outward  circumstances,  an  object  of  sense,  may  be 
certainly  known  by  its  effects.  But  the  Arminians,  instead  of  admit- 
ting this  inference,  readily  answer  the  objection  which  seems  to  arise 
from  this  fact,  by  saying,  that  the  grace  which  is  sufficient  to  all, 
proves  ineffectual  with  regard  to  many,  because  it  is  opposed.  It  is 
their  own  fault — the  voluntary  resistance  which  they  might  not  have 
made,  that  prevents  the  grace  of  God  from  producing  in  them  the 
effect  which  it  was  intended  to  produce  in  all,  and  which  it  actually 
does  produce  in  others.  To  those  who  repent  and  believe  the  same 
sufficient  grace  is  imparted  ;  by  them  also  it  might  be  resisted  ;  but 
because  they  do  not  resist,  it  proves  effectual.  Now,  this  is  an  answer 
to  the  objection  ;  that  is,  it  gives  a  reason  why  that  grace,  which  the 
Arminians  say  is  sufficient  to  all  who  hear  the  gospel,  proves  ineffec- 
tual with  regard  to  many.  But  it  remains  to  be  inquired,  whether 
the  reason  is  such  as  ought  to  enter  into  a  theological  system,  or 
Avhether  the  admitting  of  this  reason  is  not  pregnant  with  objections 
no  less  formidable  to  their  system,  than  the  fact  which  it  was  brought 
to  explain.     For, 

2.  The  second  difficulty  under  which  the  Arminian  system  labours 
is  this,  that,  while  in  words  it  ascribes  all  to  the  grace  of  God,  it  does 
in  effect  resolve  our  salvation  into  something  independent  of  that 
grace. 

It  was  the  principle  of  the  Pelagians  that  the  grace  of  God  respects 
only  the  remission  of  sins,  and  that  it  is  not  given  in  adjutoreuvi,  ne 
in  posterum  peccata  commit tantur.  Another  of  their  aphorisms 
was,  ad  scientiam  nos  habere  gratiam  Christi,  non  ad  charitatem. 
Arminius  and  his  followers  were  most  anxious  to  guard  their  system 
from  the  appearance  of  approaching  to  these  principles.  They  ac- 
knowledged that  man  in  his  present  state  is  not  able  to  think  or  to  do 
any  thing  truly  good  of  himself ;  that  he  must  be  renewed  in  all  his 
faculties  by  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  and  that  all  our  good  works  are  to  be 
ascribed  to  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ.  They  renounce,  by  the  terms 
in  which  the  articles  of  their  faith  are  expressed,  even  that  modifica- 
tion of  the  Pelagian  principles  which  was  introduced  soon  after  they 
were  first  published,  and  which  is  known  by  the  name  of  Semi-Pela- 
gianism.  It  was  held  by  the  Semi-Pelagians,  that,  although  man  is 
unable  to  bring  any  good  work  to  perfection,  yet  the  first  motions 
towards  a  good  life,  sorrow  for  sin,  desire  of  pardon,  purposes  of 
obedience,  and  the  first  acts  of  faith  in  Christ,  are  the  natural  exer- 
cise of  human  powers,  proceeding  from  the  constitution  and  circum- 
stances of  man,  without  any  supernatural  grace ;  that  to  all  in  whom 
God  observes  these  preparatory  dispositions  he  gives,  for  the  sake  of 
Christ,  his  Holy  Spirit ;  and  that,  by  the  influence  of  this  Spirit  con- 
tinually assisting  their  powers,  they  are  enabled  to  make  progress, 
and  to  persevere  in  the  life  of  faith  and  obedience  which  they  had 
begun.  But  the  Arminians  wish  to  discriminate  themselves  from  the 
Semi-Pelagians,  by  mentioning,  in  their  confessions  of  faith,  a  pre- 


SYSTEMS   COMPARED.  545 

venting  gr^ce,  gjvttia  prseveniens  seu  prxcedanea  ;  which  comes  be- 
fore, not  only  our  works,  but  our  purposes  and  desires  of  doing 
good ; — ^by  saying  that  tlie  grace  of  God  is  the  beginning  as  well  as 
the  progress  and  perfection  of  all  good ; — and  by  acknowledging  that, 
without  this  grace,  man  cannot  understand,  or  think,  or  will  any 
thing  that  is  good.  All  those  Avords,  however,  which  they  multiply 
in  speaking  of  the  grace  of  God,  are  accompanied  with  a  clause 
which  very  much  enervates  their  significancy.  For  the  conclusion 
of  the  fourth  article  runs  thus :  "  With  regard  to  the  manner  of  the 
operation  of  that  grace,  it  is  not  irresistible;  for  it  is  said,  in  the 
seventh  chapter  of  the  book  of  Acts,  and  in  many  other  places  of 
Scripture,  that  they  resisted  the  Holy  Spirit."  And,  in  place  of  the 
doubt  expressed  in  the  fifth  article,  whether  those  who  have  been 
united  to  Christ  by  true  faith  may  not,  by  their  own  negligence,  fall 
from  grace,  the  Arminians,  in  the  subsequent  confessions  of  their 
faith,  speak  without  hesitation  of  Christians  who  fall,  through  their 
own  fault,  from  the  faith  which  had  been  produced  in  them  by  the 
Spirit  of  God,  and  with  regard  to  whom  all  the  actions  of  the  Spirit 
of  God  cease,  because  they  do  not  fulfil  the  conditions  required  on 
their  part.  It  is  to  be  observed,  that  by  the  grace  which  may  be  re- 
sisted, the  Arminians  do  not  mean  merely  that  grace  Avhich  calls  men 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  gospel,  and  furnishes  them  with  the  outward 
means  of  salvation,  but  that  influence  exerted  by  the  Spirit  of  God 
upon  the  mind,  which  they  are  accustomed  to  describe  by  a  multi- 
tude of  words  ;  and  what  they  mean  by  calling  this  grace  irresistible, 
is  not  merely  that  opposition  is  made  to  it ;  for  those  who  hold  the 
corruption  of  human  nature  in  the  highest  degree,  are  the  most  ready 
to  admit  this  opposition.  It  is  matter  of  experience ;  and  none  can 
deny  that  it  is  often  mentioned  in  Scripture.  But  the  Arminians,  by 
calling  the  grace  of  God  resistible,  mean  that  it  may  be  defeated ;  in 
other  words,  that  the  resistance,  given  by  a  person  whom  the  Spirit 
of  God  calls  to  faith  and  obedience,  may  be  such  as  to  render  him 
unfit  for  believing  and  for  obeying  the  divine  will  ;  so  that  he  either 
remains  unconverted  after  all  the  operations  of  grace  upon  his  soul, 
or  he  returns  after  a  temporary  conversion  to  the  state  in  which  he 
was  before.  Here,  then,  is  the  grace  of  God  supposed  to  be  unable 
to  attain  its  eifect  of  itself,  and  that  effect  supposed  to  depend  upon 
the  concurrence  of  man.  It  is  allowed  by  the  Arminians,  that  none 
can  be  saved  without  the  grace  of  God ;  but  it  is  not  allowed  that 
the  reason  why  some  are  saved  and  not  others,  is  to  be  found  in  that 
grace.  For  while  the  grace  of  God  and  the  will  of  man  are  conceived 
to  be  partial  causes,  concurring  in  the  production  of  the  same  effect, 
the  grace  of  God  is  only  a  remote  cause  of  salvation — a  cause  ope- 
rating indifferently  upon  all,  sufficient  indeed,  but  often  ineffectual. 
The  proximate,  specific  cause  of  salvation,  by  which  the  effects  of 
the  universal  cause  are  discriminated,  is  to  be  found  in  the  qualities 
of  the  subject  which  receives  the  grace  of  God,  since  upon  these 
qualities  it  depends  whether  this  grace  shall  overcome  or  shall  be 
counteracted. 

The  Arminians  attempt  to  remove  this  objection  to  their  system, 
by  reasoning  in  the  following  manner.    Although  God  is  omnipotent, 
he  cannot  put  forth  his  irresistible  power  in  communicating  his  grace 
48*  4  C 


546  ARMINIAN  AND  CALVINISTIC 

to  the  mind  of  man,  because  he  must  govern  his  creatures  according 
to  their  natures.  But  a  grace  which  cannot  bo  resisted  would  destroy 
the  morality  of  human  actions ;  and,  instead  of  improving  the  cha- 
racter of  a  reasonable  agent,  would  leave  no  room  for  any  thing  that 
deserves  the  name  of  virtue.  It  follows,  therefore,  from  the  nature 
of  man,  and  the  purpose  for  which  grace  is  bestowed  upon  him,  that 
it  must  be  left  in  his  power  and  in  his  choice,  whether  he  will  comply 
with  it  or  not ;  in  other  words,  the  grace  of  God  must  be  resistible  in 
this  sense  and  to  this  amount,  that  its  efficacy  must  depend  upon  the 
concurrence  of  the  being  on  whom  it  is  exerted. 

This  reasoning  of  the  Arminians  constitutes  one  of  their  chief  ob- 
jections to  the  Calvhiistic  system,  which  represents  the  mind  of  man 
as  effectually  determined  by  the  grace  of  God;  and  if  the  objection 
has  ail  the  weight  which  the  reasoning  seems  to  imply,  that  system 
cannot  be  true  ;  for  it  is  impossible  that  that  can  be  a  just  account  of 
the  grace  of  God,  which  is  inconsistent  with  the  character  of  man, 
and  subversive  of  morality.  The  objection  will  be  discussed,  when 
we  advance  to  the  difficulties  that  belong  to  the  Calvinistic  system. 
In  the  mean  time,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  Arminians,  in  their 
zeal  to  steer  clear  of  this  difficulty,  have  adopted  such  an  account  of 
the  grace  of  God,  as  implies  that,  antecedently  to  its  operations,  the 
minds  of  some  men  are  disposed  to  comply  with  it,  and  the  minds  of 
others  to  reject  it ;  and  that,  in  whatever  words  they  choose  to  mag- 
nify the  grace  of  God,  they  cannot  regard  it  as  the  cause  of  this  dif- 
ference. For  if  the  grace  which  is  given  indifferently  to  two  persons, 
John  and  Judas,  which  is  sufficient  for  both,  and  which  may  be  re- 
sisted by  both,  is  not  resisted  by  John,  and  in  consequence  of  that 
non-resistance  conducts  him  to  salvation,  but  is  resisted  by  Judas,  and 
in  consequence  of  that  resistance  proves  ineffectual  with  regard  to 
him,  the  true  cause  of  the  efficacy  and  inefficacy  of  the  grace  lies  in 
the  minds  of  these  two  persons.  "  Thou  didst  give  to  my  neighbour," 
may  the  former  say,  "  as  to  me  :  but  my  will  has  improved  what 
thou  gavest,  while  the  will  of  my  neighbour  has  resisted  all  thine 
operations."  This  language,  which  the  Arminians  must  suppose 
every  one  that  is  saved  entitled  to  hold  to  the  Almighty,  by  implying 
that  man  has  something  independent  of  the  grace  of  God  whereof 
he  may  boast,  and  whereby  he  may  distinguish  himself  from  other 
men  in  the  sight  of  God,  not  only  contradicts  the  doctrine  of  original 
sin,  and  those  lessons  of  humility  which  the  gospel  uniformly  teaches, 
but  seems  also  to  involve  the  Arminians  themselves  in  contradiction. 
For  while  they  say  that  no  man  is  able  of  himself  to  understand,  to 
think,  or  to  will  what  is  good,  they  suppose  that  only  some  men  re- 
tain that  carnal  mind  which  the  Scriptures  call  enmity  to  God,  and 
by  which  the  grace  of  God  is  defeated  ;  but  that  others  are  at  all 
times  ready  of  themselves  to  yield  that  compliance  with  the  influ- 
ences of  the  Spirit,  by  which  they  are  rendered  effectual.  And  thus, 
while  in  words  they  ascribe  all  good  works  to  the  grace  of  God,  they 
suspend  the  beginning,  the  progress,  and  tlie  continuance  of  these 
good  works  upon  the  will  of  man. 

3.  The  last  difficulty  which  adheres  to  the  Arminian  system  is,  that 
it  proceeds  upon  the  supposition  of  a  failure  of  the  purpose  of  the 


SYSTEMS    COMPARED.  547 

Almighty,  which  it  is  not  easy  to  reconcile  with  our  notions  of  his 
sovereignty. 

In  this  system,  the  Almighty  is  conceived  to  have  a  purpose  of 
bringing  all  men  to  salvation  by  Christ,  and,  in  execution  of  this  pur- 
pose, to  furnish  all  men  with  sufficient  means  of  salvation ;  yet  not- 
withstanding this  purpose,  and  the  execution  of  it  by  the  grace  of 
God,  many  continue  in  sin.  Dr.  Clarke  has  stated  the  difficulty,  and 
has  given  the  Arminian  solution  of  it  in  one  of  his  sermons  upon  the 
grace  of  God ;  and  as  it  is  manifest  from  all  his  writings  that  he  is 
there  speaking  his  own  sentiments,  it  will  not  be  thought  that  I  do 
any  injustice  to  the  Arminian  system,  by  stating  the  solution  of  this 
third  difficulty,  in  the  words  of  an  author  so  distinguished  for  the 
clearness  of  his  conceptions,  and  the  accuracy  of  his  expressions,  as 
Dr.  Clarke.  "  The  design  of  God  in  the  gracious  declarations  of  the 
gospel  is  to  bring  all  men,  by  the  promise  of  pardon,  to  repentance 
and  amendment  liere,  and  thereby  to  eternal  salvation  hereafter.  The 
only  difficulty  here  is,  that  which  arises  and  indeed  very  obviously, 
from  comparing  the  actual  events  of  things,  with  the  declarations  of 
God's  gracious  intention  and  design.  If  God  designed  by  the  gracious 
terms  of  the  gospel  to  bring  all  men  to  salvation,  how  comes  the 
extent  of  it  to  be  confined  within  so  narrow  a  compass,  and  the  effi^ct 
of  it  to  be  ill  experience  so  inconsiderable,  even  where  in  profession 
it  seems  to  have  so  universally  prevailed  ?  The  answer  to  this  is,  that 
in  all  moral  matters,  the  intention  or  design  of  God  never  signifies  (as 
it  does  always  in  natural  things)  an  intention  of  the  event  actually 
and  necessarily  to  be  accomplished;  but  (which  alone  is  consistent 
with  the  nature  of  moral  things)  an  intention  of  all  the  means  neces- 
sary on  his  part  to  the  putting  that  event  into  the  power  of  the  proper 
and  immediate  agents."* 

According  to  this  solution,  that  determination  of  the  actions  of  men, 
which  forms  part  of  the  Calvinistic  system,  is  inconsistent  with  the 
nature  of  man,  because  the  intention  of  God  in  moral  matters  never 
can  go  on  to  the  event  without  destroying  the  character  of  moral 
agents.  This  objection  to  the  Calvinistic  system  is  the  same  in  sub- 
stance with  that  which  I  stated  under  the  former  head,  and  will  be 
considered  afterwards.  In  the  mean  time,  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that  the  Arminians  are  obliged  either  to  deny  that  there  is  in  God  an 
intention  to  bring  all  men  to  salvation,  or  to  admit  that  a  great  part 
of  what  is  done  in  his  creation  is  independent  of  his  will.  For 
although  all  the  actions  of  wicked  men  in  this  world,  and  their  ever- 
lasting condition  hereafter,  are,  according  to  the  Arminian  system, 
foreseen  by  God,  and  being  foreseen  may  be  connected  in  the  great 
plan  of  his  providence  with  other  events  which  are  under  his  power, 
yet  tliey  are  foreseen  as  arising  from  a  cause  over  which  he  has  no 
control, — from  the  will  of  man,  which,  after  all  his  operations,  deter- 
mined itself  in  many  cases  to  choose  the  very  opposite  of  that  which 
he  intended,  and  endeavoured  to  make  it  choose.  If  it  shall  appear 
that  this  emancipation  of  the  actions  of  the  creature  from  the  direction 
of  the  Creator  is  an  unavoidable  consecpience  of  the  character  of 
reasonable  beings,  we  must  acquiesce  in  what  appears  to  us  an  ira- 

•  Serm.  XII.  Vol.  11. 


548  ARMINIAN    AND    CALVINISTIC 

perfection  in  the  divine  government.  But  until  the  inconsistency  be- 
tween the  providence  of  God,  I  mean  not  merely  his  foresight  but 
his  determination,  and  the  freedom  of  his  reasonable  creatures  be 
clearly  established,  we  should  be  led,  by  all  the  views  of  the  sove- 
reignty of  the  Creator  which  reason  and  Scripture  give  us,  to  suppose 
that  no  part  of  the  universe  is  withdrawn  from  his  control :  and  the 
harmony  of  the  great  plan  of  Providence  must  appear  to  us  incon- 
sistent with  the  motley  combination  of  natural  events  appointed  by 
God,  and  actions  of  his  creatures  contrary  to  his  purpose. 

The  amount  of  the  three  difficulties  which  have  now  been  stated, 
may  be  thus  shortly  summed  up.  The  Arminian  system  lays  down 
as  a  fundamental  position,  an  administration  of  the  means  of  grace 
sufficient  to  bring  all  men  to  faith  and  repentance ;  a  position  which 
it  is  not  possible  to  reconcile  with  what  appears  to  be  the  fact :  it 
resolves  the  salvation  of  those  who  are  saved  into  the  character  of 
their  mind  antecedently  to  the  operations  of  divine  grace  ;  and  it 
resolves  the  final  reprobation  of  others  into  actions  performed  by  the 
creatures  of  God,  opposite  to  those  which  he  furnished  them  with  all 
the  means  necessary  for  performing,  and  conducting  to  an  end  different 
from  that  wliich  he  intended. 


Section  II. 

The  Arminian  system  was  an  attempt  made  by  those  who  dis- 
claimed Socinian  principles,  to  get  rid  of  the  difficulties  which  belong 
to  the  Calvinistic  system.  The  embarrassment  and  inconsistency 
with  which  we  have  seen  that  attempt  to  be  attended,  and  from 
which  very  able  men  have  not  found  it  possible  to  disentangle  them- 
selves, is  a  proof  that  it  is  not  an  easy  matter  to  devise  a  middle  sys- 
tem between  Socinianism  and  Calvinism.  But  if  Calvinism  be  really 
involved  in  those  insuperable  difficulties  which  are  perpetually  in  the 
mouths  of  its  adversaries ;  if  it  subverts  the  nature  of  man,  and  pre- 
sents the  most  unworthy  conceptions  of  the  Father  of  all,  it  cannot  be 
true.  The  attempts  to  get  rid  of  these  difficulties  may  have  been 
hitherto  unsuccessful :  but  it  is  impossible  to  adopt  any  system  to 
which  such  difficulties  adhere ;  and  it  were  better,  it  may  be  thought, 
to  acquiesce  under  a  consciousness  of  our  own  ignorance  in  the  em- 
barrassment of  the  Arminians,  or  even  to  advance  to  the  simple 
unencumbered  scheme  of  Socinus,  than  by  following  what  we  account 
truth  far  beyond  the  measure  of  our  understandings,  to  confound  all 
our  notions  both  of  God  and  of  man. 

Before  we  come,  however,  to  this  desperate  resolution,  it  is  proper 
to  bestow  a  very  careful  examination  upon  the  difficulties  which  be- 
long to  the  Calvinistic  system.  They  may  be  magnified  by  the  mis- 
representations of  its  enemies :  they  may  have  arisen  from  some 
weakness  in  the  reasoning  or  some  narrowness  in  the  views  of  its 
friends  :  they  may  be  no  other  difficulties  than  such  as  our  minds  must 
expect  to  feel  in  every  effort  to  form  a  conception  of  the  obscure  and 
magnificent  subjects  about  which  the  two  systems  are  conversant : 
and  they  may  belong  to  the  Arminian,  in  as  far  as  it  keeps  clear  of 


SYSTEMS    COMPARED.  549 

Socinianism,  no  less  than  to  the  Calvinistic.  I  enter  upon  the  exa- 
mination of  these  difficuhies  with  a  thorongh  conviction  of  its  being 
possible  to  state  them  in  such  a  manner,  that  they  shall  not  atford  any- 
reasonable  man  a  just  ground  for  rejecting  the  system  :  and  my  exa- 
mination of  them  will  have  the  appearance,  which  in  my  situation  is 
decent,  of  an  apology  for  Calvinism.  I  certainly  desire  that  every 
one  of  my  students  should  think  as  favourably  of  that  system  as  I  do, 
because,  if  they  become  licentiates  or  ministers  of  this  church,  they 
have  to  subscribe  a  solemn  declaration,  that  they  believe  it  to  be  true. 
But  their  conviction  ought  to  arise  from  their  own  study — not  from 
my  teaching.  They  bring  with  them,  from  their  previous  studies,  an 
acquaintance  with  the  leading  principles  upon  which  my  apology 
turns,  sufficient  to  enable  them  to  judge  how  far  it  is  a  fair  one  :  and 
even  had  I  that  attachment  to  a  system  which  I  am  conscious  I  have 
not,  which  would  lead  me  to  defend  it  by  misrepresentation,  I  must 
be  sensible  that  this  would  be  the  certain  method  of  giving  them  an 
unfavourable  impression  of  the  system  which  I  wish  to  recommend. 

The  objections  to  the  Calvinistic  system,  however  multiplied  in 
words  or  in  divisions,  may  be  reduced  to  two.  It  is  conceived  to  be 
inconsistent  with  the  nature  of  man  as  a  free  moral  agent ;  and  it  is 
conceived  to  represent  the  Almighty  in  a  light  repugnant  to  our 
notions  of  his  moral  attributes. 


Section  III. 

The  Calvinistic  system  is  conceived  to  be  inconsistent  with  the 
nature  of  man  as  a  free  moral  agent. 

It  is  acknowledged  by  all  that  liberty  is  essential  to  the  character  of 
a  moral  agent ;  that  we  are  not  accountable  for  those  actions  which 
we  are  compelled  to  perform ;  that  in  every  part  of  our  conduct,  in 
which  external  force  does  not  operate  upon  the  motions  of  our  bodies, 
we  have  a  feeling  that  whatever  we  do  we  might  have  done  other- 
wise ;  that  we  deserve  praise  for  our  good  actions,  because  we  might 
have  acted  wrong ;  and  that  we  deserve  blame  for  our  bad  actions, 
because  we  might  have  acted  well.  In  these  points  all  are  agreed. 
But  it  is  said  by  those  who  do  not  hold  the  Calvinistic  system,  that 
the  effectual  irresistible  grace,  which,  according  to  that  system,  is 
communicated  to  the  elect,  and  by  which  they  are  infallibly  determined 
to  a  certain  line  of  conduct,  degrades  them  from  the  character  of 
agents  to  that  of  patients, — machines  acted  upon  by  another  being, 
and  thus  destroys  the  morality  of  those  very  actions  which  they  are 
determined  to  perform.  As  it  is  impossible  that  a  religion  proceeding 
from  the  Author  of  human  nature  can  so  directly  subvert  the  princi- 
ples of  that  nature,  the  manner  of  applying  the  Gospel  remedy,  which 
is  essential  to  the  Calvinistic  system,  is  considered  as  of  itself  a 
demonstrative  proof  that  tliis  system  exhibits  a  false  view  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

The  whole  force  of  this  objection  turns  upon  the  ideas  that  are 
formed  of  the  liberty  of  a  moral  agent.     To  those  who  form  one  idea 


550  ARMINIAN    AND    CALVINISTIC 

of  liberty,  the  objection  constitutes  an  insurmountable  difficulty.     To 
those  who  form  another  idea,  it  admits  of  a  satisfying  answer. 

There  is  one  idea  of  liberty,  adopted  and  strenuously  defended  by 
Dr.  Reid,  in  his  Essays  on  the  Active  Powers,  which  I  shall  give  in 
his  words.  "  By  the  liberty  of  a  moral  agent,  I  understand  a  power 
over  the  determinations  of  his  own  will.  If,  in  any  action,  he  had 
power  to  will  what  he  did,  or  not  to  will  it,  in  that  action  he  is  free. 
But  if,  in  every  voluntary  action,  the  determination  of  his  will  be  the 
necessary  consequence  of  something  involuntary  in  the  state  of  his 
mind,  or  of  something  in  his  external  circumstances,  he  is  not  free ; 
he  has  not  what  I  call  the  liberty  of  a  moral  agent,  but  is  subject  to 
necessity."*  The  liberty  here  defined  is  sometimes  called  liberty  of 
indifference,  because  it  is  supposed  that,  after  all  the  circumstances 
which  can  lead  to  the  choice  of  one, thing  are  presented,  the  mind  re- 
mains in  equilibrio,  till  she  proceeds  to  exert  her  own  sovereign 
power  in  making  the  choice.  The  exertions  of  this  power  are  con- 
ceived to  be  independent  of  every  thing  external:  the  mind  alone 
determines;  and  there  is  no  fixed  infallible  connexion  between  her 
determinations  and  any  foreign  object. 

The  definition  of  liberty  given  by  Dr.  Reid  is  that  which  Arminian 
writers  adopt.  Some  of  them  speak  Avith  more  accuracy  than  others  ; 
but  all  of  them  agree  that  the  liberty  of  a  moral  agent  consists  in  the 
self-determining  power ;  that  although  he  is  frequently  determined  in 
his  actions  and  resolutions  by  some  cause  foreign  to  the  mind,  he  is 
not  constantly  and  invariably  so  determined ;  and  that  as  the  mind 
has  a  power  of  choosing  without  any  reason,  it  is  in  every  case  un- 
certain how  far  she  will  exert  this  power,  and  consequently  it  is 
uncertain  what  the  choice  of  the  mind  will  prove,  mitil  it  be  made. 
Upon  this  foundation  the  Arminians  build  the  impossibility  of  an 
absolute  decree  electing  particular  persons  to  eternal  life,  and  giving 
them  the  means  of  attaining  it.  They  say  that  faith  and  repentance, 
being  the  exercise  of  a  self-determining  power,  originate  purely  in  the 
mind ;  that  the  Almighty  cannot  give  an  efficacious  determining  grace 
without  destroying  this  self-determining  power ;  and  therefore  that 
all  the  decrees  of  God,  in  relation  to  moral  agents,  were  either  from 
eternity  suspended  upon  their  own  determinations,  or  become  per- 
emptory only  by  his  foreseeing  what  these  determinations  are  to  be. 

iVlthough  this  account  of  the  liberty  of  moral  agents  be  adopted  by 
the  Arminians,  it  is  not  easily  reconciled  with  the  opinion  Avhich  they 
profess  to  hold,  with  regard  to  the  extent  and  the  infallibility  of  the 
divine  foreknowledge.  For  as  the  determinations  of  free  agents  are 
the  exertions  of  a  power  which  is  conceived  to  be  unconnected  and 
uncontrolled  in  its  operations,  there  does  not  appear  to  us  any  method 
by  which  they  can  be  certainly  foreknown.  When  a  future  event  is 
connected  with  any  thing  present,  that  connexion  is  a  principle  of 
knowledge  with  regard  to  it ;  the  more  intimate  the  connexion  is,  the 
future  event  may  be  the  more  certainly  known  ;  and  if  the  connexion 
be  indissoluble,  a  being  to  whom  it  is  known  is  as  certain  that  the 
future  event  will  exist,  as  that  any  present  object  now  is.  But  if  a 
future  event  has  no  connexion  with  any  thing  present,  it  cannot  be 

*  Essay  IV.  ch.  i. 


SYSTEMS    COMPARED.  551 

seen  in  its  cause  ;  and  the  Socinian  conclusion  seems  to  be  the  natural 
one,  that  it  cannot  be  foreseen  at  all.  The  Arniinians,  indeed,  distin- 
guish their  system  from  Socinianism  by  rejecthig  this  conclusion. 
For  although  they  consider  the  actions  of  moral  agents  to  be  contin- 
gent in  this  sense  of  the  word,  that  they  are  not  connected  with  any 
preceding  event  as  their  cause,  and  although  they  do  not  pretend  to 
explain  the  manner  in  which  such  events  can  be  certainly  foreknown, 
yet  they  admit  their  being  foreknown  by  God,  and  upon  his  infallible 
foreknowledge  of  them  they  build  what  they  call  the  decree  of  elec- 
tion. 

The  difficulty  of  reconciling  what  has  been  called  liberty  of  indifte- 
rence  with  the  infallible  foreknowledge  of  God,  is  not  the  only  objec- 
tion to  this  account  of  liberty.  Liberty  belongs  to  an  agent,  not  to  a 
faculty.  A  power  in  the  mind  to  determine  its  own  determinations 
is  either  unmeaning,  or  supposes,  contrary  to  the  first  principles  of 
philosophy,  something  to  arise  without  a  cause  ;  and  it  lands  those  by 
whom  it  is  defended  in  various  inconsistencies.  These  points  it  is  not 
my  business  to  state  more  particularly.  They  are  unfolded  in  the 
chapter  of  Mr.  Locke's  Essay,  entitled.  On  Power  ;  and  they  are  elu- 
cidated with  much  metaphysical  acuteness,  and  with  great  fulness  of 
illnstration,  in  Edwards's  Essay  on  Free-will.  On  the  other  hand, 
Dr.  Clarke  has  stated  the  Arminian  account  of  liberty  in  a  close  and 
guarded  manner, — in  a  form  the  most  accurate,  and  the  least  objec- 
tionable, that  the  subject  will  admit  of.  This  statement  occurs  in 
different  parts  of  Dr.  Clarke's  works  ;  particularly  in  his  Demonstra- 
tion of  the  Being  and  Attributes  of  God,  and  in  some  of  his  replies  to 
papers  of  Leibnitz.  One  of  Dr.  Whitby's  discourses  on  the  Five 
Points  is  an  essay  on  the  freedom  of  the  will  of  man.  The  Arminian 
account  of  liberty  is  fully  stated  by  King  in  his  Essay  on  the  Origin 
of  Evil ;  and  there  is  a  defence  of  it,  loose,  but  copious  and  plausible, 
in  the  Essay  already  referred  to,  by  Dr.  Reid,  On  the  Liberty  of  moral 
agents. 

Without  pursuing  the  investigation  how  far  liberty  of  indifference 
is  rational  and  consistent,  I  proceed  to  state  the  grounds  of -that  other 
idea  of  the  liberty  of  moral  agents,  which  is  essential  and  fundamen- 
tal in  the  Calvinistic  system. 

The  liberty  of  a  moral  agent  consists  in  the  power  of  acting  accord- 
ing to  his  choice ;  and  those  actions  are  free,  which  are  performed 
without  any  external  compulsion  or  restraint,  in  consequence  of  the 
determinations  of  his  own  mind.  The  determinations  of  the  mind 
are  formed  agreeably  to  the  laws  of  its  nature,  by  the  exercise  of  its 
po\vers  in  attention,  deliberation,  and  choice  :  they  are  its  own  deter- 
minations, because  they  proceed  upon  the  views  which  it  entertains 
of  the  subject  in  reference  to  \yhich  it  determines  ;  and  tlie  manner  in 
which  the  determinations  are  formed  implies  that  essential  distinction 
between  mind  and  matter,  in  consequence  of  which  mind  is  by  its 
constitution  susceptible  of  a  moral  character.  Matter  is  acted  upon 
by  other  objects,  and  receives  from  this  impulse  a  particular  figure  or 
motion ;  but  it  has  no  consciousness  of  the  change  induced  upon  its 
state,  no  powers  to  put  forth  in  accomplishing  the  change,  no  choice 
of  the  effect  which  is  to  follow.  There  is  a  physical  impossibility  that 
the  effect  can  be  any  other  than  that  which  may  be  calculated  from 


552  ARMINIAN    AND    CALVINISTIC 

taking  into  account  the  quantity  and  direction  of  the  impulse,  in  con- 
junction with  the  size,  the  quahty,  and  the  situation  of  the  body  which 
receives  it.  But  this  indifference  to  every  kind  of  impression,  which 
enters  into  our  conception  of  body,  and  in  consequence  of  wiiich  we 
give  it  the  epithets  passive  and  inert,  is  repugnant  to  our  idea  of  mind. 
We  conceive  that  the  actions  of  a  man  originate  in  the  exertions  of 
his  mind ;  that  powers  are  there  put  forth ;  that  the  mind  makes  a 
selection  out  of  many  objects,  any  one  of  which  it  was  not  physically 
impossible  to  choose  ;  that  in  tlie  preference  given  to  those  means 
Avhich  are  employed  to  bring  about  an  end,  there  is  a  choice — a  will 
discovered,  which  renders  the  mind  worthy  of  praise  or  blame,  and 
gives  to  the  conduct  that  direction  by  which  it  is  denominated  either 
good  or  bad. 

This  exertion  of  the  innate  powers  of  action,  by  whicli  mind  is 
distinguished  from  matter,  may  be  called  the  self-determining  power 
of  the  mind ;  and  if  this  were  all  that  the  Arminians  meant  by  that 
phrase,  the  Calvinists  would  readily  join  in  the  use  of  it.  But  it  is  to 
be  observed,  that  a  general  principle  of  activity,  and  a  determination 
to  a  particular  mode  of  action,  are  totally  different :  and  after  we 
have  admitted  that  the  actions  of  a  man  originate  in  the  exertions  of 
liis  mind,  it  remauis  to  be  inquired  what  determines  the  mind  to  one 
kind  of  exertion  rather  than  another.  The  Arminians  say  the  mind 
determines  itself;  which  to  the  Calvinists  appears  to  be  no  answer  to 
the  question,  because  in  their  opinion  it  means  no  more  than  that  the 
mind  has  a  power  of  determining  itself  They  hold  that  no  event 
liappens,  either  in  the  natural,  or  in  the  moral  world,  without  a  cause. 
They  hold  that  God,  who  exists  necessarily,  is  the  only  Being  who 
has  the  reason  of  his  existence  in  himself  Because  he  now  is,  he 
always  was,  and  he  always  will  be.  But  every  other  being  is  con- 
1  ingent,  i.  e.  it  may  be  or  it  may  not  be  :  the  reason  of  its  existence, 
therefore,  cannot  be  in  itself,  but  must  be  in  something  else.  The 
whole  universe  is  contingent,  deriving  the  reason  of  its  existence  from 
the  will  of  the  Creator  ;  and  every  particular  being  and  event  in  the 
universe  lias  that  connexion  with  something  going  before  it,  by  which 
it  forms  part  of  the  plan  of  Providence,  and,  although  known  to  us 
only  when  it  comes  into  existence,  was  certain  from  the  beginning, 
and  was  known  as  certain  to  Him  in  whose  mind  the  whole  plan  ori- 
ginated. 

These  general  principles,  which  constitute  the  foundation  of  the 
Calvinistic  system,  are  equally  applicable  to  the  events  of  the  natural 
and  the  moral  world.  The  various  changes  upon  matter,  which  are 
the  events  of  the  natural  world,  arise  from  a  succession  of  operations, 
every  one  of  which,  being  the  effect  of  something  previous,  becomes 
in  its  turn  the  cause  of  something  that  follows.  The  particular 
determinations  of  mind,  which  may  be  considered  as  events  arising 
in  the  moral  world,  have  their  causes  also  which  we  are  accustomed 
to  call  motives,  that  is,  inducements  to  act  in  a  particular  manner, 
which  arise  from  the  objects  presented  to  the  mind,  and  the  views  of 
those  objects  which  the  mind  entertains.  The  causes  of  the  events  in 
the  natural  world  are  eflicient  causes,  which  act  upon  matter ;  the 
causes  of  events  in  the  moral  world  are  final  causes,  with  reference 
to  which  the  mind,  in  which  the  action  originates,  proceeds,  volun- 


SYSTEMS    COMPARED.  553 

tarily  and  deliberately,  to  put  forth  its  own  powers.  But  the  direction 
ot  the  action  towards  its  final  cause  is  not  less  certain  than  the  direc- 
tion of  the  motion  produced  in  an  inert  passive  substance,  by  the  force 
impressed  upon  it,  which  is  the  efficient  cause  of  the  motion.  While 
I  continue  to  view  an  object  in  a  particular  light,  its  influence  upon 
my  conduct  continues.  While  I  propose  to  myself  a  certain  end,  and 
perceive  that.certain  means  are  necessary  to  attain  that  end,  I  employ 
those  means.  If  I  propose  other  ends,  or  change  my  opinion  as  to 
the  means,  there  will  be  a  consequent  change  in  my  conduct. 

Although  the  determinations  of  mind  thus  admit  of  certainty,  by 
means  of  their  connexion  with  final  causes,  this  certainty  is  essentially 
different  from  absolute  necessity.  A  thing  is  said  to  be  necessary, 
when  its  opposite  implies  a  contradiction.  The  three  angles  of  a 
triangle  must  be  equal  to  two  right  angles.  Absolute  necessity,  there- 
fore, excludes  the  possibility  of  choice,  because,  when  of  two  things 
one  must  be,  and  the  other  cannot  be,  there  is  no  room  for  preferring 
the  one  to  the  other.  But  two  opposite  determinations  of  mind  are 
equally  possible ;  both  being  contingent,  either  the  one  or  the  other 
may  be  ;  and  the  certainty  that  one  of  them  shall  be,  is  only  what  is 
called  moral  necessity,  which  is  in  truth  no  necessity  at  all  ;  because 
it  arises  not  from  the  impossibility  of  the  other  determination,  but 
merely  from  the  sufficiency  of  the  causes  that  are  employed  to  produce 
the  eifect.  The  word  effect  implies,  in  every  case,  the  previous 
existence  of  causes  sufficient  for  its  production.  It  appears,  because 
they  are  sufficient;  so  that  their  sufficiency  involves  the  certainty  of 
its  appearing.  In  every  determination  that  is  finally  taken,  there  was 
this  sufficiency  of  causes  ;  and,  consequently,  before  it  was  taken, 
there  was  a  certainty  that  it  would  be  such  as  it  is.  Yet,  in  all  its 
determinations,  the  mind  acts  according  to  its  nature,  deliberates, 
judges,  chooses,  without  any  feeling  of  restraint,  but  with  a  full 
impression  that  it  is  exerting  its  own  powers. 

If  the  determinations  of  moral  agents  are  thus  certainly  directed  by 
motives,  it  is  plain  that  the  Almighty,  whose  will  gave  existence  to 
tlie  universe,  and  by  whose  pleasure  every  cause  operates  and  every 
effect  is  produced,  gives  their  origin  to  these  determinations,  by  the 
execution  of  the  great  plan  of  his  providence.  For  as  there  entered 
into  his  plan  all  those  efficient  causes  whose  successive  operation 
produces  the  motions  and  changes  of  the  material  world,  so  there  are 
brought  forward,  in  succession,  by  the  execution  of  this  plan,  all  those 
objects  which  present  themselves  to  the  mind  as  final  causes.  Could 
we  suppose  a  being,  who,  without  any  influence  in  ordering  the  con- 
nexion of  things,  foresaw,  from  the  beginning,  what  that  connexion 
would  be,  and  had  a  mind  capable  of  comprehending  the  whole  series, 
he  would,  at  the  same  time,  foresee  all  the  exertions  of  mind  in  refe- 
rence to  final  causes.  And  if  the  being  who  possesses  this  foresight 
is  no  other  than  the  Almighty,  upon  whose  will  the  whole  disposition 
of  the  events  that  are  connected  together,  depends,  it  is  plain  that,  by 
altering  this  disposition,  he  would  alter  those  exertions  of  mind  which 
it  calls  forth,  and,  therefore,  that  all  the  exertions  which  are  actually 
made  constitute  a  part  of  his  plan.  But  this  does  not,  in  the  smallest 
degree,  diminish  what  we  call  the  liberty  of  moral  agents.  For  final 
causes  operate  upon  them  according  to  their  nature,  in  the  same 
49  4B 


554  ARMINIAN    AND    CALVINISTIC 

manner  as  if  there  were  no  such  foresight  and  pre-ordination  :  they 
shun  what  is  evil ;  they  desire  what  is  good  ;  they  are  directed  in 
their  determinations  by  the  light  in  which  objects  appear  to  them, 
without  inquiring — without  being  impressed  at  the  time  of  the  direc- 
tion with  any  desire  to  know — whether  the  good  and  evil  came  from 
the  appointment  of  a  wise  being,  or  whether  it  arose  fortuitously.  It 
is  present,  and  it  operates  because  it  is  present,  not  because  it  was 
foreseen.  The  mind  feels  its  inliuence  ;  and  this  feeling  is  totally 
distinct  from  the  calm  judgment  which  the  mind  may,  upon  reflection, 
form  with  regard  to  the  origin  of  that  influence. 

It  seems  to  result  from  the  simple  view  we  have  taken  of  the 
subject,  that  the  operation  of  motives  will  be  uniform ;  that,  as  the 
strength  of  the  motive  may  in  every  case  be  estimated,  the  effect  will 
appear  to  correspond  to  its  cause ;  and  that  there  will  be  as  little 
variety  in  the  determinations  of  diiferent  minds,  to  whom  the  same 
final  cause  is  presented,  as  in  the  motions  of  bodies  which  receive  the 
same  foreign  impulse.  Yet  the  fact  is,  that  motives  are  very  far  from 
operating  according  to  their  apparent  strength  ;  that  men  are  daily 
acting  in  contradiction  to  those  moral  inducements  which,  in  all 
reason,  ought  to  determine  their  conduct;  and  that  the  same  motives, 
by  which  the  determinations  of  one  man  are  guided,  have  not  an 
abiding  influence,  and  often  hardly  any  perceptible  influence  upon 
another  man  to  whom  they  appear  to  be  equally  present.  In  some 
men,  the  understanding  does  not  separate  readily  between  truth  and 
falsehood,  or  possesses  in  so  slender  a  degree  the  faculty  of  compre- 
hending the  parts  of  a  complex  object,  and  of  tracing  consequences, 
that,  in  most  cases,  neither  the  end  nor  the  means  appear  to  them 
such  as  they  really  are.  In  other  men,  whose  understanding  is  not 
defective,  there  are  particular  affections  and  inferior  appetites,  which 
either  insensibly  bias  the  will,  and  even  pervert  the  understanding,  or 
whose  violence  dictates  a  choice  opposite  to  that  which  should  result, 
from  the  calm  judgment  of  the  understanding.  And  in  many  men 
there  is  an  indecision — a  want  of  vigour — an  apprehension  of  diffi- 
culties, by  which  the  final  determinations  of  their  minds,  and  the 
conduct  which  they  pursue  in  life,  are  very  different  from  what  they 
themselves  approve. 

However  plausible,  then,  the  theory  may  be,  which  represents 
motives  as  final  causes  calling  forth  the  exertions  of  mind,  yet,  when 
we  come  to  apply  this  theory  to  fact,  the  real  influence  of  these  causes 
becomes  a  matter  of  very  complicated  calculation.  We  have  to  con- 
sider the  strength  of  the  motives  not  abstractedly,  but  in  conjunction 
with  the  particular  views  formed  by  the  mind  to  which  they  are  pre- 
sented ;  and  there  enters  into  the  formation  of  these  views  such  a 
variety  of  circumstances  respecting  the  state  of  the  mind,  generally 
unknown  to  observers,  or  inexplicable  by  them,  and  often  unper- 
ceived  by  the  mind  itself,  that  the  final  determination  appears  in  many 
cases  nearly  as  wayward  and  capricious  as  if  it  was  not  connected 
with  any  thing  previous,  but  the  mind  did  really  exert  that  uncon- 
trolled sovereignty  over  its  own  determinations,  to  which  the  Armin- 
ians  give  the  name  of  the  self-determining  power. 

Notwithstanding  this  complication  of  circumstances  that  require  to 
be  considered  in  estimating  the  influence  of  motives,  it  is  a  matter  of 


SYSTEMS    COMPARED.  555 

frequent  experience,  that  we  may  be  so  well  acquainted  with  the 
character  of  a  person's  mind,  witli  all  the  springs  of  action  by  which 
ho  is  moved,  and  with  the  situation  in  which  he  is  placed,  as  to  judge, 
with  very  little  danger  of  mistake,  what  line  of  conduct  he  will  pur- 
sue. And  it  is  possible,  by  the  information  and  suggestions  that  are 
conveyed  to  his  understanding,  and  by  a  skilful  and  continued  appli- 
cation of  the  objects  best  fitted  for  rousing  his  passions,  and  interesting 
his  atfections,  to  obtain  an  entire  ascendency  over  his  mind,  and  to 
command  his  sentiments  and  purposes.  Many  persons  find  it  for 
their  interest  or  their  pleasure  to  study  the  art  of  leading  the  minds 
of  others,  and  to  devote  themselves  to  the  practice  of  this,  art ;  and 
the  history  of  the  world  is  full  of  instances  in  which  the  art  has  been 
successful.  The  success  has  sometimes  proved  hurtful  to  the  civil 
and  political  liberties  of  mankind  ;  but  it  has  never  been  considered 
as  impairing  that  liberty  of  which  we  are  now  speaking — the  liberty 
which  is  necessary  to  constitute  the  persons  thus  led,  moral  agents. 
Their  determinations,  although  foreseen  by  their  sagacious  neighbours 
before  they  were  formed, — although  formed  upon  the  view  of  objects 
not  sought  after  by  themselves,  but  put  in  their  way  by  those  neigh- 
bours, were  still  their  own  determinations;  the  spontaneous  result  of 
their  own  active  powers,  in  which  they  had  all  the  feeling  of  choice, 
and  liberty,  and  mental  exertion  ;  of  self-approbation  if  they  chose 
right;  of  self-reproach  if  they  chose  wrong. 

Although  the  investigation  of  the  character  of  others  be  to  us 
laborious,  and  full  of  mistake  ;  although  our  efforts  to  direct  the  minds 
of  others  be -often  rendered  abortive  by  some  oversight  and  negligence 
on  our  part,  by  some  change  upon  theirs,  or  by  some  unlooked-for 
event,  we  can  easily  account  for  this  imperfection  by  the  present  state 
of  human  nature  ;  and  we  do  not  find  it  difficult  to  rise,  from  what 
we  ourselves  experience,  to  the  conception  of  that  intuitive  know- 
ledge, and  that  entire  direction  of  the  determinations  of  mind,  which 
belong  to  the  Supreme  Being.  He  who  formed  the  human  heart 
knows  what  is  in  man  :  he  knows  our  thoughts  afar  off,  long  before 
they  arise  in  our  breasts — long  before  the  objects  by  which  they  are 
to  be  excited  have  been  presented  to  ns.  He,  who  is  intimately  pre- 
sent through  his  whole  creation,  marks,  without  fatigue,  or  the 
possibility  of  misapprehension,  every  the  minutest  shade  that  dis- 
tinguishes the  character  of  one  man  from  that  of  another:  every 
difference  in  their  situation,  every  variety  in  the  views  which  they 
form  of  the  same  objects.  And  all  these  things  are  known  to  him 
not  merely  as  they  arise.  They  originated  in  that  plan  which  from 
the  beginning,  was  formed  in  the  Divine  Mind,  and  which  was 
executed  in  time  by  his  pleasure ;  so  that  their  being  future,  or 
present,  or  past,  does  not  make  the  smallest  difference  in  the  clearness, 
the  facility,  and  the  certainty,  with  which  he  knows  them. 

If  all  the  circumstances  presented  to  the  minds  of  his  creatures,  and 
constituting  moral  inducements  to  a  certain  line  of  conduct,  are  a  part 
of  the  plan  of  the  Almighty,  it  is  in  his  power  to  accommodate  these 
circumstances  to  the  varieties  which  he  perceives  in  the  characters 
of  mankind,  so  as  to  lead  them  certainly  in  the  path  which  he  chooses 
f  )r  them.  We  observe,  in  the  history  of  the  human  race,  what  we 
46 


556  ARMINIAN    AND    CALVINISTIC 

call  a  national  character,  formed  by  that  concurrence  of  natural  and 
mora,  causes,  which  every  sound  theist  ascribes  to  the  providence  of 
Him  who  is  Governor  among  the  nations.  We  observe,  in  private 
life,  how  much  the  characters  of  those  with  whom  we  have  inter- 
course depend  upon  their  education,  their  society,  their  employments, 
and  the  events  which  befal  them ;  and  we  can  conceive  these  and 
other  circumstances  combined  in  the  lot  of  an  individual  by  the  dis- 
position of  Heaven,  so  as  to  have  a  most  commanding  influence  in 
eradicating  from  his  breast  the  vices  which  were  natural  to  him,  and 
in  caUing  forth  the  continued  and  vigorous  exercise  of  every  virtuous 
principle.  This  influence  is  the  meaning  of  an  expression  in  theo- 
logical books,  gratia  congrua,  that  is,  grace  exercised  in  congruity 
to  the  disposition  of  him  who  is  the  subject  of  it,  accommodating 
circumstances  to  his  character  in  that  manner  which  the  Almighty 
foresees  will  prove  effectual  for  the  purpose  of  leading  him  to  faith 
and  repentance.  This  is  the  account  which  some  writers  of  the 
Church  of  Rome,  of  great  eminence  in  their  day,  chose  to  give  of  the 
efficacy  of  divine  grace  ;  it  was  probably  included  in  the  expression 
used  by  Arminius,  that  the  means  of  grace  are  administered  jiixta 
sapientiam ;  and  it  seems  to  have  been  adopted  by  the  earliest 
followers  of  Arminius.  The  account  of  the  efficacy  of  divine  grace, 
which  may  be  shortly  expressed  by  the  phrase  gratia  congrua,  pro- 
ceeds upon  the  view  that  has  been  given  of  the  influence  of  motives ; 
and  to  all  who  admit  that  the  influence  of  motives  upon  the  mind 
may  certainly  direct  the  conduct,  this  account  cannot  appear  incon- 
sistent with  the  principles  of  human  nature.  But  it  was  rejected  by 
the  successors  of  Arminius,  in  their  confessions  of  faith,  as  inconsistent 
with  an  intention  to  save  all  men,  and  as  implying  a  precise  and 
absolute  intention  of  saving  some,  effectually  carried  into  execntion 
by  the  congruity  of  the  grace  which  is  administered  unto  them.  It  is 
rejected  by  the  modern  Arminians  as  inconsistent  with  what  they 
call  the  self-determining  power  of  the  mind :  and  it  is  considered  by 
the  Calvinists  as  liable  to  objections,  and  as  insufficient  of  itself  to 
produce  the  effects  ascribed  to  it.  Gratia  congrua  appears  to  the 
Calvinists  to  imply  an  exercise  of  scientia  media  ;  because  it  implies 
that  the  minds  of  those  who  are  to  be  saved,  are  considered  as  having 
an  existence,  and  as  possessing  a  determinate  character,  independently 
of  the  divine  decree,  and  that  the  administration  of  the  means  of  grace 
is  directed  by  a  reference  to  that  character.  It  appears  to  the  Cal- 
vinists to  be  contradicted,  as  far  as  we  can  judge,  by  fact.  For  as  the 
most  favourable  circumstances  did  not  conduct  the  Jews,  among 
whom  our  Saviour  lived,  to  faith  in  the  true  Messiah,  or  preserve 
Judas,  a  member  of  his  family,  from  the  blackest  guilt,  while  many 
among  the  heathen,  without  any  preparation,  were  turned,  at  the 
first  sound  of  the  gospel,  from  idols,  to  serve  the  living  God  ;  so,  in 
every  age,  the  concurrence  of  all  the  advantages,  which  education 
and  opportunities  can  aflbrd,  proves  ineffectual  in  regard  to  some  ; 
while  others,  with  the  scantiest  means  of  improvement,  attain  the 
character  of  those  who  shall  be  saved.  Gratia  congrua  appears 
further  to  the  Calvinists  not  to  come  up  to  the  import  of  those  expres- 
sions, by  which  the  Scripture  describes  the  operation  of  the  grace  of 


SYSTEMS    COMPARED.  557 

God  upon  the  soul,  nor  to  imply  a  remedy  suited  to  that  degree  of 
corruption  in  human  nature,  which  they  think  may  be  fairly  inferred 
both  from  experience  and  from  Scripture. 

For  all  these  reasons,  the  palvinists  consider  the  efficacy  of  divine 
grace  as  consisting  in  an  immediate  action  of  the  Spirit  of  God  upon 
the  soul.  This  part  of  their  doctrine  may  be  easily  represented  in 
such  a  light,  as  if  it  were  subversive  of  the  nature  of  a  moral  agent; 
and  much  occasion  has  been  given  for  such  representations  by  the 
unguarded  expressions  of  those  who  wish  to  magnify  the  divine 
power  displayed  in  this  action.  But  as  it  is  of  more  importance  to 
know  how  the  doctrine  may  be  stated  in  consistency  Avith  those  fun- 
damental principles  which  cannot  be  renounced,  than  how  it  has  been 
misstated,  I  shall  not  dilate  on  the  exaggerations  either  of  its  friends 
or  of  its  adversaries,  but  simply  present  such  a  view  of  it  as  appears 
to  me  perfectly  agreeable  both  to  the  words  of  our  Confession  of 
Faith,  and  to  the  account  which  has  been  given  of  the  liberty  of  a 
moral  agent. 

It  is  manifest  that  the  uncertainty  in  the  operation  of  motives, 
which  was  formerly  mentioned,  arises  from  the  corruption  of  human 
nature ;  in  other  words,  from  the  defects  of  the  understanding  and 
the  disorders  of  the  heart.  If  the  understanding  always  perceived 
things  as  they  are,  and  if  the  afiections  were  so  balanced  in  the  soul, 
as  never  to  dictate  any  choice  in  opposition  to  that  which  appears  to 
be  best,  there  would  be  an  uniformity  in  the  purposes  and  the  con- 
duct of  all  to  whom  the  same  motives  are  presented.  But  if,  accord- 
ing to  the  descriptions  which  the  Calvinists  find  in  Scripture,  and 
which  they  adopt  as  the  foundation  of  their  system,  the  corruption  of 
human  nature  be  such  as  to  blind  the  understanding,  and  to  give  infe 
rior  appetites  that  dominion  in  the  soul  which  was  originally  assigned 
to  reason  and  conscience,  all  the  multiplicity  of  error,  and  all  the 
caprice  of  ungoverned  desire,  come  in  to  give  variety  and  uncertainty 
to  the  choice  of  the  mind.  The  only  method  of  removing  this  un 
certainty  of  choice  is  by  removing  the  corruption  from  which  it  pro* 
ceeds.  And  this  is  allowed,  by  all  who  hold  that  there  is  such  a  cor- 
ruption, to  be  the  work,  not  of  the  creature  who  is  corrupt,  but  of 
the  Creator.  This  work  is  expressed  in  Scripture  by  such  phrases  a.<? 
the  following :  "A  new  heart  will  I  give  you,  and  a  new  spirit  will  I 
put  within  you."!^ — "  Ye  must  be  born  again  ;t — "renewed  in  know- 
ledge after  the  image  of  him  that  created  you  ;"| — "  renewed  in  the 
spirit  of  your  minds — created  unto  good  works."§  While  the  Cal- 
vinists infer  from  these  expressions,  that  there  is  an  immediate  action 
of  God  upon  the  souls  of  those  who  are  saved,  they  observe,  that  all 
these  expressions  are  so  very  far  from  implying  any  action  subver- 
sive of  the  nature  of  man,  that  they  distinctly  mark  the  restoration 
of  the  understanding,  the  atfections,  and  all  the  principles  of  the  hu- 
man mind,  to  the  state  in  which  they  were,  before  they  were  cor- 
rupted. xVlthough  the  Calvinists  do  not  attempt  to  explain  the  manner 
of  this  action,  they  say  it  cannot  appear  strange  to  any  sound  theist, 
— to  any  one  who  believes  in  God  as  the  Father  of  spirits,  that  he 

*  Ezek.  xxxvi.  26.  f  John  iii.  7.  ^  Col.  iii.  10. 

§  EpU.  iv.  23  ;  ii.  10. 
49* 


558  ARMINIAN    AND    CALVINISTIC 

has  it  in  his  power  to  restore  to  tlieir  original  integrity  those  facuhies 
which  he  at  first  bestowed,  and  which  are  continually  preserved  in 
exercise  by  his  visitation  :  and  they  place  that  efficacy  of  divine  grace 
which  is  characteristical  of  their  system  in.  this  renovation  of  the 
mind,  conjoined  with  the  exhibition  of  such  moral  inducements,  as 
are  fitted  to  call  forth  the  exertions  of  a  mind  acting  according  to  rea- 
son. It  appears  to  them  indispensably  necessary  that  these  two,  the 
renovation  of  the  mind  and  the  exhibition  of  moral  inducements, 
should  go  together.  For  although  it  is  of  the  nature  of  mind  to  be 
called  forth  to  action  by  motives,  yet  the  strongest  motives  may  be 
presented  in  vain  to  a  mind  which  is  vitiated,  and  moral  suasion  may 
be  insufficient  to  correct  its  heedlessness  and  to  overcome  its  depra- 
vity; so  that  if  the  grace  of  God  consisted  merely  in  the  exhibition 
of  motives,  or  in  a  counsel  of  the  same  kind  with  that  which  a  friend 
administers,  it  might  be  exerted  without  eff'ect,  and  those  whom  God 
intended  to  lead  to  salvation  might  remain  under  the  power  of  sin. 
But  when,  to  the  exhibition  of  the  strongest  motives,  is  joined  that 
influence  which,  by  renewing  the  faculties  of  the  mind,  disposes  it  to 
attend  to  them,  the  effect,  according  to  the  laws  by  which  mind  ope- 
rates, is  infallible;  and  the  Being  who  is  capable  of  exerting  that 
influence,  and  who,  in  the  decree  which  embraces  the  whole  system 
of  the  universe,  arranged  all  the  moral  inducements  that  are  to  be 
exhibited  in  succession  to  his  reasonable  creatures,  has  entire  domi- 
nion over  their  wills,  and  conducts  them,  agreeably  to  the  laws  of 
their  nature,  freely,  i.  e.  with  their  consent  and  choice,  and  without 
the  feeling  of  constraint,  yet  certainly,  to  the  end  which  he  proposes. 
This  grace  is  irresistible,  because  all  the  principles  which  oppose  its 
operation  are  subdued,  and  the  will  is  inclined  to  follow  the  judgment 
of  the  understanding.  What  before  was  arhitrium  servum,  accord- 
ing to  a  language  formerly  used  upon  this  subject,  becomes  arhitrium 
liberum ;  for  the  soul  is  rescued  from  a  condition  in  which  it  was 
hurried  on  by  appetite  to  act  without  due  deliberation  upon  false 
views  of  objects,  and  it  recovers  the  faculty  of  discerning,  and  the 
faculty  of  obeying  the  truth.  But  in  the  exercise  of  these  faculties 
consists  what  the  Scriptures  call  "  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children 
of  God,"  the  liberty  of  a  moral  agent.  He  is  a  slave,  the  servant  of 
sin,  led  captive  by  his  lusts,  when  the  derangement  of  his  nature  pre- 
vents him  from  seeing  things  as  they  are,  from  pursuing  what  de- 
serves his  choice,  from  avoiding  what  he  ought  to  shun.  He  is  free, 
when  he  deliberates,  and  judges,  and  acts  according  to  the  laws  of 
his  nature.  By  this  freedom  he  is  assimilated  to  higher  orders  of  be- 
ing, who  uniformly  choose  what  is  good.  God  acts  always  according 
to  the  highest  reason ;  he  cannot  but  be  just  and  good :  yet  in  this 
moral  necessity,  which  is  inseparable  from  the  idea  of  a  perfect  being, 
there  is  freedom  of  choice.  The  man  Christ  Jesus  was  uniformly  and 
infallibly  determined  to  do  those  things  which  pleased  his  Father ; 
yet  he  acted  with  the  most  entire  freedom.  "  The  spirits  of  just  men 
made  perfect  are  unalterably  disposed  to  fulfil  the  commandments  of 
the  Most  High ;  yet  none  will  suppose  that,  when  they  are  advanced 
to  the  perfection  of  their  nature,  they  have  lost  what  is  essential  to 
the  character  of  a  moral  agent.  So  to  man  in  a  state  of  trial,  accord- 
ing to  the  degree  in  which  his  will  is  determined  by  the  grace  of  God 


SYSTEMS    COMPARED.  559 

to  the  choice  of  what  is  good,  to  the  same  degree  is  the  freedom  of 
his  natm'e  restored.  If  the  corruption  of  iiis  nature,  which  indisposes 
him  for  that  choice,  were  completely  removed,  he  would  always  will 
and  do  what  is  good.  If  some  remainders  of  that  corruption  are 
allowed  to  continue,  there  will  be  a  proportional  danger  of  his  devi- 
ating from  the  right  path.  But  the  degree  may  be  so  small,  that  he 
shall  be  etfectually  preserved  from  being  at  any  time  under  the  bond- 
age of  sin,  and  in  the  general  course  of  his  life,  shall  be  determined 
by  those  motives  which  the  gospel  exhibits. 

These  are  the  principles  upon  which  the  Calvinists  are  best  able  to 
defend  their  system  against  the  objection,  that  it  is  subversive  of  the 
nature  of  man.  They  hold,  that  in  the  exercise  of  that  faith  and  re- 
pentance which  are  hidispensably  necessaiy  to  salvation,  the  deter- 
mination to  act  arises  from  the  influence  of  God  upon  the  soul ;  but 
that  it  is  a  determination  to  act  according  to  the  nature  of  the  soul, 
and  therefore,  that  although  the  effect  of  the  determination  is  certain, 
the  action  continues  to  be  free.  The  Arminians  themselves  allow 
that  contingent  events,  such  as  the  volitions  and  exertions  of  free 
agents,  are  certain  beforehand  ;  for  they  admit  that  the  foreknowledge 
of  God  extends  to  them.  It  is  not,  therefore,  the  bare  certainty  of  the 
event  which  can  appear  to  them  inconsistent  with  liberty  :  and  if  the 
cause  to  which  the  Calvinists  ascribe  this  certainty  gives  to  the  mind 
the  full  possession  and  exercise  of  its  faculties,  there  is  implied  in  the 
certainty  of  the  event,  not  the  destruction,  but  the  improvement  of 
the  liberty  of  man. 


Section  IV. 

The  second  head,  to  which  all  the  difficulties  that  have  been  sup- 
posed to  adhere  to  the  Calvinistic  system  may  be  reduced,  is  this :  It 
is  conceived  to  be  dishonourable  to  God,  and  inconsistent  with  those 
attributes  of  his  nature,  of  which  we  are  able  to  form  the  clearest  no- 
tions. The  amount  of  the  difficulties  which  belong  to  this  second 
head  may  be  thus  shortly  stated. 

Allowing  that  the  determining  grace  of  God  may,  without  destroy- 
ing the  nature  of  man,  effectually  lead  to  eternal  life  those  to  whom  it 
is  given,  yet  the  bestowing  such  a  favour  upon  some  and  not  upon 
others,  when  all  stood  equally  in  need  of  it,  constitutes  a  distinction 
amongst  the  creatures  of  God,  which  it  appears  impossible  to  recon- 
cile with  the  impartiality  of  their  common  Father.  It  is  true  that 
many  of  his  children  receive  a  smaller  portion  in  this  life  than  others  : 
but  the  unequal  distribution  of  earthly  comforts  is  subservient  to  the 
welfare  of  society,  and  calls  forth  the  exercise  of  many  virtues ;  for 
while  those  who  receive  much,  have  opportunities  of  doing  good, 
those  who  receive  little,  are  placed  in  a  situation  which  is  often  very 
favourable  to  their  moral  character  ;  and  all  are  encouraged  to  look 
forward  to  a  time,  Avhen  the  present  inequalities  shall  be  removed. 
But  the  withholding  from  some  that  grace,  which  is  supposed  to  be 
essential  to  the  formation  of  their  moral  character,  can  never  be  com- 
pensated.    It  leaves  them  sinful  and  wretched  here,  and  consigns 


360  ARMINIAN    AND    CALVINISTIC 

them  to  the  abodes  of  misery  hereafter  ;  whilst  others,  not  originally 
superior  to  them,  are  conducted,  by  the  grace  with  which  they  are 
distinguished,  through  the  practice  of  virtue  upon  earth,  to  its  highest 
rewards  in  heaven.  The  Almighty  appears,  according  to  this  system, 
not  only  partial,  but  also  chargeable  with  all  the  sin  that  remains  in 
the  world,  by  withholding  the  grace  which  would  have  remolded  it ; 
he  appears  unjust  in  punishing  those  transgressions  which  he  does  not 
furnish  men  with  eifectual  means  of  avoiding  ;  and  there  seems  to  be 
a  \vant  of  sincerity  in  the  various  expressions  of  his  earnest  desire  that 
men  should  abstain  from  sin,  in  the  reproaches  for  their  not  abstain- 
ing from  it,  and  in  the  expostulations  upon  account  of  their  obstinacy, 
with  which  the  Scriptures  abound,  when  he  had  determined  before- 
hand to  withhold  from  many  that  grace  which  he  might  have  be- 
stowed upon  all,  and  without  which  he  knows  that  every  man  must 
continue  in  sin. 

The  picture  which  I  have  drawn  easily  admits  of  very  high  colour- 
ing, such  as  may  be  found  in  Whitby's  Discourses  on  the  Five  Points. 
Even  in  the  simple  exhibition  of  it  now  given,  it  appears  to  contain 
objections  and  ditiiculties  of  a  very  serious  nature  :  and  if  these  objec- 
tions and  difficulties  fairly  result  from  the  Calvinistic  system,  if  they 
are  peculiar  to  that  system,  and  if  they  do  not  admit  of  an  answer, 
"they  are  a  clear  proof  that  it  does  not  contain  a  true  representation  of 
the  extent  and  the  application  of  the  remedy.  For  it  is  impossible 
that  any  doctrine,  inconsistent  with  the  attributes  of  God,  is  contained 
in  a  divine  revelation.  But  we  may  find,  upon  an  attentive  exami- 
nation of  the  picture  now  drawn,  that  for  the  solution  of  some  of  the 
difficulties  nothing  more  is  necessary  than  a  fair  statement  of  the  case  ; 
that  some  belong  to  the  Arminian  system  no  less  than  to  the  Calvin- 
istic ;  and  that  others  are  to  be  placed  to  the  account  of  the  narrow- 
ness of  our  understandings,  which,  in  following  out  principles  that 
appear  unquestionably  true,  meet  upon  all  subjects  with  points  which 
they  are  unable  to  explain. 

When  the  Calvinists  are  accused  of  charging  God  with  partiality, 
because  they  say  that  the  effectual  determining  grace,  which  is 
imparted  to  some  and  not  to  others,  proceeds  from  the  mere  good 
pleasure  of  God,  they  pretend  to  give  no  other  answer  than  this;  that 
the  Almighty  is  not  accountable  to  any  for  the  manner  in  which  he 
dispenses  his  favours ;  and  that,  although  the  favour  conferred  upon 
the  elect  is  infinitely  superior  to  all  the  bounties  of  Providence,  a 
favour  which  fixes  their  moral  character  and  their  everlasting  condi- 
tion, still  it  is  a  favour  which  originates  entirely  in  the  good  pleasure 
of  Him  by  whom  it  is  bestowed,  and  in  the  communication  of  which 
there  is  no  room  for  the  rules  of  distributive  justice,  but  it  is  lawful 
for  the  Creator  to  do  what  he  will  with  his  own.  Justice  is  exercised, 
after  men  have  acted  their  parts,  in  giving  to  every  one  according  to 
his  deserts ;  and  then  all  respect  of  persons,  any  kind  of  preference, 
which  is  not  founded  upon  the  superior  worthiness  of  the  objects  pre- 
ferred, is  repugnant  to  our  moral  feelings,  and  inconsistent  with  our 
conceptions  of  the  Supreme  Ruler.  But  the  case  is  widely  different 
with  regard  to  the  communication  of  that  eftectual  grace,  which  is 
the  fruit  of  election.  For  according  to  the  view  of  the  divine  fore- 
knowledge, which  is  essential  to  the  Calvinistic  system,  all  things  are 


SYSTEMS    COMPARED.  561 

brought  into  being  by  the  execution  of  the  divine  decree,  so  that  no 
circumstance  in  the  manner  of  the  existence  of  any  individual  can 
depend  upon  the  conduct  of  that  individual,  but  all  that  distinguishes 
him  from  others  must  originate  in  the  mind  which  formed  the  decree : 
and  according  to  the  view  of  the  moral  condition  of  the  posterity  of 
Adam,  upon  which  the  Calvinistic  system  proceeds,  all  deserved  to 
suifer,  so  that  the  grace,  by  which  any  are  saved  from  suffering,  is  to 
be  ascribed  to  the  compassion  of  the  Almighty,  i.  e.  to  an  exercise  of 
goodness,  which  it  is  impossible  for  any  to  claim  as  a  right. 

But  the  Arminians  do  not  rest  in  accusing  the  Calvinists  of  charging 
God  with  partiality  :  they  represent  absolute  reprobation  as  imposing 
upon  men  a  necessity  of  sinning,  from  whence  it  follows  that  there  is 
not  only  an  unequal  distribution  of  favours  according  to  the  Calvinistic 
system,  but  that  there  is  also  gross  injustice  in  punishing  any  sins 
which  are  committed.     All  Arminian  books  are  filled  with  references 
to  human  life,  with  similes,  and  with  repetitions  of  the  same  argu- 
ment in  various  forms,  by  which  it  is  intended  to  impress  upon  the 
minds  of  their  readers  this  idea,  that  as  we  cannot,  without  glaring 
iniquity,  first  take  away  from  man  the  power  of  obeying  a  command, 
and  then  punish  his  disobedience,  so  if  we  adhere  to  those  clear 
notions  of  the  moral  character  of  the  Deity,  which  reason  and  Scrip- 
ture teach,  we  must  renounce  a  system,  which  implies  that  men  sufier 
everlasting  misery  for  those  sins,  which  God  made  it  impossible  for 
them  to  avoid.     To  this  kind  of  reasoning  the  Calvinists  answer,  that, 
under  all  the  amplification  which  it  has  often  received,  there  is  con- 
cealed a  fallacy  in  the  statement  which  totally  enervates  the  objection  ; 
and  the  alleged  fallacy  is  thus  explained  by  them.     If  the  decree  of 
reprobation  implied  any  influence  exerted  by  God  upon  the  mind 
leading  men  to  sin,  the  consequences  charged  upon  it  would  clearly 
follow.     But  that  decree  is  nothing  more  than  the  withholding  from 
some  the  grace  which  is  imparted  to  others ;  and  God  concurs  in  the 
sins  committed  by  those  from  whom  the  grace  is  withheld,  only  by 
that  general  concurrence  which  is  necessary  to  the  preservation  of 
his  creatures.     He,  in  whom  they  "  live  and  move  and  have  their 
being,"  continues  with  them  the  exercise  of  their  powers  :  but  the 
particular  direction   of  that  exercise,  which  renders  their  actions 
sinful,  arises  from  the  perverseness  of  their  own  will,  and  is  the  fruit 
of  their  own  deliberation.     They  feel  that  they  might  have   acted 
otherwise  :   they   blame  themselves,  because  when  it  was  in  their 
power  to  have  avoided  sin  they  did  not  avoid  it ;  and  thus  they  carry 
about  with  them,  in  the  sentiments  and  the  reproaches  of  their  own 
minds,  a  decisive  proof,  which  sophistry  can  never  overpower,  that 
there  was  no  external  cause  compelling  them  to  sin.     It  is  admitted 
by  the  Calvinists  that  all,  from  whom  the  special  grace  of  God  is 
withheld,  shall  infallibly  continue  under  the  dominion  of  sin,  because 
their  doctrine  with  regard  to  the  grace  of  God  proceeds  upon  that 
corruption  of  human  nature,  which  this  grace  alone  is  able  to  remove. 
But  they  hold  that,  although  of  two  events  one  is  certainly  future, 
both  may  be  equally  possible  in  this  sense,  that  neither  implies  a 
contradiction ;  and  this  is  all  that  appears  to  them  necessary  to  vindi- 
cate their  doctrine  from  the  charge  of  implying  that  men  are  compelled 
to  sin.     The  Arminians  are  not  entitled  to  require  more,  because 

4E 


562  ARMINIAN    AND    CALVINISTIC 

by  admitting  that  the  sins  of  men  are  foreknown  b3^  God,  they  admit 
that  they  are  certain,  and  yet  they  do  not  consider  this  certainty  of 
the  event  as  infringing  the  Uberty  of  those,  by  whose  agency  the  event 
is  accompUshed.  When  it  is  said,  then,  that  man  by  the  decree  of 
reprobation  is  put  under  a  necessity  of  sinning,  there  is  an  equivoca- 
tion in  the  expression.  Those  who  wish  to  fix  a  reproach  upon  the 
Calvinistic  system,  mean  by  a  necessity  of  sinning,  that  co-action,  that 
foreign  impulse,  whicli  destroys  liberty  :  those  Who  defend  this  system 
admit  of  a  necessity  of  sinning  in  no  other  sense,  than  as  that  expres- 
sion may  be  employed  to  denote  merely  the  certainty  of  sinning  which 
arises  from  the  state  of  the  mind ;  and  they  have  recourse  to  a  distinc- 
tion, formerly  explained,  between  that  physical  necessity  of  sinning, 
which  frees  from  all  blame,  and  that  moral  necessity  of  sinning,  which 
implies  the  highest  degree  of  blame.  This  distinction  is  supported  by 
the  sentiments  of  human  nature  ;  it  is  the  foundation  of  judgm.ents, 
which  we  are  accustomed  daily  to  pronounce,  with  regard  to  the 
conduct  of  our  neighbours  ;  and,  when  rightly  understood  and  applied, 
it  removes  from  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  the  odious  imputations  of 
representing  men  as  punished  by  God  for  what  he  compels  them  to 
do. 

Still,  however,  a  cloud  hangs  over  the  subject ;  and  there  is  a  diffi- 
culty in  reconciling  the  mind  to  a  system,  which  after  laying  this 
foundation,  that  special  grace  is  necessary  to  the  production  of  human 
virtue,  adopts  as  its  distinguishing  tenet  this  position,  that  that  grace 
is  denied  to  many.  The  objection  may  be  inaccurately  stated  by  the 
adversaries  of  the  system  :  there  may  be  exaggeration  and  much  false 
colouring  in  what  they  say  :  it  may  be  true  that  God  is  not  the  pro- 
moter or  instigator  of  sin ;  that  the  evil  propensities  of  our  nature, 
with  which  we  ourselves  are  chargeable,  lead  us  astray,  and  that 
every  person  who  follows  these  propensities,  in  opposition  to  the  dic- 
tates of  reason  and  conscience,  deserves  to  suffer.  But  after  all,  it 
must  be  admitted,  upon  the  Calvinistic  system,  that  God  might  have 
prevented  this  deviation  and  this  suffering ;  that  as  no  dire  necessity 
restrains  the  Almighty  from  communicating  any  measure  of  grace  to 
any  number  of  his  creatures,  the  unmerited  favour  which  is  shown  to 
some  might  have  been  shown  to  others  also ;  and  therefore  that  all 
the  variety  of  transgression,  and  the  consequent  misery  of  his  crea- 
tures may  be  traced  back  to  his  unequal  distribution  of  that  grace, 
which  he  was  not  bound  to  impart  to  any,  but  which,  although  he 
might  have  imparted  it  to  all,  he  chose  to  give  only  to  some. 

This  appears  to  me  the  fair  amount  of  the  objection  against  the 
Calvinistic  system,  drawn  from  its  apparent  inconsistency  with  some 
of  the  moral  attributes  of  the  Deity.  The  objection  is  stated  in  terms 
more  moderate  than  are  commonly  to  be  found  in  Arminian  books ; 
but  it  is  in  reality  the  stronger  for  not  being  exaggerated. 

When  this  objection  is  calmly  examined,  without  a  predilection  for 
any  particular  system  of  theology,  it  will  be  found  resolvable  into  that 
question,  which  has  exercised  the  mind  of  man  ever  since  he  began 
to  speculate,  how  was  moral  evil  introduced,  and  how  is  it  permitted 
to  exist  under  the  government  of  a  Being,  whose  wisdom,  and  pmver, 
and  goodness  are  without  bounds  ?  The  existence  of  moral  evil  is  a 
fact  independent  of  all  the  systems  of  philosophy  or  theology  which 


SYSTEMS    COMPARED.  563 

are  employed  to  account  for  it.  It  has  been  the  complaint  of  all  ages, 
that  many  of  the  rational  creatures  of  God  abuse  the  freedom  which 
is  essential  to  their  character  as  moral  and  accountable  agents,  debase 
their  nature,  and  pursue  a  line  of  conduct  which  is  destructive  of  their 
own  happiness  and  hurtful  to  their  neighbour.  And  it  is  agreeable  to 
both  reason  and  Scripture  to  believe,  that  the  depravity  and  misery 
which  are  beheld  upon  earth  are  the  introduction  to  a  state  of  more 
complete  degradation  and  more  unabated  wretchedness  hereafter. 
And  thus,  as  it  is  no  objection  to  the  truth  of  the  Gospel,  that  there  is 
moral  evil  in  the  world,  because  it  existed  before  the  Gospel  was 
given,  so  the  difficulty  of  accounting  for  its  existence  is  not  to  be 
charged  to  the  account  of  any  particular  system  of  theology,  because 
its  existence  is  the  great  problem,  to  the  solution  of  which  the  faculties 
of  man  have  ever  been  unequal.  Although,  notwithstanding  that 
difficulty,  the  proofs  of  the  being,  the  perfections,  and  the  gov^ernment 
of  God  appear  to  those  who  understand  the  principles  of  natural  reli- 
gion sufficient  to  remove  every  reasonable  doubt,  the  difficulty  still 
remains ;  and  a  sound  theist  believes  that  God  is  good,  without  being 
able  to  explain  why  there  is  evil  in  the  Avorld  Avhich  he  created. 

A  short  review  of  the  attempts  that  were  made  in  ancient  times  to 
solve  this  problem,  may  prepare  you  for  understanding  the  force  of 
the  answer  given  by  the  Calvinists  to  that  objection  against  their  sys- 
tem which  we  are  now  considering. 

Some  philosophers,  who  held  the  pre-existence  of  souls,  said  that 
man  in  this  state  expiates  by  suffering,  the  sins  which  he  committed 
in  a  former  state,  and  recovers  by  a  gradual  purification  the  perfec- 
tion of  his  nature  which  he  had  lost.  But,  besides  that  this  was 
assuming  as  true,  a  position  of  which  there  is  no  evidence,  that  man 
existed  in  a  previous  state,  the  position,  supposing  it  to  be  true,  is  of 
none  avail,  because  it  merely  shifts  the  difficulty  from  the  state  which 
ws  behold,  to  a  previous  state  which  was  equally  under  the  govern- 
ment of  God.  It  was  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  the  oriental  philoso- 
phy, that  there  are  two  opposite  principles  in  nature,  the  one  good, 
the  other  evil.  The  good  principle  is  limited  and  counteracted  in  his 
desire  to  communicate  happiness  by  the  evil  principle  ;  and,  from  the 
opposition  between  the  two,  there  arises  not  such  a  world  as  the  good 
would  have  produced,  but  a  world  in  which  virtue  and  vice,  happi- 
ness and  misery,  are  blended  together.  But  as  the  good  principle  is 
more  powerful  than  the  evil,  he  will  at  length  prevail ;  so  that  the 
final  result  of  the  present  strife  will  be  the  defeat  of  the  evil  principle, 
and  the  undisturbed  felicity  of  those  that  have  been  virtuous. 

All  the  sects  of  Gnostics,  which  distracted  the  early  ages  of  the 
Christian  church,  adopted  some  modification  of  this  doctrine,  and 
were  distinguished  from  one  another  only  by  the  rank  which  they 
assigned  to  the  evil  spirit,  by  the  manner  in  which  they  traced  his 
generation,  or  the  period  which  they  assigned  to  his  fall*     The  fame 

•  Mosheiin's  Church  History,  vol.  i.  The  learned  author  has  with  much  erudition,  dis- 
criminated the  different  sects.  But  he  has  entered  more  minutely  into  this  discrimination 
than  is  consistent  with  the  patience  of  his  readers,  or  than  can  serve  any  good  i>nrpose. 
For  it  is  a  matter  of  very  little  importance  in  what  manner  writers,  whose  names  arc  de- 
servedly forgotten,  arranged  the  rank  and  the  subordination  of  those  beings,  to  whom  their 
imagination  gave  existence. 


564  ARMINIAN    AND    CALVINISTIC 

of  Manes  eclipsed  all  the  other  founders  of  the  Gnostic  sects ;  and  his 
doctrine,  which  was  once  diffused  over  a  great  part  of  the  Christian 
world,  is  still  familiar  to  every  scholar  under  the  name  of  Manicheism. 
Manes  made  the  evil  principle,  which  he  called  v^,  matter,  co-eternal 
with  the  Supreme  Being.  To  the  power  of  this  principle,  indepen- 
dent of  God,  and  acting  in  opposition  to  him,  Manes  ascribed  all  the 
evil  that  now  is,  and  that  will  for  ever  continue  to  exist  in  the  world. 
He  considered  the  sins  of  men  as  proceeding  from  the  suggestions  and 
impulse  of  this  spirit ;  and  the  corruption  of  human  nature  as  consist- 
ing in  this,  that  besides  the  rational  soul,  which  is  an  emanation  from 
the  Supreme  Being  who  is  light,  the  body  is  inhabited  and  actuated 
by  a  depraved  mind  which  originates  from  the  evil  principle  and 
retains  the  character  of  its  author.  This  was  the  system  by  which 
Manes,  treading  in  the  steps  of  many  who  went  before  him,  and 
studying  to  improve  upon  their  defects,  attempted  to  account  for  the 
existence  of  moral  evil.  But  as  this  system,  in  order  to  preserve  the 
honour  of  the  moral  attributes  of  the  Deity,  admits  such  limitations  of 
liis  power  as  are  inconsistent  with  the  independence  and  sovereignty 
of  the  Lord  of  nature,  it  must  be  renounced  by  all  who  entertain  those 
exalted  conceptions  of  the  divine  majesty  which  are  agreeable  to  rea- 
son, and  illustrated  by  Scripture,  or  who  pay  due  attention  to  the 
revelation  given  in  Scripture,  of  those  evil  spirits  who  oppose  the  pur- 
poses of  divine  grace.  We  believe  that  the  Almighty  was  before  all 
things ;  that  every  thing  which  is,  derived  its  existence,  its  form,  and 
its  powers  from  his  will ;  that  his  councils  are  independent  of  every 
other  being  ;  that  the  strength  of  his  creatures,  all  of  whom  are  his 
servants,  cannot  for  a  moment  counteract  the  working  of  his  arm,  and 
that  the  world  is  what  he  willed  it  to  be.  We  learn  from  Scripture 
that  there  are  higher  orders  of  being,  not  the  objects  of  our  senses, 
who  are  the  creatures  of  God,  and  of  whom  an  innumerable  company 
run  to  fulfil  his  pleasure.  We  learn  that  some  of  these  beings,  fey 
disobeying  their  Creator,  forfeited  the  state  in  which  he  first  placed 
them ;  that  their  depravity  is  accompanied  with  a  desire  to  corrupt 
others ;  that  one  of  them  was  the  tempter  of  our  first  parents,  and 
that  he  still  continues  to  exert  an  influence  over  the  minds  of  their 
posterity,  by  enticing  them  to  sin.  But  the  Scriptures  guard  us 
against  supposing  that  this  evil  spirit  is  rendered  by  his  apostacy  in- 
dependent of  the  Supreme  Being.  For  by  many  striking  expressions 
in  the  ancient  books,  and  by  the  whole  series  of  facts  and  declarations 
in  the  New  Testament,  we  are  led  to  consider  him  as  entirely  under 
the  command  and  control  of  the  Creator,  permitted  to  exert  a  certain 
degree  of  influence  for  a  season,  but  restrained  and  counteracted 
during  that  season,  by  a  power  infinitely  superior  to  his  own,  till  the 
time  arrive  when  he  is  to  be  bound  in  everlasting  chains,  and  his 
works  destroyed. 

It  appears,  then,  that  the  account  of  the  origin  of  evil,  which  is 
characteristical  of  the  Manichean  system,  does  not  receive  any  degree 
of  countenance  from  that  revelation  of  the  invisible  world  which  the 
Scriptures  give.  There  is  indeed  mentioned  in  various  parts  of  Scrip- 
ture, incidentally  and  with  much  obscurity,  a  connection  between  us. 
and  other  parts  of  the  universe, — an  influence  exerted  over  the  hu- 


SYSTEMS    COMPARED.  565 

man  race  by  beings  far  removed  from  our  observation,  who  are  the 
creatures  and  the  subjects  of  Him  wlio  made  us.  The  spirits  who 
stand  before  the  Ahiiighty  are  sent  forth  to  minister  to  the  heirs  of 
salvation ;  and  the  spirits  who  rebehed  against  him  seek  to  involve 
us  in  the  guilt  and  the  misery  of  their  rebelhon.  This  incidental 
opening  suggests  to  our  minds  a  conception  of  the  unity  of  the  great 
moral  system,  of  the  mutual  subserviency  of  its  parts,  and  of  the 
multiplicity  of  those  relations  by  which  tlie  parts  are  bound  together; 
a  conception  somewhat  analogous  to  those  ideas  of  reciprocal  action 
in  the  immense  bodies  of  the  natural  system,  upon  which  the  received 
principles  of  astronomy  proceed,  and  which  the  progress  of  modern 
discoveries  has  very  much  confirmed.  Our  faculties  are  not  adequate 
to  the  full  comprehension  of  such  connexions,  either  in  the  natural 
or  in  the  moral  world.  But  the  hints  which  are  given  may  teach  us 
humility,  by  showing  how  much  remains  to  be  known :  they  may 
enlarge  and  elevate  our  ideas  of  the  magnificence  and  order  of  the 
work  of  God  ;  and  they  conspire  in  imprinting  on  our  minds  this  first 
lesson  of  religion,  that  every  part  of  that  work  is  his,  that  the  super- 
intendence and  control  of  the  Supreme  Mind  extends  throughout  the 
whole,  and  that  we  give  a  false  account  of  every  phenomenon  either 
in  the  natural  or  in  the  moral  world,  when  we  withdraw  it  from  the 
all-ruling  providence  of  Him,  without  whose  permission  nothing  can 
be,  and  whose  energy  pervades  all  the  exertions  of  his  creatures. 

If  we  say  that  moral  evil  exists  in  the  world,  because,  by  the  con- 
stitution under  which  we  live,  the  eflects  of  the  disobedience  of  our 
first  parents  are  transmitted  to  their  posterity,  we  explain,  agreeably 
to  the  information  afforded  in  Scripture,  the  manner  in  which  sin 
was  introduced,  but  we  do  not  account  for  its  introduction  ;  for  that 
constitution,  to  which  we  ascribe  its  continuance  in  the  world,  was 
established  by  God ;  and  after  we  have  been  made  to  ascend  this 
step,  we  are  left  just  where  we  Avere,  to  inquire  why  the  Almighty 
not  only  permitted  moral  evil  to  enter,  but  established  a  constitution 
by  which  it  is  propagated.  If  we  attempt,  as  has  often  been  done, 
to  account  for  moral  evil  by  the  necessary  limitation  in  the  capacities 
of  all  created  beings,  we  are  in  danger  of  returning  to  the  principles 
of  the  Gnostics,  who  ascribed  an  essential  pravity  to  matter,  which 
not  even  the  power  of  the  Almighty  can  subdue.  If  we  say  that 
moral  evil  is  subservient  to  the  good  of  the  universe,  we  seem  to  be 
warranted  by  many  analogies  in  the  structure  and  operations  of  our 
own  frame,  where  pain  is  a  preparative  for  pleasure, — in  the  appear- 
ances of  the  earth,  and  the  vicissitudes  to  which  it  is  subject,  where 
irregularity  and  deformity  contribute  to  the  beauty  and  preservation 
of  "the  whole, — in  society,  where  permanent  and  universal  good  often 
arises  out  of  partial  and  temporary  evil.  Such  analogies  have  often 
been  observed,  and  they  constitute  both  a  delightlul  and  an  useful 
part  of  natural  history  :*  but  when  we  attempt  to  apply  them  to  the 
system  of  the  universe,  as  an  account  of  that  evil  which  has  been, 
and  which  always  will  be,  which  affects  the  character  as  well  as  the 
happiness  of  rational  agents,  and  excludes  tiiem  from  the  hope  of 
recovering  that  rank  which  they  had  lost,  we  find  that  we  have  got 

*  Paley's  Natural  Theology.    Goodness  of  the  Deity. 

50 


566  ARMINIAN    AND    CALVINISTIC 

beyond  our  depth.  The  idea  may  be  just,  but  -we  are  bewildered  in 
the  inferences  which  we  presume  to  draw  from  it :  ahhough  we  per- 
ceive numberless  instances  in  which  partial  good  arises  out  of  partial 
evil,  yet  we  are  unable  to  explain  what  is  the  subserviency  to  good 
in  the  whole  system  of  that  evil  which  is  permanent ;  and  after  being 
pressed  with  difficulties  on  every  side,  we  are  obliged  to  confess  our 
ignorance  of  the  extent  and  the  relations  of  the  great  subject  con- 
cerning which  we  speculate. 

Having  seen  the  insufficiency  of  the  various  attempts  made  in  an- 
cient and  modern  times,  to  solve  the  great  problem  of  natural  religion, 
it  only  remains  for  us  to  rest  in  those  fundamental  principles  of  which 
we  have  sufficient  evidence.  We  know  that  God  is  wise  and  good, 
and  that  as  nothing  in  the  universe  has  power  to  defeat  or  counteract 
his  purposes,  all  things  that  are,  entered  into  the  great  plan  which 
he  formed  from  the  beginning.  Hence  we  infer  that  the  universe, 
understanding  by  that  word  the  whole  series  of  causes  and  eflects, 
and  the  whole  succession  of  created  beings,  is,  such  as  we  behold  it, 
the  work  of  God.  Why  it  is  not  more  perfect  we  know  not.  But 
from  the  single  fact  that  it  is,  we  infer  that  it  answers  the  purposes  of 
the  Creator.  He  did  not  choose  it  on  account  of  its  imperfections : 
but  these  imperfections  were  not  hidden  from  his  view,  nor  are  they 
independent  of  his  will ;  and  he  chose  it  out  of  all  the  possible  worlds 
which  he  might  have  made,  because,  with  all  its  imperfections,  it  pro- 
motes the  end  for  which  it  was  made.  That  end,  being  such  as  God 
proposed,  must  be  good  ;  and  the  world,  being  the  fittest  to  promote 
that  end,  must,  notwithstanding  its  imperfections,  be  such  as  it  was 
worthy  of  God  to  produce. 

It  does  not  appear  to  me  that  human  reason  can  go  farther  upon 
this  subject.  I  am  sensible  that  this  is  a  method  of  accounting  for  the 
existence  of  evil,  not  very  flattering  to  the  pride  of  our  understand- 
ings, and  not  much  fitted  to  affi^rd  a  solution  of  those  difficulties 
which  exercise  our  curiosity.  It  is  deducing  a  vindication  of  what 
is  done,  not  from  our  reasonings  and  views,  but  from  the  fact  that  it 
is  done.  But  to  this  kind  of  vindication  we  are  obliged  perpetually 
to  have  recourse  in  all  parts  both  of  natural  and  of  revealed  religion  ; 
and  to  those  who  consider  it  unsatisfying  I  can  give  no  better  counsel 
than  to  read  and  ponder  Bishop  Butler's  Analogy,  which,  of  all  the 
books  that  ever  were  written  by  men,  is  the  best  calculated  to  check 
the  extravagance  of  our  shallow  speculations  concerning  the  govern- 
ment of  God. 

When  I  stated  the  objection  to  the  Calvinistic  system,  that  it  is  in- 
consistent with  the  goodness  of  God,  the  objection  appeared  to  be 
resolvable  into  the  question  concerning  the  origin  of  evil ;  and  now 
that  we  have  attained  the  philosophical  answer  to  that  question,  we 
find  ourselves  brought  back  to  the  principles  of  Calvinism.  It  was 
objected  to  the  Calvinistic  system  that  if  God  withholds  from  some, 
the  special  grace  which  would  have  led  them  to  repentance,  their  sin 
and  misery  may  be  traced  back  to  him.  But  we  have  seen  that  all 
the  moral  evil  in  the  world  may  in  like  manner  be  traced  back  to 
God,  because  the  great  plan,  of  which  that  moral  evil  is  a  part, 
originated  from  his  counsel ;  so  that  the  answer  to  this  objection 


SYSTEMS    COMPARED.  5G7 

against  Calvinism  is  precisely  the  same  with  the  philosophical  answer 
to  the  question  concerning  moral  evil.  It  is  seen  that  some  do  not 
repent  and  believe ;  but  their  conduct,  like  every  other  event  in  the 
universe,  was  comprehended  in  the  divine  plan  ;  in  other  words, 
because  God  has  not  conferred  upon  them  that  grace  which  would 
have  led  them  to  pursue  a  different  conduct,  we  infer  that  it  was  not 
his  original  purpose  to  confer  that  grace,  and  we  believe  that  the  pur- 
pose is  good  because  it  is  his. 

The  Arminians  are  compelled  to  have  recourse  to  the  very  same 
answer,  although  they  attempt,  by  their  system,  to  shift  it  for  a  little. 
They  say  that  men  do  not  repent  and  believe,  because  they  resist  that 
grace  which  might  have  led  them  to  repentance  and  faith.  But  why 
do  they  resist  this  grace  ?  The  Arminians  answer,  that  the  resistance 
arises  from  the  self-determining  power  of  the  mind.  But  why  does 
one  mind  determine  itself  to  submit  to  this  grace  and  another  to  resist 
it?  If  the  Arminians  exclude  the  infallible  operation  of  every  foreign 
cause,  they  must  answer  this  question  by  ascribing  the  difference  to 
the  different  character  of  the  minds  ;  and  then  one  question  more 
brings  them  to  God,  the  Father  of  spirits.  For  if  these  different 
characters  of  mind  be  supposed  to  have  existed  independently  of  the 
divine  will,  a  sufficient  account  is  indeed  given  why  some  are  pre- 
destinated and  others  are  reprobated ;  but  it  is  an  account  which 
withdraws  the  everlasting  condition  of  his  reasonable  offspring  from 
the  disposal  of  the  Supreme  Being :  whereas  if  it  be  admitted  that  he 
who  made  them  gave  to  their  minds  the  qualities  by  which  they  are 
distinguished,  and  ordained  all  the  circumstances  of  their  lot  which 
conspire  in  forming  their  moral  character,  the  resistance  given  by 
some  is  referred  to  his  appointment.  It  appears  to  be  an  incontro- 
vertible truth,  a  truth  the  evidence  of  which  is  implied  in  the  terms  in 
which  it  is  enunciated,  that  the  gifts  of  nature  and  the  gifts  of  grace 
proceed  equally  from  the  good  pleasure  of  him  who  bestows  them  : 
and  if  this  fundamental  proposition  be  granted,  then  the  Calvinistic 
and  Arminian  systems  lead  ultimately  to  the  same  conclusion.  The 
Arminians  ascribe  the  faith  and  good  works  of  some  to  a  predisposi- 
tion in  their  own  minds  for  receiving  the  means  which  God  has  pro- 
vided for  all,  and  to  the  favourable  circumstances  which  cherish  this 
disposition  ;  and  the  impenitence  and  unbelief  of  others  to  the  obstinacy 
of  their  hearts,  and  to  a  concurrence  of  circumstances  by  which  that 
obstinacy  is  prevented  from  yielding  to  the  means  of  improvement. 
The  Calvinists  ascribe  the  faith  and  ffood  works  of  some  to  an  imme- 
diate  and  supernatural  operation  of  the  Spirit  of  God  upon  their  souls, 
by  which  the  means  of  improvement  are  rendered  effectual ;  and  the 
impenitence  and  unbelief  of  others  to  that  withholding  of  the  grace 
of  God,  by  which  the  most  favourable  situation  b(;comes  ineffectual 
for  leading  them  to  eternal  life.  In  either  case  that  God,  who  forms 
the  heart  and  who  orders  the  lot  of  all  his  creatures,  executes  his  pur- 
pose ;  and  although  the  steps  be  somewhat  different  in  the  two 
systems,  yet,  according  to  both,  the  ultima  ratio,  the  true  reason 
why  some  are  saved  and  others  are  not,  is  the  good  pleasure  of  Him 
who,  by  a  different  dispensation  of  the  gifts  of  nature  and  of  grace, 
might  have  saved  all. 

What  the  ends  are  which  God  proposed  to  himself,  by  saving  some 


568  ARMINIAN    AND    CALVINISTIC 

instead  of  saving  all,  we  are  totally  unqualified  to  explain.  Agree- 
ably to  the  expression  used  in  our  Confession  of  Faith,*  the  Cal- 
vinists  are  accustomed  to  say  that  the  great  end  of  the  whole  system 
is  the  glory  of  God,  or  the  illustration  of  his  attributes;  that  as  he 
displayed  his  mercy  by  saving  some  from  that  guilt  and  misery  in 
which  all  were  involved,  so  he  displays  his  justice  by  punishing 
others  for  that  sin,  in  which,  according  to  his  sovereign  pleasure,  he 
chose  to  leave  them.  Arminian  writers  are  accustomed  to  reprobate, 
with  much  indignation,  an  expression  which  appears  to  them  to 
represent  the  glory  of  God  as  a  separate  end,  pursued  by  him  for  his 
own  pleasure,  without  any  consideration  of  the  happiness  of  his 
creatures,  or  any  attention  to  their  ideas  of  justice.  But,  bearing  in 
mind  the  whole  character  of  the  Deity,  considering  that  He,  who  may 
do  what  he  will,  being  infinitely  wise  and  good,  can  do  nothing  but 
what  is  right,  it  is  obvious  that  his  glory  is  inseparably  connected 
with  the  happiness  of  his  creatures.  What  the  weakness  of  our 
understanding  leads  us  to  call  different  parts  of  a  character,  are  united 
with  the  most  indissoluble  harmony  in  the  divine  mind ;  and  his 
works,  which  illustrate  his  attributes,  do  not  display  any  one  of  them 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  obscure  the  rest.  From  this  perfect  harmony 
between  the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  God,  his  creatures  may  rest 
assured  that  every  circumstance  which  concerns  their  welfare  is 
effectually  provided  for  in  that  system  which  he  chose  to  produce; 
and  the  whole  universe  of  created  intelligence  could  have  chosen 
nothing  for  themselves  so  good,  as  that  which  is  ordained  to  be, 
because  it  illustrates  the  glory  of  the  Creator.  At  the  same  time,  it 
nnist  be  acknowledged,  that  we  do  not  make  any  advances  in  our 
acquaintance  with  the  ends  of  the  system  by  adopting  this  expression. 
The  expression  implies  that  there  is  a  balance  or  proportion  among 
the  different  attributes,  that  the  display  of  one  is  bounded  by  the  dis- 
play of  another,  and  that  there  are  certain  limits  of  every  particular 
attribute  implied  in  the  perfection  of  the  divine  mind.  But  it  leaves 
us  completely  ignorant  of  the  nature  of  those  limits,  and  it  does  not 
presume  to  explain  why  the  justice  of  God  required  the  condemnation 
of  that  precise  number  who  are  left  to  perish,  and  how  his  mercy 
was  fully  displayed  in  the  salvation  of  that  precise  number  who  are 
called  the  elect.  We  are  still  left  to  resolve  the  discrimination  which 
was  made,  and  the  extent  of  that  discrimination,  into  the  good  plea- 
sure of  God  ;  by  which  phrase  is  meant,  not  the  will  of  a  being  acting 
capriciously  for  his  own  gratification,  but  a  will  determined  by  the 
best  reasons,  although  these  reasons  are  beyond  our  comprehension  ; 
and  all  doubts  and  objections,  which  the  narrowness  of  our  views 
might  suggest,  are  lost  in  that  entire  confidence,  with  which  the  mag- 
nificence of  his  works  and  the  principles  of  our  nature  teach  us  to 
look  up  to  a  Being,  of  whom,  and  by  whom,  and  to  whom  are  all 
things. 

It  may  be  thought,  upon  a  superficial  view,  that  the  account  which 
has  been  given  of  the  origin  of  evil  represents  sin  as  not  less  agreea- 
ble to  the  Almighty  than  virtue,  since  both  enter  into  the  plan  which 
he  ordained,  and  both  are  considered  as  the  fulfilment  of  his  purpose. 

*  Confession  of  Faith,  iii.  3. 


SYSTEMS    COMPARED.  569 

This  specious  and  popular  objection  has  often  been  urged  with  an 
air  of  triumph  against  the  Calvinistic  system.     But  the  principles 
which  have  been  stated  furnish  an  answer  to  the  objection.     The 
evil  that  is  in  the  universe  was  not  chosen  by  God  upon'its  own  ac- 
count, but  was  permitted  upon  account  of  its  connexion  with  that 
good  which  he  chooses.     The  precise  notion  of  God's  permitting  evil 
is  this,  that  his  power  is  not  exerted  in  hindering  that  from  coming 
into  existence,  which  could  not  have  existed  independently  of  his  will, 
and  which  is  allowed  to  exist,  because,  although  not  in  itself  an  ob- 
ject of  his  approbation,  it  results  from  something  else.     According  to 
this  notion  of  the  permission  of  evil,  we  say  that  although  this  world, 
notwithstanding  the  evil  that  is  in  it,  promotes  the  end  which  the 
Creator  proposed,  and  carries  into  effect  the  purpose  which  he  had  in 
creating  it,  yet  he  beholds  the  good  that  is  in  the  world  with  appro- 
bation, and  the  evil  with  abhorrence.     We  gather  from  all  the  con- 
ceptions which  we  are  led  to  form  of  the  Supreme  Being  that  he  can- 
not love  evil :  we  feel  that  he  has  so  constituted  our  minds  that  we 
always  behold  moral  evil  with  indignation  in  others,  with  self-re- 
proach in  ourselves :  we  often  observe,  we  sometimes  experience  the 
fatal  effects  which  it  produces  ;  and  we  find  all  the  parts  of  that  reve- 
lation which  the  Scriptures  contain,  conspiring  to  dissuade  us  from 
the  practice  of  it.     In  this  entire  coincidence  between  the  deductions 
of  reason,  the  sentiments  of  human  nature,  the  influence  of  conduct 
upon  happiness,  and  the  declarations  of  the  divine  word,  there  is  laid 
such  a  foundation  of  morality  as  no  speculations  can  shake.     This 
coincidence  gives  that  direct  and  authoritative  intimation  of  the  will  of 
our  Creator,  which  was  plainly  intended  to  be  the  rule  of  our  actions  : 
and  the  assurance  of  the  moral  character  of  his  government,  which 
we  derive  from  these  sources,  is  so  forcibly  conveyed  to  our  under- 
standings and  our  hearts,  that  if  our  reasonings  upon  theological  sub- 
jects should  ever  appear  to  give  the  colour  of  truth  to  any  views  that 
are  opposite  to  this  assurance,  we  may,  without  hesitation,  conclude 
that  these  views  "are  false.     They  have  derived  their  colour  of  truth 
from  oar  presuming  to  carry  our  researches  farther  than  the  limited 
range  of  our  faculties  admits,  and  from  our  mistaking  those  difficul- 
ties which  are  unaccountable  to  an  intelligence  so  finite  as  ours,  for 
those  contradictions  which  indicate  to  every  intelligent  being  the 
falsehood  of  the  proposition  to  which  they  adhere. 

These  are  the  general  principles,  upon  which  the  ablest  defenders  of 
the  Calvinistic  system  attempt  to  vindicate  that  system  from  the  charge 
of  being  inconsistent  with  the  nature  of  man  and  the  nature  of  God.  As 
they  furnish  the  answer  to  philosophical  objections,  I  have  stated  them, 
as  much  as  possible,  in  a  philosophical  form,  with  very  little  reference 
to  the  authority  of  Scripture,  and  without  the  use  of  those  technical 
terms  which  occur  in  books  of  Theology.  But  it  is  not  proper  for  us  to 
rest  in  this  form.  To  afford  a  complete  view  of  the  evidence  and  of  the 
application  of  these  principles,  I  mean  first  to  present  a  comprehen- 
sive account  of  that  support  which  the  Calvinistic  system  derives  from 
Scripture  :  secondly,  to  give  a  general  history  of  Calvinism,  of  the  re- 
ception which  at  different  periods  it  has  met  with  in  the  Christian 
church,  and  of  what  may  be  called  its  present  state  : — and  then  to 
conclude  the  subject  by  applying  the  principles  which  have  been 
50*  4F 


570  ARMINIAN    AND    CALVINISTIC    SYSTEMS    COMPARED. 

Stated  as  an  answer  to  the  two  objections,  in  a  concise  discussion  of 
various  questions  that  have  agitated  the  Christian  church,  and  in  an 
expKcation  of  various  phrases  that  have  been  currently  vised  in  treat- 
ing of  these  questions.  The  questions  turn  upon  general  principles, 
so  that  although  they  have  been  spread  out  in  great  detail,  and  al- 
though they  seem  to  belong  to  different  subjects,  all  that  is  necessary 
in  discussing  them  is  to  show  the  manner  in  which  the  general  prin- 
ciples apply  to  the  particular  questions.  The  general  principles  will 
be  elucidated  by  this  various  application ;  and  we  shall  be  able,  after 
having  travelled  quickly  over  so  much  debateable  matter,  to  mark  the 
consistency  with  which  all  the  parts  of  the  Calvinistic  system  arise 
out  of  a  few  leading  ideas. 

Reid  on  the  Active  Powers. 

King  on  the  Origin  of  Evil. 

Clarke's  Demonstration  of  the  Being  and  Attributes  of  God. 

Whitby  on  the  Five  Points. 

Locke. 

Edwards  on  Free  Will. 

Butler's  Analogy. 


CALVINISTIC    SYSTEM.  571 


CHAPTER  X. 

GENERAL    VIEW    OP    THE    SUPPORT    WHICH    SCRIPTURE    GIVES    TO    THE 

CALVINISTIC    SYSTEM. 


The  passages  adduced  from  Scripture  by  the  friends  and  the  adver- 
saries of  this  system  are  so  numerous,  and  have  received  interpreta- 
tions so  widely  diiferent,  that  I  should  engage  in  an  endless  field  of 
controversy,  if  I  attempted  to  notice  particular  texts,  and  to  contrast 
in  every  instance  the  Arminian  and  the  Calvinistic  exposition  of 
them.  But  a  labour  so  tedious  and  fatiguing  is  really  unnecessary, 
for  the  same  principles,  upon  which  the  Calvinistic  exposition  of  one 
passage  proceeds,  apply  to  every  other.  Instead,  therefore,  of  repeat- 
ing the  same  leading  ideas  with  a  small  variation  of  form,  I  shall 
simply  mention  that  an  index  of  particular  texts  may  be  found  in  the 
proofs  annexed  to  several  chapters  of  the  Confession  of  Faith,  in  the 
quotations  that  are  made  in  every  ordinary  system  under  the  several 
heads  which  belong  to  the  doctrine  of  predestination,  and  in  those 
books  which  should  be  read  upon  the  subject.  And  I  shall  endeavour 
to  arrange  this  multifarious  matter  under  the  three  following  heads, 
which  appear  to  me  to  constitute  the  support  which  Scripture  gives 
to  the  Calvinistic  system.  1.  All  the  actions  of  men,  even  those 
which  the  Scripture  holds  forth  to  our  abhorrence,  are  represented  as 
being  comprehended  in  the  great  plan  of  divine  providence.  2.  The 
predestination  of  which  the  Scripture  speaks  is  ascribed  to  the  good 
pleasure  of  God.  3.  And  the  various  descriptions  of  that  change  of 
character,  by  which  men  are  prepared  for  eternal  life,  seem  intended 
to  magnify  the  power,  and  to  declare  the  efficacy  of  that  grace  by 
which  it  is  produced.  I  shall  then  state  the  answers  given  by  the 
Calyinists  to  that  objection  against  their  system  which  has  been 
drawn  from  the  commands,  the  counsels,  and  the  expostulations  of 
Scripture. 


Section  I. 

All  the  actions  of  men,  even  those  which  the  Scripture  holds  forth 
to  our  abhorrence,  are  represented  as  being  comprehended  in  the 
great  plan  of  divine  providence.  I  do  not  mean  merely  that  all  the 
actions  of  men  are  foreseen  by  God.  Of  this  the  predictions  in  Scrip- 
ture afford  evidence  which  even  the  Arminians  admit  to  be  incontro- 


272  SUPPORT    WHICH    SCRIPTURE    GIVES 

vertible.     But  I  mean  that  the  actions  of  men  are  foreseen  by  God 
not  as  events  independent  of  his  will,  but  as  originating  in  his  deter- 
mination, and  as  fulfilling  his  purpose.   By  many  sublime  expressions 
the   Scriptures   impress  our   minds  with  an   idea  of  the   universal 
sovereignty  of  God,  of  the  extent  and  efficacy  of  his  counsel,  and  of 
the  uncontrolled  operation  of  his  power  throughout  all  his  dominions. 
Even  those  beings  and  events,  that  appear  to  counteract  his  designs, 
are  represented  as  subject  to  his  will,  as  not  only  at  length  to  be 
subdued  by  him,  but  as  promoting,  while  they  operate,  the  end  for 
which  he  ordained  them. — Psal.  Ixxvi.  10. — Prov.  xvi.  4. — Is.  xlv.  7. 
— Lam.  iii.  37,  38.     Such  expressions  receive  a  striking  illustration 
from  many  of  the  histories  recorded  in  Scripture.     The  barbarity  of 
the  brethren  of  Joseph,  which  filled  their  minds  with  deep  remorse, 
was  intended  by  God  as  an  instrument  of  providing  a  settlement  for 
the  posterity  of  Abraham.   "  As  for  you,"  said  Joseph  to  his  brethren, 
Gen.  I.  20,  "  ye  thought  evil  against  me ;  but   God  meant  it  unto 
good,  to  bring  to  pass,  as  it  is  this  day,  to  save  much  people  alive.'' 
God  did  not  merely  turn  it  to  good  after  it  happened,  but  he  "meant 
it  unto  good."     The  obstinacy  of  Pharaoh,  in  refusing  to  let  the 
people  go  out  of  that  country  to  which  the  wickedness  of  the  sons  of 
Jacob  had  led  them,  was,  in  like  manner,  a  part  of  the  plan  of  divine 
providence;  for,  as  God  said  unto  Moses,  Exod.  x.  1,  2,  "  I  have 
hardened  his  heart,  and  the  heart  of  his  servants,  that  I  might  show 
these  my  signs  before  him  ;  and  that  thou  mayest  tell  in  the  ears  of 
thy  son,  and  of  thy  son's  son,  what  things  I  have  wrought^in  Egypt." 
''  I  have  hardened  his  heart,"  not  by  exerting  any  immediate  influence 
leading  him  to  sin,  but  by  disposing  matters  in  such  a  manner  that  he 
shall  not  consent ;  he  shall  suffer  for  his  obstinacy;  but  that  obstinacy 
is  appointed  by  me  to  give  an  opportunity  of  exhibiting  those  signs, 
which  shall  transmit  the  Law  of  Moses  to  future  ages  with  unques- 
tionable proofs  of  its  divine  original.     The  folly  of  the  princes,  whose 
territories  adjoined  to  the  wilderness,  in  refusing  the  children  of  Israel 
a  free  passage  when  they  went  out  of  Egypt,  the  combination  of  the 
kings  of  Canaan,  which  brought  destruction  upon  themselves,  and  the 
oppression  and  ravages  of  those  who  carried  Israel  into  captivity,  are 
all  held  forth  in  the  historical  and  prophetical  books  of  Scripture,  as 
proceeding  from  the  ordination  of  God.     Of  Cyrus  the  good  prince, 
whose  edict  recalled  the  Jews  from  captivity,  the  Almighty  says.  Is. 
xliv.  xlv.  "He  is  my  shepherd,  and  shall  perform  all  my  pleasure,  even 
saying  to  Jerusalem,  thou  shalt  be  built ;  mine  anointed,  whose  right 
hand  I  have  holden ;  whom,  for  Jacob  my  servant's  sake,  I  have 
called  by  his  name."     But  of  Nebuchadnezzer  also,  the  destroyer  of 
nations,  whose  pride  is  painted  in  the  strongest  colours,  and  whose 
punishment  corresponded  to  the  enormity  of  his  crimes,  thus  saith  the 
Almighty,  Jer.  xxvii.  4 — 8,  "  I  have  made  the  earth,  and  have  given 
it  unto  whom  it  seemed  meet  unto  me  :  and  now  have  I  given  all 
these  lands  into  the  hand  of  Nebuchadnezzer  the  king  of  Babylon  my 
servant."     And  again,  Ezek.  xxx.  24,  25,  "  I  will  strengthen  the 
arms  of  the  king  of  Babylon,  and  put  my  sword  in  his  hand, — and  he 
shall  stretch  it  out  upon  the  land  of  Egypt." 

The  infidelity  of  the  Jews  who  lived  in  our  Saviour's  time,  the 
envy  and  malice  of  their  rulers,  and  the  injustice  and  violence  with 


TO    THE    CALVINISTIC    SYSTEM.  573 

which  an  innocent  man  was  condemned  to  die,  Avere  crimes  in  them- 
selves most  atrocious,  and  are  declared  in  Scripture  to  have  been  the 
cause  of  that  unexampled  misery  which  the  Jewish  nation  suffered. 
Yet  all  this  is  also  declared,  Acts  ii.  23,  to  have  happened,  "  by  the 
determinate  counsel  and  foreknowledge  of  God."  And  Acts  iv.  27, 
<'  Both  Herod  and  Pontius  Pilate,  with  the  gentiles  and  the  people  of 
Israel,  were  gathered  together  to  do  whatsoever  thy  hand  and  thy 
counsel  determined  before  to  be  done."  And  Peter,  after  relating  the 
manner  in  which  our  Lord  was  put  to  death,  adds  the  following 
words.  Acts  iii.  18  :  "  Those  things  which  God  before  had  showed  by 
the  mouth  of  all  his  prophets  that  Christ  should  suffer,  he  hath  so 
fulfilled ;"  i.  e.  the  purpose  of  God  in  delivering  the  world  embraced 
all  the  wicked  actions  of  the  persecutors  of  his  Son,  and  could  not 
have  been  accomplished  in  the  manner  which  he  had  foretold  with- 
out these  actions.  Hence  it  came  to  be  necessary  that  these  actions 
should  be  performed  :  and  this  necessity  is  intimated  as  in  many  other 
places  of  Scripture,  so  particularly  Matth.  xvi.  21.  "  Jesus  began  to 
show  unto  his  disciples  how  that  he  must  go  unto  Jerusalem,  and 
suffer  many  things  of  the  elders,  and  chief  priests,  and  scribes,  and 
be  killed  and  be  raised  again  the  third  day."  In  the  original,  the 
same  verb  5«  governs  the  infinitives  a.rii%BBiv,  TtaOiw,  artoxtavet^vai,  tyf^erjiui,; 
i.  e.  the  form  of  the  expression  represents  his  going  to  Jerusalem, 
which  was  an  action  depending  upon  his  own  will,  and  his  suflering 
many  things  of  the  chief  priests,  which  depended  upon  their  will,  as 
being  as  unalterably  fixed,  and  as  having  the  same  necessity  of  event 
as  his  resiu-rection  from  the  dead,  which  was  accomplished  by  an  ex- 
ertion of  divine  power  without  the  intervention  of  man. 

This  last  example  is  more  particular  and  more  interesting  to  us 
than  any  of  the  former  :  but  it  is  exactly  of  the  same  order  with  the 
rest ;  and  all  of  them  conspire  in  establishing  the  following  positions: 
— that  actions,  contrary  to  the  law  of  God,  and  to  the  principles  of 
morality,  may  form  part  of  that  plan  originally  fixed  and  determined 
in  the  divine  mind ; — that  these  actions  do  not  lose  any  of  their  moral 
turpitude  by  being  so  determined,  but  continue  to  be  the  actions  of 
the  moral  agents  by  whom  they  are  performed,  for  which  they  de- 
serve blame  and  suffer  punishment ; — and  that  actions  thus  wicked 
and  punishable  are  made  the  instrument  of  great  good.  When  we 
find  these  positions  true  in  many  particular  instances,  and  also  agree- 
ing with  general  expressions  in  Scripture,  we  conclude  by  fair  induc- 
tion that  they  may  hold  true  in  the  great  system  of  the  universe  ,•  and 
we  seem  to  be  warranted  to  say,  not  merely  that  the  providence  of 
God  brings  good  out  of  evil  when  the  evil  happens ; — that  is  allowed 
by  the  Socinians  who  deny  the  divine  foreknowledge ; — not  merely 
that  God,  foreseeing  wicked  actions  Avhich  were  to  be  performed, 
connected  them  in  the  plan  of  his  providence  with  the  events  which 
he  had  determined  to  produce  ; — this  is  what  the  Arminians  say  ; — 
but  that  the  Supreme  Being,  to  whom  the  series  of  events,  of  good 
and  of  bad  actions  that  constitute  the  character  of  this  \vorld,  was 
from  the  beginning  present,  determined  to  produce  this  world  ;  that 
the  bad,  no  less  than  the  good  actions  result  from  his  determination, 
and  contribute  to  the  prosperity  of  the  whole  ;  and  yet  that  the  liberty 
of  moral  agents  not  being  in  the  least  affected  by  this  determination, 


574  SUPPORT    WHICH    SCRIPTURE    GIVES 

they  deserve  praise  or  blame  in  the  same  mamier  as  if  their  actions 
had  not  been  predetermined.  But  these  are  some  of  the  fundamental 
principles  of  Calvinism ;  and  if  the  Scripture,  both  by  general  ex- 
pressions, and  by  instances  illustrating  and  exemplifying  such  expres- 
sions, gives  its  sanction  to  these  principles,  we  have  found  a  consider- 
able support  which  the  Calvinistic  system  derives  from  Scripture. 


Section  II. 

The  predestination,  of  which  the  Scripture  speaks,  is  ascribed  to 
the  good  pleasure  of  God. 

There  does  not  occur  in  the  Greek  Testament  any  substantive  word 
equivalent  to  predestination.  But  the  verb  rt^oogtfu,  prssdestino,  is 
used  in  diiferent  places ;  rt^o^sotj,  txxoyrj,  ixxextoi,  also  occur  ;*  and  there 
does  not  appear  to  be  any  unwarrantable  departure  from  the  style  of 
the  New  Testament  in  the  language  commonly  used  upon  this  sub- 
ject. But  it  is  not  agreed,  and  it  is  not  incontrovertibly  clear,  whether 
the  sacred  writers  employed  the  words  upon  which  this  language  has 
been  framed,  in  the  sense  affixed  to  it  by  the  Calvinists.  There  are 
two  systems  upon  this  point ;  and  as  these  systems  extend  their  in- 
fluence to  the  interpretation  of  a  great  part  of  Scripture,  it  is  proper 
to  state  distinctly  the  grounds  upon  which  they  rest. 

The  system  by  which  all  those,  who  do  not  hold  the  Calvinistic 
tenets,  expound  that  predestination  of  which  the  Scripture  speaks,  is 
of  the  following  kind.  It  appears  from  Scripture  that  God  was  pleased 
very  early  to  make  a  discrimination  amongst  the  children  of  Adam,  as 
to  the  measure  in  which  he  imparted  to  them  religious  knowledge. 
The  family  of  Abraham  were  selected  amidst  abounding  idolatry  to 
be  the  depositories  of  faith  in  one  God,  and  of  the  hope  of  a  Mes- 
siah :  and  they  are  presented  to  us  in  Scripture  under  the  characters 
of  the  church,  the  peculiar  people,  the  children  of  God.  But  the  Old 
Testament  contains  many  hints,  which  are  fully  unfolded  in  the  New, 
of  a  purpose  to  extend  the  bounds  of  the  church,  and  to  admit  men 
of  all  nations  into  that  relation  with  the  Supreme  Being,  which  for 
many  ages  was  the  portion  of  the  posterity  of  Abraham.  This  pur- 
pose, formed  in  the  divine  mind  from  the  beginning,  began  to  be  exe- 
cuted when  the  apostles-  of  Jesus  went  forth  preaching  the  gospel  to 
every  creature.  It  was  a  purpose  so  different  from  the  prejudices  in 
which  they  had  been  educated,  and  it  appeared  to  their  own  minds 
so  magnificent,  so  interesting  and  delightful,  (after  they  were  enabled 
to  comprehend  it,)  that  it  occupies  a  considerable  place  in  all  their 
discourses  and  writings.  It  made  a  blessed  change  upon  the  moral 
and  religious  condition  of  the  persons  to  whom  these  discourses  and 
writings  were  generally  addressed.  For  all  former  communications 
from  heaven  had  been  confined  to  the  land  of  Judea ;  and  the  other 
nations  of  the  earth,  having  been  educated  in  idolatry,  had  no  here- 
ditary title  to  the  privileges  of  the  people  of  God.  But  the  execution 
of  that  purpose  declared  in  the  gospel  placed  them  upon  a  level  with 

*  Ephes.  i.     Rom.  ix.  xi.     I  Pet.  i.  1. 


TO    THE  CALVINISTIC    SYSTEM.  575 

the  chosen  race.  Accord higly  Paul,  the  apostle  of  the  gentiles,  in 
many  of  his  epistles,  addresses  the  whole  body  of  professing  Chris- 
tians to  whom  he  writes,  as  elect,  saints,  predestinated  to  the  adop- 
tion of  children;  and  magnifies  the  purpose,  or  as  he  often  calls  it, 
the  mystery,  which  in  other  ages  was  not  made  known,  but  had  been 
revealed  to  him,  and  was  published  to  all,  that  *» «««»?,  the  gentiles, 
who  were  aliens  from  the  commonwealth  of  Israel,  were  called  to  be 
fellow-citizens  with  the  saints,  and  of  the  household  of  faith.  Eph. 
iii.  3 — 7.  By  contrasting  the  enormity  of  the  vices  which  had  been 
habitual  to  them  while  they  lived  in  idolatry,  with  the  spiritual  bless- 
ings, or  the  advantages  for  improving  in  virtue  and  attaining  eternal 
life,  which  they  enjoyed  through  the  gospel,  he  cherishes  their  thank- 
fulness to  God  for  his  unmerited  grace  in  pardoning  their  past  trans- 
gressions, and  he  excites  them  to  the  practice  of  those  virtues  which 
became  their  new  faith.  When  we  employ  this  leading  idea  of  all 
the  epistles  of  Paul  as  a  key  to  the  meaning  of  particular  passages 
which  are  much  quoted  in  support  of  the  Calvinistic  system,  the  pre- 
destination of  which  he  speaks,  appears  to  be  nothing  more  than  the 
purpose  of  placing  the  inhabitants  of  all  countries  where  the  gospel 
is  preached  in  the  same  favourable  circumstances  with  respect  to  re- 
ligion as  the  Jews  were  of  old :  the  elect  are  the  persons  chosen  out 
of  the  world,  and  called  to  the  knowledge  of  the  gospel ;  and  the 
spiritual  blessings,  which  the  apostle  represents  as  common  to  all  the 
members  of  the  Christian  societies  whom  he  addresses,  are  the  ad- 
vantages flowing  from  that  knowledge. 

It  is  allowed  that  predestination,  even  in  this  sense,  originates  in 
the  good  pleasure  of  God.  As  he  chose  the  posterity  of  Abraham, 
not  because  they  were  more  mighty  or  more  virtuous  than  other 
nations,  but  because  he  loved  their  fathers,  so  he  dispenses  to  whom- 
soever he  will,  the  inestimable  blessings  connected  with  the  publica- 
tion of  the  Gospel.  To  nations  who  had  been  the  most  corrupt  this 
saving  light  was  sent ;  to  individuals  whose  attainments  did  not  seem 
to  prepare  them  for  this  heavenly  knowledge  the  Spirit  revealed  those 
"  things  that  are  freely  given  to  us  of  God  ;"  and  our  Lord  has  taught 
us,  that  instead  of  presuming  to  complain  of  that  revelation,  which 
the  Almighty  was  not  bound  to  give  to  any,  having  been  sent  to  some 
parts  of  the  world  and  not  to  others,  it  is  our  wisdom  and  our  duty 
to  acquiesce  in  the  sovereignty  of  the  divine  administration,  and  to 
say  with  him,  Matth.  xi.  25,  26,  "  Even  so.  Father,  for  so  it  seemed 
good  in  thy  sight." 

But  although  those,  who  admit  of  predestination  only  in  this  sense, 
acknowledge  that  it  originates  in  the  good  pleasure  of  God,  yet  they 
do  not  consider  this  acknowledgment  as  giving  any  countenance  to 
the  Calvinistic  system.  They  say  that  we  are  not  warranted  to 
record  expressions,  which  originally  marked  a  purpose  of  sending  the 
blessings  of  the  Gospel  to  all  countries,  as  implying  a  purpose  of  con- 
fining eternal  life  to  some  individuals  in  all  countries;  and  that 
although  the  Sovereign  of  the  universe  is  accountable  to  none  in  dis- 
pensing the  knowledge  of  the  Gospel,  any  more  than  in  dispensing 
the  measures  of  skill,  sagacity,  or  bodily  strength,  by  which  indi- 
viduals are  distinguished,  because  in  the  end  he  will  render  to  all 
men  according  to  their  improvement  of  the  advantages  which  they 


576  SUPPORT    WHICH    SCRIPTURE    GIVES 

enjoy,  yet  it  does  not  follow  that  it  is  consistent  with  the  impartiality 
and  universal  beneficence  of  our  Father  in  heaven  to  make  such  a 
distinction  in  conferring  inward  grace,  as  shall  certainly  conduct  some 
of  his  creatures  to  everlasting  happiness,  whilst  others  are  left  without 
remedy  to  perish  in  their  sins. 

The  system  of  interpretation  which  I  have  now  explained  has  been 
adopted  and  defended  by  very  able  men ;  by  Whitby,  the  author  of 
the  commentary  upon  the  New  TestamerTt ;  by  Dr.  Clarke,  whose 
sermons  discover  more  knowledge  of  Scripture  than  any  other  ser- 
mons that  have  been  printed  ;  and  by  Taylor  of  Norwich,  author  of 
a  Key  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  who,  in  a  long  introductory 
essay,  has  unfolded  the  ideas  now  stated,  and  made  various  use  of 
them.  The  system  is  extremely  plausible.  It  draws  an  interpreta- 
tion of  epistles,  letters  to  different  churches,  from  the  known  situation 
of  these  churches,  and  from  the  known  ideas  of  the  writer ;  and  by 
considering  particular  passages  in  connexion  with  the  scope  of  the 
epistle,  it  gives  an  explication  of  them,  which,  in  general,  is  most 
rational  and  satisfying.  The  light,  which  every  one  who  has  lectured 
upon  an  epistle  can  communicate  to  the  people  by  the  application  of 
this  system,  is  so  pleasing  to  himself,  and  so  instructive  to  them,  that 
he  is  apt  to  be  confirmed  in  thinking  it  the  fidl  interpretation  of  the 
writer's  meaning.  And  I  have  no  difficulty  in  saying,  that  if  the 
Calvinistic  doctrine  derived  no  other  support  from  Scripture  than  that 
which  can  fairly  be  drawn  from  our  finding  the  words  predestination, 
elect,  and  other  similar  words  frequently  recurring  in  the  epistles,  it 
might  seem  to  an  intelligent  inquirer  and  a  sound  critic,  that  that 
doctrine  had  arisen  rather  by  detaching  particular  texts  from  the  con- 
texts, and  applying  them  in  a  sense  which  did  not  enter  into  the  mind 
of  the  sacred  writers,  than  by  forming  an  enlarged  comprehension  of 
their  views. 

But  after  paying  this  just  tribute  to  the  system  which  I  have  ex- 
plained, and  after  admitting  that  more  stress  is  laid  upon  some  par- 
ticular texts,  which  are  commonly  quoted  as  Scripture  authority  for 
the  Calvinistic  doctrine,  than  they  can  well  bear,  I  proceed  to  state 
fully  the  grounds  of  the  other  system  of  interpretation,  according  to 
which  there  is  mention  made  in  Scripture  of  a  predestination  of  indi- 
viduals arising  from  the  mere  good  pleasure  of  God :  and  I  entertain 
no  doubt  that  the  observations  now  to  be  made  will  appear  sufficient 
to  warrant  the  Calvinists  in  saying,  that  they  do  not  pervert  Scripture, 
when  they  pretend  to  find  a  general  language  pervading  many  parts 
of  it  which  evidently  favours  their  doctrine. 

1.  The  former  interpretation  proceeded  upon  this  ground,  that  the 
epistles  are  addressed  to  Christian  societies,  all  the  members  of  which 
enjoyed  in  common  the  advantages  of  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel, 
but  all  the  members  of  which  cannot  be  supposed  to  have  been  in  the 
number  of  those  who  shall  finally  be  saved ;  and  hence  it  is  inferred, 
that  such  expressions  as  occur  in  the  beginning  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Ephesians,  mean  nothing  more  than  that  change  upon  their  condition, 
that  external  advantage  common  to  the  whole  society,  which  God, 
in  execution  of  the  purpose  formed  by  him  from  the  beginning,  had, 
through  the  publication  of  the  Gospel,  conferred  upon  all.  Admitting 
that  many  of  the  persons  addressed  as  saints  and  elect  shall  not  finally 


TO    THE    CALVINISTIC    SYSTEM.  577 

be  saved,  still  these  words  imply  something  more  than  a  change  upon 
the  outward  condition ;  and  there  is  no  necessity  for  our  departing  so 
far  from  their  natural  and  obvious  meaning,  as  to  bring  it  down  to 
mere  external  advantage,  because  the  apostle  was  not  warranted  to 
make  a  distinction  between  those  who  are  predestinated  to  life,  and 
those  who  are  left  to  perish  in  their  sins.  This  distinction  is  one  of 
those  secret  things  which  belong  to  the  Lord,  and  which  he  has  not 
intrusted  to  his  ministers.  They  are  bound  in  charity  to  believe,  that 
all  to  whom  the  external  blessings  are  imparted,  and  who  appear  to 
improve  them  with  thankfulness,  receive  also  that  inward  grace  by 
which  these  blessings  are  made  effectual  to  salvation ;  and  they  have 
no  title  to  separate  any  persons  from  the  society  of  the  faithful,  but 
those  who  have  been  guilty  of  open  and  flagrant  transgressions. 
Such  persons  the  apostle  frequently  marks  out  in  his  epistles ;  and 
he  warns  the  Christians  against  holding  intercourse  with  them ;  but  to 
all  who  remained  in  the  society,  he  sends  his  benediction,  and  of  all 
of  them  he  hoped  things  that  accompany  salvation. 

2.  Although  many  passages  in  the  epistles,  which  speak  of  predes- 
tination and  of  the  elect,  might  seem  to  receive  their#full  interpreta- 
tion from  the  purpose  of  God  to  call  other  nations  besides  the  Jews  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  Gospel,  yet  there  are  places  in  the  epistles  of 
Paul,  which  intimate  that  he  had  a  further  meaning.  Of  this  kind  is 
the  ninth  chapter  to  the  Romans,  and  a  part  of  the  eleventh ;  two 
passages  of  Scripture  which  give  the  greatest  trouble  to  those  who 
deny  the  truth  of  the  Calvinistic  doctrine,  which  have  received  a  long 
commentary  from  Arminius  himself,  and  from  many  Arminian  writers, 
but  which,  after  all  the  attempts  that  have  been  made  to  accommodate 
them  to  their  system,  are  fitted,  in  my  opinion,  to  leave  upon  the 
mind  of  every  candid  reader,  an  indelible  impression  that  this  system 
does  not  come  up  to  the  mind  of  the  apostle.  The  ninth  chapter  to 
the  Romans  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  passages  in  Scripture ;  and  I 
am  far  from  saying  that  the  Calvinistic  system  makes  it  plain.  There 
is  an  obscurity  and  extent  in  the  subject  which  is  beyond  the  reach 
of  our  faculties,  and  which  represses  our  presumptuous  attempts  to 
penetrate  the  counsels  of  the  Almighty.  But  after  reading  that  chap- 
ter, and  the  eleventh,  with  due  care  in  the  original,  the  amount  of 
them,  it  will  probably  be  thought,  may  be  thus  stated.  God  chose 
the  posterity  of  Abraham  out  of  all  the  families  of  the  earth.  He 
made  a  distinction  in  the  posterity  of  the  patriarch,  by  confining  to 
the  seed  of  Isaac  the  blessings  which  he  had  promised  ;  of  the  twin 
sons  of  Isaac,  Esau  and  Jacob,  he  declared  before  they  were  born, 
that  he  preferred  the  younger  to  the  elder,  and  rejecting  Esau  he 
transmitted  the  blessing  through  the  children  of  Jacob.  In  all  these 
limitations  God  exercised  his  sovereignty,  and  executed  his  own  pur- 
pose according  to  the  election  of  grace ;  and  he  made  still  a  further 
limitation  with  regard  to  the  children  of  Jacob.  For  all  they  who 
are  descended  from  the  patriarch,  according  to  the  flesh,  are  not  the 
children  of  promise  ;  all  who  are  of  Israel  are  not  truly  Israel,  or 
the  people  of  God.  The  calling  of  the  nation  of  Israel  is,  indeed, 
without  repentance  ;  and,  therefore,  Israel  as  a  nation,  shall  yet  be 
gathered;  but  many  individuals  who  belong  to  that  nation  shall 
perish.  "  Israel,"  as  the  apostle  speaks,  understanding  by  that  word 
51  4G 


578  SUPPORT    WHICH    SCRIPTURE    GIVES 

all  the  descendants  of  Jacob,  "  hath  not  obtained  that  which  he  seeketh 
for ;  but  the  election  hath  obtained  it,"  i.  e.  those  who  are  elected 
have  obtained  it ;  a  remnant  is  saved,  while  the  rest  were  blinded ; 
and  in  place  of  that  great  body  of  Israelites,  who  thus  appear  by  the 
event  not  to  have  been  elected,  God  hath  called  a  people  which  before 
were  not  his  people ;  he  is  made  manifest  by  the  Gospel  to  them  that 
asked  not  after  him,  and  through  the  fall  of  a  great  part  of  Israel, 
salvation  is  come  to  the  Gentiles. 

To  all  the  objections  which  human  reason  can  suggest  against  this 
dispensation,  the  answer  made  by  the  apostle  is  conveyed  in  this 
question,  "  who  art  thou  that  repliest  against  God?"  He  represents 
by  a  striking  similitude,  the  condition  of  the  creatures  as  entirely  at 
the  disposal  of  him  who  made  them :  and  he  concludes  all  his  reasoning 
in  these  words,  Rom.  xi.  33 — 36,  "  0  the  depth  of  the  riches  both  of 
the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God  !  how  unsearchable  are  his  judg- 
ments, and  his  ways  past  finding  out !  For  who  hath  known  the  mind 
of  the  Lord,  or  who  hath  been  his  counsellor?  Or  who  hath  first 
given  to  him,  and  it  shall  be  recompensed  unto  him  again  ?  For  of 
him,  and  through  him,  and  to  him,  are  all  things  ;  to  whom  be  glory 
for  ever,  Amen."  In  these  verses,  the  very  principles  which  are  the 
foundation  of  Calvinism  are  laid  down  by  an  inspired  apostle,  and 
applied  by  him  to  account  for  this  fact,  that  of  a  nation,  who  are 
chosen  by  God,  many  individuals  perish  ;  and  the  account  which 
they  furnish  is  this,  that  under  the  declared  purpose  of  calling  the 
whole  nation  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  there  was  a  secret  pur- 
pose respecting  individuals,  which  secret  purpose  stands  in  the  salva- 
tion of  some  and  the  destruction  of  others  ;  while  the  declared  purpose 
stands  also  respecting  the  whole  nation.  If  these  principles  apply  to 
the  peculiar  people  of  God  under  the  Mosaic  dispensation,  they  may 
be  applied  also  to  Christians,  who,  by  enjoying  the  gospel,  come  in 
place  of  that  peculiar  people,  and  are  so  designed  in  Scripture :  and 
the  apostle  seems  to  teach  us  by  his  reasoning  with  regard  to  Israel, 
that  we  have  not  attained  his  full  meaning,  when  we  interpret  what 
he  says  concerning  the  predestination  of  Christians  merely  of  those 
outward  privileges,  which  being  common  to  all  are  abused  by  many  ; 
but  that  with  regard  to  them,  as  with  regard  to  Israel,  there  is  a  pur- 
pose of  election  according  to  grace  which  shall  stand,  because  they 
who  are  elected  shall  obtain  the  end  which  all  profess  to  seek,  while 
the  rest  are  blinded.  According  to  this  method  of  interpreting  these 
two  chapters,  we  learn  from  the  apostle  that  there  is  the  same 
sovereignty, — the  same  exercise  of  the  good  pleasure  of  God  in  the 
election  of  individuals  as  in  the  illumination  of  nations,  that  both  are 
accounted  for  upon  the  same  principles,  and  that  with  respect  to  both, 
God  silences  all  who  say  that  there  is  unrighteousness  in  him  by  that 
declaration,  which  he  employed  when  he  conferred  a  signal  mark  of 
his  favour  upon  Moses,  "  I  will  have  mercy  upon  whom  I  will  have 
mercy,  and  I  will  have  compassion  upon  whom  I  will  have  com- 
passion." 

3.  There  are  passages  both  in  the  Epistles  and  in  other  parts  of 
Scripture,  which  appear  to  declare  the  election  of  some  individuals 
and  the  reprobation  of  others,  without  any  regard  to  the  nations  to 
which  they  belong.     I   do  not  mean  that  there  are  passages  of  this 


TO    THE    CALVINISTIC   SYSTEM.  579 

kind,  the  application  of  which  in  support  of  the  Calvinistic  system  has 
not  been  controverted;  for  upon  a  subject  which  the  Scriptures  have 
left  involved  in  much  obscurity,  and  upon  which  they  have  chosen 
rather  to  furnish  incidental  hints  than  a  complete  delineation,  it  is 
easy  for  ingenious  men  to  give  a  plausible  exposition  of  particular 
texts,  so  as  to  accommodate  them  to  their  own  system,  I  do  not  con- 
sider that  all  the  texts  which  are  quoted  in  support  of  the  Calvinistic 
system  admit,  according  to  the  rules  of  sound  and  fair  criticism,  of  that 
interpretation  which  is  adopted  by  those  who  quote  them :  nor  do  I 
mean  to  hold  forth  as  insignificant  the  objections  made  to  the  Calvin- 
istic interpretation  of  the  texts  which  I  arn  now  to  mention.  But  I 
arrange  them  under  this  third  head,  because  it  appears  to  me  that  the 
interpretation  connected  with  that  arrangement  is  the  most  natural, 
and  that  when  taken  in  conjunction  with  the  other  support  which  the 
Calvinistic  system  derives  from  Scripture,  they  contain  an  argument 
of  real  weight. 

1.  Our  Lord  calls  the  Christians  sx\ixtoi,  Matth.  xxiv.  22,  24,  and 
Luke  xviii.  7,  when  this  name  does  not  seem  to  have  any  reference 
to  the  purpose  of  calling  the  Gentiles,  or  to  the  election  of  his  apos- 
tles to  their  office.  The  name  is  given  to  those  Jews  who  had 
embraced  the  gospel  before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem.  They  were 
distinguished  from  their  countrymen  by  their  faith  in  Christ ;  and  on 
account  of  this  distinction  were  permitted  to  escape  that  destruction 
which  overtook  all  the  rest  of  their  nation.  Now  the  faith  of  these 
Christian  Jews  is  represented  by  the  name  sxXBxifov,  a  word  which  here 
can  have  no  reference  to  the  distinction  between  Jews  and  Gentildfe, 
but  seems  employed  on  purpose  to  remind  them  that  their  faith  flowed, 
not  from  any  exertion  of  their  own,  but  from  the  good  pleasure  and 
appointment  of  God,  who  chose  them  out  from  amongst  their  coun- 
trymen. 

2.  Our  Lord  comprehends  his  true  disciples,  all  who  are  to  be  saved 
by  him,  under  this  general  expression,  John  vi.  37,  39,nav 6 SsBo^xs  or 
StScddt  ^01  o  rtafj;^.  He  applies,  indeed,  in  John  xvii.  the  phrase  oij  SsSoixa^ 
jwot,  to  all  the  twelve  apostles,  not  excluding  Judas ;  so  that  their 
being  given  him  by  God  means  nothing  more  in  that  place  than  the 

phrase  used    John  XV.   16,  ovx  vy-ei^s  ^s    c^eXs^aUdi,  iX-k'' syoi    vaas   c^iXc^aufjv ', 

their  designation  and  election  to  the  office  of  Apostles,  without  any 
respect  to  their  personal  character  or  to  their  own  salvation.  But 
when  the  two  chapters  are  compared,  it  is  instantly  perceived  that 
the  same  phrase  is  used  in  different  senses ;  because  it  is  said,  John 
vi.  39,  "  this  is  the  Father's  will,  that  of  all  which  he  hath  given  me 
I  should  lose  nothing ;"  whereas  it  is  said,  John  xvii.  12,  "  those  that 
thou  gavest  me  I  have  kept,  and  none  of  them  is  lost,  but  the  son  of 
perdition."  Our  Lord's  expression  in  chap.  vi.  being  thus  clearly 
discriminated  from  the  similar  expression  in  chap.  xvii.  seems  to  im- 
ply that  the  infallible  salvation  of  all  true  Christians  arise,  from  the 
destination  of  God. 

3.  Acts    viii.    48.     Kk'   tftoatsvsav  bsoi,  rjiav    'tstayju-fvoi.    tcy  ^iorjv  aiuviov.       All 

who  oppose  the  Calvinistic  system  understand  tctayuivoi  to  mean  no- 
thing more  than  the  English  word  disposed,  /.  e.  persons  who  had 
prepared  themselves,  who  were  qualified  by  the  disposition  of  their 
minds  for  eternal  hfe.     But  this  use  of  the  word  is  neither  agreeable  to 


580  SUPPORT    WHICH    SCRIPTURE    GIVES 

its  primary  meaning,  nor  supported  by  any  authority.  The  word  pro- 
perly means  set  in  order  for  eternal  life  ;  and  the  ordering  is  marked, 
by  the  passive  voice,  as  proceeding  from  some  other  being.  So  the 
powers  that  are,  Rom.  xiii.  1,  by  which  the  apostle  means  civil  au- 
thority, 'i'rto  fovGfov  rfifayftEmtftct.  'Offotis  manifestly  a  partitive  of  the 
Gentiles,  all  of  whom  had  heard  the  same  discourse  preached  by  Paul 
and  Barnabas  in  the  synagogue  of  Antioch,  and  all  of  whom  had  re- 
joiced in  hearing  it ;  and  the  clause  appears  intended  to  account  for 
its  producing  an  effect  upon  some,  of  more  permanent  and  substan- 
tial value  than  the  gladness  which  it  had  produced  in  all.  The  ac- 
count given  is  the  destination  of  God,  who,  having  meant  to  bring 
some  of  them  to  eternal  life,  set  them  in  order  for  that  end,  by  giving 
them  faith. 

4.  There  is  one  passage  in  the  epistle  to  the  Romans,  where  the 
apostle  uses  the  words  rt^oogi^<o,  cx-Kixtoi,  ft^oOiais^  without  seeming  to 
have  in  his  eye  the  ditference  between  the  Jews  and  Gentiles.  Rom. 
viii.  28 — 33.  Although  the  twenty-ninth  verse  be  understood  to 
mean  nothing  more  than  this,  that  God  ordained  that  those  who  are 
the  called  according  to  his  purpose  should  endure  suffering  like  Jesus 
Christ,  it  requires  a  manifest  perversion  of  the  following  verses  to  de- 
prive the  Calvinistic  system  of  the  support,  which  it  obviously  derives 
both  from  the  particular  phrase  and  from  the  train  of  the  apostle's 
reasoning.  It  would  seem,  indeed,  that  the  first  part  of  the  twenty- 
ninth  verse  favours  the  Arminian  system,  by  making  foreknowledge 
previous  to  predestination.  To  this  the  Calvinists  are  accustomed  to 
gtve  one  or  other  of  the  following  answers.  They  either  understand 
rt^ofym  to  mean  not  foreknowledge,  but  that  peculiar  discriminating 
affection  of  which  the  elect  are  the  objects  ;  or,  answering  in  a  man- 
ner which  has  a  less  captious  and  evasive  appearance,  they  admit  that 
a  perfect  foreknowledge  of  all  that  the  elect  are  to  do  enters  into  the 
decree  of  predestination,  but  they  deny  that  it  is  the  cause  of  their 
election,  because  all  that  is  done  by  the  elect  is  in  consequence  of  the 
strength  communicated  to  them  by  the  grace  of  God.  This  answer 
to  the  Arminian  interpretation  of  Rom.  viii.  29,  leads  me  to  the  third 
head,  under  which  I  arranged  that  support  which  the  Calvinistic  sys- 
tem derives  from  Scripture. 


Section  III. 

The  various  descriptions  of  that  change  of  character,  by  which 
men  are  prepared  for  eternal  life,  seem  intended  to  magnify  the 
power  and  to  declare  the  efficacy  of  that  grace  by  which  it  is  pro- 
duced. 

All  the  passages  usually  quoted  under  this  head  furnish  clear  evi- 
dence of  what  is  called  in  theological  language  grace,  an  influence  of 
God  upon  the  mind  of  man,  and  in  their  proper  and  literal  meaning 
seem  to  denote  that  kind  of  influence  which  enters  into  the  Calvinis- 
tic system.  Yet  many  of  them  are  not  decisive  of  the  controversy 
between  the  Calvinists  and  the  Arminians,  because  the  Arminians 
find  it  possible  to  give  them  an  interpretation  not  inconsistent  with 


TO    THE    CALVINISTIC    SYSTEM.  581 

their  account  of  the  nature  of  that  influence.  Thus  they  are  accus- 
tomed to  quote  that  saying  of  our  Lord,  "  without  me  ye  can  do  no- 
thing," as  a  proof  that  preventing  grace  is  necessary  to  all  men. 
They  interpret  that  saying  of  the  apostle,  "  faith  is  the  gift  of  God," 
as  only  a  proof  that  without  an  administration  of  the  means  of  grace, 
and  a  moral  suasion  accompanying  them,  none  can  attain  faith  ;  and 
they  consider  this  expression  of  oUr  Lord,  "  No  man  can  come  to  me 
except  the  Father  draw  him,"  as  marking  in  the  most  significant 
manner  that  kind  of  moral  suasion,  of  which  the  Almighty  speaks  by 
the  prophet  Hosea,  "  I  drew  them  with  cords  of  a  man,  with  bands 
of  love."  This  specimen  shows  that  upon  a  subject  so  far  removed 
from  observation  and  experience,  it  is  not  ditficult  for  ingenious  men 
to  elude,  in  a  very  plausible  manner,  the  argument  drawn  from  those 
texts,  which  a  person  educated  with  Calvinistic  ideas  considers  as 
unequivocal  proofs  of  his  system.  Yet  there  are  three  kinds  of  pas- 
sages in  Scripture,  which,  when  taken  together,  it  appears  to  me 
almost  impossible  to  reconcile  with  the  Arminian  account  of  grace. 

The  first  are  those  which  represent  the  natural  powers  of  the  hu- 
man mind,  attainments  in  knowledge,  and  the  most  distinguished  ad- 
vantages in  respect  of  religion,  as  of  none  avail  in  producing  faith 
without  the  action  of  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  while  his  teaching  is  repre- 
sented as  infallibly  producing  that  effect.  Of  this  kind  are  the  follow- 
ing :  1  Cor.  ii.  14  ;  i.  22,  23,  24  ;  iii.  5,  6,  7.     John  vi.  45. 

The  second  are  those  which  derive  the  account  of  this  inefficacy  of 
all  the  other  means  that  seem  fitted  to  produce  faith,  from  the  corrup- 
tion of  human  nature.  This  corruption  is  chiefly  described  in  epistles 
addressed  to  Christian  churches,  composed  of  those  who  had  formerly 
been  heathens ;  and  the  descriptions  have  a  particular  reference  to  the 
vices  which  abounded  amongst  them  before  they  were  converted  to 
the  Christian  faith.  But  the  history  of  the  world  and  the  experience 
of  all  ages  may  satisfy  us  that  these  descriptions,  with  some  allowance 
for  local  manners,  for  the  progress  of  civilization,  and  for  the  influence 
of  Christianity,  are  applicable  to  the  general  state  of  mankind.  The 
apostle  begins  his  epistle  to  the  Romans  with  a  formal  proof  that  all 
men,  both  Jews  and  Gentiles,  are  vmder  sin ;  and  this  universal  cor- 
ruption of  the  posterity  of  Adam,  although  the  foundation  of  the  Gos- 
pel, is  by  no  means  a  peculiar  doctrine  of  revelation,  but,  independ- 
ently of  that  authority,  is  established  by  various  incontrovertible 
evidence.  Now  all  the  Scripture  statements  of  this  corruption  imply 
a  moral  inability  to  attain  that  character  which  is  necessary  to  salva- 
tion. Of  this  kind  are  the  following:  Eph.  ii.  1.  Eph.  iv.  18,  19. 
Rom.  viii.  7,  8. 

The  third  are  those  which  represent  the  action  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
in  removing  this  inability,  by  phrases  exactly  corresponding  to  these 
descriptions  of  the  corruption.  Of  this  kind  are  the  following  :  Ezek. 
xxxvi.  26.  John  iii.  5.  2  Cor.  v.  17.  Eph.  ii.  10.  Eph.  i.  1 9  ;  where 
the  power  exerted  in  quickening  those  who  are  dead  in  sins  is  com- 
pared to  the  power  which  was  exerted  in  raising  Christ  from  the 
dead.     Phil.  ii.  13. 

The  Arminians,  considering  the  literal  sense  of  these  passages  as 
subversive  of  moral  agency,  attempt  to  give  such  an  explication  of 
them  as  is  consistent  with  the  Arminian  account  of  grace.  But  if  the 
51* 


582  SUPPORT    WHICH    SCRIPTURE    GIVES 

Calvinists  are  able  to  show  that  a  renovation  of  the  powers  of  human 
nature  leaves  a  man  as  much  a  moral  agent  as  he  was  at  the  begin- 
ning— that  his  liberty  is  not  destroyed  by  the  action  of  God  upon  his 
mind,  then  there  is  no  occasion  for  having  recourse  to  that  Arminian 
commentary,  which  takes  away  the  propriety  and  significancy  of  the 
figures  used  in  these  phrases ;  but  we  may  preserve  the  consistency 
of  Scripture  and  the  analogy  of  faith,  by  admitting  that  kind  of  influ- 
ence which  corresponds  to  the  corruption  of  human  nature,  which, 
although  resisted  at  first  in  consequence  of  that  corruption,  is  in  the 
end  efficacious,  and  which  owes  its  efficacy  not  to  any  quality  that 
the  recipient  possesses  independently  of  divine  grace,  but  to  the  good 
pleasure  and  the  power  of  that  Being,  who  is  as  able  to  quicken  a 
soul  dead  in  sin,  as  to  raise  a  body  from  the  dust,  and  who  declares 
in  Scripture  the  sovereignty  of  his  grace,  by  teaching  us  that  all  other 
means  are  insignificant,  till  he  is  pleased  to  renew  the  soul  ^\^hich  he 
made. 


Section  IV. 

In  order  to  complete  the  view  of  that  support  which  the  Calvinistic 
system  derives  from  Scripture,  it  only  remains  to  state  the  answer 
which  the  Calvinists  give  to  that  objection  against  their  system,  which 
has  been  drawn  from  the  commands,  the  counsels  and  the  expostula- 
tions of  Scripture.  This  objection,  with  which  all  Arminian  boolcs 
are  filled,  I  shall  present  in  the  words  of  Dr.  Whitby,  taken  from  dif- 
ferent parts  of  his  discourses  on  the  Five  Points. 

"  If  conversion  be  wrought  only  by  the  unfrustrable  operation  of 
God,  then  vain  are  all  the  commands  and  exhortations  addressed  to 
wicked  men  to  turn  from  their  evil  ways  :  for  it  is  no  more  in  their 
power  to  do  this  than  to  create  a  world.  Vain  are  all  the  threaten- 
ings  denounced  in  Scripture  against  those  who  go  on  without  amend- 
ment, because  such  threatenings  can  only  move  the  elect  by  the  fear 
of  their  perishing,  which  is  a  false  and  an  impossible  supposition  ;  and 
can  only  move  those  who  are  not  elected  by  suggesting  the  possibility 
of  their  avoiding  the  death  and  ruin  threatened,  although  it  is  to  them 
inevitable.  Vain  are  all  the  promises  of  pardon  to  those  who  repent, 
because  these  are  promises  made  upon  a  condition  which  to  the  non- 
elect  is  impossible." — "  All  the  commands  and  exhortations  directed 
by  God  to  the  faithful  to  persevere  in  well-doing,  all  cautions  to  take 
heed  lest  they  fall  away,  all  expressions  which  suspend  our  future 
happiness  on  this  condition,  that  we  continue  steadfast  to  the  end,  are 
plain  indications  that  God  hath  made  no  absolute  decree  that  good 
men  shall  not  fall  away.  For  as  when  motives  are  used  to  induce 
men  to  embrace  Christianity,  or  to  perform  any  Christian  duty,  these 
motives  contain  an  evidence  that  it  is  possible  for  men  to  do  other- 
wise, so  also  when  motives  are  used  to  induce  men  to  persevere  in 
the  profession  which  they  have  undertaken,  they  necessarily  contain 
an  evidence,  that  any  man  who  is  induced  by  them  to  persevere  in 
the  course  of  a  Christian,  had  it  in  his  power  not  to  persevere." — 
"  Can  God  be  serious  and  hi  good  earnest  in  calling  men  to  faith  and 


TO    THE    CALVINISTIC    SYSTEM.  583 

repentance,  and  yet  serious  and  in  good  earnest  in  his  decree  to  deny 
them  that  grace  without  which  they  neither  can  beheve  nor  repent  ? 
If  we  consider  with  what  vehemence  and  what  pathetic  expressions 
God  desires  the  obedience  and  reformation  of  his  people,  can  it  be 
rationally  imagined  that  there  was  any  thing  wanting  on  his  part, and 
that  he  should  himself  withhold  the  means  sufficient  to  enable  them 
to  do  what  he  thus  earnestly  wishes  they  had  done  ?" 

The  answer  made  by  the  Calvinists  to  all  reasonings  and  interro- 
gations of  this  kind,  appears  to  me  to  consist  of  the  five  following 
branches,  which  I  have  arranged  in  the  order  that  is  most  natural, 
and  which  I  shall  not  spread  out  at  length,  but  leave  to  be  filled  up 
by  private  reading  and  reflection. 

1.  The  Calvinists  say  that  it  is  a  misrepresentation  of  their  doctrine 
to  state  the  efficacy  of  the  grace  of  God  as  superseding  commands, 
counsels,  and  exhortations,  or  rendering  them  unnecessary  with  regard 
to  the  elect.  The  purpose  of  that  grace  is  to  produce  in  the  elect  the 
character  which  is  inseparably  connected  with  salvation.  For  the 
Calvinists,  no  less  than  the  Arminians,  hold  that  the  promise  of  eternal 
life  is  conditional,  suspended  upon  perseverance  in  well-doing.  What 
is  peculiar  to  them  is,  that  they  consider  the  fulfilment  of  the  condition 
in  those  who  are  elected  to  eternal  life  as  depending  upon  the  action 
of  the  Spirit  of  God :  but  the  method  in  which  they  reconcile  this 
action  with  the  liberty  of  a  moral  agent  implies  the  exhibition  of  all 
the  moral  inducements  fitted  to  act  upon  reasonable  beings ;  and 
although  they  hold  that  all  means  are  ineftectual  without  the  grace 
of  God,  yet  it  appears  to  them  that  when  the  means  of  improving  the 
human  character,  which  the  Scripture  employs,  are  considered  as 
parts  of  that  series  of  causes  and  effects  by  which  the  Almighty  exe- 
cutes his  decree,  the  necessity  and  the  efficacy  of  them  is  established 
upon  the  surest  ground.  Hence  the  Calvinists  do  not  perceive  any 
inconsistency  between  the  promise,  •'  I  will  give  you  a  new  heart," 
and  the  precept,  "  make  you  a  new  heart  and  a  new  spirit ;"  between 
the  declaration,  "  we  are  God's  workmanship,  created  in  Christ  Jesus 
unto  good  works,"  and  the  precept,  which  seems  to  imply  that  we 
are  our  own  workmanship,  "  that  ye  put  off  concerning  the  former 
conversation  the  old  man,  which  is  corrupt  according  to  the  deceitful 
lusts,  and  that  ye  put  on  the  new  man,  which  after  God  is  created  in 
righteousness  and  true  holiness."  Far  from  perceiving  any  incon- 
sistency between  the  promise  and  the  precept,  they  admire  the  har- 
mony with  which  the  two  conspire  in  the  infallible  production  of  the 
same  end.  For  the  divine  counsels,  commands,  and  invitations  to 
obedience,  by  making  that  impression  upon  the  minds  of  the  elect 
which  the  authority  and  kindness  therein  exhibited  have  a  tendency 
to  produce  upon  reasonable  beings,  are  the  instruments  of  fulfilling 
the  divine  intention,  by  conducting  the  elect  in  a  manner  conformable 
to  their  nature,  and  through  the  free  exercise  of  every  Christian  grace, 
to  that  happiness  which  had  been  from  eternity  destined  for  them. 

2.  The  Calvinists  say  that  these  counsels  and  commands,  which 
are  intended  by  God  to  produce  their  full  effect  only  with  regard  to 
the  elect,  are  addressed  indifferently  to  all,  for  this  reason,  because  it 
was  not  revealed  to  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament,  nor  is  it  now 
revealed  to  the  ministers  of  the  gospel,  who  the  elect  are.     The  Lord 


584  SUPPORT    WHICH    SCRIPTURE    GIVES 

knoweth  them  that  are  his:  but  he  hath  not  given  this  knowledge  to 
any  of  the  children  of  men.  We  are  not  warranted  to  infer  from  the 
former  sins  of  any  person  that  he  shall  not  at  some  future  period  be 
conducted  by  the  grace  of  God  to  repentance ;  and  therefore  we  are 
not  warranted  to  infer  that  the  counsels  and  exhortations  of  the  divine 
word,  which  are  some  of  the  instruments  of  the  grace  of  God,  shall 
finally  prove  vain  with  regard  to  any  individual.  But  although  it  is 
in  this  way  impossible  for  a  discrimination  to  be  made  in  the  manner 
of  publishing  the  gospel,  and  although  many  may  receive  the  calls 
and  commands  of  the  gospel  who  are  not  in  the  end  to  be  saved,  the 
Calvinists  do  not  admit  that  even  with  regard  to  them,  these  calls  and 
commands  are  wholly  without  effect.     For, 

3.  They  say  that  the  publication  of  the  gospel  is  attended  with  real 
benefit  even  to  those  who  are  not  elected.  It  points  out  to  them  their 
duty  ;  it  restrains  them  from  flagrant  transgressions  which  would  be 
productive  of  much  present  inconvenience,  and  would  aggravate  their 
future  condemnation  :  it  has  contributed  to  the  diffusion  and  the 
enlargement  of  moral  and  religious  knowledge,  to  the  refinement  of 
manners,  and  to  the  general  welfare  of  society ;  and  it  exhibits  such 
a  view  of  the  condition  of  man  and  of  the  grace  from  which  the 
remedy  proceeds,  as  magnifies  both  the  righteousness  and  the  compas- 
sion of  the  Supreme  Ruler,  and  leaves  without  excuse  those  who 
continue  in  sin. 

4.  The  Calvinists  say  further,  that  although  these  general  uses  of 
the  publication  of  the  gospel  come  very  far  short  of  that  saving  benefit 
which  is  confined  to  the  elect,  there  is  no  want  of  meaning  or  of 
sincerity  in  the  expostulations  of  Scripture,  or  in  its  reproaches  and 
pathetic  expressions  of  regret  with  regard  to  those,  who  do  not  obey 
the  counsels  and  commands  that  are  addressed  to  all.  For  these 
counsels  and  commands  declare  what  is  the  duty  of  all,  what  they 
feel  they  ought  to  perform,  what  is  essential  to  their  present  and  their 
future  happiness,  and  what  no  physical  necessity  prevents  them  from 
doing.  There  is  indeed  a  moral  inability,  a  defect  in  their  will.  But 
the  very  object  of  counsels  and  commands  is  to  remove  this  defect ; 
and  if  such  a  defect  rendered  it  improper  for  the  Supreme  Ruler  to 
issue  commands,  every  sin  would  carry  with  it  its  own  excuse  ;  and 
the  creatures  of  God  might  always  plead  that  they  were  absolved 
from  the  obligation  of  his  law,  because  they  were  indisposed  to  obey 
it.  It  is  admitted  by  the  Calvinists,  that  the  moral  inability  in  those 
who  are  not  elected  is  of  such  a  kind,  as  will  infallibly  prevent  their 
obeying  the  commands  of  God  ;  and  it  is  a  part  of  their  system,  that 
the  Being  who  issues  these  commands  has  resolved  to  withhold  from 
such  persons  the  grace  which  alone  is  sufficient  to  remove  that 
inability.  In  accounting  for  these  commands,  therefore,  they  are 
obliged  to  have  recourse  to  a  distinction  between  the  secret  and  the 
revealed  will  of  God.  They  understand,  by  his  revealed  will,  that 
which  is  perceptive,  which  declares  the  duty  of  his  creatures,  contain- 
ing commands  agreeable  to  the  sentiments  of  their  minds  and  the 
constitution  of  their  nature,  and  delivering  promises  which  shall 
certainly  be  fulfilled  to  all  who  obey  the  commands.  They  understand, 
by  his  secret  will,  his  own  purpose  in  distributing  his  favours  and 
arranging  the  condition  of  his  creatures  ;  a  purpose  which  is  founded 


TO    THE    CALVINISTIC  SVSTEM.  585 

upon  the  wisest  reasons,  and  is  infallibly  carried  into  execution  by  his 
sovereign  power,  but  which  not  being  made  known  to  his  creatures 
cannot  possibly  be  the  rule  of  their  conduct.  This  distinction, 
although  the  subject  of  much  obloquy  in  all  Arminian  books,  appears, 
upon  a  fair  examination,  only  a  more  guarded  method  of  stating  what 
we  found  to  be  said  by  the  advocates  for  universal  redemption.  Their 
language  is,  that  God  intends  to  save  all  men  by  the  death  of  Christ, 
but  that  this  intention  becomes  effectual  only  with  regard  to  those 
who  repent  and  believe.  The  Calvinists,  not  choosing  to  hold  a 
language  which  implies  that  an  intention  of  God  can  prove  fruitless, 
interpret  all  the  counsels,  and  commands,  and  expostulations,  which 
are  urged  in  proof  of  an  intention  to  save  all  men,  as  expressions  only 
of  a  revealed  will,  but  not  as  implying  any  purpose  which  is  to  be 
carried  into  effect.  When  they  find  in  Scripture  such  general  propo- 
sitions as  the  following,  "he  that  believeth  on  me  hath  everlasting 
life," — «  whoso  confesseth  and  forsaketh  his  sins  shall  have  mercy ;" 
they  consider  them  both  as  declaring  a  rule  of  conduct,  and  as  deliver- 
ing a  promise  which  is  fulfilled  with  regard  to  every  individual  who 
believes  and  repents  ;  and  as  they  know  that  these  propositions  never 
can  prove  false,  so  it  does  not  appear  to  them  that  there  is  any  incon- 
sistency between  the  general  terms  in  which  the  propositions  are 
enunciated,  and  the  special  grace  by  which  God  produces  faith  and 
repentance  in  those  whom  he  has  predestinated  to  everlasting  life. 

5.  The  Calvinists  say,  in  the  last  place,  that  if  there  is  a  difficulty 
in  reconciling  the  earnestness  with  which  God  appears  in  Scripture 
to  seek  the  salvation  of  all  men,  with  the  infallible  execution  of  his 
decree  that  only  some  shall  be  saved,  this  difficulty  is  not  pecuhar  to 
their  system,  but  belongs  to  the  Arminian  also.  If  with  the  Socinians 
we  abridge  the  foreknowledge  of  God,  then  his  counsels  and  exhorta- 
tions to  all  men  will  appear  to  us  the  natural  expressions  of  an  anxiety, 
such  as  we  often  feel,  about  an  eftect,  of  the  production  of  which  we 
are  uncertain.  But  if  with  the  Arminians  we  admit  that  the  deter- 
minations of  free  agents  were  from  eternity  known  to  God,  then  we 
must  admit  also  that  he  addresses  counsels  and  exhortations  to  those 
upon  whom  he  knows  they  will  not  produce  their  full  eftect.  As  he 
sent  of  old  by  Moses  a  command  to  Pharaoh  to  let  the  children  of 
Israel  go,  although  at  the  very  time  of  giving  the  command  he  says, 
"  and  I  am  sure  that  he  will  not  let  you  go  ;"*  as  our  Lord  said  to 
his  disciples,  "  watch  and  pray  that  ye  enter  not  into  temptation,"t 
although  the  whole  tenor  of  the  discourse,  of  which  these  words  are 
a  part,  discovers  his  certain  knowledge  that  all  the  disciples  were  to 
yield  to  temptation,  Peter  by  denying,  and  the  rest  by  forsaking  him : 
so  the  word  of  God  continues  to  warn  men  against  sins  which  they 
will  commit,  to  prescribe  duties  which  they  will  not  perform,  and  to 
give  them,  in  the  language  of  the  warmest  affection,  counsels  upon 
which  the  obstinacy  of  their  hearts  is  to  pour  contempt.  The  answer 
made  by  the  Arminians  to  the  Socinian  charge  of  a  want  of  serious- 
ness and  sincerity  in  warnings,  precepts,  and  counsels,  uttered  by  a 
Being  who  foresees  their  final  inefficacy,  is  this,  that  it  is  fit  and  pro- 
per for  God  to  declare  to  men  their  duty ;  that  the  perverseness  of 

•  Exod.  iii.  18,  19.  t  Matth.  xxvi.  41. 

4H 


586  SUPPORT    WHICH  SCRIPTURE  GIVES,  ETC. 

their  wills  does  not  diminish  their  obligations,  and  that  his  foreknow- 
ledge of  that  perverseness  has  no  influence  in  giving  his  counsels  less 
effect  upon  their  minds.  The  very  same  answer  may  be  adopted  by 
the  Calvinists.  For  although  they  infer,  from  the  perfection  of  the 
Supreme  Mind,  and  from  various  expressions  in  Scripture,  that  there 
is  a  decree  by  which  certain  persons  are  elected,  while  others  are  left 
to  perish ;  yet,  as  the  particulars  of  this  decree  are  nowhere  made 
known  to  us,  they  cannot  regard  it  as  in  any  respect  the  rule  of  our 
conduct ;  and  although  they  do  not  think  themselves  at  liberty  to  fol- 
low the  Socinians  in  denying  the  extent  of  the  divine  understanding, 
yet,  like  the  Socinians,  they  receive  the  authoritative  injunctions  of 
the  divine  word  as  the  will  of  our  Creator ;  they  study  to  learn  from 
thence,  not  the  unknown  purposes  of  divine  wisdom,  but  the  mea- 
sure of  our  obedience  ;  and  they  say  with  Moses,  who,  in  his  last 
address  to  the  children  of  Israel,  Deut.  xxix.  29,  appears  to  give  his 
sanction  to  the  distinction  made  by  them,  "  the  secret  things  belong 
unto  the  Lord  our  God  ;  but  those  things  which  are  revealed  belong 
unto  us,  and  to  our  children  for  ever,  that  we  may  do  all  the  words 
of  this  law." 


HISTORY    OP    CALVINISM.  587 


CHAPTER  XI. 


HISTORY    OF    CALVINISM. 


The  history  of  that  system  of  opmions,  now  called  Calvinistic,  ex- 
tends almost  from  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  to  the  present 
period.  It  is  not  my  province  to  detail  the  names  of  all  those  by 
whom  these  opinions  have  been  held,  the  ages  in  which  they  lived, 
the  books  which  they  wrote,  the  opposition  or  the  encouragement 
which  they  received.  But  I  think  it  may  be  interesting  and  useful  to 
subjoin  to  the  discussions  in  which  we  have  lately  been  engaged,  a 
short  comprehensive  view  of  the  state  of  the  opinions  which  were 
the  subjects  of  the  discussions,  during  the  difterent  stages  of  their 
progress. 

Those  who  hold  the  Calvinistic  system  find  its  origin  in  several  ex- 
pressions of  our  Lord,  and  in  many  parts  of  the  writings  of  Paul. 
Those  who  hold  the  opposite  system  give  a  difterent  interpretation  of 
all  the  passages  in  which  this  origin  is  sought  for.  Tlie  dispute  is 
not  decided  by  referring  to  the  most  ancient  Christian  writers,  for  they 
express  themselves  generally  in  the  language  of  Scripture  with  much 
simplicity ;  they  do  not  appear  to  have  possessed  great  critical  talents  ; 
and  they  avoid  entering  into  any  profound  speculations.  It  is  not 
ascertained  what  was  the  system  of  Christians  in  the  first  four  centu- 
ries, or  whether  they  had  formed  any  system  upon  this  intricate  sub- 
ject. But  in  the  fifth  century  systems  very  similar  to  those  which 
are  now  held  were  opposed  to  one  another.  The  voluminous  writings 
of  Augustine,  by  whom  one  of  the  systems  was  established,  are  ex- 
tant ;  and  we  learn  the  outlines  of  the  opposite  system,  both  from  tlie 
large  extracts  out  of  the  works  of  its  supporters,  which  are  found  in 
his  wrhings,  and  from  other  collateral  testimony.  Although  the  sys- 
tem combated  by  Augustine  was  not  completely  evolved  till  his  day, 
yet  the  principles  from  which  it  took  its  rise  may  be  traced  back  to 
those  philosophical  speculations  which,  in  the  former  centuries,  had 
occupied  a  great  part  of  the  attention  of  Christian  writers.  Even  in 
the  days  of  the  apostles,  some  who  had  been  educated  in  the  schools 
of  the  philosophers,  professed  to  embrace  Christianity  ;  and  the  num- 
ber of  learned  Christians  continued  to  increase  in  every  century.  Not 
content  with  the  simple  form  in  which  the  doctrines  of  revelation  had 
been  held  by  their  more  illiterate  predecessors,  these  learned  converts 
introduced  a  spirit  of  research,  a  refinement  of  speculation,  and  a 
systematical  arrangement,  of  which  the  sacred  writers  have  not  set 
an  example.  The  tenets,  which  many  of  these  converts  had  imbibed 
in  their  youth,  and  which  they  were  far  from  relinquishing  when  they 


588  HISTORY    OP    CALVINISM. 

assumed  the  name  of  Christians,  were  so  opposite  to  the  truth, — and 
the  pride  of  human  science,  in  which  they  had  been  educated,  was 
so  inconsistent  with  that  temper  which  Jesus  requires  in  all  who  are 
taught  by  him,  that  the  gospel,  instead  of  being  improved,  was  in 
various  respects  corrupted  by  this  early  mixture  of  philosophy.  It 
is  probable  that  when  the  apostle  Paul  speaks  in  his  epistles  of  a  dan- 
ger that  Christians  might  be  "  spoiled  through  philosophy  and  vain 
deceit,"*  and  of  "  oppositions  of  science  falsely  so  called,"!  he  means 
that  kind  of  philosophy  which  was  characteristical  of  the  Gnostic 
sects ;  and  it  is  known,  that  in  the  first  three  centuries  the  grossest 
adulterations  of  Christianity  arose  from  the  principles  of  that  philo- 
sophy. 

Many  sects  of  Christians  were  in  this  manner  led  to  account  for 
those  differences  of  human  character  which  have  always  been  ob- 
served, by  holding  that  some  souls  are  naturally  and  essentially  evil, 
being  either  entirely  formed  by  the  evil  spirit,  or  so  completely  under 
his  influence  as  to  be  unable  to  emancipate  themselves ;  and  that 
others  derive  so  large  a  proportion  of  their  nature  from  the  good 
Spirit,  as  to  find  no  difficulty  in  preserving  their  integrity.  The  errors 
connected  with  this  physical  discrimination  of  souls  were  combated 
with  much  learning  about  the  end  of  the  third  century  by  Origen, 
who  had  been  bred  in  the  Platonic  school  of  Alexandria,  and  who 
brought  from  the  philosophy  there  taught  those  sublime  conceptions 
of  the  Deity,  which  do  not  admit  of  independent  power  being  ascribed 
to  a  behig  set  in  opposition  to  God.  He  taught  that  all  souls  origi- 
nally proceeded  from  the  Deity ;  that  they  were  by  nature  capable 
of  being  either  good  or  evil,  and  that  the  character  which  they  attain 
depends  upon  their  own  free  will, — upon  the  exercise  which  they 
choose  to  make  of  the  powers  given  them  by  their  Creator. 

The  very  important  services,  which  the  erudition  and  the  labours 
of  Origen  rendered  to  the  Christian  church,  procured  a  considerable 
degree  of  credit  to  the  most  singular  of  his  opinions  in  the  countries 
where  his  works  were  known.  Various  circumstances  conspired,  in 
the  course  of  the  fourth  century,  to  diffuse  through  the  west  some 
knowledge  of  his  writings;  and  Pelagius,  a  native  of  Britain,  who  made 
them  his  chief  study  during  his  residence  at  Rome  in  the  beginning  of 
the  fifth  century,  drew  from  the  doctrine  which  Origen  had  opposed  to 
Mauichean  errors,  the  fundamental  position  of  his  system,  that  not- 
withstanding the  sin  of  our  first  parents,  we  are  able,  by  the  powers 
of  our  nature,  without  any  supernatural  aid,  to  yield  obedience  to  the 
commands  of  God.  The  report  of  this  system,  which,  from  its  affinity 
to  the  doctrine  of  Origen,  found  with  many  an  easy  reception,  called 
forth  the  exertions  of  Augustine,  bishop  of  Hippo,  in  Africa.  He  had 
formerly  written  against  the  Manicheans ;  but  it  appeared  to  him  that 
Pelagius,  who,  in  his  zeal  to  maintain  that  no  souls  were  the  work 
of  the  evil  spirit,  denied  the  present  corruption  of  human  nature,  had 
gone  beyond  Origen,  and  had  departed  far  from  the  truth ;  and  in  his 
voluminous  works  he  laid  down  a  system  of  predestination  and 
grace,  which,  with  some  little  variety  of  expression,  is  the  same  with 
that  which  we  have  called  Calvinistic.     Augustine  acknowledged 

*  Col.  ii.  8.  t  1  Tim.  vi.  20. 


HISTORY    OF    CALVINISM.  589 

that  in  the  course  of  his  studying  the  Scriptures  his  sentiments  had 
undergone  a  considerable  change  ;  and  those  who  were  adverse  to 
his  system  affirmed  that  in  his  writings  against  Pelagius  he  adopted 
many  positions  which  lie  had  condemned  in  the  Manicheans,  We 
are  not  bound  to  defend  the  consistency  of  all  that  Augustine  has 
said :  but  if  his  system  be  founded  in  reason  and  in  Scripture,  it  may 
unquestionably  be  discriminated  from  the  Manichean  system  ;  and 
we,  who  hold  the  Calvinistic  tenets,  think  that  we  are  able  to  make 
the  discrimination.  For  we  consider  the  decree,  by  which  a  wise  and 
good  Being  from  eternity  ordained  all  that  is  to  be,  as  essentially 
distinct  from  that  fate  which  excludes  every  exercise  of  intelligence 
in  fixing  the  great  scheme  of  the  universe ;  and  we  consider  the 
measure  of  evil  which,  for  reasons  unknown  to  us,  the  Almighty 
Sovereign  permits  to  exist  in  his  work,  as  leaving  unshaken  those 
fundamental  principles  of  religion,  which  are  completely  undermined 
by  the  belief  that  this  evil  originates  from  the  power  of  an  opposite 
spirit  not  under  the  control  of  God,  or  from  an  essential  pravity  in 
matter  which  he  is  unable  to  remove. 

From  the  days  of  Augustine  two  opposite  systems  of  predestination 
have  been  known  in  the  Christian  church,  and  each  of  them  has  had 
able  and  numerous  defenders.  The  system  of  Pelagius  was  modified 
in  the  writings  of  Cassian  and  Faustus ;  and,  under  the  less  ofiensive 
form  which  is  known  by  the  name  of  Semi-Pelagianism,  it  obtained 
a  favourable  reception  in  the  East,  from  which  it  originated.  But  in 
the  western  parts  of  Christendom,  where  the  writings  of  the  learned 
Augustine  were  held  in  the  highest  veneration,  the  system  which  he 
had  delineated  received  the  sanction  both  of  general  councils  and  of 
the  Bishops  of  Rome,  who  were  rising  by  insensible  steps  to  the 
station  which  they  afterwards  held  :  and  under  this  authority  it  came 
to  be  regarded  as  the  orthodox  faith  of  the  Latin  church.  The 
opposite  system,  however,  had  many  adherents,  both  in  Britain,  the 
native  country  of  Pelagius,  and  in  Gaul,  where  Cassian  first  published 
the  Semi-Pelagian  doctrine ;  and  it  appears  that  in  the  universal 
ignorance  which  overspread  Europe  during  the  succeeding  centuries, 
many  who  professed  to  hold  the  orthodox  faith  were  unacquainted 
with  the  extent  of  the  doctrine  of  Augustine.  Accordingly  we  find 
Godeschalcus,  an  illustrious  Saxon  monk,  persecuted  in  the  ninth 
century  by  his  superiors,  and  condemned  by  some  councils  assembled 
to  judge  him,  for  holding  doctrines  which  seem  to  correspond  in  all 
points  with  the  tenets  now  called  Calvinistic :  we  find  his  memory 
vindicated  by  succeeding  councils,  who  declared  their  approbation  of 
his  doctrine  ;  and  we  learn  from  the  history  of  his  opinions,  that  the 
Christian  church  in  those  days,  as  in  all  the  controversies  upon  the 
same  intricate  subject  in  succeeding  ages,  veered  between  two  systems, 
of  which  sometimes  the  one,  and  sometimes  the  other,  was  most  ably 
defended. 

The  question  occasioned  by  the  opposition  of  these  systems,  after 
having  been  buried  for  some  centuries,  like  every  other,  in  the  bar- 
barity of  the  times,  was  revived  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  cen- 
turies by  Thomas  Aquinas,  and  Joannes  Scotus,  the  fathers  of  school 
divinity,  who,  applying  the  language  of  the  philosophy  of  Aristotle  to 
theological  questions,  appeared  to  speak  with  a  precision  formerly 
52 


590  HISTORY    OF    CALVINISM. 

unknown,  but  who,  multiplying  words  far  beyond  the  number  of 
clear  ideas,  increased  the  natural  darkness  of  many  subjects  which 
they  pretended  to  discuss.  I  will  not  undertake  the  grievous  and 
worthless  labour  of  explaining  the  terms  in  which  the  doctrine  of 
Augustine  was  stated  by  Thomas  Aquinas,  a  monk  of  the  Dominican 
order,  nor  those  in  which  a  doctrine  somewhat  similar  to  that  which 
is  now  opposed  to  Augustine  was  defended  by  Scotus,  a  monk  of  the 
Franciscan  order.  The  Latin  cliurch,  of  which  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
had  become  the  acknowledged  head,  continued  to  be  agitated  by  the 
controversy  between  the  Thomists  and  the  Scotists ;  insomuch  that 
although  that  church  venerated  the  name  of  Augustine,  and  professed 
to  build  its  tenets  upon  his  authority,  individual  writers  were  very 
far  from  being  agreed  as  to  the  points  that  are  embraced  by  his  sys- 
tem, and  the  avowed  creed  of  the  church  was  gradually  removed  at 
a  greater  distance  from  the  doctrine  of  Augustine. 

When  the  enormous  height  which  the  growing  corruptions  of 
Popery  had  attained  in  the  sixteenth  century  induced  Martin  Luther, 
a  friar  of  the  order  of  St.  Austin,  to  begin  the  reformation,  he  adhered 
to  the  principles  of  that  doctrine  in  which  he  had  been  educated  ; 
and  in  exposing  to  the  indignation  of  mankind  the  shameful  traffic  of 
indulgences,  he  derived,  from  a  system  which  taught  the  corruption 
of  human  nature  and  the  efficacy  of  divine  grace,  a  convincing  answer 
to  those  tenets  of  the  church  of  Rome  concerning  the  merit  of  good 
works  upon  which  that  traffic  was  founded.  All  the  parts  of  the 
system  of  predestination  which  are  delineated  in  the  writings  of 
Augustine  were  taught  by  Luther.  But  Melancthon,  who  was  at  first 
his  colleague,  and  who  succeeded  to  a  considerable  share  of  his  in- 
fluence after  his  death,  was  led  by  an  accon)modating  temper,  and 
by  a  concurrence  of  circumstances,  to  adopt  principles  which  it  does 
not  appear  to  me  possible  to  distinguish  from  the  Semi-Pelagian. 
These  principles  entered  into  the  confessions  of  faith  and  apologies 
for  the  cause  of  reformation,  which  received  the  sanction  of  the  name 
of  Melancthon  :  they  were  recommended  by  his  authority  to  many 
of  the  earliest  reformers  in  Germany  ;  and  they  continue  to  form  a 
part  of  the  creed  of  those  churches  which  are  called  Lutheran. 

In  Switzerland,  the  reformation,  which  had  been  begun  by  Zuin- 
glius,  received  the  most  valuable  support  from  the  learning,  the  abi- 
lities, and  the  industry  of  John  Calvin,  who  settled  at  Geneva  in  the 
year  1541,  and  continued  till  his  death  in  1564  a  zealous  and  inde- 
fatigable champion  of  that  doctrine,  which  he  professes  to  have  learned 
from  Augustine.  In  his  Christian  Institutes,  which  were  first  pub- 
lished in  1536,  he  acknowledges  that  it  was  the  common  opinion  that 
God  elected  men  according  to  his  foreknowledge  of  their  conduct,  so 
that  predestination  rested  upon  the  prescience  of  God.  But  in  oppo- 
sition to  this  opinion,  which  he  says  was  both  held  by  the  vulgar, 
and  had  in  all  ages  been  defended  by  authors  of  great  name,  he  lays 
down  that  system  which  we  have  been  accustomed,  in  honour  of  its 
ablest  supporter,  to  call  by  the  name  of  Calvinism  ;  and  such  was  the 
impression  made  upon  the  minds  of  men  by  his  writings,  and  so  ra- 
pidly were  his  opinions  disseminated  by  the  numbers  who  flocked  to 
the  university  which  he  established  at  Geneva,  that  the  Calvinistic 
system  of  predestination  was  received  by  a  great  part  of  those  Chris- 


HISTORY    OF    CALVINISM.  591 

tians  who  left  the  church  of  Rome,  and  even  by  many  who  had  at 
first  embraced  the  tenets  of  Melancthon.     There  came  in  this  way  to 
be  a  difference  of  opinion  upon  the  subject  of  predestination  between 
the  Lutheran  and  the  reformed  churches.     We  apply  the  term  Lu- 
theran to  the  churches  in  the  German  empire,  and  in  the  different 
kingdoms  of  Europe,  which  adhered  to  the  Confession  of  Augsburg, 
Confessio  Aiigustana,  the  declaration  of  their  faith  presented  by  the 
Protestants  to  the  Diet  of  the  empire,  held  by  Charles  V.  1530,  and  to 
those  explications   which  the   controverted  points   not  particularly 
stated  in  that  confession  received  from  the  subsequent  writings  of 
Melancthon.     We  apply  the  term  Reformed  to  the  churches  in  Ger- 
many, in  Switzerland,  in  the  Netherlands,  in  Britain,  in  France,  and 
in  other  parts  of  Europe,  whose  confessions  of  faith  comprehended 
the  peculiar  tenets  of  Calvinism.     The  two  words  were  used  in  this 
sense  soon  after  the  days  of  Calvin  and  Melancthon,  and  the  same 
use  of  them  still  continues.     When  we  speak  of  the  reformation,  we 
mean  that  revolution  in  the  sentiments  of  a  great  part  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Europe  with  regard  to  religion,  which  was  accomplished  in 
the  sixteenth  century  by  the  united  labours  of  Luther,  Melancthon, 
Zuinglius,  Calvin,  Beza,  and  other  reformers.     But  when  we  speak 
of  the  Reformed  Churches,  we  generally  mean  to  distinguish  them 
from  the  Lutheran  ;  and  the  name  implies  that  they  are  considered 
as  having  departed  farther  than  the  Lutheran  from  the  corruptions  of 
Popery.     There  are  differences  between  the  Reformed  and  the  Lu- 
theran Churches  respecting  ecclesiastical  discipline  and  government 
which  it  may  afterwards  occur  to  mention.     But  the  most  important 
difference  in  point  of  doctrine  respects  the  subject  of  which  we  are 
now  speaking ;  the  reformed,  professing  in  their  creeds  and  standards 
to  hold  the  Calvinistic  system  of  predestination ;  the  Lutheran  to  ad- 
here to  the  system  of  Melancthon. 

John  Knox,  a  disciple  of  Calvin,  while  he  formed  the  constitution 
of  the  church  of  Scotland  upon  the  plan  of  ecclesiastical  government 
which  Calvin  had  established  in  Geneva,  introduced  into  Scotland  all 
the  tenets  called  Calvinistic ;  and  although  the  Confession  of  Faith, 
the  authentic  standard  of  the  faith  of  our  church,  does  not  pay  any 
deference  to  the  name  or  authority  of  the  reformer — although  the 
ministers  of  this  church  are  not  bound,  by  subscribing  the  Confession 
of  Faith,  to  defend  every  part  of  the  conduct  of  Calvin,  and  every 
sentence  found  in  his  writings,  yet  the  leading  features  of  the  doctrine 
of  our  church  concerning  predestination  are  avowedly  Calvinistic. 
In  England,  the  first  reformers,  who  appeared  before  the  days  of 
Calvin,  followed  in  worship,  and  in  the  form  of  ecclesiastical  govern- 
ment, the  Lutheran  churches  in  which  they  had  received  their  educa- 
tion. But  in  the  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  when  the  thirty-nine  arti- 
cles, which  are  the  Confession  of  Faith  of  the  church  of  England, 
came,  after  much  preparation,  to  be  published  with  royal  authority, 
the  doctrines  of  Calvin  were  held  in  universal  estimation,  were  taught 
in  the  English  universities,  and  were  the  creed  of  the  dignified  clergy 
whom  the  Queen  employed  in  preparing  the  articles.  Accordingly, 
even  those,  who  hold  that  the  seventeenth  article  admits  of  an  inter- 
pretation not  inconsistent  with  Arminianism,  acknowledge  that  it  was 
penned  by  Calvinists,  and  that  the  Calvinistic  sense,  which  naturally 


592  HISTORY    OF    CALVINISM. 

occurs  to  every  reader,  was  truly  the  meaning  of  those  who  com- 
posed it.  And  upon  this  ground  we  think  ourselves  entitled  to  say 
that  the  two  established  churches  of  this  island,  although  distinguished 
from  the  time  of  the  Reformation  in  respect  of  discipline,  worship,  and 
government,  were  at  first  united  in  holding  the  same  doctrine  ;  and 
that  the  standards,  which  both  churches  continue  to  require  their  mi- 
nisters to  subscribe  as  the  standards  of  their  faith,  were  originally 
founded  upon  Calvinistic  tenets. 

Upon  the  Continent,  where  some  churches  were  Lutheran  and 
others  Reformed,  the  points  in  dispute  between  them  were  brought 
strongly  before  the  public  about  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  by  the  writings  of  Arminius,  professor  of  divinity  in  the  uni- 
versity of  Leyden.  Arminius,  although  educated  in  the  doctrines  of 
the  church  of  Geneva,  had  early  entertained  doubts  concerning  the 
Calvinistic  system  of  predestination ;  and,  after  he  was  admitted  pro- 
fessor of  divinity,  he  did  not  consider  himself  bound  by  any  authority, 
which  he  could  not  lawfully  disobey,  to  teach  that  particular  system. 
He  possessed  that  vigorous  mind,  and  that  acute  understanding, 
which  prepare  a  man  for  deep  investigation.  He  was  not  disposed 
to  rest  in  the  opinions  of  others ;  and  his  own  conceptions  of  every 
subject  to  which  he  turned  his  attention  were  clear  and  comprehen- 
sive. The  opinions  concerning  predestination,  which  were  at  that 
time  held  in  the  Lutheran  churches,  being  more  agreeable  to  his 
mind  than  the  Calvinistic,  received  from  him  a  scientific  form.  He 
laid  the  foundation  of  them  in  that  view  of  the  prescience  of  God  for- 
merly explained ;  and  by  following  out  leading  ideas  through  all 
their  consequences,  he  introduced  that  unity  of  principle,  that  har- 
mony of  parts,  and  that  precision  and  clearness  of  language,  which 
entitle  his  doctrine  to  the  name  of  a  system.  This  system,  recom- 
mended by  the  abilities,  the  eloquence,  and  the  reputation  of  Armi- 
nius, not  only  spread  through  the  Lutheran  churches,  but  made  an 
impression  upon  the  minds  of  many  who  had  been  educated  in  the 
principles  of  Calvinism ;  and,  proceeding  from  an  university  founded 
in  one  of  the  Reformed  churches,  it  encountered  at  its  first  appear- 
ance a  most  formidable  opposition.  Arminius  died  in  1609.  But 
the  hold  which  his  principles  had  taken  of  the  minds  of  men,  and  the 
zeal  with  which  they  were  propagated  by  his  disciples,  excited  much 
commotion  immediately  after  his  death.  The  inhabitants  of  the 
United  Provinces,  who  held  these  principles,  presented  to  the  States- 
general  in  1610  a  petition  or  remonstrance,  from  which  they  received 
the  name  of  remonstrants,  by  which  they  have  ever  since  been  dis- 
tinguished. It  happened  that  Grotius,  and  other  leading  men  in  the 
States  who  were  at  that  time  in  opposition  to  the  Prince  of  Orange, 
favoured  the  principles  of  the  remonstrants.  This  circumstance  natu- 
rally formed  an  imion  between  the  house  of  Orange  and  the  contra- 
remonstrants,  or  Calvinists  ;  and  thus  political  interests  came  to  mingle 
their  influence  in  the  discussion  of  theological  questions.  Many  con- 
ferences were  held  between  the  Arminians  and  the  Calvinists,  with- 
out convincing  either  party.  Many  schemes  to  accomplish  a  recon- 
ciliation proved  abortive  ;  and  at  length  it  was  resolved  by  the  States 
of  Holland,  to  summon  a  meeting  of  deputies  from  all  the  Protestant 
churches,  after  the  manner  of  the  General  Councils,  which  had  been 


HISTORY    OF    CALVINISM.  593 

held  in  former  ages,  where  the  points  in  dispute  might  be  canvassed 
and  decided. 

In  the  year  1618,  tliere  assembled  at  Dort,  a  town  in  the  province 
of  South  Holland,  deputies  from  the  churches  of  the  United  Pro- 
vinces, from  Britain,  and  from  many  states  in  Germany,  who  formed 
what  is  known  in  ecclesiastical  history  by  the  name  of  the  Synod  of 
Dort,  Synodits  Dordracena.  The  learned  and  eloquent  Episcopius, 
the  successor  of  Arminius,  appeared  at  the  head  of  the  leading  men 
amongst  the  Arminians,  or  Remonstrants,  to  defend  their  cause.  But 
being  dissatisfied  with  the  manner  in  which  the  Synod  proposed  to 
proceed,  Episcopius  and  his  adherents  refused  to  submit  to  the  direc- 
tions which  were  given  them  as  to  the  method  of  their  defence,  and 
in  consequence  of  this  refusal  they  were  excluded  from  sitting  in  the 
assembly.  After  an  hundred  and  fifty -four  meetings,  the  five  articles, 
in  which  the  Arminians  had  at  a  former  conference  stated  their  doc- 
trine, were  formally  condemned  by  the  Synod  as  heretical.  What 
we  call  the  Calvinistic  system  of  predestination,  was  declared  by  a 
confession  of  faith,  founded  on  the  decrees  of  the  Synod,  to  be  the 
orthodox  faith  of  the  Reformed  churches  in  the  Netherlands ;  and 
the  catechism  of  Heidelberg,  which  was  originally  composed  by  order 
of  the  Elector  Palatine  for  the  use  of  his  subjects,  and  which  com- 
prehends the  leading  principles  of  the  Calvinistic  system,  was  adopt- 
ed as  one  of  their  standards,  a  method  of  instructing  the  young,  and 
a  directory  for  the  public  teaching  of  their  ministers.  In  consequence 
of  the  judgment  of  the  Synod  of  Dort,  the  Arminians  were  excom- 
municated, and  were  at  first  obliged  to  leave  their  possessions  in 
the  United  Provinces.  But  they  were  recalled  in  a  few  years  un- 
der a  milder  administration  of  government :  they  are  allowed  several 
churches  in  difterent  cities  of  Holland ;  and  they  have  a  college  at 
Amsterdam,  where  there  has  been  a  succession  of  able  men,  Episco- 
pius, Limborch,  Le  Clerc,  and  Wetstein  ;  who,  while  they  profess  to 
instil  into  the  candidates  for  the  ministry  in  their  communion  all  the 
principles  which  Arminius  taught,  have  been  accused  of  approaching 
gradually  much  nearer  to  Socinianism  than  he  did. 

The  consent  given  by  the  British  divines  to  the  decrees  of  the 
Synod  is  a  proof  that  the  churches  of  England  and  of  Scotland,  by 
whom  they  were  sent,  adhered  to  the  Calvinistic  tenets,  and  that 
James  I.  who  had  joined  his  influence  with  that  of  the  House  of 
Orange  in  the  convocation  of  the  Synod,  was  disposed  to  favour  that 
system.  One  of  the  ablest  defences  of  the  Calvinistic  system  of  pre- 
destination is  a  small  treatise  written  against  Hoard,  an  Arminian, 
by  Davenant,  one  of  the  deputies  from  England,  at  that  time  pro- 
fessor of  divinity  in  Cambridge,  and  afterwards  bishop  of  Salisbury. 
The  title  of  his  book  is.  Animadversions  upon  a  Treatise,  entitled, 
God's  Love  to  mankind. 

But  although  we  seem  to  be  warranted  in  considering  the  voice  of 
the  leading  men  in  Britain  as  favourable  to  Calvinism,  at  the  time  of 
the  meeting  of  the  Synod  of  Dort,  it  was  not  long  before  events, 
chiefly  of  a  political  natm'e,  occasioned  a  revolution  upon  this  point 
iu  the  sentiments  of  James,  and  of  those  members  of  the  church  of 
England  who  were  attached  to  the  Cause  of  monarchy.  The  long 
civil  war,  and  the  memorable  change  of  government  in  the  seventeenth 
52*  4  I 


\ 
594  HISTORY    OF    CALVINISM. 

century,  arose  from  the  political  principles  of  men  who  were  rigidly 
attached  to  the  worship,  discipline,  government,  and  doctrine  of  the 
church  of  Geneva.  The  friends  of  monarchy,  on  the  other  hand, 
were  attached  to  the  worship,  discipline,  and  government  which  the 
church  of  England  had  derived  from  the  Lutheran  churches  :  and  as, 
in  addition  to  these  points  of  difference  upon  ecclesiastical  matters, 
they  held  the  political  principles  of  the  republicans  in  abhorrence,  it 
was  natural  for  them  to  conceive  a  prejudice  against  the  theological 
doctrine  of  these  republicans.  They  unavoidably  felt  a  strong  pro- 
pensity to  adopt  a  system  of  predestination  by  which  they  might  be 
allied  more  closely  to  the  Lutheran  churches,  with  whom  they  had 
many  points  in  common,  and  completely  discriminated  from  the  Cal- 
vinists,  with  whom  they  did  not  wish  to  maintain  any  connection. 
Archbishop  Laud,  to  whom  Charles  L  committed  the  direction  of  the 
ecclesiastical  affairs  of  Britain,  wrote  a  small  treatise  in  the  year 
1625,  to  prove  that  the  articles  of  the  church  of  England  admit  of 
an  Arminian  sense :  the  countenance  of  the  court  was  confined  to 
those  divines  who  favoured  the  Arminian  system ;  and  although  the 
church  of  England  never  publicly  renounced  Calvinism,  yet  it  is  cer- 
tain that  an  attachment  to  that  system  of  doctrine  came  to  be  the 
distinguishing  badge  of  the  Puritans,  who  derived  their  name  from 
pretending  to  a  more  spiritual  kind  of  worship  than  the-  Episcopa- 
lians, but  who  were  known  as  much  by  the  firmness  with  which  they 
held  the  tenets  of  the  church  of  Geneva,  as  by  their  abhorrence  of 
forms. 

When,  in  the  progress  of  the  commotions  of  the  sev^enteenth  cen- 
tury, episcopacy  was  voted  to  be  useless  and  burdensome,  an  assem- 
bly of  divines  was  held  at  Westminster,  "  for  the  purpose  of  settling 
the  government  and  liturgy  of  the  church  of  England,  and  for  vindi- 
cating and  clearing  the  doctrine  of  the  said  church  from  false  asper- 
sions and  interpretations."  What  we  call  the  Confession  of  Faith 
was  composed  by  that  assembly,  as  a  part  of  the  uniformity  in  reli- 
gion which  was  then  intended,  and  which  it  was  the  object  of  the 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant  to  preserve  between  the  churches  in 
the  three  kingdoms  of  Scotland,  England,  and  Ireland.  When 
presbytery  was  established  in  Scotland  at  the  Revolution,  this  Con- 
fession of  Faith  was  ratified  in  the  Scottish  parliament :  it  afterwards 
received  the  sanction  of  the  treaty  of  Union  ;  and  it  continues  to  be 
the  avowed  confession  of  the  church  of  Scotland.  But  in  England, 
when  episcopacy  was  revived  after  the  Restoration,  the  thirty-nine 
articles  became,  as  formerly,  the  standard  of  that  church  ;  the  Con- 
fession of  Faith  was  of  course  set  aside ;  and  the  former  prejudices 
against  some  of  its  doctrines  were  very  much  confirmed  in  the  minds 
of  those  who  were  attached  to  episcopacy  and  monarchy,  by  their 
abhorrence  of  the  views  and  the  success  of  those  who  had  given  or- 
ders for  its  being  composed. 

The  circumstances  which  have  been  mentioned  explain  the  manner 
in  which  Calvinism  came  to  be  regarded,  by  the  body  of  the  people 
in  England,  as  a  name  nearly  allied  to  republicanism  ;  and  no  person 
who  is  acquainted  with  the  history  of  the  factions  of  that  country, 
can  entertain  a  doubt  that  political  causes  have  contributed  very 
largely  to  the  disrepute  in  which  that  system  has  been  held  by  many 


HISTORY    OF    CALVINISM.  595 

dignified  and  learned  members  of  our  neighbouring  church.  At  the 
same  time,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  several  divines  of  that 
church,  who  were  very  much  superior  to  the  weakness  of  being  led 
in  their  theological  creed  by  an  attachment  to  any  political  party, 
have  lent  the  support  of  their  erudition  and  abilities  to  some  miti- 
gated form  of  Arminianism.  Of  this  kind  were  Barrow,  Clarke, 
Whitby,  and  Jortin.  There  were  also  many  wise  and  able  men  in 
the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  who  endeavoured  to  repre- 
sent the  points  of  difference  between  the  Arminians  and  Calvinists  as 
of  little  importance,  and  who  received  the  name  of  Latitudinarians, 
from  wishing  to  unite  all  true  Protestants  against  the  approaches  of 
Popery.  Of  this  kind  were  Chillingworth,  Tillotson,  Ciidworth,  and 
Hoadley. 

It  is  farther  to  be  noticed,  that  there  has  long  been  a  general  wish 
in  the  members  of  the  church  of  England,  to  consider  themselves  as 
not  fettered  to  any  particular  system  of  predestination  by  the  articles 
which  they  subscribe.  Bishop  Burnet  declares  himself  to  be  an 
Arminian ;  and  after  giving  in  his  exposition  of  the  seventeenth 
article,  with  an  impartiality  more  apparent  than  real,  and  with  some 
degree  of  confusion,  a  view  of  the  arguments  upon  both  sides,  he 
concludes  in  these  words  :  "  It  is  very  probable  that  those  who  penned 
this  article  meant  that  the  decree  was  absolute ;  but  yet,  since  they 
have  not  said  it,  those  who  subscribe  the  articles  do  not  seem  to  be 
bound  to  any  thing  that  is  not  expressed  in  them ;  and,  therefore, 
although  the  Calvinists  have  less  occasion  for  scruple,  since  the  article 
does  seem  more  plainly  to  favour  them,  the  Remonstrants  may  sub- 
scribe this  article  without  renouncing  their  opinion  as  to  this  matter." 
He  says,  in  another  place,  "  The  church  has  not  been  peremptory, 
but  a  latitude  has  been  left  to  different  opinions."  And  Dr.  Jortin, 
in  his  dissertation  on  the  controversies  concerning  predestination  and 
grace,  which  was  published  in  1755,  tells  us  how  far  this  latitude  has 
been  used.  With  a  partiality  to  his  own  system,  and  a  virulence 
against  his  adversaries,  which  often  appear  to  an  excessive  and 
shameful  degree  in  his  writings,  he  thus  expresses  himself :  "  In  Eng- 
land, at  the  time  of  the  Synod  of  Dort,  we  were  much  divided  in  our 
opinions  concerning  the  controverted  articles ;  but  our  divnnes  having 
taken  the  liberty  to  think  and  judge  for  themselves,  and  the  civil  gov- 
ernment not  interposing,  it  hath  come  to  pass  that  from  that  time  to 
this,  almost  all  persons  here  of  any  note  for  learning  and  abilities, 
have  bid  adieu  to  Calvinism,  have  sided  with  the  Remonstrants,  and 
have  left  the  Fatalists  to  follow  their  own  opinions,  and  to  rejoice 
(since  they  can  rejoice)  in  a  religious  system,  consisting  of  human 
creatures  without  liberty,  doctrines  without  sense,  faith  without  rea- 
son, and  a  God  without  mercv." 

Dr.  Prettyman,  or  Tomline,  bishop  of  Lincoln,  who,  in  his 
Elements  of  Clnnstian  Theology,  has  given  a  large  commentary  on  the 
39  Articles,  labours  to  prove  that  the  seventeenth  admits  of  an 
Arminian  sense,  and  writes  against  Calvinism  with  the  virulence  of  a 
man  who  does  not  understand  it.  He  has  also  pubUshed  a  second 
work,  which  lie  calls  a  Refutation  of  Calvinism — a  strange  title  for  a 
book  avowedly  written  by  a  dignitary  of  that  church,  whose  founders 
were  Calvinists,  and  one  of  whose  articles,  prepared  by  them  in  its 


596  HISTORY    OF    CALVINISM. 

natural  and  obvious  meaning,  announces  the  characteristical  doctrines 
of  Calvinism.  I  waited  with  much  impatience  for  this  book :  but 
was  greatly  disappointed  with  its  contents.  It  contains  hardly  any 
general  reasoning ;  it  is  chiefly  a  collection  and  exposition  of  texts, 
which  have  been  often  brought  forward  by  Arminian  writers ;  and  a 
repetition  of  that  abuse  which  they  are  in  the  habit  of  pouring  forth 
upon  those  who  differ  from  them.  The  book  has  already  passed  through 
many  editions,  and  meeting  the  prejudices  and  wishes  of  a  great  body 
of  the  English  clergy,  is  extremely  popular  in  England.  But  it  is  by 
no  means  formidable  in  point  of  argument :  and  however  much  it 
may  be  admired  by  those  who  wish  to  believe  the  system  which  it 
professes  to  support,  it  will  not  shake  the  creed  of  any  person  well 
instructed  in  the  fundamental  principles  of  Calvinism. 

While  therefore  the  members  of  the  church  of  Scotland,  by  subscrib- 
ing the  Confession  of  Faith,  find  themselves  equally  restrained  from 
avowing  Arminian  and  Arian  tenets,  the  members  of  the  church  of 
England  continually  use  that  liberty  which  they  consider  as  left  to 
them,  and  think  that  they  adhere  to  the  orthodox  faith  of  their  church, 
when  they  defend  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  and  the  doctrine  of 
Atonement,  although  they  disclaim  the  Hteral  Calvinistic  interpreta- 
tion of  the  seventeenth  article.  Amongst  the  ministers  of  the 
established  church  of  England,  there  are  some  who  adopt  this  inter- 
pretation, and  who  upon  that  account  are. called  doctrinal  Caivinists. 
There  are  Universalists,  who,  without  entering  farther  into  the 
disputed  points,  consider  the  benefit  of  the  death  of  Christ  as 
extending  to  all,  either  by  the  general  resurrection,  or  by  the  general 
offer  of  pardon  upon  easy  terms  ;  and  there  are  others  who  scruple 
not  to  avow  their  attachment  to  all  the  parts  of  the  Arminian 
doctrine. 

It  might  be  thought  that  in  the  church  of  Rome  the  infallibility  of 
the  Pope  would  furnish  an  effectual  antidote  against  theological  con- 
troversy. Yet,  even  in  that  church,  the  questions  in  dispute  between 
the  Arminians  and  Caivinists  have  never  been  decided ;  and  large 
bodies  of  Roman  Catholics  have  received  distinguishing  names  from 
the  tenets  which  they  hold  in  relation  to  these  questions.  The 
church  of  Rome  was  inclined,  by  the  whole  system  of  its  corruptions, 
as  well  as  by  its  antipathy  to  the  first  reformers,  to  adhere  to  the 
Semi-Pelagian  doctrine.  The  council  of  Trent  was  summoned  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  to  give  a  decent  colour  to  these  corruptions,  and 
to  crush  the  Reformation.  But  the  fear  of  offending  the  Dominicans, 
who  held  the  doctrine  of  Augustine,  restrained  the  council  from 
openly  avowing  the  Semi-Pelagian  doctrine  ;  and  their  decree  upon 
this  point,  like  many  other  wary  decisions  of  that  pretended  oracle,  is 
expressed  with  such  obscurity  and  ambiguity,  as  to  leave  the  matter 
undecided.  The  learning  of  the  Jesuits,  whose  order  arose  about  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  was  employed,  from  the  time  of  their 
institution,  to  overturn  the  doctrine  of  the  reformers;  and  the  term 
scieniia  media,  invented  by  Molina,  and  introduced  in  the  year  1588 
into  the  controversy  concerning  predestination,  was  generally  adopted 
by  his  brethren.  The  Jesuits  were  in  this  manner  opposed  to  the 
Dominicans ;  and  the  controversy  has  been  the  occasion  of  many 
distractions  and  convulsions  in  the  church  of  Rome,  which  the  autho- 


HISTORr    OP    CALVINISM.  597 

rity  of  succeeding  Popes  has  been  unable  to  suppress,  and  which 
their  wisdom  has  not  found  an  expedient  method  of  healing.  The 
Dominicans  received,  about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
very  powerful  aid  from  Jansenius,  who,  in  a  book  entitled  Augustinus, 
gave  a  full  and  faithful  picture  of  the  sentiments  of  Augustine,  upon 
the  corruption  of  human  nature,  predestination,  and  divine  aid.  This 
exhibition  of  the  sentiments  of  Augustine  demonstrated,  that  the 
Jesuits,  the  most  zealous  supporters  of  a  church  which  professes  the 
highest  veneration  for  that  father,  had,  upon  these  subjects,  departed 
very  far  from  his  doctrine.  The  Jesuits,  who  saw  that  their  credit 
was  in  danger  of  being  shaken  by  this  discovery,  exerted  their 
influence  at  difierent  times,  in  procuring  from  the  Pop^s  a  condemna- 
tion of  the  book  of  Jansenius.  His  followers  have  often  endured 
persecution  ;  and  the  boasted  unity  of  the  Roman  church  was  inter- 
rupted, both  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  by  the 
bitterest  contests  between  those  who,  from  adhering  to  the  interpreta- 
tion which  Molina  gave  of  this  intricate  subject,  were  known  by  the 
name  of  MoUnists,  and  those  who,  having  received  the  knowledge 
of  the  doctrhie  of  Augustine  from  the  book  of  Jansenius,  are  called 
Jansenists. 

The  private  passions  which  mingled  their  influences  with  the  con- 
troversies relating  to  predestination,  either  in  the  Roman  or  in  the 
Protestant  church,  are  of  no  importance  to  a  fair  inquirer  after  truth. 
But  it  is  impossible  to  look  back  upon  the  various  forms  of  agitating 
the  same  questions  which  have  presented  themselves  to  us  in  this  short 
review,  without  perceiving,  that  however  strongly  the  human  mind  is 
disposed  to  inquire  into  the  subject,  there  is  much  intricacy  in  the 
questions  connected  with  it,  and  little  probability  of  arriving  at  those 
clear  and  short  conclusions  which  may  prevent  future  dispute. 

Hence,  upon  this  subject,  as  upon  the  subject  of  the  Trinity,  there 
are  two  very  important  lessons  that  naturally  result  from  all  our 
researches,  which  I  may  be  allowed  to  take  this  opportunity  of  im- 
pressing upon  the  minds  of  my  students.  The  first  lesson  is,  that  they 
should  beware  of  engaging  the  people  to  whom  they  may  be  called 
to  discourse,  in  those  thorny  speculations  from  which  they  may  find 
it  impossible  to  disentangle  themselves,  and  where  the  incapacity  of 
perceiving  the  truth  may  engender  errors  very  hurtful  to  their  comfort 
and  their  virtue.  The  secret  will  of  God  appears,  from  the  very  nature 
of  the  expression,  to  form  no  part  of  the  business  of  preaching.  Our 
commission  is  to  declare  to  the  people  his  revealed  will :  and  although 
it  may  often  be  impossible  for  us  to  explain  particular  passages  of 
Scripture,  or  to  treat  of  some  of  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  Christianity, 
without  a  reference  to  the  doctrine  of  predestination  ;  yet  care  ought 
to  be  taken  to  present  only  those  clear,  unembarrassed  views  of  that 
doctrine  which  naturally  connect  with  practice,  never  to  amuse  the 
people  with  an  account  of  the  abuses  of  the  doctrine,  but  to  say  what 
we  judge  proper  to  say  of  it  in  such  a  manner  as  to  be  assured  that 
they  shall  learn  no  such  abuse  from  us;  and  to  endeavour,  above  all 
things,  to  leave  upon  their  minds  a  strong  impression  of  these  most 
important  truths,  that  however  certain  the  doctrine  of  predestination 
is  in  general,  the  only  certainty  which  any  individual  can  attain  of 
his  predestination  is  inseparably  joined  with  the  distinguished  exer- 


59S  HISTORY    OF    CALVINISM. 

cise  of  every  Christian  grace ;  and  that  all  the  hearers  of  the  gospel 
are  required,  both  by  the  nature  of  the  tiling,  and  by  the  constant 
tenor  of  Scripture,  to  try  themselves,  whether  they  are  in  the  number 
of  the  elect,  by  the  fruits  of  their  election. 

The  second  lesson  which  naturally  results  from  our  researches  upon 
this  subject  is,  that  men  of  speculation  should  exercise  mutual  for- 
bearance. It  is  not  a  matter  of  surprise,  that  persons  of  the  most 
enlightened  minds  should  now  differ  upon  points  which  have  divided 
the  opinions  of  mankind  ever  since  they  began  to  speculate.  It  is 
not  to  be  supposed  that  all  the  consequences  which  may  be  shown  to 
flow  from  any  system  are  held  by  every  one  who  defends  that  sys- 
tem ;  for  he  may  either  not  see  that  the  consequences  arise,  or  he 
may  find  some  method  of  evading  them.  The  Calvinists  are  not 
answerable  for  the  various  abuses  of  their  doctrine  which  gave  birth 
to  the  Fanatics  and  Antinomians  of  different  ages ;  for  they  are  able 
to  show  that  in  all  these  abuses  their  doctrine  is  perverted.  Nor  are 
the  Arminians  to  be  charged  with  those  unworthy  conceptions  of  the 
Deity  which  to  many  appear  inseparable  from  their  system ;  for  they 
mean  to  place  the  justice  and  goodness  of  God  in  the  most  honourable 
light ;  and  it  appears  to  them  that  they  err  on  the  safe  side,  and  that 
they  derive  a  sufficient  excuse  from  the  sublimity  of  the  subject,  and 
the  weakness  of  our  faculties,  if,  in  their  zeal  to  maintain  the  honour 
of  the  moral  attributes  of  the  Deity,  they  seem  to  derogate  from  his 
sovereignty  and  independence. 

While  our  researches  upon  this  subject  suggest  these  two  lessons, 
there  are  also  two  rules  to  be  observed  in  reading  upon  this  contro- 
versy, which  are  rendered  necessary  by  the  manner  of  its  being 
handled  in  former  times.  The  first  is,  not  to  form  an  opinion  of 
either  system  from  the  writings  of  those  who  oppose  it,  but  to  do  both 
sides  the  justice  of  considering  what  they  say  for  themselves.  The 
Arminians  and  the  Calvinists  are  very  much  upon  a  footing  in  respect 
of  the  foul  abuse  which  they  have  poured  upon  one  another.  But  it 
should  always  be  remembered,  and,  as  far  as  my  observation  goes,  it 
is  a  rule  which  you  may  safely  follow  in  reading  upon  every  subject, 
that  from  whomsoever  abuse  proceeds,  it  deserves  to  be  treated  with 
equal  contempt ;  that  if  it  is  not  a  sure  mark  of  the  weakness  of  the 
reasoning  with  which  it  is  connected,  it  certainly  does  not  make  the 
reasoning  stronger ;  and  that  every  candid  reader  sets  aside  all  the 
expressions  of  mutual  reproach,  which  find  a  place  in  the  discussion 
of  any  question,  as  of  no  avail  to  the  argument. 

The  second  rule  which  is  necessary  in  reading  upon  this  contro- 
versy, is  not  to  think  yourselves  obliged  to  defend  every  position  of 
those  writers  whose  general  system  you  approve,  or  every  view  of 
the  subject  which  they  may  have  presented,  and  to  beware  of  con- 
ceiving any  prejudice  against  the  truth,  because  you  find  it  impossible 
to  adopt  all  that  has  been  said  by  the  friends  of  the  truth.  It  has 
happened  that  many  Calvinists  in  former  times,  with  gloomy  notions 
of  the  Deity,  with  a  slender  knowledge  of  philosophy,  and  with  much 
animosity  against  their  adversaries,  have  exhibited  their  system  in  a 
dress  very  little  fitted  to  recommend  it  to  the  world  :  and  it  is  com- 
mon with  Arminian  writers  to  give  a  picture  of  that  system  in  a 
number  of  the  most  exceptionable  passages  quoted  from  books  of  those 


HISTORY    OF    CALVINISM.  599 

times.  This  is  an  art  very  likely  to  succeed  with  men  who  have  not 
leisure  or  capacity  to  inquire :  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  disres- 
pectful terms  in  which  Calvinism  is  often  mentioned  by  many  shallow 
thinkers,  and  even  by  some  respectable  clergymen  in  the  church  of 
England,  arises  entirely  from  their  having  read  such  quotations,  and 
perhaps  little  more,  upon  the  subject. 

Although  the  style  of  writing  upon  this  controversy,  which  occurs 
in  many  books,  renders  these  rules  necessary,  it  is  our  happiness  to 
live  in  a  more  enlightened  and  polished  age,  when  the  asperity  of 
former  times  is  universally  condemned,  when  the  views  of  men  are 
very  much  enlarged,  and  when  Calvinism  has  formed  an  alliance  with 
philosophy.     The  celebrated  metaphysician  Leibnitz,  who  flourished 
in  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  although  a  member  of  the 
Lutheran  church,  illustrated  and  established  the  doctrine  of  philoso- 
phical necessity,  or  the  perfect  consistency  of  the  freedom  of  a  moral 
agent  with  the  infallible  determination  of  his  conduct,  which  is  the 
foundation  of  Calvinism.      There  is  a  small  book  of  his  entitled, 
"  Essais  de  Theodicee,  sur  la  bonte  de  Dieu,  la  liberte  de  I'homme,  et 
I'origine  du  mal,"  which  contains  almost  all  the  principles  upon 
which  I  have  rested  the  defence  of  the  Calvinistic  tenets.     Wolfius 
trod  in  the  steps  of  Leibnitz.     Canzius  published  a  book,  entitled 
"  Philosophias  Leibnitiana?  et  Wolfiana?  usus  in  Theologia  per  prse- 
cipua  fidei  capita ;"  and  several  systems  of  theology,  written  in  the 
course  of  the  eighteenth  century,  by  divines  of  the  Reformed  churches 
on  the  continent,  as  Wyttenbach,  and  Stapfer,  and  by  Edwards  in 
America,  have  applied  the  philosophy  of  Leibnitz  and  Wolfius  to' 
explain  and  vindicate  the  doctrines  of  Calvin.   These  doctrines,  instead 
of  appearing  liable  to  that  charge  of  absurdity,  which  the  Arminian 
writers  in  all  times,  and  even  in  the  present  day,  have  not  scrupled  in 
opprobrious  terms  to  advance,  now  assume  a  rational  and  philoso- 
phical form,  and  appear  to  be  a  consistent  whole,  arising  out  of  a  few 
leading  ideas  followed  out  to  their  consequences  :  while  the  Arminians 
appear  to  be  only  half-thinkers,  who  stop  short  before  they  arrive  at 
the  conclusion  ;  and  although  they  will  not,  like  the  Socinians,  deny 
the  principles,  yet  refuse  to  follow  the  Calvinists  in  making  the  appli- 
cation of  them. 

I  have  no  difficulty  in  concluding  the  subject,  which  has  engaged 
our  attention  for  so  long  a  time,  by  declaring  it  to  be  my  conviction 
that  the  Calvinistic  system  is  the  most  philosophical.  The  Arminians 
indeed  have  often  boasted  that  all  the  men  of  learning  and  genius  are 
on  their  side,  and  that  those  only  who  choose  to  walk  in  trammels 
adhere  to  Calvinism.  But  there  is  reason  to  think  that  the  progress 
of  philosophy  will  gradually  produce  a  revolution  in  the  minds  of 
men  ;  that  those  opinions  concerning  the  nature  of  human  liberty, 
and  the  extent  of  the  providence  of  God,  from  which  the  Calvinistic 
system  is  easily  deduced,  although  they  have  not  received  the  coun- 
tenance of  Dr.  Reid  in  his  essays  on  the  active  powers,  will,  even  in 
opposition  to  his  respectable  name,  find  a  place  in  every  system  of 
pneumatics ;  and  that  there  will  thus  be  diffused  amongst  calm 
inquirers  a  more  general  impression  that  the  doctrine  of  the  first 
reformers,  with  regard  to  predestination,  admits  of  a  better  defence 
than  it  received  from  them.     It  gives  me  particular  satisfaction  to 


600  HISTORY   OP    CALVINISM. 

observe,  that  the  late  Dr.  Horsley,  bishop  of  St.  Asaph,  one  of  the 
profoimdest  scholars  that  ever  adorned  the  church  of  England, 
although  he  has  not  adopted  all  the  Calvinistic  tenets,  has  laid  down 
in  the  most  precise  and  satisfactory  manner,  those  principles  from 
which  all  the  tenets  of  Calvin  that  we  are  obliged  to  hold  appear  to 
me  readily  to  flow.  In  a  sermon  upon  providence  and  free  agency, 
he  has  declared  his  conviction  with  regard  to  the  certain  influence  of 
motives  as  final  causes,  in  reference  to  which  the  mind  puts  forth  its 
powers,  and  as  the  means  by  which  God  governs  the  intelligent 
creation ;  and  also  with  regard  to  the  infallible  predetermination  of 
those  events  which  the  Almighty  in  this  manner  accomplishes.  The 
friends  of  Calvinism  require  nothing  more.  We  may  reject  every 
tenet  which  does  not  result  from  these  principles ;  and  we  may  solace 
ourselves  under  the  scorn  of  many  superficial  writers  in  the  church 
of  England  who  condemn  what  they  do  not  understand,  with  the 
countenance  of  this  respectable  auxiliary,  who,  without  declaring 
himself  a  partisan,  has  lent  his  assistance  in  clearing  that  strong 
ground  which  every  sound  and  able  Calvinist  will  now  occupy. 


BOOK  V. 

INDEX     OF    PARTICULAR    QUESTIONS    ARISING    OUT    OF 

OPINIONS  CONCERNING  THE  GOSPEL  REMEDY, 

AND   OF   MANY   OF   THE  TECHNICAL 

TERMS   IN   THEOLOGY. 


The  fifth  book  is  the  conclusion  of  that  part  of  my  course  which  is 
properly  theological,  and  means  to  present  a  short  view  of  many 
particular  questions  which  have  arisen  out  of  the  general  principles, 
and  of  the  technical  terms,  which,  having  occurred  in  discussing  these 
questions,  now  form  a  part  of  the  language  of  theology.  Some  of  the 
questions  turn  upon  the  Nature  of  the  Remedy ;  much  the  greater 
part  upon  the  Extent  and  the  Application  of  it.  But  none  of  them 
will  require  to  be  handled  with  any  detail ;  for  the  length  to  which 
they  are  spread  out  in  ordinary  systems  is  only  a  repetition  under 
different  forms  of  the  same  principles.  My  object  is  simply  to  furnish 
you  with  an  index  of  the  questions  to  which  they  have  been  applied, 
and  a  vocabulary  of  the  language,  which  has  acquired  a  currency 
amongst  the  writers  upon  that  science  which  you  profess  to  study. 


CHAPTER  I. 


REGENERATION — CONVERSION — FAITH. 


To  men  considered  as  sinners,  i.  e.  both  guilty  and  corrupt,  the 
gospel  brings  a  remedy.  The  remedy  is  of  saving  benefit  only  to 
those  by  whom  it  is  embraced.  It  cannot  be  embraced  unless  it  be 
known  ;  but  it  is  made  known  to  all  to  whom  the  gospel  is  published ; 
and  the  intimation  given  by  publishing  it,  together  with  the  invitation 
and  the  command  to  embrace  it  which  always  accompanies  the 
intimation,  has  received,  according  to  an  expression  frequent  in  the 
53  4K  601 


602  REGENERATION" CONVERSION FAITH. 

Epistles,  the  name  of  a  call.  "God  hath  called  you  by  our  gospel  to 
the  obtaining  of  the  glory  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  2  Thess. 
ii.  14. 

The  Arminians  admit  no  other  call  but  that  which  is  common  to 
all  who  live  in  a  Christian  country,  and  which  is  obeyed  or  rejected 
according  to  the  disposition  of  the  person  who  receives  it.  But  the 
Calvinists  are  led  by  their  principles  to  make  a  distinction  between 
external  and  effectual  calling,  in  support  of  which  they  quote  these 
words  of  our  Lord, — "Many  are  called,  but  few  are  cliosen,"  The 
external  call,  which  is  addressed  to  all  who  live  in  a  Christian 
country,  carries  along  with  it  such  evidences  of  the  divine  original  of 
the  gospel,  so  striking  an  exhibition  of  the  love  of  God  to  mankind, 
and  so  strong  an  obligation  upon  every  reasonable  being  to  attend, 
that  it  aggravates  the  condemnation  of  those  by  whom  it  is  rejected. 
But  finding  men  alienated  from  the  life  of  God,  corrupted  in  their 
understandings,  their  will,  and  their  affections,  it  has  not  the  effect  of 
inducing  them  to  embrace  the  remedy,  unless  it  be  accompanied  by 
the  operations  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  These  operations,  in  their  full 
extent,  are  peculiar  to  tlie  elect  for  whom  they  were  purchased,  and 
to  whom  they  are  applied  through  the  mediation  of  Christ ;  and 
therefore  to  them  only  the  external  call  becomes  effectual ;  in  other 
words,  they  only  accept  the  invitation,  and  obey  the  command  given 
them  by  that  call.  The  call  is  rendered  effectual  with  regard  to  them 
by  the  removal  of  that  corruption  which  renders  it  ineffectual  with 
regard  to  others ; — by  a  change  of  character,  which,  in  respect  of  the 
understanding,  is  such  an  illumination  as  qualifies  them  for  receiving 
knowledge  ;  in  respect  of  the  will,  is  an  influence  so  powerful  as 
effectually  inclines  them  to  follow  the  inducements  that  are  proposed 
in  the  word  of  God  ;  and  in  respect  of  the  whole  soul,  produces  a 
refinement  and  elevation  by  which  the  affections  are  determined  to 
the  worthiest  objects.  This  introduction  of  the  principles  of  a  new 
life,  into  those  who  are  considered  as  spiritually  dead,  is  called,  in 
conformity  to  Scripture  language,  regeneration.*  It  is  also  called 
conversion,  a  turning  men  from  that  state  of  mind  and  those  habits 
of  life,  which  enter  into  our  view  when  we  speak  of  human  nature 
as  corrupt,  to  those  sentiments  and  habits  which  proceed  from  the 
Spirit  of  God.f  And  it  is  evident  that  when  a  man  is  thus  converted, 
all  the  obstacles  to  his  accepting  the  invitation  in  the  gospel  cease  to 
exist,  and  the  remedy  there  provided,  approving  itself  to  his  under- 
standing and  his  heart,  is  cordially  embraced. 

Infinite  is  the  number  of  questions  which  have  been  agitated  in 
different  periods  concerning  the  manner  of  this  conversion.  But  as 
there  are  two  extremes  in  the  opinions  upon  this  subject,  in  the  mid- 
dle between  which  the  Calvinistic  system  professes  to  lie,  it  is  easy, 
without  entering  into  any  detail  as  to  the  shades  of  difference  that 
distinguish  particular  opinions,  to  apprehend  the  leading  principles 
of  those  who  lean  to  either  extreme,  and  to  perceive  the  caution  with 
which  the  Calvinists  keep  clear  of  both.  Upon  the  one  side  are  the 
Pelagians,  the  Semi-Pelagians,  and  all  those  who,  under  whatever 

*  John  iii.  3,  5.     2  Cor.  v.  17.     Ephes.  iv.  22,  23,  24. 
f  Matth.  xviii.  3.     Acts  iii.  19  ;  xv.  3.     1  Thess.  i.  9. 


REGENERATION CONVERSION FAITH.  603 

name,  and  with  whatever  modifications,  hold  what  has  been  called 
the  Synergistical  system.  That  system  derives  its  name  from  repre- 
senting man  as  co-operating  with  God  in  his  conversion,  and  the 
efficacy  of  the  grace  of  God  as  depending  upon  that  co-operation. 
The  Calvinistic  system  is  directly  opposed  to  this  extreme ;  and  the 
principles  which  have  been  illustrated  afford  an  answer  to  all  the 
forms  which  the  Synergistical  doctrine  can  assume.  Upon  the  other 
side  lie  all  the  degrees  and  shades  of  the  ancient  mystical  theology, 
which  is  now  better  known  by  the  name  of  fanaticism.  The  character 
of  that  theology,  and  the  manner  of  discrimhiating  Calvinism  from 
an  extreme  to  which  it  seems  to  approach,  are  now  to  be  illustrated. 

The  mystical  spirit  appeared  very  early  in  the  Christian  church. 
Its  origin  is  to  be  traced  not  so  much  to  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  the 
gospel,  as  to  the  alUance  which  our  religion  very  early  formed  with 
the  Platonic  philosophy.  Plato  held  that  the  soul  of  man  is  an  ema- 
nation from  the  Supreme  Mind,  at  present  imprisoned  in  the  body, 
detained  by  its  connection  with  matter,  from  holding  communion  with 
the  Father  of  spirits,  and  exposed  by  the  contamination  of  surround- 
ing objects  to  the  danger  of  being  disqualified  for  returning  to  its 
original.  He  taught,  therefore,  that  it  is  the  duty  of  man  by  medita- 
tion and  retirement,  to  disentangle  himself  from  his  present  fetters, 
and  to  prepare  his  soul,  by  a  gradual  emancipation,  for  the  freer  and 
happier  life  which  awaits  it  after  it  is  raised  above  every  thing  ter- 
restrial. This  principle,  when  applied  with  those  qualifications  and 
restrictions  that  are  rendered  necessary  by  the  active  engagements  of 
life,  lays  the  foundation  of  magnanimity,  of  sentimental  devotion, 
and  of  many  exercises  which  contribute  in  a  high  degree  to  the  puri- 
fication of  the  mind.  But  the  principle  is  easily  corrupted,  and  pro- 
duces in  men  of  warm  imaginations,  of  constitutional  indolence,  or 
of  feeble  spirits,  a  variety  of  abuse,  hurtful  both  to  society  and  to  the 
character  of  the  individual.  It  was  adopted  in  the  third  century  by 
Origen,  a  zealous  disciple  of  the  Platonic  school.  Finding  a  ready 
admission  with  many  learned  Christians  who  had  been  educated  in 
that  school,  and  being  diffused  by  the  credit  of  Origen's  writings 
through  a  great  part  of  the  Christian  world,  it  early  began  to  pro- 
duce those  corruptions,  which,  under  different  names,  and  with  very 
different  effects,  have  continued  from  that  time  to  the  present  day. 

From  this  Platonic  principle,  incorporated  with  the  doctrines  of 
the  gospel,  proceeded  the  whole  race  of  hermits  and  monks,  who, 
beginning  with  Paul  the  hermit  in  the  third  century,  spread  over  all 
parts  of  Christendom,  and  have  left  traces  of  their  existence  in  every 
land.  Some  lived  in  solitude  ;  others  in  small  societies ;  but  all  pro- 
fessed, by  a  life  of  abstemiousness,  mortification  and  penance,  to  raise 
their  souls  to  a  more  intimate  communion  with  the  Deity  than  is 
granted  to  ordinary  men.  From  the  same  principle  proceeded  the 
pretences  to  immediate  inspiration,  assumed  by  men,  who,  continuing 
to  live  in  the  world,  were  conceived  to  be  in  this  manner  exalted  above 
their  neighbours,  as  the  favourites  of  heaven. 

It  is  the  province  of  ecclesiastical  history  to  mark  the  shades  of 
difference  between  the  philosophy  of  the  ancient  Mystics,  the  pre- 
tended theurgy  or  magic  of  the  followers  of  Paracelsus,  the  bloody, 
tiu-bulent,  levelling  spirit  which  appeared  in  Germany  at  the  time  of 


604  REGENERATION CONVERSION FAITH. 

the  Reformation,  the  peaceful  submissive  spirit  of  the  Quakers,  who 
arose  in  the  seventeenth  century,  the  presumptuous  familiarity  in  the 
language  and  tenets  of  Antonia  Bourignon,  against  which  our  church 
guards  her  ministers  under  the  name  of  Bourignionism,  and  the  blas- 
phemous incomprehensible  jargon  of  Jacob  Behmen.  Whatever 
were  their  points  of  difference,  they  all  agreed  in  the  general  charac- 
ter of  fanaticism,  the  pretending  to  such  an  immediate  communication 
with  the  Deity  as  furnished  an  inward  light,  to  the  guidance  of  which 
they  resigned  themselves. 

Some  fanatics  have  approached  so  near  to  deistical  principles,  as  to 
believe  that  there  is  an  inward  light  common  to  all  men,  and  suffi- 
cient, without  any  extraordinary  revelation,  to  bring  those  who  follow 
it  to  eternal  life.  Others,  among  whom  is  the  celebrated  Barclay,  .the 
author  of  the  apology  for  the  Quakers,  treading  in  the  steps  of  the 
advocates  for  universal  redemption,  consider  this  inward  light  as  one 
of  the  benefits  of  the  gospel,  procured  for  mankind  by  the  interposi- 
tion of  Jesus  Christ,  but  extending  to  all  in  every  country,  whether 
they  have  heard  of  the  gospel  or  not,  and  given  with  equal  liberality 
to  every  man  to  be  excited  and  improved  by  his  own  endeavours. 
And  there  are  fanatics,  who,  adhering  to  the  Calvinistic  ideas,  with 
regard  to  the  extent  of  the  remedy,  consider  this  inward  light  as  pe- 
culiar to  the  elect.  The  ancient  mystics,  who  had  learned  in  the 
Platonic  school  to  regard  the  Son  as  the  reason  and  wisdom  of  the 
Father,  and  to  call  him  by  the  names,  ^wj,  (jo^io,  considered  the  inward 
light  vouchsafed  to  men  as  a  portion  of  this  reason  or  wisdom,  an 
emanation  from  Christ  the  true  light ;  and  many  modern  fanatics,  re- 
taining this  idea,  although  ignorant  of  the  philosophical  language 
from  which  it  arose,  and  applying  it  to  the  Scripture  phrases,  "Christ 
dwelling  in  us,  Christ  formed  in  us,"  are  accustomed  to  call  the  in- 
ward light  to  which  they  pretend,  the  hidden  Christ,  or  the  Christ 
withm :  while  other  fanatics,  who,  with  the  generality  of  Christians, 
regard  the  Holy  Ghost  as  a  distinct  person,  the  fountain  and  distri- 
buter of  spiritual  influences,  mean  by  the  inward  light  the  operation 
of  the  Spirit  upon  the  mind.  But  whether  the  inward  light  be  con- 
ceived as  proceeding  from  the  action  of  the  Spirit  or  the  inhabitation 
of  the  Son, — whether  it  be  conceived  as  the  portion  of  all  men,  or  as 
peculiar  to  the  favourites  of  heaven,  this  is  the  general  character  of 
what  we  call  fanaticism,  that  the  inward  light  is  understood  to  be  a 
perfect  guide  to  those  who  enjoy  it,  and  the  only  guide  which  they 
are  obliged  to  follow.  Religion,  with  them,  consists  entirely  of  feel- 
ing, an  inexpressible  delight,  which  supersedes  or  renders  in  a  great 
measure  insignificant,  every  thing  external.  It  appears  to  them  of 
little  importance  Avhether  the  understanding  be  informed,  provided 
the  heart  be  touched.  They  are  more  solicitous  about  the  allegorical 
sense  which  the  Scriptures  may  receive,  than  about  the  facts  or  rea- 
sonings contained  in  them.  They  consider  Christ  without,  or  the  facts 
recorded  in  the  history  of  his  life,  and  the  precepts  delivered  in  his 
own  discourses  and  the  writings  of  his  apostles,  as  furnishing  a  direc- 
tory of  a  very  inferior  kind  to  Christ  within  them.  They  undervalue 
the  ordinances  of  religion ;  they  think  it  better  patiently  to  wait  for 
the  illapse  of  the  Spirit  than  to  malie  any  exertion  of  their  own ;  and 
they  rank  the  most  punctual  performance  of  the  great  duties  of  justice 


REGENERATION CONVERSION FAITH.  605 

and  benevolence  very  far  below  certain  sentiments  and  emotions,  l)y 
which  they  consider  the  Deity  as  manifesting  himself  to  their  souls, 
as  vouchsafing  of  his  special  love  a  revelation  not  granted  to  other 
men,  and  as  maintaining  that  communion  with  them  by  which  they 
are  eifectually  called,  separated  from  sinners,  and  made  partakers  of 
a  divine  nature. 

This  is  fanaticism,  the  distinguishing  feature  of  some  societies,  both 
of  ancient  and  of  modern  date,  and  some  thicture  of  which  may  often 
be  met  with  among  those  who  belong  to  the  established  church.  It 
is  a  very  dangerous  spirit,  because  it  tends  to  substitute,  in  place  of 
that  clear,  precise  rule,  which  the  word  of  God  delivers  to  all,  some- 
thing which  is  undefined  and  unknown,  something  which,  depending 
in  a  great  measure  upon  bodily  constitution,  is  very  much  what  every 
man  chooses  to  make  it.  It  tends  to  beget  presumption  in  men  of 
warm  imaginations,  and  the  deepest  despair  in  persons  of  feeble 
spirits  and  of  constitutional  melancholy.  It  nourishes  arrogance,  and 
a  contempt  of  others  ;  and  it  has  often  relaxed  the  obligations  of  mo- 
rality, by  holding  forth  an  ideal  perfection,  a  spiritual  communion,  an 
approach  of  the  soul  to  God,  as  better  than  the  calm  and  uniform 
performance  of  those  things  which  are  good  and  profitable  to  men. 

It  is  of  very  great  importance  that  those,  who  declare  their  assent 
to  the  Calvinistic  system,  and  who  are  bound  to  make  that  system 
the  rule  of  their  public  teaching,  should  not  confound  it  with  fanati- 
cism, but  should  perceive  the  clear  and  strong  line  by  which  the  two 
are  discriminated.  Calvinism  adopts  as  one  of  its  fundamental  prin- 
ciples an  immediate  action  of  God  upon  the  soul,  and  in  this  respect 
it  appears  to  agree  with  fanaticism.  But  the  distinction  is  this  ;  that 
immediate  action  of  God,  upon  which  Calvinism  proceeds,  is  such  an 
action  as  restores  the  whole  nature  of  man ;  not  merely  exciting  sen- 
timents and  emotions,  but  conveying  light  to  his  understanding,  invi- 
gorating his  powers  of  action,  and  calling  forth  into  exercise  all  those 
principles  which  unite  in  forming  the  constitution  of  a  reasonable  and 
moral  agent.  This  action  is  conceived  to  be  so  entirely  the  work  of 
God,  as  to  admit,  at  the  time  of  its  being  first  exerted,  of  no  co-opera- 
tion from  the  being  whose  nature  is  restored  ;  and  hence  the  Calvin- 
istic system  stands  in  direct  opposition  to  the  Pelagian  and  Semi-Pe- 
lagian doctrine.  But  the  very  purpose  of  the  action  is  to  give  the 
being  who  is  restored  the  capacity  of  co-operating  in  the  production 
of  an  end  ;  and  that  end  is  accomplished  by  various  means  which  are 
exhibited,  that  they  may  operate  upon  him  according  to  the  laws  of 
his  nature,  and  by  various  exertions  which,  being  the  efiect  of  the 
restoration  of  his  faculties  through  the  grace  imparted  to  him,  have 
no  worth  or  value  except  what  they  derive  from  that  grace,  but  still 
are  as  much  his  own  exertions,  as  if  they  had  been  performed  by  the 
original  unassisted  powers  of  his  nature.  In  this  kind  of  action  there 
is  no  danger  of  delusion  ;  no  disjunction  of  emotion  from  knowledge, 
fpr  the  heart  is  addressed  through  the  understanding  ;  no  encourage- 
ment to  undervalue  the  word  of  God  and  the  ordinances  of  religion, 
for  those  are  the  means  by  which  the  Spirit  operates;  no  temptation 
to  neglect  the  duties  of  morahty,  for  these  are  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit. 
And  thus  Calvinism  is  manifestly  discriminated  from  fanaticism,  by 


5 


o>f 


^06  REGENERATION CONVERSION FAITH. 

the  nature  and  the  effects  of  that  action  which  it  represents  the  Fa- 
ther of  Spirits  as  exerting  upon  the  soul. 

It  is  readily  admitted  by  the  Calvinists,  that  God  may  act  upon  the 
mind  of  man  in  what  manner  he  pleases  ;  and  the  account  which 
they  give  of  the  conversion  of  those  who  are   elected,  but  who  by 
their  situation  are  excluded  from  the  outward  means  of  conversion, 
discovers  that,  in  their  opinion,  the  sovereignty  of  divine  grace  is  un- 
limited.    For  as  they  hold  that  God,  who  in  the  ordinary  course  of 
his  providence  makes  use  of  means,  is  free  to  work  without,  above, 
and  against  them  at  his  pleasure  ;  so  they  hold  also  that  elect  infants, 
and  other  elect  persons  who  are  incapable  of  being  outwardly  called 
by  the  ministry  of  the  word,  "  are  regenerated  by  Christ  through  the 
Spirit,  who  worketh  when,  and  where,  and  how  he  pleaseth."     But 
while  the  Calvinists,  according  to  their  own  principles,  consider  the 
Almighty  as  in  no  respect  restrained  by  the  means  which  he  himself 
has  appointed,  they  consider  the  use  of  outward  means  as  the  ordi- 
nary course  of  his  procedure  in  converting  those  who  are  within  their 
reach,  as  appointed  with  wisdom,  and  as  deriving  from  his  appoint- 
ment an  authority  which  renders  it  unwarrantable  and  presumptuous 
in  any  person  to  set  up  a  private  rule  in  preference  to  them.     Ac- 
cordingly, our  Confession  of  Faith  declares  that  nothing  is,  at  any 
time,  to  be  added  to  the  Scriptures,  whether  by  new  revelations  of 
the  Spirit,  or  traditions  of  men;  and  that  the  Supreme  Judge,  by 
which  all  private  spirits,  all  pretences  to  inward  illumination,  are  to 
be  examined,  can  be  no  other  but  the  Holy  Spirit  speaking  in  the 
Scriptures.* 

When  we  attend  to  the  general  strain  of  Scripture,  to  which  we 
are  directed  as  the  Judge  by  which  all  private  spirits  are  to  be  exa- 
mined, we  find  it  opposite  to  fanaticism.  In  Scripture  the  words  of 
truth  and  soberness  are  delivered  ;  facts  are  related  with  minuteness ; 
evidence  is  distinctly  proposed  ;  knowledge  is  conveyed  to  the  under- 
standing ;  ordinances  are  appointed  for  the  benefit  of  all ;  precepts 
are  given  for  the  direction  of  all ;  and  men  are  conducted  as  rational 
beings,  by  the  exercise  of  their  own  powers,  to  that  temper  of  mind 
and  those  actions  which  are  connected  with  salvation. 

The  general  strain  of  Scripture  is  so  opposite  to  fanaticism,  that  it 
appears  at  first  sight  to  favour  the  Pelagian  or  Semi-Pelagian  doc- 
trine. We  meet  everywhere  with  commands,  as  if  the  being  ad- 
dressed were  able  to  obey  them ;  with  counsels,  as  if  nothing  more 
than  moral  suasion  were  necessary  to  overcome  his  unwillingness ; 
with  various  expressions  of  the  connexion  between  his  duty  and  his 
happiness,  as  if  his  everlasting  condition  depended  upon  his  own  ex- 
ertions. These  conclusions  indeed  are  soon  found  to  be  too  hasty, 
because  we  meet  also  with  descriptions  of  his  condition,  which  imply 
that  he  is  of  himself  unable  to  do  anything,  and  with  promises  of  a  su- 
pernatural influence,  which  is  represented  as  the  only  sufficient  cause 
of  his  conversion.  But  we  must  not,  in  our  zeal  against  Pelagianism, 
allow  these  descriptions  and  promises  to  drive  us  into  fanaticism,  for 
then  we  render  the  commands,  the  counsels,  and  the  promises  un- 

•  Confession  of  Faith,  i.  6,  10. 


REGENERATION CONVERSION FAITH.  607 

meaning.  The  true  medium  between  the  two  extremes  is  that  which 
the  Calvinists  endeavour  to  hold,  when  they  consider  a  man  who  is 
regenerated  by  the  grace  of  God,  as  restored  to  the  full  possession  and 
the  renewed  exercise  of  all  his  faculties,  to  a  state  in  which  truth  illu- 
minates his  mind,  the  influence  of  moral  hiducements  is  felt,  the  exer- 
cises of  devotion  conspire  with  education  and  moral  discipline  in  re- 
fining his  character,  the  worthiest  objects  engage  his  affections,  the 
most  honourable  and  useful  employments  fill  up  his  time,  and  he  is 
led,  in  a  manner  corresponding  with  his  reasonable  nature  and  with 
the  condition  assigned  him  in  this  world,  to  that  happiness  which  is 
prepared  for  him  in  another. 

The  views  which  have  been  given  arc  the  best  preservative  against 
that  spirit  which  we  call  fanaticism.  For  according  to  these  views, 
that  cordial  acceptance  of  the  gospel  remedy,  which  is  known  in 
theological  language  by  the  name  of  faith,  although  the  fruit  of  the 
operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  attained  by  the  same  rational  procedure 
as  any  other  abiding  sentiment.  The  word  of  God,  the  ordinances 
of  religion,  the  opportunities  of  information  and  improvement,  habits 
of  attention  and  docility,  the  dispositions  of  a  gocd  and  honest  heart, 
and  the  virtues  of  an  active  life,  all  have  their  proper  value,  and  con- 
spire in  their  place,  under  the  direction  of  the  Spirit  of  God  from 
whom  they  proceed,  to  the  effectual  application  of  that  remedy  which 
his  love  has  provided. 

According  to  the  Calvinistic  system,  the  faith  which  is  produced  by 
the  action  of  God  upon  the  soul,  is  not  a  sudden  impulse,  a  solitary 
act,  a  transient  emotion,  but  a  habit  or  permanent  state  of  mind,  pro- 
ceeding upon  many  previous  acts,  and  embracing  many  kindred  dis- 
positions. As  it  implies  an  exercise  of  the  understanding  illuminated 
by  the  Spirit  of  God,  it  supposes  previous  knowledge ;  a  knowledge 
of  the  facts  which  constitute  the  history  of  our  religion,  of  the  argu- 
ments which  constitute  the  evidence  of  it,  of  the  doctrines  and  pre- 
cepts which  constitute  the  substance  of  it.  Hence  arises  the  propriety 
of  that  instruction  continually  addressed  by  the  reading  and  preaching 
of  the  word  to  those  in  whom  faith  may  be  produced.  Hence  we 
condemn  both  the  blind  implicit  faith,  which  the  church  of  Rome 
requires  by  human  authority  from  those  whom  she  studies  to  keep  in 
ignorance;  and  also  that  contempt  of  knowledge,  and  that  entire 
dependence  upon  present  emotions  which  are  the  characters  of 
fanaticism.  And  in  thus  representing  faith  as  a  rational  act,  we  fol- 
low the  direction  of  our  Lord,  who  commands  Christians  to  "  search 
the  Scriptures;"*  and  the  direction  of  Peter,  who  exhorts  them  to 
"  be  ready  always  to  give  an  answer  to  every  one  that  asketh  a  reason 
of  the  hope  that  is  in  them."t 

On  the  other  hand,  it  appears  from  what  has  been  stated,  that  a 
knowledge  of  the  facts  of  our  religion,  and  an  assent  upon  evidence 
to  its  truth,  is  not  the  whole  of  faith.  For  the  gospel  does  not  con- 
tain general  propositions,  which  may  be  supposed  to  find  at  all  times 
a  ready  admission  into  a  speculative  mind,  and  concerning  which 
nothing  more  is  required  than  to  perceive  that  they  are  true ;  but  its 
peculiar  character  being  this,  that  it  brings  a  remedy  for  the  present 

»  John  V.  39.  f   1  Pet.  iii.  15. 


608  REGENERATION CONVERSION FAITH. 

State  of  moral  evil,  the  mind,  according  to  the  view  of  human  nature 
upon  which  the  Calvinistic  system  proceeds,  is  not  disposed  to  accept 
of  the  remedy  until  a  change  upon  the  will  and  the  affections  be  pro- 
duced by  the  Spirit  of  God.  Hence  faith  stands  opposed  to  that 
love  of  sin  which  produces  an  aversion  to  the  remedy,  to  that  love 
of  the  world  which  produces  an  indifference  about  it,  to  that  pride 
and  self-confidence  which  make  it  appear  unnecessary ;  and  faith 
implies  what  our  Lord  calls  "  a  good  and  honest  heart,"  humbleness 
of  mind,  poverty  of  spirit,  hungering  and  thirsting  after  righteousness, 
all  those  moral  dispositions,  which  lead  us  with  cordiality  and  thank- 
fulness to  embrace  that  method  of  being  delivered  from  the  evils  of 
sin  which  the  gospel  reveals.  Hence  arises  the  propriety  of  the  many 
exhortations  ft»  faith  which  the  Scriptures  contain,  and  which  the 
preaching  of  the  word  continually  enforces  ;  hence,  too,  the  propriety 
of  representing  faith  in  Christ  as  a  duty,  for  the  neglect  of  which  men 
are  justly  condemned,  while  in  other  places  it  is  called  the  gift  of  God. 
For  as  the  exhortations  to  faith  are  one  of  the  instruments  employed 
in  producing  that  change  out  of  which  it  arises,  so  the  want  of  those 
moral  dispositions  with  which  it  is  connected  is  a  proof  of  that 
depravity  of  mind,  which,  from  whatever  cause  it  proceeds,  is,  to 
every  intelligent  being  who  observes  it,  an  object  of  the  highest  moral 
disapprobation. 

As  the  Greek  word  rendered  faith,  Tttcmy,  is  a  general  term,  denoting 
in  its  primary  meaning  persuasion,  or  credit  given  to  testimony,  and 
admitting  of  various  applications,  it  is  not  always  used  in  Scripture 
in  that  precise  and  full  sense  which  has  now  been  stated.  Divines 
are  accustomed  to  enumerate  four  kinds  of  faith.  The  faith  of  miracles, 
or  that  persuasion  of  the  power  of  their  master,  and  that  immediate 
impulse  which  enabled  many  of  the  first  Christians  to  perform,  in  his 
name,  works  far  exceeding  human  strength  ;  a  kind  of  faith,  which 
is  expressly  declared  in  Scripture  to  have  no  natural  connexion  with 
moral  qualifications,  and  to  give  no  assurance  of  salvation.  "  Though 
I  have  all  faith,"  says  Paul,  "  so  that  I  could  remove  mountains,  and 
have  not  charity,  I  am  nothing."*  Historical  faith,  or  the  assent  given 
to  truths,  the  evidence  of  which  the  understanding  is  unable  to  resist. 
So  it  is  said,  that  "  the  devils  believe  and  tremble  ;"t  and  it  is  con- 
ceived that  a  man  may  be  able  to  give  the  most  distinct  exposition  of  the 
arguments  for  Christianity,  and  the  most  satisfying  solution  of  every 
objection,  while  in  his  will  and  affections  he  is  an  enemy  to  the  cross  of 
Christ.  Temporary  faith,  or  those  emotions  of  admiration,  joy,  and 
gratitude,  and  those  purposes  of  obedience  which  are  excited  by  the 
counsels  or  promises  of  Scripture,  or  by  particular  exhibitions  of  the 
grace  of  the  gospel.  Of  this  kind  is  the  faith  described  by  our  Lord 
in  one  part  of  his  exposition  of  the  parable  of  the  sower;  the  faith  of 
many  who  followed  him,  of  whom  it  is  said  at  some  times  that  they 
believed,  although  their  conduct  discovers  that  they  retained  all  their 
evil  passions :  and  the  faith  of  a  great  part  of  the  hearers  of  the  gos- 
pel, who  are  not  wholly  unmoved  by  the  calls  which  they  receive, 
because  the  sentiments  of  human  nature  are  not  obliterated  from  their 
breasts,  and  yet  upon  whose  conduct  these  calls  do  not  appear  to  have 

*  1  Cor.  xiii.  v.  j-  James  ii.  19. 


REGENERATION — CONVERSION FAITH.  609 

any  abiding  influence.  Saving  faith,  which  is  considcrecl  by  tlie 
Arminians  as  distinguished  from  temporary  faith  only  by  its  duration. 
Faith,  according  to  their  system,  originates  in  the  favourable  recep- 
tion which  the  mind  gives  to  the  grace  of  God.  When  it  is  lost  by  a 
change  upon  the  character  of  him  in  whom  it  was  begun,  it  appears 
to  be  temporary ;  when  it  continues  during  the  whole  of  his  life,  it 
appears  to  be  saving.  But  the  Calvinists  are  led  by  their  principles 
to  consider  saving  faith  as  of  a  different  species  from  that  which  is 
temporary  ;  as  originating  in  the  operation  of  the  Spirit  of  God  upon 
those  in  whom  he  carries  his  purpose  into  execution ;  as  a  principle 
which  cannot  be  lost,  and  whose  fruit  endures  to  everlasting  life.  As 
it  presupposes  knowledge  and  assent  to  the  revelation  of  the  gospel, 
it  has  a  respect  to  all  the  parts  of  that  revelation  ;  and  as  it  implies  a 
firm  reliance  upon  the  promises  of  God  in  general,  it  has  a  special 
regard  to  that  declaration  which  is  characteristical  of  the  gospel,  that 
Jesus  Christ  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners.  "  This  saying," 
every  one  that  believeth  in  Christ  to  the  saving  of  his  soul  accounts 
"faithful,"  i.  e.  deserving  credit,  "and  worthy  of  all  acceptation," 
i.  e.  deserving  to  be  cordially  and  thankfully  embraced.  The  accept- 
ance of  this  saying  has  been  often  expressed  by  the  following  phrases, 
all  of  which  derive  some  countenance  from  Scripture ;  resting  upon 
Christ,  laying  hold  of  him,  flying  for  refuge  to  him,  coming  to  him, 
trusting  in  him,  receiving  him.  From  the  poverty  of  language,  all 
these  expressions  are  figurative,  and  consequently  liable  to  abuse. 
But  provided  the  figure  contained  in  them  be  not  tortured,  and  pro- 
vided it  be  always  remembered  in  the  use  of  them  that  faith  in  Christ 
does  not  omit  any  part  of  the  revelation  concerning  him,  but  embraces 
his  whole  character,  they  may  serve  to  mark  with  significancy  and 
precision  that  state  of  mind,  and  those  sentiments  which  are  the  first 
fruit  of  the  operation  of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  conversion  of  a 
sinner. 


4L 


610  JUSTIFICATION. 


CHAPTER  II. 


JUSTIFICATION. 


Upon  the  condition  of  those  in  whom  the  operation  of  the  Spirit 
produces  saving  faith,  there  is  a  change  which  in  Scripture  is  called 
justification;  and  that  notion  of  justification  by  faith  which  arises  out 
of  the  Catholic  opinion  concerning  the  nature  of  the  remedy,  and  the 
Calvinistic  tenets  concerning  the  extent  and  the  application  of  it,  may 
be  thus  shortly  stated. 

The  sufferings  of  the  Lord  Jesus  were  endured  in  the  stead  of  those 
whom  God  from  eternity  decreed  to  bring  to  salvation;  their  sins  were 
imputed  to  him  as  their  substitute,  and  he  bore  them  in  his  body  on 
the  tree.  In  all  that  he  suffered  and  did  there  was  a  merit,  which  the 
apostle,  Rom.  v.  18.  calls  h  fitxatw^a,  one  righteousness,  and  upon 
account  of  which  he  says,  1  Cor.  i.  30,  x^wi-o^  eysprjOtj  j^^utp  Bixawdwr;. 
When  those  for  whom  Christ  suffered  believe  on  him,  this  righteous- 
ness is  imputed  to  them,  i.  e.  counted  as  theirs  in  the  judgment  of  God. 
Considered  in  themselves  they  are  guilty  and  deserve  to  suffer,  but  by 
means  of  the  imputation  of  this  righteousness  they  are  completely  ac- 
quitted from  the  punishment  due  to  their  sins,  because  it  was  endured 
for  them  by  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  they  acquire  a  right  to  eternal  life,  be- 
cause it  was  purchased  for  them  by  his  obedience.  According  to  the 
notion  now  stated  justification  is  purely  a  forensic  act,  i.  e.  the  act  of  a 
judge  sitting  in  the  forum,  the  place  of  judgment,  in  which  the  supreme 
ruler  and  judge,  who  is  accountable  to  none,  and  who  alone  knows 
the  manner  in  which  the  ends  of  his  universal  government  can  best 
be  attained,  reckons  that  which  was  done  by  the  substitute  in  the 
same  manner  as  if  it  had  been  done  by  those  who  believe  in  the 
isubstitute ;  and  not  upon  account  of  any  thing  done  by  them,  but 
jpurely  upon  account  of  this  gracious  method  of  reckoning,  grants  them 
the  full  remission  of  their  sins.  In  this  forensic  sense  of  the  word  we 
understand  the  apostle  to  say,  Rom.  iii.  26,  that  God  is  "the  justifierof 
him  which  believeth  in  Jesus;  and  Rom.  iv.  5,  that  "to  him  that  work- 
eth  not,  but  believeth  on  him  that  justifieth  the  ungodly,  his  faith  is 
counted  for  righteousness,"  or  as  in  the  6th  verse,  '■■'  God  imputeth," 
reckoneth  to  him,  "  righteousness  without  works." 

This  is  the  great  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith,  which  was 
preached  by  all  the  first  reformers,  which  they  thought  they  derived 
from  Scripture,  and  which  they  opposed  with  zeal  and  with  success 
to  the  following  tenets  of  the  church  of  Rome,  upon  which  a  great 
part  of  the  corruptions  of  that  church  appeared  to  them  to  rest. 

In  the  doctrine  of  the  church  of  Rome  justification  was  considered 
not  as  a  forensic  act,  altering  the  condition  of  those  who  believe,  but 


JUSTIFICATION.  611 

as  an  infusion  of  righteousness  into  their  souls,  making  tliem  internally 
and  personally  just.  It  was  in  this  way  equivalent  to  what  we  call 
sanctification  ;  and  two  things,  which  we  consider  as  connected  by  an 
indissoluble  bond,  yet  as  totally  distinct  from  one  another,  were  con- 
founded. By  this  confusion  the  remission  of  sins  was  understood  to 
comprehend  taking  away  the  stain  as  well  as  the  guilt  of  sin  ;  and  the 
merit  of  the  sufferings  and  obedience  of  Christ  was,  in  this  sense, 
understood  to  be  imputed  or  communicated  to  those  who  believe  that 
by  the  merciful  appointment  of  God,  it  procured  that  grace  which 
renewed  their  hearts  and  made  them  conformable  to  the  image  of 
Christ ;  so  that  his  righteousness  was  only  the  remote  cause  of  their 
acceptance  with  God,  but  the  immediate  cause  was  their  personal 
righteousness,  or  that  likeness  to  him  which  is  obtained  through  his 
mediation. 

Further,  while  the  reformers  considered  all  sins  tliat  were  past  as 
completely  forgiven  upon  account  of  the  satisfaction  of  Christ,  the 
church  of  Rome,  which  considered  remission  as  grounded  upon  a 
removal  of  the  pollution  of  sin,  thought  that  a  part  of  the  punishment 
remains  to  be  endured  by  the  sinner;  that  the  satisfliction  of  Christ, 
which  alone  is  sufficient  to  deliver  from  future  and  eternal  punish- 
ment those  who  are  justified,  is  applied  to  their  souls  and  rendered 
ertectual  for  that  piu'pose  by  the  calamities  which  God  sends  them  in 
this  life,  by  the  penances  to  which  they  submit,  or  by  the  torments 
endured  in  that  intermediate  state,  where  they  are  supposed  to  undergo 
a  purification  before  they  enter  into  heaven.  All  acts  of  mortification 
and  every  kind  of  affliction  were  thus  regarded  as  a  satisfaction 
offered  on  our  part  to  the  justice  of  God,  deriving  indeed  all  its  accept- 
ableness  in  the  sight  of  God  from  what  Christ  has  done,  but  concur- 
ring with  the  merits  of  Christ  in  our  justification. 

From  the  place  assigned  to  personal  righteousness,  and  to  personal 
sufiering  in  our  justification,  flowed  the  grossest  corruptions  in  the 
church  of  Rome.  The  first  reformers,  therefore,  regarding  these 
corruptions  with  indignation,  wisely  and  boldly  attacked  them  in 
tlieir  principle,  by  dwelling  upon  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith. 
According  to  this  doctrine,  the  righteousness  of  Christ  is  the  only 
impulsive  or  meritorious  cause  of  our  being  justified  with  God  ;  faith 
is  only  the  instrument  by  which  this  righteousness  is  applied  to  us  so 
as  to  be  counted  as  ours  ;  and  the  effect  of  this  imputation  is  a  com- 
plete remission  of  the  punishment,  as  well  as  of  the  guilt,  of  sin  ;  so 
that  all  the  calamities,  which  they  who  are  justified  may  be  called  to 
sulf^:r,  are  fatherly  chastisements,  expressions  of  love,  a  salutary 
discipline  ministering  to  their  improvement,  but  in  no  respect  a 
punishment  or  a  satisfaction  for  sin. . 

Many  of  the  sects  into  which  the  Protestants  were  afterwards 
divided,  not  being  called  immediately  to  combat  the  errors  of  popery, 
did  not  see  the  necessity  of  adhering  to  all  the  parts  of  this  doctrine 
of  the  first  reformers,  and  were  led  by  the  general  principles  of  the 
systems  which  they  adopted  to  depart  from  it  more  or  less.  The 
Socinians,  who  consider  the  gospel  merely  as  a  declaration  of  the 
mercy  of  God,  a  lesson  of  righteousness,  and  a  promise  of  eternal 
life,  exclude  the  satisfaction  of  Christ  altogether ;  and  finding  no 
necessity  and  no  place  for  the  imputation  of  his  righteousness,  they 


612  JUSTIFICATION. 

hold  that,  as  all  who  repent  are  forgiven,  so  Christians  are  said  to  be 
justified  by  faith,  or  a  reliance  upon  the  promise  which  God  has 
made  to  them  through  Christ,  because  this  faith  is  the  principle  of 
that  evangelical  obedience  which,  through  the  essential  goodness  of 
God,  will  be  crowned  with  eternal  life.  The  Arminians,  who  retain 
the  doctrine  of  the  atonement,  admit  that  the  righteousness  of  Christ 
imputed  to  us  is  the  only  meritorious  cause  of  our  justification.  But 
as  this  righteousness  is  imputed  only  to  those  who  believe,  and  as 
faith,  according  to  the  Arminians,  is  the  fruit  of  that  favourable 
reception  which  the  mind  of  him  who  believes  is  naturally  disposed 
to  give  to  the  grace  of  God,  faith  is  considered  by  them  not  merely 
as  an  instrument  by  which  the  righteousness  of  Christ  is  applied,  but 
as  an  act  implying  the  possession  of  that  honesty  of  heart,  and  those 
good  dispositions  which,  for  the  sake  of  Christ,  are  counted  to  us  as 
righteousness.  The  Roman  Catholics  and  the  Arminians  in  this  point 
agree  ;  both  ascribing  to  faith,  not  the  merit  of  our  justification,  but 
that  intrinsic  value  which  is  a  preparation  and  predisposition  for  our 
being  justified.  They  said,  in  the  language  of  the  schools,  Jidem 
justificare  dispositive  ;  that  a  man,  by  having  faith,  suse  volu7italis 
motu  prsejiurari  et  disponi  ad  justificationis  gratiam  consequen- 
dam.  The  Calvinists,  on  the  other  hand,  considering  all  those 
dispositions,  which  go  along  with  faith,  as  originating  in'  the  grace 
which  is  conferred  by  God,  do  not  ascribe  to  them  any  co-operation 
with  that  grace  in  the  act  of  justification  ;  but  as  they  read  in  Scrip- 
ture that  we  are  justified  not  5ia  *>;«/  HLatLv,  but  ^m  fusricot,  sx  jtvanui,  so 
they  say  that  faith  justifies  organice,  instrument aliter ;  and  it 
appears  to  them  that  the  very  reason  why  our  justification  is  ascribed 
to  faith,  and  not  to  other  Christian  virtues,  is,  that  while  obedience, 
charity,  and  repentance,  have  an  intrinsic  merit,  something  independ- 
ent of  any  object  foreign  to  themselves,  which  might  be  regarded  as 
the  ground  of  our  acceptance,  faith  in  Christ,  by  its  very  nature,  looks 
beyond  itself,  and  instead  of  presenting  any  thing  of  which  the  person 
who  believes  can  boast,  implies  a  reliance  upon  the  merit  of  another; 
and  this  they  understand  to  be  the  meaning  of  that  expression  of  the 
Apostle,  Rom.  iv.  16,  "  It  is  of  faith,  that  it  might  be  by  grace." 

In  the  first  paragraph  of  the  eleventh  chapter  of  the  Confession  of 
Faith,  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  is  anxiously  discriminated 
from  all  the  errors  which  I  have  enumerated.  And  in  the  fourth  pa- 
ragraph of  that  chapter  there  is  an  allusion  to  an  inaccurate  expres- 
sion which  occurs  in  the  writings  of  some  who  held  this  doctrine. 
They  said  that  men  Avere  justified  from  eternity  ;  thus  confounding 
the  decree  of  election,  which  entered  into  the  eternal  counsels  of  the 
Almighty,  with  that  part  of  the  execution  of  the  decree  which  we 
mean  by  the  act  of  justification ;  an  act  which  pre-supposes  that  faith 
which  is  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit,  and  therefore  does  not  take  place  until 
faith  be  produced. 

There  is  another  mode  of  expression  which  is  not  a  mere  inaccuracy, 
but  proceeds  upon  a  different  view  of  the  whole  subject.  It  is  said 
by  the  Roman  Catholics,  and  by  many  Protestants,  that  no  man  is 
completely  justified  until  the  last  day,  when  he  is  delivered  from  all 
the  effects  of  sin,  and  put  in  possession  of  eternal  life.  But  as  the 
Scripture  often  speaks  of  men  being  justified  prior  to  that  day,  a  dis- 


JUSTIFICATION.  613 

tinction  is  made  between  first  and  sec6nd  justification.  The  Roman 
Catholics  mean  by  first  justification,  the  infusion  of  personal  righte- 
ousness by  the  Spirit  of  God  into  the  soul :  by  second  justification, 
the  reward  conferred  at  the  last  day  upon  the  good  works  which 
flowed  from  this  infusion.  Among  the  Protestants  the  distinction  be- 
tween first  and  second  justification  was  mentioned  by  some  of  the 
followers  of  Socinns,  and  has  been  ably  and  fully  elucidated  in  a 
long  essay  prefixed  to  Taylor's  Commentary  on  the  Epistle  of  the 
Romans,  entitled,  A  Key  to  the  Apostolic  Writings.  By  first  justrfi- 
catioil  Taylor  understands  the  admission  of  the  Gentile  nations  by 
the  publication  of  the  Gospel  into  the  church  of  God,  in  which  they 
receive  the  promise  of  pardon  through  the  blood  of  Christ,  the  hope 
of  eternal  life,  and  all  the  privileges  which  belong  to  the  people  of 
God  :  by  second,  or  final  justification,  he  understands  our  being  actu- 
ally qualified  for,  and  put  in  possession  of  eternal  life,  after  we  have 
duly  improved  our  first  justification,  or  Christian  privileges,  by  a  pa- 
tient continuance  in  well-doing  to  the  end.  According  to  this  dis- 
tinction, which  is  generally  adopted  by  those  members  of  the  church 
of  England  who  lean  toArminianism,  justification  is  divided  into 
two  parts,  the  one  of  which  is  an  act  of  grace  common  to  all  that  hear 
the  Gospel,  and  the  other  is  an  exercise  of  distributive'  justice  at  the 
last  day :  and  the  connection  between  the  two  parts  is  so  far  from 
being  infallible,  that  it  depends  entirely  upon  the  exercise  of  our  free 
will,  and  is  dissolved  with  regard  to  many  by  their  abuse  of  those 
privileges  which  others  improve.  But  the  Calvinists  consider  them- 
selves as  warranted  by  the  whole  strain  of  Scripture,  to  hold  that  the 
complete  remission  of  all  his  past  sins,  implied  in  the  justification  of 
a  sinner,  is  accompanied  with  a  security  that,  by  the  same  grace 
through  which  he  was  justified,  he  shall  finally  be  saved.  Lithe 
Calvinistic  scheme,  therefore,  justification  does  not  consist  of  two  parts 
that  may  be  disjoined,  but  is  one  act  of  God  peculiar  to  the  elect, 
which  extends  its  benefits  through  the  whole  time  of  their  abode  upon 
earth,  and  is  the  ground  of  eternal  life  being  adjudged  to  them  at  the 
last  day. 

To  the  implicit  faith  required  in  the  church  of  Rome,  and  to  the 
delusions  of  fanaticism,  we  have  opposed  this  principle,  that  know- 
ledge is  essential  to  the  faith  by  which  we  are  justified.  From  this 
principle  it  follows,  that  none  can  be  saved  to  whom  the  knowledge 
of  Christ  is  not  conveyed :  and  hence  a  question  occurs  concerning 
those  men  whose  names  are  often  mentioned  in  Scripture  with  ho- 
nour, but  who  lived  before  our  Saviour  was  born.  We  can  have  no 
doubt  that  they  pleased  God  upon  earth,  and  that  they  now  dwell 
with  him  in  heaven :  but  it  is  asked  whether  they  had  the  means  of 
attaining  that  knowledge,  without  which  men  cannot  be  justified  by 
faith  in  Christ.  The  Socinians,  who  depreciate  the  services,  the  pro- 
mises, and  the  precepts  of  the  Old  Testament,  that  they  may  find  a 
marked  superiority  in  the  Gospel,  without  having  recourse  to  the 
doctrine  of  atonement,  consider  the  saints  under  the  Old  Testament 
as  possessing  advantages  very  little  superior  to  those  wiiich  good  men 
enjoy  under  any  other  dispensation,  as  oppressed  with  a  burdensome 
ritual,  which  did  not  appear  to  them  to  have  any  spiritual  meaning, 
as  having  no  encouragement  to  regard  as  their  Saviour  that  prophet 
54 


614  JUSTIFICATION. 

whom  their  sacred  books  foretold,  and  as  attaining  to  eternal  life,  not 
through  faith  in  him,  but  merely  through  the  goodness  of  God.  As 
the  harmony  of  the  divine  works  leads  us  to  expect  an  intimate  con- 
nexion between  the  two  dispensations  of  religion,  it  may  be  presumed 
a  priori,  that  there  is  some  defect  in  this  view  of  the  condition  of 
these  men :  and  as,  in  various  departments  of  the  study  of  theology, 
there  are  striking  analogies  between  the  preparatory  dispensation  and 
that  which  was  its  completion,  it  can  hardly  be  supposed  that  that 
method  of  deliverance  from  sin,  which  constitutes  the  character  of 
the  latter,  was  wholly  unknown  to  those  who  were  distinguished 
from  the  rest  of  the  world  by  living  under  the  former.  It  is  true  that 
neither  the  moral,  nor  the  ceremonial,  nor  the  judicial  law,  was  of 
itself  sufficient  to  lay  a  foundation  for  faith  in  Christ.  But  it  is  to  be 
remembered  that  the  dispensation,  which  embraced  these  three  parts, 
was  given  to  the  posterity  of  that  patriarch  in  whose  family  the  pro- 
mise of  a  deliverer  was  to  descend ;  that  it  intervened  between  the 
promise  and  the  fulfilment ;  that  its  subserviency  to  the  fulfilment 
was  explained  by  a  succession  of  prophets,  whose  words  cherished 
the  hope  of  a  deliverer,  and  unfolded  the  spiritual  meaning  of  all  the 
preparation  that  was  made  for  his  coming ;  and  that  many  of  the 
ceremonies  which  were  continually  repeated,  while  they  represented 
the  pollution  and  the  guilt  of  sin,  could  not  appear  to  any  enlightened 
mind  sufficient  to  remove  them.  Accordingly,  we  learn  from  vari- 
ous expressions  in  Scripture,  that  there  were  in  all  ages  of  the  Jewish 
church  just  and  devout  men,  who  "  waited  for  the  consolation  of  Is- 
rael," who  looked  through  the  figures,  that  were  for  the  time  then 
present,  to  him  who  is  the  end  of  the  law,  who  expected  forgiveness 
of  those  breaches  of  the  moral  law,  which  they  daily  confessed, 
through  the  virtue  of  the  new  covenant  that  was  announced  to  them, 
and  who  thus  lived  by  the  faith  of  a  Saviour  to  come.  John  viii.  b%. 
Rom.  iii.  30.     1  Cor.  x.  4.     Gal.  iii.  8,  9,  14.     Luke  ii.  25,  38. 

To  all  who  were  thus  enabled  to  look  forward  to  Christ  he  was 
"  the  Lord  their  righteousness."  For  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  who 
was  foreordained  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  extends  its 
efficacy  to  the  ages  that  are  past,  as  well  as  to  those  that  are  to  come; 
and  through  him  all  that  lived  by  faith  under  the  Old  Testament  ob- 
tained full  remission  of  sins,  and  a  right  to  eternal  life,  of  which  they 
were  put  in  possession  immediately  after  death.  With  regard  to 
them,  therefore,  our  doctrine  is  thus  expressed  in  the  Confession  of 
Faith  ;  the  means  by  which  the  covenant  of  grace  was  administered 
in  the  time  of  the  law,  "  were  for  that  time  sufficient  and  efficacious, 
through  the  operation  of  the  Spirit,  to  instruct  and  build  up  the  elect 
in  faith  in  the  promised  Messiah ;  there  are  not  two  covenants  of 
grace  differing  in  substance,  but  one  and  the  same  under  various  dis- 
pensations ;  the  justification  of  behevers  under  the  Old  Testament 
was  in  all  respects  one  and  the  same  with  the  justification  of  believers 
under  the  New  Testament."* 

With  regard  to  those  in  ancient  times  who  knew  nothing  of  the 
Jewish  law,  and  those  in  modern  times  to  whom  the  gospel  has  not 
been  published,  we  feel  a  greater  dilficulty,  at  least  we  do  not  find 

*  Confession  of  Faith,  vii.  5,  6  ;  xi.  6. 


JUSTIFICATION.  615 

ourselves  so  far  enabled  by  Scripture  to  explain  in  what  manner  they 
can  be  saved.  For  although  it  is  impossible  that  they  could  attain 
by  any  ordinary  means  that  knowledge  which  is  essential  to  faith  in 
Christ,  yet  it  is  contrary  to  wiiat  we  account  the  fundamental  princi- 
ples of  Christianity,  to  believe  that  their  actions,  however  useful  to 
society,  and  however  highly  esteemed  by  men,  possessed  such  a  de- 
gree of  perfection  as  to  entitle  them  to  acceptance  with  God.  But 
it  does  not  necessarily  follow  from  the  principles  which  we  hold,  that 
all  such  persons  are  finally  condemned,  because  we  can  conceive  that 
God  may  in  some  extraordinary  manner  convey  to  the  souls  of  those 
who  are  to  be  saved  that  knowledge  which  he  did  not  afford  them 
the  outward  means  of  acquiring :  and  we  are  disposed  to  consider 
Job  as  an  instance  of  this  kind  presented  to  us  in  Scripture ;  a  man 
who  appears  to  have  had  no  acquaintance  with  the  Mosaic  dispensa- 
tion, and  yet  who  attained  such  an  eminence  of  virtue  as  is  honoured 
with  the  divine  approbation,  and  who  discovers  such  an  assured  hope 
of  a  final  deliverance  from  all  the  evils  of  sin,  as  implies  that  his  soul 
was  illuminated  with  more  than  human  knowledge.*  There  are 
numberless  ways  in  which  the  Father  of  spirits  may  extend  the 
knowledge  of  Christ  to  all  those  whose  names  enter  into  the  decree 
of  election,  whatever  be  the  circumstances  in  which  they  are  placed ; 
and  we  need  not  be  surprised  that  the  Scriptures  give  no  aid  to  our 
conjectures  as  to  the  time  or  the  manner  of  their  illumination.  For 
it  may  be  observed  in  general,  that  while  we  are  fully  instructed  in 
every  thing  which  can  serve  to  direct  our  conduct,  we  are  kept  in  the 
dark  as  to  every  thing  that  may  serve  only  to  gratify  our  curiosity ; 
and  with  regard  to  this  particular  point,  it  appears  that  the  Scriptures 
give  us  no  light  for  this  reason,  that  the  condition  and  the  fate  of  per- 
sons, who  are  not  favoured  with  the  outward  means  of  knowing 
Christ,  form  no  rule  to  us  who  enjoy  them.  Whatever  extraordinary 
revelation  the  mercy  of  God  may  vouchsafe  to  men  in  a  different 
situation,  our  advantages  serve  at  once  to  point  out  our  duty,  and  to 
set  bounds  to  our  expectations ;  and  all  that  concerns  our  everlasting 
peace  is  couched  in  the  spirit  of  those  significant  words,  which  our 
Lord  puts  into  the  mouth  of  Abraham  as  an  answer  to  the  request 
of  the  rich  man,  who  asked  that  Lazarus  might  be  sent  from  the 
other  world  to  his  father's  house  to  testify  to  his  five  brethren;  "they 
have  Moses  and  the  prophets,  let  them  hear  them." 

It  is  obvious,  from  the  view  which  has  been  given  of  the  faith  by 
which  we  are  justified,  that  the  doctrine  of  the  perseverance  of  the 
saints  necessarily  results  from  the  characteristical  features  of  the  Cal- 
vinistic  system.t  All  the  arguments  for  the  doctrine,  and  all  the  an- 
swers to  the  objections  against  it  which  are  to  be  found  in  the  ordinary 
systems,  are  only  the  application  of  principles  which  have  already 
been  stated ;  and  the  Arminian  and  Calvinistic  exposition  of  the 
multitude  of  texts,  which  have  been  quoted  in  the  discussion  of  this 
question,  turns  upon  distinctions  and  general  views  which  have  fre- 
quently occurred  to  us.  For  this  reason,  instead  of  entering  minutely 
into  a  question  which  would  only  detain  us  with  imnccessary  repeti- 

•  Job  xir.  23—27.     Confession  of  Faith,  i.  3. 
f  Confession  of  Faith,  xvii.  1. 


616  JUSTIFICATION. 

tions,  I  shall  pass  on  to  other  questions,  where  the  application  of 
general  principles  is  less  obvious. 

If  all  those  who  are  justified  be  effectually  preserved  by  the  Spirit 
of  God,  so  that  they  cannot  fall  from  a  state  of  grace,  their  final  sal- 
vation, being  certain,  is  an  object  of  knowledge.  It  is  known  to  God, 
and  it  may  be  known  by  themselves.  Accordingly,  we  meet  in  Scrip- 
ture with  such  expressions  as  the  following :  "  We  know  that  we 
have  passed  from  death  unto  life.*  I  know  whom  I  have  believ-ed, 
and  am  persuaded  that  he  is  able  to  keep  that  which  I  have  committed 
unto  him  against  that  day.  I  have  fought  a  good  fight,  I  have  finished 
my  course,  I  have  kept  the  faith.  Henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a 
crown  of  righteousness,  which  the  Lord  the  righteous  judge  shall 
give  me  at  that  day."t  These,  and  other  expressions  of  the  same 
kind,  imply  that  the  apostle  had  a  knowledge  of  his  behig  to  be  saved. 
It  follows,  consequently,  that  a  similar  knowledge  may  be  attained 
by  other  Christians.  This  is  called,  in  theological  language,  an  as- 
surance of  grace  and  salvation,  f 

The  church  of  Rome  deny  that  it  is  possible  for  any  man  in  a  state 
of  trial  to  attain  this  assurance ;  and  they  build  some  of  the  most 
gainful  parts  of  their  traffic  upon  that  perpetual  doubt  and  uncertainty 
with  regard  to  our  final  condition,  which  they  profess  in  some  degree 
to  remove  by  the  prayers  of  the  church,  the  merits  of  saints  and  mar- 
tyrs, and  the  absolution  which  priests  pronounce  in  the  name  of 
God. 

The  Arminians,  who  do  not  ascribe  the  salvation  of  men  to  the 
infallible  efiectual  operation  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  but  consider  it  as 
at  all  times  suspended  upon  the  co-operation  of  the  human  will,  do 
not  suppose  it  possible  for  any  man  to  attain  a  greater  certainty  of 
salvation  than  this,  that  if  he  persist  in  faith  he  shall  be  saved.  It  is 
the  character  of  fanaticism  to  resolve  this  assurance  into  an  impres- 
sion immediately  made  by  the  Spirit  of  God  upon  the  mind,  over- 
powering the  reason  of  man,  and  independent  of  his  exertions.  But 
the  Calvinists  conceive  that  an  assurance  with  regard  to  his  final  con- 
dition, very  far  beyond  conjecture  or  probable  conclusion,  may  be 
attained  by  a  Christian  without  any  special  revelation,  in  a  manner 
consistent  with  the  full  exercise  of  his  rational  powers.  In  forming 
this  c(3nception,  they  are  accustomed  to  distinguish  between  the  direct 
and  the  reflex  act  of  faith.  By  the  direct  act  of  faith  they  mean  that 
cordial  acceptance  of  the  method  of  deliverance  proposed  in  the  gos- 
pel, by  which  a  believer  rests  in  the  merits  of  Christ  for  salvation. 
By  the  reflex  act  of  faith  they  mean  the  consciousness  of  the  direct 
act,  the  knowledge  which  he  has  that  he  believes ;  by  which  con- 
sciousness he  is  enabled  to  reason  in  this  manner :  the  Scripture  de- 
clares that  whosoever  believes  in  Christ  shall  obtain  everlasting  life ; 
but  I  know  that  I  believe  in  Christ,  therefore  I  know  that  I  shall  ob- 
tain through  him  everlasting  life. 

This  reflex  act  of  faith,  being  subsequent  to  the  direct  act,  is  not 
essential  to  it;  in  other  words,  a  person  may  believe  in  Christ,  and 
may  be  justified  by  his  faith,  before  he  attain  the  assurance  of  his 

•  I  John  iii.  U.  f  2  Tim.  i.  12  ;  iv.  7,  8. 

i  Confession  of  Faith,  xviii.  2. 


JUSTIFICATION.  617 

being  in  a  justified  state.  In  some  this  assurance  is  much  weaker 
than  in  others ;  in  all  it  is  liable  to  be  overcast  and  shaken  by  bodily 
infirmity,  by  their  own  negligence,  by  affliction,  by  temptation,  by 
that  visitation  of  God  which  the  Scriptures  call  his  hiding  his  face 
from  his  people,  and  by  occasional  transgression ;  and  in  all  it  is  ac- 
companied with  watchfulness,  with  fear  of  oflending,  and  with  a 
diligent  use  of  the  various  instruments  which  contribute  to  the  pre- 
servation of  human  integrity.  But  as  there  are  certain  fruits  which 
always  proceed  from  genuine  faith,  these  fruits  afford  an  evidence  of 
its  being  implanted  in  the  soul ;  and  this  evidence  is  accompanied 
with  what  the  Scripture  calls  the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  "  who  is  the 
earnest  of  our  inheritance,"  because  as  the  fruits  of  righteousness 'are 
the  effect  of  his  operation,  he  bears  witness  with  the  spirit  of  all  who 
are  filled  with  these  fruits,  that  they  are  the  children  of  God.*  The 
consciousness  of  their  possessing  faith  is  the  witness  of  their  own 
spirit :  the  presence  of  his  fruits  is  his  witness ;  and  the  two  conspire 
in  producing  that  peace  with  God  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  of 
which  the  Scriptures  often  speak  as  a  portion,  which  in  value  "passeth 
all  understanding,"  and  which,  to  all  that  attain  it,  is  the  foretaste  and 
the  beginning  of  heaven  in  their  souls. 

*  Rom.  viii.  16.     Sherlock's  Sermon  on  tlie  text. 


54*  4M 


618  CONNEXION    BETWEEN 


CHAPTER  III 


CONNEXION    BETWEEN    JUSTIFICATION    AND    SANCTIFICATION. 


The  view  given  in  the  preceding  chapter  of  the  Calvinistic  doctrine 
with  regard  to  the  assurance  of  grace  and  salvation,  proceeds  upon 
the  supposition  that  there  are  certain  fruits  of  the  operation  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  which  always  accompany  genuine  faith  ;  in  other  words, 
that  there  is  an  inseparable  connexion  between  justification  and  sanc- 
tification.  This  connexion,  although,  in  respect  of  practice,  the  most 
important  doctrine  in  theology,  is  not  obvious  at  first  sight ;  it  has 
been  overlooked  or  neglected  by  several  sects  of  Christians ;  and 
therefore  it  requires  to  be  fully  illustrated  in  this  place. 

Although  it  is  the  fundamental  and  characteristical  doctrine  of  the 
Gospel  that  we  are  justified  by  faith,  yet  a  great  deal  more  than  that 
word  seems  to  imply  is  required  of  Christians.  The  Epistles  of  Paul, 
in  which  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  is  unfolded  and  esta- 
blished, like  all  the  other  parts  of  Scripture,  are  full  of  precepts  com- 
manding us  to  repent  of  our  past  sins,  to  abstain  from  all  appearance 
of  evil,  to  abound  in  the  work  of  the  Lord.  While  we  read  that  "  to 
them  who  by  patient  continuance  in  well-doing  seek  for  glory,  honour, 
and  immortality,  God  will  render  eternal  life,"  we  read  also  that  the 
wrath  of  God,  which  is  revealed  in  the  Gospel  against  all  unrighteous- 
ness of  men,  will  at  length  be  executed  upon  every  soul  of  man  that 
doeth  evil,  and  that  without  holiness  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord.* 
The  precepts  contained  in  the  discourses  of  our  Lord,  and  the  writings 
of  his  apostles,  are  the  revealed  will  of  God  prescribing  to  Christians 
their  duty.  The  duty  which  they  delineate  is  what  our  reason  and 
our  heart  approve  ;  and  it  is  so  agreeable  to  all  our  conceptions  of  the 
nature  and  the  government  of  God,  that  the  gospel,  from  the  manner  in 
which  it  delivers  and  enforces  this  duty,  derives  the  high  commenda- 
tion of  being  the  most  efiectual  and  the  most  refined  system  of  moral- 
ity which  ever  appeared.  But  where  is  the  connexion,  it  is  asked, 
between  this  system  of  morality  and  the  doctrine  which  has  been  ex- 
plained ?  If  we  are  justified  by  faith  alone,  and  if  justification  include 
the  remission  of  sins  and  a  right  to  eternal  life,  where  shall  we  find  a 
place  for  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel  ?  And  how  can  that  obedience, 
which  is  certainly  due  to  the  will  of  our  Creator,  enter  into  a  system 
of  theology,  which  excludes  works  from  having  any  share  in  our 
justification  ?  The  principles  upon  which  the  Calvinistic  system  rests, 
appear  to  all  who  understand  them  to  furnish  a  satisfying  answer  to 
these  questions. 

*  Rom.  i.  18  ;  ii.  6—9.     Heb.  xii.  14. 


JUSTIFICATION    AND    SANCTIFICATION.  619 

If  faith  were  a  single  act,  by  performing  wliich  at  one  particular 
time  wc  were  justified,  or  if  it  were  a  solitary  quality  infused  into  the 
soul,  and  unconnected  with  the  general  character,  there  would  be 
much  didiculty  in  reconciling  the  necessity  of  obedience  with  the 
doctrine  of  justification  by  faith.  But  we  have  seen  that  faith  arises 
from  that  change  which  the  Spirit  of  God  produces,  according  to  the 
Calvinists,  by  an  efficacious  operation,  according  to  the  Arminians  by 
moral  suasion,  upon  all  those  to  whom  the  remedy  is  applied.  Now 
this  change  is  the  beginning  of  sanctification,  by  introducing  the  prin- 
ciples of  a  new  life,  without  which  we  cannot  hate  sin  and  follow 
after  righteousness.  For  although  many  circumstances  may  induce 
men  to  assume  the  outward  appearance  of  sanctity,  nothing  but  the 
influence  of  that  Spirit,  which  produces  faith,  can  so  eflectually  over- 
come the  corruption  of  human  nature  as  to  produce  that  uniformity 
of  sentiment,  and  purpose,  and  conduct,  those  habits  of  virtue,  anji 
that  continual  progress  in  goodness,  which  enter  into  the  notion  of 
sanctification.  And  thus  justification,  a  forensic  act  which  acquits 
those  who  believe  from  the  guilt  of  sin,  and  sanctification,  an  inward 
change,  by  which  the  soul  is  delivered  from  the  stain  of  sin,  and 
gradually  recovers  its  native  purity  and  dignity,  although  distinct 
from  one  another,  are  inseparably  joined,  because  the  faith  by  which 
we  are  justified  has  its  origin  and  principle  in  the  change  by  which 
we  are  sanctified.  Accordingly  faith  was  formerly  found  in  its  nature 
to  be  connected  with  many  good  dispositions ;  and  although  we  do 
not  allow  that  these  dispositions  are  in  any  respect  the  cause  of  our 
justification,  or  that  they  give  faith  any  degree  of  merit  in  the  sight 
of  God,  still  we  cannot  deny  that  the  connexion  between  them  and 
faith  is  of  such  a  kind,  as  renders  it  impossible  for  any  person  to  have 
saving  faith  who  is  devoid  of  these  dispositions.  It  is  plain  also,  that 
as  faith  implies  good  dispositions,  so  it  brings  along  with  it  the 
strongest  incentives  to  obedience.  The  difterent  parts  of  the  revela- 
tion of  the  Gospel  are  fitted  by  their  nature  to  have  an  influence  upon 
the  most  perverse  mind  which  assents  to  the  truth  of  the  revelation : 
but  to  a  mind  renewed  by  the  grace  of  God  this  influence  becomes 
commanding.  A  man  who  receives  with  joy  and  gratitude  the  dis- 
coveries of  divine  love  made  in  the  Gospel,  who  has  an  impression 
of  the  divine  authority  of  its  precepts,  who  relies  on  the  promises  of 
God,  and  who  trembles  at  his  threatenings,  derives  from  faith,  motives 
to  obedience  the  most  powerful  and  interesting ;  and  his  mind,  restored 
by  the  influence  of  the  Spirit  to  the  state  in  which  objects,  appearing 
as  they  are,  produce  their  full  and  proper  eflect,  is  formed  to  be  led 
by  these  motives.  To  him,  therefore,  the  moral  law,  originally  writ- 
ten upon  the  heart,  afterwards  delivered  to  the  children  of  Israel  from 
Mount  Sinai,  and  republished  in  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel,  approves 
itself  as  reasonable,  and  just,  and  good ;  obedience  to  it  becomes  de- 
lightful ;  the  dominion  of  sin  is  broken ;  the  liberty  of  the  children  of 
God  is  a  matter  of  experience ;  so  that,  according  to  the  significant 
language  used  by  Paul,  "  being  made  free  from  sin,  and  become  the 
servant  of  God,  he  has  his  fruit  imto  holiness,  and  obeys  from  the 
heart  that  form  of  doctrine  which  was  delivered  him."* 

*  Rom.vi.  17,22. 


620  CONNEXION    BETWEEN 

From  this  intimate  connexion  between  justification  and  sanctifica- 
tion,  there  results  the  following  conclusions,  which  it  is  of  infinite  im- 
portance for  all  the  ministers  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  clearly  to  appre- 
hend, and  firmly  to  retain. 

1.  We  observe  with  what  propriety  and  significancy  it  is  said  that 
good  works  are  the  fruits  and  evidences  of  a  true  and  lively  faith. 
Although  they  follow  after  justification,  they  are  the  marks  by  which 
we  know  that  we  are  in  a  justified  state ;  there  can  be  no  well- 
grounded  assurance  of  grace  and  salvation  to  any  person  who  is  des- 
titute of  these  marks  ;  and  therefore  the  great  business  of  Christians, 
according  to  the  direction  of  Peter,  is  "  to  give  all  diligence  to  make 
their  calling  and  election  sure,"  i.  e.  to  attain  the  assurance  of  their 
being  elected,  by  "  adding  to  their  faith"  those  things  in  which  the 
elect  are  called  to  abound.* 

2.  We  observe  that  a  quaint  phrase,  which  often  occurs  in  theolo- 
gical writings,  Jides  sola  justijicat,  sed  non  quse.  est  sola,\  is  an  at- 
tempt to  express  shortly  and  pointedly  a  distinction,  which,  when 
properly  understood,  enables  us  to  reconcile  the  apostles  Paul  and 
James.  Paul  says,  "  that  a  man  is  justified  by  faith  witliout  the 
deeds  of  the  law  :"  J  James  says,  "  that  by  works  a  man  is  justified, 
and  not  by  faith  only."§  The  two  declarations  appear  to  be  incon- 
sistent ;  but  a  little  attention  to  the  train  of  argument  removes  the 
apparent  contradiction.  Paul  is  arguing  against  persons  who  said 
that  justification  came  by  the  law  ;  and  the  works  of  the  law  mean, 
in  his  argument,  not  only  the  observance  of  the  ceremonial  law,  but 
that  measure  of  obedience  to  the  moral  law  which  any  person,  by  the 
powers  of  human  nature  in  its  present  state,  is  able  to  yield.  This 
measure  being  always  imperfect,  and  yielded  by  those  who,  as  sin- 
ners, are  under  a  sentence  of  condemnation,  cannot  justify ;  and 
therefore  a  man  is  justified  only  by  that  faith  which  accepts  the  im- 
putation of  the  obedience  of  another.  But  this  fahh  is  represented 
by  the  apostle  as  working  by  love  ;  and  his  writings  not  only  abound 
with  precepts  addressed  to  those  who  believe,  but  are  very  much  em- 
ployed in  illustrating  the  connexion  between  faith  and  obedience  to 
these  precepts.  Although,  therefore,  Paul  excludes  all  works  done 
before  justification  from  having  any  influence  in  bringing  us  into  that 
state,  yet  the  faith,  to  which  he  ascribes  our  justification,  is  under- 
stood and  explained  by  him  to  be  accompanied  with  every  Christian 
grace,  and  productive  of  good  works.  But  the  faith  of  which  James 
speaks  is  described  as  a  faith  without  works,  which  is  dead  being 
alone  ;  a  faith  which  the  devils  have  ;  for  he  says  that  "  they  also  be- 
lieve and  tremble  ;"  and  the  apostle,  combating  probably  some  dan- 
gerous practical  error  of  his  time,  declares  that  this  kind  of  faith  is  of 
none  avail ;  because  the  faith  by  which  a  person  is  justified  must  be 
shown  and  made  perfect  by  works.  And  thus  the  two  apostles  mean 
the  same  thing.  Although  each  states  the  subject  in  the  light  which 
his  particular  argument  requires,  yet  their  writings  suggest  a  distinc- 
tion by  Avhich  they  are  reconciled ;  a  distinction,  to  which  we  are 

*  Peter  L  5 — 11.  f  Confession  of  Faith,  xi.  2. 

+  Romans  iii.  38  §  James  ii.  24. 


JUSTIFICATION   AND    SANCTIFICATION.  621 

obliged  to  have  recourse  in  explaining  other  parts  of  Scripture,*  be- 
tween that  faith,  which,  being  alone,  does  not  save  us,  and  that  faith 
fruitful  in  every  virtue,  by  which  we  are  justified. 

3.  We  observe  that  the  soundest  Calvinists  may  say,  without  hesi- 
tation, that  good  works  are  necessary  to  salvation.  The  first  re- 
formers, whose  great  object  was  to  establish,  in  opposition  to  the 
church  of  Rome,  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith,  were  afraid  to 
adopt  an  expression  which  might  seem  to  give  countenance  to  the 
Popish  doctrine  of  the  merit  of  good  works.  Melancthon,  indeed, 
maintained  that  they  were  necessary  :  but  as  he  was  known  to  have 
departed  in  various  points  from  the  doctrine  held  by  Luther,  this  ex- 
pression gave  oftence  to  many  who  adhergd  to  that  doctrine.  Ams- 
dorf,  in  the  year  1552,  went  so  far  as  to  declare  that  good  works  were 
an  impediment  to  salvation.  Few  are  disposed  to  follow  Amsdorf ; 
but  amongst  unlearned  people,  who  have  been  educated  with  rigid 
ideas  of  Calvinism,  there  exists  a  general  prejudice  against  saying 
that  good  works  are  necessary.  It  is  proper,  therefore,  to  understand 
clearly  that,  while  this  expression  may  be  misinterpreted,  as  if  it  im- 
plied that  some  good  dispositions  or  good  actions  are  required  previ- 
ous to  justification,  and  are  the  cause  of  our  being  justified,  there  is 
a  sound  sense  in  which  the  whole  strain  of  Scripture  and  the  amount 
of  the  principles  of  Calvinism  warrant  us  to  say,  that  good  works  are 
essential  to  salvation ;  for  none  can  be  saved  who  have  not  that  charac- 
ter which  is  produced  by  the  Spirit  of  God  in  all  that  are  justified, 
and  none  have  that  character  in  whom  these  unequivocal  fruits  of  it 
do  not  appear. 

4.  We  learn  to  guard  against  the  errors  of  those  who  have  received 
the  names  of  Solifidians,  Antinomians,  and  fratres  liberi  spiritus. 
The  Solifidians  probably  meant  nothing  more  than  to  exclude  the 
merit  of  works  in  our  justification.  But  their  doctrine  has  often  been 
so  expressed,  both  in  former  times  and  in  the  present  day,  as  to  give 
countenance  to  an  opinion  that  nothing  more  than  faith  is  required 
of  a  Christian,  and  that  he  is  saved  by  the  solitary  act  of  resting  upon 
Christ.  The  Antinomians  derive  their  name  from  appearing  to  in- 
stitute an  opposition  between  the  moral  law  and  the  Gospel.  There 
was  a  monstrous  form  in  which  Antinomianism  appeared  both  be- 
fore and  after  the  Reformation,  and  which  was  revived  in  Britain 
amidst  the  extravagancies  of  the  seventeenth  century.  It  represented 
the  elect  as  absolved  from  the  obligation  of  the  moral  law,  as  at  li- 
berty to  indulge  their  appetites  without  restraint,  and  to  perform  what 
actions  they  pleased  without  contracting  any  guilt,  because,  being  in 
a  justified  state,  it  was  impossible  that  any  thing  done  by  them  could 
be  displeasing  to  God.  This  horrible  doctrine,  from  v/hich  the 
fratres  liberi  spiritus,  in  the  14th,  15th,  and  16th  centuries,  derived 
their  name,  calls  for  the  correction  of  the  civil  magistrate  rather  than 
for  an  answer  by  argument :  and  although  this  doctrine  has  been 
avowed  by  some  who  profess  to  hold  the  Calvinistic  system  of  pre- 
destination, yet  he  must  have  a  very  false  and  imperfect  conception 
of  that  system  who  cannot  readily  show  how  it  may  be  separated 
from  so  gross  an  abuse. 

•  Acts  xvi.  30,  31.  John  xii.  42, 43. 


622  CONNEXION    BETWEEN 

There  is  a  more  temperate  form  of  Antinomianism,  according  to 
which  it  is  not  pretended  that  men  are  absolved  from  the  obhgation 
.  of  the  moral  law  ;  but  it  is  said  that  obedience  to  its  precepts  being 
purely  the  effect  of  the  irresistible  grace  of  God, — an  effect  which  his 
grace  will  infallibly  produce  in  the  elect,  and  which  no  human  means 
can  produce  in  any  others,  the  inculcating  these  precepts  in  discourses 
to  the  people  is  unnecessary,  and  may  be  hurtful,  by  inspiring  their 
minds  with  a  false  opinion  that  something  may  be  done  by  them, 
whereas  the  unregenerate  can  do  nothing,  and  God  does  every  thing 
in  the  elect.     The  only  business,  therefore,  of  preaching,  according 
to  this  system,  is  to  exhibit  the  condition  of  men  by  natiu'e,  and  to 
proclaim  the  riches  of  the  divine  love  in  the  whole  economy  of  the 
gospel ;  leaving  sinners  to  feel  that  conviction  of  guilt  and  misery 
which  will  be  thus  excited  in  their  breasts,  and  saints  to  follow  the 
operations  of  the  grace  communicated  to  them,  and  of  the  sentiments 
of  gratitude  and  love  which  the  display  of  that  grace  may  cherish. 
This  more  temperate  form  of  Antinomianism,  which  has  at  different 
periods  pervaded  all  the  Reformed  churches,  and  which  gave  their 
character  to  the  greater  part  of  British  sermons  during  the  seven- 
teenth century,  was  ably  combated  in  England  by  Bishop  Stilling- 
fleet  and  Dr.  Williams.     The  first  example  of  a  kind  of  preaching, 
proceeding  upon  different  principles,  was  set  by  the  profound  and 
learned  Dr.  Barrow,  in  sermons  abounding  with  excellent  matter,  but 
written  in  a  rugged  obscure  style,  and  affecting  a  multiplicity  of  divi- 
sions more  fitted  to  perplex  and  fatigue  the  memory,  than  to  assist 
the  comprehension  of  the  whole  subject.     His  matter  was  exhibited 
in  a  more  popular  form  by  the  copious  Dr.  Tillotson,  who,  although 
to  us  he  appears  diffuse  and  verbose,  deserves  to  be  ranked  very  high 
in  the  class  of  preachers,  because,  while  he  attacked  the  Anthiomians 
by  argument,  he  was  the  first  who  gave  amenity  and  interest  to  a 
species  of  public  discourses  opposite  to  that  which  he  condemned  in 
them.     The  example  was  foUoAved  and  improved  by  a  succession  of 
English  divines ;  early  in  the  last  century  it  found  its  way  into  Scot- 
land ;  and  the  gradual  extension  of  moral  science,  the  refinement  of 
taste,  and  an  enlarged  acquaintance  with  life  and  manners,  have  pro- 
duced amongst  us  a  style  of  preaching  totally  different  from  that 
which  our  forefathers  practised.    With  certain  descriptions  of  people 
there  still  remains  so  much  of  Antinomian  principles  as  to  produce  a 
predilection  for  what  they  call  evangelical,  or  gospel  preaching,  as 
opposed  to  what  they  call  moral  or  legal  preaching.     But  this  dis- 
tinction is  losing  its  hold  of  the  minds  of  the  people  in  many  parts  of 
Scotland ;  and  although  discourses  from  the  pulpit,  approaching  to 
the  character  of  moral  essays,  are  universally  and  justly  disliked, 
there  is  a  method  of  preaching  morality  which  is  far  from  being 
generally  unpopular. 

It  may  be  thought,  however,  that  the  disrepute  into  which  Antino- 
mian preaching  has  begun  to  fall,  is  owing  to  a  departure  from  Cal- 
vinism; and  there  appears  to  be  the  more  reason  for  this  suspicion, 
that  some  of  the  sects  amongst  whom  that  kind  of  preaching  con- 
tinues to  prevail,  profess  the  strictest  adherence  to  Calvinism,  that 
Tillotson  and  other  early  adversaries  of  Antinomianism  were  avowed 
Arminians,  and  that  all  the  peculiar  tenets  of  the  Arminians  lead 


JUSTIFICATION    AND    SANCTIFICATION.  623 

them  to  press  obedience,  and  to  dwell  more  upon  the  duties  than  upon 
the  doctrines  of  rehgion.  But  the  principles  which  have  been  explained 
leave  no  room  to  suppose  that  Calvinism  is  inconsistent  with  rational 
practical  preaching ;  and  as  it  is  most  desirable  that  the  place  which 
the  Calvinistic  system  allows  for  this  kind  of  preaching  should  be 
distinctly  understood,  I  shall  suggest,  as  the  last  conclusion  which 
may  be  drawn  from  the  view  given  of  the  connexion  between  justifi- 
cation and  sanctification, 

5.  That  as  the  Scriptures  abound  with  precepts  and  exhortations, 
so  it  is  the  duty  of  those  who  preach  the  gospel  to  "  affirm  constantly 
this  faithful  saying"  and  to  imprint  it  upon  the  minds  of  their  people, 
"  that  they  who  have  believed  in  God  should  be  careful  to  maintain 
good  works."*  This  duty  may  be  performed  in  two  ways,  both  of 
which  ought  occasionally  to  be  employed.  One  of  the  peculiar  doc- 
trines of  Christianity  may  be  made  the  subject  of  discourse;  and, 
after  explaining  it,  as  far  as  you  are  warranted  by  Scripture,  you  may 
illustrate  its  influence  npon  practice, — the  obligations  and  the  motives 
to  holiness  which  arise  from  it.  Or  you  may  make  one  of  the  pre- 
cepts of  the  Old  or  New  Testament,  or  one  of  the  examples  held 
forth  in  Scripture,  your  subject ;  and,  after  pointing  out  the  duty  en- 
joined by  the  precept,  or  the  lesson  conveyed  by  the  example,  you 
may  enforce  it,  by  adding  to  all  the  considerations  wliich  reason,  and 
prudence,  and  experience  suggest,  those  most  interesting  arguments 
which  the  gospel  affords.  In  either  way  you  conjoin  evangelical  and 
moral  preaching  ;  you  follow  the  example  of  Christ  and  his  apostles ; 
and  you  minister  most  effectually  to  the  instruction  of  those  who 
hear  you.  If  you  omit  all  mention  of  the  doctrines,  the  motives  and 
the  views  of  the  gospel,  you  become  mere  moralists;  you  neglect  the 
advantages  which  the  religion  of  Christ  gives  you  for  laying  hold  of 
the  minds  of  men ;  and  you  may  learn  from  the  history  of  the  hea- 
then world,  that  such  discourses,  however  sound  in  argument,  how- 
ever rich  in  imagery,  however  ornate  in  style,  are  little  fitted  to  pro- 
mote the  reformation  of  mankind.  But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  you 
fail  to  follow  out  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel  to  those  consequences 
which  are  always  deduced  from  them  in  Scripture ;  if  the  pictures 
which  you  present  of  the  corruption  of  human  nature  and  the  efficacy 
of  divine  grace  tend  to  convey  an  impression  that  all  exertions  upon 
our  part  are  unnecessary  and  unavailing ;  and  if  your  discourses  give 
any  person  occasion  to  think  that  saving  faith  may  exist  in  the  mind 
of  him  who  continues  in  sin,  you  not  only  preach  the  gospel  in  a 
manner  for  which  the  Scriptures  give  you  no  warrant,  and  do  un- 
speakable injury  to  the  people  by  unhinging  all  their  moral  ideas, 
but  you  depart  from  the  principles  of  that  system  upon  which  you 
profess  to  build  such  discourses,  and  show  that  you  have  viewed  it 
only  on  one  side,  without  comprehending  the  connection  of  its  parts. 
For,  although,  in  opposition  to  Pelagian  and  Semi-Pelagian  errors, 
we  hold  that  man  is  passive  in  his  conversion,  that  the  inclination  of 
the  soul  to  turn  to  God  is  the  work  of  the  Spirit,  for  which  there  are 
no  preparatory  dispositions  originally  and  naturally  belonging  to  the 
-  mind,  until  it  be  renewed  by  grace ;  yet  we  hold  also,  that  when 

•  Titus  iii.  8. 


624  CONNEXION    BETWEEN 

these  dispositions  are  implanted,  they  seek  for  exercise  as  much  as 
the  propensities  which  are  inseparable  from  our  frame ;  that  when 
the  mind  is  renewed  it  delights  in  those  employments  which  are  con- 
genial to  the  image  after  which  it  is  created ;  that  when  our  faculties 
are  emancipated  from  bondage  they  use  the  liberty  which  is  restored 
to  them ;  that  man,  instead  of  being  passive  after  his  conversion,  is 
directed  by  the  Spirit  in  the  exercise  of  those  powers  of  action  which 
he  has  recovered,  and  that  because  "  God  worketh  in  him  both  to 
will  and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure,  he  worketh  out  his  own  salva- 
tion."* 

To  man  thus  restored  the  precepts  of  the  word  of  God  are  addressed. 
The  obedience  required  of  him  is  the  obedience  of  faith,  yielded  in 
the  strength  which  is  given  him,  proceeding  from  the  motives  of  the 
gospel,  and  relying  for  acceptance  upon  the  grace  there  exhibited. 
But  all  the  methods  which  according  to  the  constitution  of  his  nature 
may  be  of  use  in  exciting  him  to  this  obedience  are  occasionally  em- 
ployed in  Scripture.  AH  the  springs  of  action  in  the  human  breast, 
gratitude,  love,  hope,  fear,  emulation,  the  desire  of  honour,  natural 
affection,  and  enlarged  philanthropy,  are  there  touched;  and  from 
thence  we  derive  our  example  and  our  warrant  for  that  variety  in  the 
style  of  practical  preaching,  by  which  we  may,  with  the  blessing  of 
God,  arrest  the  attention  and  reach  the  hearts  of  our  hearers. 

Although,  therefore,  the  ministers  of  the  gospel  do  not  in  every 
sermon  lay  down  a  system  of  theology,  they  are  not  to  be  supposed 
to  have  departed  from  the  "  form  of  sound  words ;"  for  that  form 
admits  of  all  the  lessons  of  candour,  justice,  benevolence,  temperance, 
piety,  truth,  and  virtuous  exertion  ;  and  of  all  the  modes,  historical, 
descriptive,  argumentative,  or  pathetic,  in  which  such  lessons  can 
be  conveyed.  Our  discourses  correspond  to  the  design  of  preaching, 
when  we  inculcate  these  lessons  in  the  method  which  appears  to  us 
most  effectual  for  calling  upon  the  people  "not  to  receive  the  grace 
of  God  in  vain,"  but  "  to  stir  up  the  gift  of  God  which  is  in  them :" 
and  all  who  improve  these  lessons,  so  as  to  abound  in  the  fruits  of  the 
Spirit,  discover  that  they  have  felt  that  divine  power,  by  which  the 
disciples  of  Christ  are  created  unto  good  works,  and  put  forth  the 
strength  conveyed  to  their  souls  by  him,  "  without  whom  they  can 
do  nothing,"  but  "through  whom  they  can  do  all  things." 

Fuller's  Comparison  of  Calvinistic  and  Socinian  Principles  as  to  their  moral  tendency. 

*  Phil.  ii.  12,  13. 


SANCTIFICATION.  G25 


CHAPTER  IV. 


SANCTIFICATION. 


That  change  of  character,  which  is  the  effect  of  the  operation  of 
the  Spirit,  and  the  beginning  of  sanctification,  is  called  conversion, 
because  it  turns  men  from  the  sentiments  and  habits  which  enter  into 
our  view  when  we  speak  of  human  nature  as  corrupt,  to  those  senti- 
ments and  habits  which  are  produced  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  Hence  it 
follows,  that  sanctification  consists  of  two  parts.  In  considering  its 
nature,  each  of  these  demands  our  attention.  The  first  part  is  that 
which  we  call  repentance. 


"  Section  I. 

Repentance  and  faith  are  often  conjoined  in  Scripture  as  neces- 
sary for  the  remission  of  sins ;  they  originate  in  the  same  change  of 
character,  and  they  cannot  be  separated.  For  as  the  repentance  of 
sinners  cannot  be  accepted  by  the  righteous  Governor  of  the  universe 
without  the  righteousness  of  Christ,  which  by  faith  is  counted  as 
theirs,  so  their  faith  is  not  such  as  gives  them  an  interest  in  that 
righteousness,  unless  they  forsake  the  sins  which  upon  account  of  it 
are  forgiven.  We  say,  therefore,  in  the  words  of  our  Confession  of 
Faith,  that  "  repentance  unto  life  is  an  evangelical  grace,  the  doctrine 
whereof  is  to  be  preached  by  every  minister  of  the  gospel,  as  well 
as  that  of  faith  in  Christ."*  In  preaching  it,  there  is  frequent  occasion 
to  illustrate  the  following  propositions.  1.  Repentance  unto  life  pro- 
ceeds upon  the  revelation  made  in  the  gospel  of  the  mercy  of  God 
and  the  mediation  of  Christ ;  because,  unless  with  the  Socinians  we 
deny  the  necessity  of  the  atonement,  we  must  account  the  case  of 
every  sinner  desperate  without  that  revelation.!  2.  Repentance 
unto  life  does  not  consist  merely  in  a  reformation  of  the  outward  con- 
duct, or  an  abstinence  from  those  open  transgressions  which  subject 
men  to  inconvenience  and  reproach  ;  but  it  arises  out  of  a  heart  which 
is  renewed,  as  is  intimated  by  the  term  /utfawta,  which  the  sacred 
writers  use  to  denote  it,  and  it  implies  a  hatred  of  sin  ;  because,  unless 
with  the  Socinians  we  deny  the  corruption  of  human  nature,  we  can- 
not account  a  change  permanent  or  acceptable,  when  the  principles 
which  produced  former  transgressions  remain  unsubdued.     3.  Re- 

*  Confession  of  Faith,  xv.  1.  f  Psalm  cxxx.  3. 

55  4N 


G26  SAXCTIFICATION. 

pentance  unto  life  does  not  rest  in  feelings  of  compunction  and 
expressions  of  sorrow  ;  because  if  the  emotions  excited  by  the  recol- 
lection of  the  past  are  founded  upon  a  change  of  mind,  they  must  be 
accompanied  with  a  solicitude,  and  a  constant  endeavour  to  abstain 
from  those  sins  which  gave  them  birth. 

Some  of  the  grossest  errors  and  corruptions  of  the  church  of  Rome 
respect  the  doctrine  of  repentance.  According  to  the  tenets  avowed 
in  the  standards,  and  sanctioned  by  the  practice  of  that  church,  repent- 
ance consists  in  three  acts;  confession  of  sins  to  the  priest ;  contrition, 
or  attrition  ;  and  satisfaction.  1.  The  practice  of  confessing  their 
sins  in  private  to  the  ministers  of  religion  which  the  church  of  Rome 
requires  of  Christians,  is  unauthorized  by  Scripture.  We  are  there 
commanded  to  confess  our  sins  to  God  ;  and  in  one  place  we  are  com- 
manded to  confess  to  one  another  our  faults,  i.  e.  the  olFences  we  have 
given  to  one  another.*  Persons  guilty  of  notorious  sins  have,  in  all 
ages,  according  to  directions  left  by  Christ  and  his  apostles,  been  ex- 
cluded from  the  communion  of  the  church.  A  desire  of  being  re-ad- 
mitted has  led  them  to  confess  guilt  in  the  presence  of  that  society  to 
whom  they  had  given  offence  ;  and  this  voluntary  confession,  being 
accepted  as  a  testimony  of  the  sincerity  of  their  repentance,  has 
restored  them  to  that  communion  from  which  they  were  excluded. 
Upon  this  kind  of  confession,  which  was  at  first  voluntary,  and  avail- 
able only  for  the  purpose  of  relieving  from  ecclesiastical  censures,  the 
church  of  Rome  grounded  that  private  auricular  confession,  which  it 
enjoins  to  all  as  necessary  for  their  acceptance  with  God.  The  doc- 
trine concerning  repentance  was  thus  made  the  occasion  of  flagrant 
abuse.  Not  only  is  auricular  confession  productive  of  much  incon- 
venience to  society,  by  giving  the  ministers  of  religion  an  undue  and 
dangerous  influence  over  the  minds  of  the  people  in  their  most  secret 
affairs ;  but  it  perverts  their  notions  of  the  justification  of  a  sinner,  and 
it  provides  a  method  of  quieting  their  consciences,  which  is  so  easy  of 
access  that  it  encourages  them  to  sin  with  little  fear.  2.  If  the  word 
contrhion  means  that  sorrow  for  sin,  which  is  connected  with  the 
hatred  of  it  as  a  transgression  of  the  divine  law,  and  as  rendering  us 
odious  to  the  Father  of  spirits,  it  is  indeed  indispensably  required  of 
every  sinner,  and  it  naturally  produces  a  change  of  life  ;  for  as  the 
apostle  speaks,  2  Cor.  vii.  10,  "  Godly  sorrow  worketh  repentance 
unto  salvation :"  a  text  most  significant  and  instructive  in  itself,  and 
upon  which  there  is  a  sermon  by  Bishop  Sherlock,  which  may  be  of 
more  use  than  any  treatise  that  I  know  in  giving  a  distinct  and  full 
conception  of  the  nature  of  repentance.  But  the  Church  of  Rome, 
wishing  it  to  be  thought  that  they  possess  the  power  of  imparting  the 
benefits  of  repentance  to  persons  who  manifestly  have  not  attained 
this  godly  sorrow,  because  they  do  not  repent  of  their  sins  so  as  to 
forsake  them,  substitute  as  an  alternative  for  contrition  that  sorrow, 
to  which  they  give  the  name  of  attrition.  By  this  they  mean  a  sor- 
row, which  proceeds  not  from  a  sense  of  the  evil  of  sin,  but  from  the 
loss,  the  shame,  or  inconvenience  of  any  kind,  of  which  it  has  been 
the  occasion.  This  sorrow  may  be  expressed  by  words,  by  gestures, 
or  by  actions  5  and  all  these  expressions  of  attrition,  being  considered 

*  James  v.  16. 


SANCTIFICATION.  627 

bv  the  church  of  Rome  as  parts  of  repentance,  aUhough  they  do  not 
iriiplv  any  change  upon  the  mind  of  a  sinner,  as  conspn-mg  with  the 
two  "other  parts  of  repentance  to  entitle  him  to  receive  absolution, 
make  men  easy  under  the  consciousness  of  past  sins,  and  form  an  in- 
ducement not  to  forsake  these  sins,  but  merely  to  exercise  a  little  more 
prudence  in  the  repetition  of  them.  3.  By  satisfaction  the  church  ot 
Rome  means  such  works  as  the  following  :  the  saying  a  prescribed 
number  of  prayers,  the  giving  a  certain  portion  of  alms  to  the  poor 
and  of  gifts  to  the  church,  the  submitting  to  certain  mortifications  and 
penances,  or  the  engaging  in  appointed  hazards  and  toils  ;  all  which 
deeds  being  set  over  against  the  sins  which  were  confessed,  and  for 
which  attridon  was  expressed,  are  conceived  to  constitute  a  compen- 
sation, offered  by  us  to  God  for  the  breach  of  his  law,  in  consideration 
of  which  that  breach  is  forgiven.  This  last  part  of  repentance  appears 
to  all  who  hold  the  perfection  of  the  sacrifice  oftered  by  Christ  upon 
the  cross  to  be  most  dishonourable  to  him,  because  it  implies  a  neces- 
sity of  our  adding  a  personal  atonement  for  sin  to  the  "  one  offering 
by  which  he  hath  perfected  for  ever  them  that  are  sanctified."  To 
all  who  entertain  that  opinion  of  our  good  works  which  I  am  by  and 
by  to  state,  it  appears  most  presumptuous  on  our  part ;  and,  inde- 
pendently of  any  system  of  religious  opinions,  it  plainly  institutes  a 
kind  of  traffic,  which  is  most  unseemly,  which  may  be  perverted  to 
the  worst  purposes,  and  which  totally  unsettles  the  foundations  of 
morality,  by  teaching  that  the  performance  of  one  duty  is  an  excuse 
for  the  neglect  of  another. 

In  opposition  to  these  errors  and  corruptions  of  the  church  of  Rome, 
some  of  which  may  be  traced  in  prejudices  that  still  remain  in  the 
minds  of  the  people  of  Scotland,  we  hold,  and  it  is  a  great  part  of  the 
business  of  our  preaching  to  remind  the  people,  that  repentance,  pro- 
ceeding from  a  change  of  mind,  and  implying  that  sorrow  which  the 
Apostle  calls  godly,  terminates  not  in  certain  formal  acts  which  may 
be  performed  by  any  one,  but  in  a  change  of  life  ;  that  it  is  accepted  by 
God,  not  as  any  compensation  or  atonement  for  the  offences  commit- 
ted against  him',  but  purely  upon  account  of  the  merits  of  Christ ;  and 
that  the  only  unequivocal  marks  of  its  being  effectual  for  the  remission 
of  sins,  or  being  what  the  Scripture  calls  repentance  unto  hfe,  are  to 
be  sought  for  not  in  the  impressions,  or  emotions,  or  resolutions,  with 
which  it  is  accompanied,  but  in  the  solicitude  with  which  men  avoid 
the  sins  of  which  they  profess  to  repent,  and  in  the  zeal  and  the  care 
with  which  they  study  to  practice  the  opposite  virtues. 

It  is  possible,  indeed,  that  repentance  may  be  sincere,  when  there 
is  no  opportunity  of  exhibiting  these  marks :  for  it  would  be  pre- 
sumptuous in  us  to  say,  that  the  steps  by  which  a  criminal  is  conducted 
to  his  end  are  in  no  case  the  instruments  which  the  Spirit  of  God 
employs  in  his  conversion,  or  that  sudden  death,  by  cutting  short  the 
labour  of  virtue  which  had  just  been  begun,  blots  the  beginning  of  it 
out  of  the  book  of  life.  But  it  is  very  much  our  duty  to  warn  the 
people  of  the  folly,  the  guilt,  and  the  danger  of  continuing  in  sin,  and 
trusting  to  a  late  repentance  :  and  although,  when  we  are  called  to 
witness  those  professions  of  repentance,  which  are  sometimes  pro- 
duced by  the  near  approach  of  death,  we  naturally  express  our 
earnest  wish  that  they  may  find  acceptance  with  the  Searcher  of 


628  SANCTIFICATION. 

hearts,  who  alone  can  judge  of  their  sincerity,  yet  we  should  beware 
of  doing  a  very  great  injury  to  others,  by  encouraging  those,  who  are 
leaving  the  world,  to  think  that  what  is  called  the  reflex  act  of  faith  is 
at  that  time  a  sufficient  ground  for  assurance  of  salvation.  When  this 
reflex  act  is  accompanied  with  the  evidence  which  arises  from  the 
fruits  of  the  Spirit,  it  is  justified  in  the  eyes  of  men ;  and  the  soul  by 
which  it  is  exerted,  being  sealed  by  the  Spirit,  may  rise  to  what  the 
Scripture  calls  '^  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  But  fanaticism  opens  a  door 
to  extreme  licentiousness  of  morals,  when  it  teaches  that  the  high  privi- 
lege, sometimes  attained  by  those  who  have  persevered  in  well-doing, 
is  instantaneously  and  certainly  conferred  upon  the  man,  who,  being 
awakened  at  the  close  of  a  sinful  life,  by  considerations  and  views 
that  were  strange  to  him,  either  says  or  thinks  that  he  believes. 

Some  questions  concerning  repentance  will  find  a  place  afterwards. 
But  there  is  one  other  error  respecting  the  nature  of  it,  which  should 
be  mentioned  here,  and  which  results  directly  from  the  principles  of 
fanaticism. 

It  has  been  thought  that  Christians  may  be  able  to  tell  the  precise 
time  of  their  conversion.  It  has  sometimes  been  judged  proper  to 
require  from  them  such  a  declaration  ;  and  there  are  certain  exercises 
of  the  soul,  implying  great  dejection  and  agitation  and  self-reproach, 
and  known  in  books,  more  frequently  read  in  former  times  than  now, 
by  the  name  of  a  law-work,  which  it  has  been  supposed  necessary 
for  every  person  to  experience,  upon  whom  the  Spirit  of  God  produces 
a  change  of  character.  All  these  views  proceed  upon  the  supposition 
that  the  operation  of  the  Spirit  of  God  is  instantaneous,  discriminated 
by  some  sensible  marks  from  the  natural  workings  of  the  human 
mind,  and  observing  in  all  cases  a  certain  known,  discernible  progress. 
But  we  found  formerly  that  this  supposition  receives  no  countenance 
from  the  general  strain  of  Scripture,  that  the  words  of  our  Lord,  in 
his  conversation  with  Nicodemus,  (John  iii.  8,)  seem  intended  to  teach 
us  that  the  operations  of  the  Spirit  are  known  only  by  their  fruits, 
and  that  as  to  the  manner  in  which  these  fruits  are  produced,  "the 
kingdom  of  God,  which  is  within  us,''  often  "cometh  not  with  obser- 
vation." If  the  whole  man  be  renewed  by  the  grace  of  God,  all  the 
actions  performed  in  consequence  of  this  renovation  will  appear  to  be 
as  much  the  actions  of  the  man,  as  if  the  Spirit  of  God  had  not  pro- 
duced any  change ;  if  the  change  be  accomplished  by  means,  by  a 
gradual  preparation,  and  a  gentle  progress,  it  may  be  impossible  to 
tell  the  time  when  it  commenced,  or  to  mark  all  its  stages ;  and  if,  in 
some  cases,  the  means  are  a  pious  education,  or  a  succession  of  im- 
proving objects  and  of  virtuous  employments,  continued  from  infancy 
to  manhood,  this  favourable  situation  may  restrain  the  corruption  of 
the  human  heart  from  atrocious  crimes,  or  presumptuous  sins.  But 
as  it  is  repugnant  to  common  sense,  and  to  our  sentiments  with  regard 
to  human  conduct,  to  say  that  all  men  are  equally  wicked,  or  all  sins 
equally  heinous,  it  appears  absurd  to  suppose  that  those  whose  conduct 
has  been  widely  diflerent  ought  to  feel  the  same  remorse ;  and  there- 
fore, although  the  best  men  are  always  the  most  sensible  of  their  own 
infirmities,  and  although  human  virtue  cannot  be  so  perfect  as  to 
exclude  humility,  self-abasement,  and  the  need  of  repentance,  yet  it 
is  reasonable  to  think  that  the  manner  of  repentance,  both  the  inward 


SANCTIFICATION.  629 

sentiments  and  the  outward  expressions,  will  vary  according  to  the 
measure  and  the  aggravation  of  those  sins  which  men  torsake.  Hence 
we  may  draw  tw"o  inferences,  which  I  shall  barely  mention  ;  that 
those  discourses  do  not  serve  a  good  purpose,  which  represent  it  as 
indispensably  necessary  for  all  who  repent  to  feel  the  same  remorse ; 
and  that  a  doctrine,  which  has  sometimes  been  avowed  by  Calvinists, 
but  has  oftener  been  imputed  to  them  by  those  who  wish  to  hold 
forth  their  tenets  to  public  scorn,  is  totally  groundless ;  the  doctrine, 
namely,  that  those  who  have  been  the  greatest  sinners  are  likely  to 
become  the  most  eminent  saints. 


Section  II. 

The  second  part  of  sanctification  is  conjoined  with  repentance  in 
numberless  passages  of  Scripture.  "  Depart  from  evil  and  do  good. 
— Denying  ungodliness  and  worldly  lusts,  we  should  live  soberly, 
righteously,  and  godly  in  this  present  world. — That  ye  put  oti*,  con- 
cerning the  former  conversation,  the  old  man  which  is  corrupt,  and 
that  ye  put  on  the  new  man,  which  after  God  is  created  in  righteous- 
ness 'and  true  holiness. — Likewise  reckon  ye  yourselves  to  be  dead 
indeed  unto  sin,  but  alive  unto  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."* 

Sanctification,  then,  means  a  new  life,  the  production  of  a  habit  of 
righteousness,  as  well  as  an  aversion  from  sin;  and  this  habit  of 
righteousness  appears  in  those  good  works  which  the  precepts  of  the 
gospel  require,  unto  which,  it  is  said,  we  are  created.t  and  which  all 
that  believe  in  God  are  commanded  to  be  careful  to  maintain.t 

When  we  say  that  the  precepts  of  the  gospel  declare  what  those 
good  works  are",  we  do  not  mean  that  the  gospel  has  given  a  new 
law  unconnected  with  every  former  intimation  of  the  will  of  the 
Creator.  For  the  moral  law,  being  founded  in  the  nature  of  God  and 
the  nature  of  man,  does  not,  like  the  ceremonial  or  the  judicial  law, 
admit  of  being  abrogated.  It  is  in  all  situations  binding,  upon  that 
creature  to  whom  if  is  made,  by  the  constitution  of  his  own  mind ; 
and  although  the  duty  of  man  may  be  unfolded  in  succeeding  revela- 
tions with  greater  clearness,  and  directions  may  be  delivered  suited 
to  the  particular  circumstances  in  which  the  revelations  were  given, 
yet  the  same  general  principles  of  morality  must  pervade  every 
system  of  duty,  which  proceeds  from  the  righteous  Governor  of  the 
universe  for  the  regulation  of  the  conduct  of  man. 

From  this  view  of  the  immutability  of  the  moral  law  we  deduce  a 
satisfying  answer  to  the  Antinomians,  who  say  that  Christians  are 
released  from  its  obligation.  For  upon  this  ground  we  are  able  to 
show  that,  although  "  Christians  are  not  under  the  law,  but  under 
grace,"  in  this  sense,  that  they  are  not  justified  with  God  by  their 
obedience  to  the  moral  law,  they  are  as  much  bound  to  obey  it  as 
if  another  method  of  justification  had  not  been  revealed  to  them. 
Hence  also  we  deduce  the  excellence  of  Christian  morality,  as  a  matter 

•  Psalm  -xxxiv.  14.    Titus  ii.  11,  V2.     Ephes.  iv.  2-2,  ^L     Rom.  vi.  11. 
t  Ephes.  ii.  10.  t  Titus  iii.  8. 

55* 


630  SANCTIFICATION. 

not  of  mere  positive  institution,  but  of  everlasting  obligation  :  and  in 
discoursing  of  any  particular  Christian  duty,  we  scruple  not  to  avail 
ourselves  of  all  those  views  of  the  beauty,  the  utility,  and  fitness  of 
virtue  exhibited  by  heathen  moralists,  which  serve  to  illustrate  its 
cotiformity  to  our  constitution  and  circumstances,  while  we  superadd 
those  interesting  motives  which  arise  out  of  the  genius  and  spirit  of 
the  gospel.  Hence  also  we  deduce  the  perfect  consistency  between 
the  precepts  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament.  It  is  upon  this 
ground  we  stand,  when  we  refuse  to  admit  with  the  Socinians  that 
Christ  has  added  any  thing  to  that  moral  law  of  which  he  is  the 
interpreter ;  and  we  think  that,  by  the  aid  of  those  commentaries 
upon  the  ten  commandments,  which  are  scattered  through  liis 
discourses,  and  the  writings  of  his  apostles,  we  are  able  to  show  that 
all  the  branches  of  Christian  morality  are  included  in  the  Decalogue. 
In  the  ordinary  systems  of  theology,  and  above  all  in  Calvin's 
Institutes,  there  is  an  explication  of  the  Decalogue,  which  merits  the 
particular  attention  of  those  wiiose  business  it  is  to  instruct  the  people, 
Calvin's  commentary  on  this  subject  not  only  presents  a  short  picture 
of  the  whole  summary  of  our  duty,  but  also  deduces  all  the  branches 
of  it  from  general  principles,  so  as  to  illustrate  the  connexion,  the 
obligation,  and  the  relative  importance  of  the  several  parts  of 
morality. 

The  precepts  of  the  gospel,  thus  considered  not  as  the  extension, 
but  as  the  interpretation  of  the  moral  law,  are  the  directory  of  a 
Christian  ;  and  in  this  directory  is  to  be  sought  a  solution  of  all  the 
questions  that  can  occur  in  what  may  be  called  Christian  Casuistry. 
Although  discourses  from  the  pulpit  ought  always  to  present  to  the 
people  both  the  doctrines  and  the  duties  of  religion  in  the  most 
unembarrassed  form,  yet  as  the  discussion  of  controverted  points  of 
doctrine  engages  the  attention  of  men  of  speculation  in  theology,  so 
casuistry,  which  is  the  application  of  the  general  rules  of  morality  to 
particular  cases,  finds  a  place  in  those  books  which  profess  to  treat 
accurately  of  the  duties  of  a  Christian,  and  has  at  different  periods 
furnished  subjects  of  debate,  which  have  been  very  keenly  agitated. 
At  some  times  Christian  casuistry  has  descended  to  insignificant 
attempts  to  regulate  our  dress,  the  measure  of  our  food,  our  sleep,  and 
our  amusement  ;  intruding  into  many  branches  of  the  general 
conduct  of  life,  where  every  man  claims  a  degree  of  liberty,  and 
where  particular  directions  can  be  of  no  use,  because  what  is  right 
in  one  person  is  wrong  in  another ; — because  it  is  impossible  to  frame 
rules  for  every  variety  of  circumstances, — and  beca\ise  the  best  of  all 
rules  are  to  be  found  in  those  considerations  of  propriety  and  benevo- 
lence, which  a  sound  understanding  and  a  good  heart  will  not  fail  to 
suggest  upon  every  occasion.  At  other  times,  Christian  casuistry  has 
turned  upon  general  questions,  suggested  by  scruples  that  were 
founded  upon  a  Hteral  interpretation  of  particular  texts  of  Scripture. 
Such  are  the  doubts  entertained  by  the  Quakers,  and  some  other 
sects,  whether  a  Christian  is  allowed  by  the  laws  of  his  religion  to 
engage  in  war,  to  take  an  oath  in  a  court  of  justice,  or  to  exercise 
the  office  of  a  magistrate.  At  other  times.  Christian  casuistry  has 
reached  the  very  foundations  of  morality  ;  turning  upon  questions 
which  did  not  arise  from  the  scruples  of  those  who  were  afraid  of 


SANCTIFICATION.  631 

doing  wrong,  but  from  the  presumption  of  men,  who,  wishing  to 
shake  off  the  restraints  of  the  divine  law,  without  openly  denying  its 
authority,  were  ingenious  in  devising  evasions  and  subterfuges,  by 
which  the  precepts  of  the  gospel  are  accommodated  to  their  corruption. 
Such  are  the  questions,  whether  actions,  in  themselves  evil  and  con- 
trary to  the  precepts  of  the  gospel,  become  lawful  and  meritorious, 
when  they  are  performed  with  a  good  intention,  and  for  a  good  end ; 
whether  a  person  avoids  the  guilt  of  perjury  by  a  mental  reservation 
at  the  time  when  he  swears;  and  other  questions  of  the  same  kind, 
to  which  the  attention  of  the  Christian  world  was  directed  by  that 
loose  system  of  morality,  which  the  order  of  Jesuits  invented  and 
defended,  and  which,  if  it  prevailed  universally,  would  annihilate 
mutual  confidence,  and  dissolve  the  bonds  of  society. 

All  the  questions  that  can  occur  in  these  three  kinds  of  casuistry 
are  easily  decided,  when  an  enlightened  and  upright  mind  applies, 
with  a  due  exercise  of  attention,  the  principles  furnished  by  consider- 
ing the  precepts  of  the  gospel  as  the  interpretation  of  that  moral  law, 
which  is  binding  upon  men  in  all  situations.  For  the  precepts  of  the 
gospel,  considered  in  this  light,  will  be  found  to  mark,  with  a  preci- 
sion sufficient  for  the  direction  of  hfe,  the  outlines  of  that  conduct 
which  is  characteristical  of  a  Christian  ;  a  conduct  which  shines 
before  men  without  affectation,  which  is  guarded  without  being 
austere,  which  is  beneficent  without  being  officious,  and  in  which 
piety,  righteousness,  goodness,  and  temperance,  are  blended  together 
with  nice  proportion,  and  with  perfect  harmony.  This  is  the  conduct 
which  the  precepts  of  the  gospel,  and  the  life  of  Jesus,  conspire  in 
teaching,  which  it  is  the  business  of  the  ministers  of  religion  in  their 
discourses  to  delineate  and  recommend,  and  of  which  they  should 
ever  be  careful  to  show  an  example  corresponding  to  the  delineation 
which  they  give. 

The  same  principle,  which  furnishes  a  solution  of  all  the  cases  that 
can  occur  in  Christian  casuistry,  exposes  the  falsehood  of  a  doctrine 
of  the  church  of  Rome  respecting  the  nature  of  good  works,  which 
has  laid  the  foundation  of  many  gross  corruptions.  It  Avas  held  that 
there  are  in  the  gospel  counsels  of  perfection ;  i.  e.  that  besides  pre- 
cepts which  are  binding  upon  all,  and  which  none  can  disobey  with- 
out sin,  there  are  advices  given,  which  men  are  at  liberty  to  neglect 
if  they  please,  but  a  compliance  with  which  constitutes  a  superior 
degree  of  perfection.  The  counsels  of  perfection  are  generally  re- 
duced to  three  ;  voluntary  poverty, — a  vow  of  perpetual  chastity, — 
and  a  vow  of  what  is  called  regular  obedience.  The  first  is  founded 
chiefly  upon  the  command  addressed  by  our  Lord  to  the  young  man 
who  came  to  him,  "  If  thou  wilt  be  perfect,  go  and  sell  that  thou 
hast."  The  second  is  founded  upon  some  expressions  in  the  epistles 
of  Paul.  The  third,  the  vow  of  that  kind  of  obedience  which  is 
yielded  by  those  who  lead  a  monastic  life  to  the  superiors  of  their 
order,  is  founded  upon  the  mention  made  in  the  epistles  of  the  reve- 
rence and  obedience  due  to  spiritual  governors.  Into  the  particulars 
of  this  branch  of  the  Popish  controversy  it  is  unnecessary  to  enter. 
Sound  criticism  easily  gives  such  an  explication  of  the  passages  to 
which  I  have  alluded,  as  withdraws  the  support  which  the  distinction 
between  precepts  and  counsels  in  matters  of  morality  appears  to  de- 


632  SANCTIFICATION. 

rive  from  Scripture ;  and  that  distinction  is  completely  overturned  by- 
all  our  conceptions  of  the  law  of  God,  and  particularly  by  our  con- 
sidering the  precepts  of  the  gospel  as  the  complete  directory  of  the 
conduct  of  a  Christian.  It  is  not  meant,  by  using  that  expression, 
that  they  extend  to  those  matters  of  indifference  in  which  a  man  may 
he  safely  left  at  liberty,  or  that  they  supersede  the  exercise  of  pru- 
dence at  those  times,  when  he  may  innocently  accommodate  his  ac- 
tions to  his  situation.  It  is  allowed  that  the  duties  of  men  vary 
according  to  their  circumstances,  that  all  have  not  the  same  opportu- 
nities of  doing  good,  and  that  some  are  called,  by  the  talents  which 
are  committed  to  them,  and  the  advantages  which  they  enjoy,  to 
make  greater  exertions  than  others.  But,  from  the  principle  which 
has  been  illustrated,  this  consequence  clearly  results,  that  every  man 
is  bound  to  embrace  all  the  opportunities  of  doing  good  which  his 
situation  affords,  because,  according  to  that  principle,  the  service  of 
his  whole  life,  and  the  full  exertion  of  all  his  faculties,  are  due  to  his 
Creator.  Every  counsel,  therefore,  of  the  divine  word  respecting 
moral  duty  is  a  command ;  and  "  to  him  that  knoweth  to  do  good, 
and  doeth  it  not,  to  him  it  is  sin."  But  a  man  ought  to  be  certain 
that  what  he  does  is  good ;  for  if,  in  place  of  what  his  situation  marks 
out  to  be  his  duty,  he  substitutes  actions  which  in  his  imagination 
appear  to  imply  a  higher  degree  of  virtue,  he  is  so  far  from  attain- 
ing perfection  by  this  substitution,  that  his  conduct  may  be  very  sin- 
ful. He  is  guilty  of  neglecting  what  he  ought  to  have  done ;  a 
neglect  which  is  always  faulty,  and  which  in  some  situations  is  both 
highly  criminal  and  most  hurtful  to  society.  By  this  substitution  also 
he  entangles  himself  in  difficulties,  perhaps  beyond  his  strength  ;  and, 
after  all  his  mortifications  and  exertions,  he  has  no  warrant  to  think 
that  a  service  which  was  not  required  at  his  hand,  but  which  was 
the  result  of  his  own  presumption,  will  be  accepted  by  his  Creator. 

For  these  reasons  it  appears  to  Protestants,  that  the  self-denial  and 
abstemiousness  of  the  monastic  life,  the  voluntary  poverty  of  the 
mendicant  friars,  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  the  multitude  of  prayers 
which  many  make  it  the  business  of  their  lives  to  offer,  the  pilgrim- 
ages which  have  often  been  undertaken,  the  large  donations  which 
liave  been  left  to  the  church,  and  the  hard  services  which  have  been 
performed  at  her  command,,  have  not  that  supereminent  excellence 
which  is  ascribed  to  them  in  the  church  of  Rome.  It  appeal's  to  Pro- 
testants, that  as  these  good  works  are  not  commanded  by  the  pre- 
cepts of  the  gospel,  which  are  the  complete  directory  of  the  conduct 
of  a  Christian,  they  cannot  be  imposed  upon  any  as  a  part  of  their 
duty  to  God;  and  that  the  performing  them  ultroneously,  far  from 
coming  up  to  that  refined  and  spiritual  morality,  by  the  practice  of 
which  Christians  are  commanded  to  do  more  than  others,  is  an  effort 
after  an  ideal  and  false  perfection,  which  withdraws  men  from  the 
duties  they  are  called  to  perform,  which  diverts  the  powers  of  human 
nature  and  the  bounties  of  Providence  from  the  purposes  for  which 
they  were  bestowed,  and  which  tends  to  destroy  the  essence  of  mo- 
rality, by  leading  men  to  rest  in  the  splendour  of  external  actions, 
instead  of  cultivating  those  virtues  of  the  heart  out  of  which  are  the 
issues  of  a  good  life. 

From  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith,  Protestants  easily  de- 


SANCTIFICATION.  633 

duce  a  refutation  of  other  opinions  of  the  church  of  Rome,  concern- 
ing the  merit  of  good  works.  Tlie  schoohnen  in  that  church  spoke 
of  meritum  de  congriio,  and  meritwm  de  condigno.  By  vieritum 
de  congriio,  they  meant  the  vahie  of  good  works  and  good  disposi- 
tions previous  to  justification  which  it  was  fit  or  congruous  for  God 
to  reward  by  infusing  his  grace.  To  this  kind  of  merit  the  whole  of 
the  Calvinistic  doctrine  concerning  justification  by  faith  is  directly 
opposed.  By  meritum  de  condigno,  they  meant  the  value  of  good 
works  performed  after  justification  in  consequence  of  the  grace  then 
infused.  These,  although  performed  by  the  grace  of  God,  were  con- 
ceived to  have  that  intrinsic  worth  which  merits  a  reward,  and  to 
which  eternal  life  is  as  much  due  as  a  wage  is  to  the  servant  by  whom 
it  is  earned.  In  opposition  to  this  kind  of  merit,  Protestants  hold  that 
as  every  thing  which  we  can  do  is  our  bounden  duty  and  is  not  pro- 
fitable to  God,  our  good  works  cannot,  in  a  proper  sense  of  the  word 
merit,  deserve  a  recompense  from  him  ;  that  although  the  good  works 
commanded  in  Scripture,  and  produced  by  the  influence  of  the  Spirit, 
give  the  person  Avho  maintains  a  real  excellence  of  character,  by 
which  he  is  superior  to  others,  by  which  he  is  "  acceptable  to  God, 
and  approved  of  men,"  and  in  respect  of  which  he  is  styled  in  Scrip- 
ture worthy,  they  do  not  constitute  a  right  to  claim  any  thing  from 
God  as  a  reward ;  that  the  expression  frequent  in  Scripture,  "  God 
will  render  to  every  man  according  to  his  deeds,"  implies  (hat  good 
works  are  a  preparation  for  heaven,  or  an  indispensable  qualification 
for  the  promised  reward,  and  that  there  shall  be  a  proportion  between 
the  virtuous  exertion  here  and  the  measure  of  the  reward  conferred 
liereafter ;  but  that  good  works  are  not  in  any  respect  the  procuring 
cause  of  the  reward.  For  the  reward  is  represented  as  "  of  grace, 
not  of  debt,"  flowing  from  the  promise  of  God  upon  account  of  the 
merits  of  his  Son  ;  and  wliile  death  is  called  "  the  wages  of  sin," 
Rom.  vi,  23,  eternal  life  is  said,  in  the  very  same  verse,  to  be  "  the 
gift  of  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord." 

The  church  of  Rome  did  not  rest  in  saying  that  our  good  works 
may  merit  eternal  life.  As  they  supposed  that  there  are  in  Scripture 
counsels  of  perfection,  a  compliance  with  which  constitutes  a  super- 
eminent  excellence  of  character,  they  inferred  that  those  who  attained 
this  excellence  did  more  than  merit  eternal  life  for  themselves.  To 
the  actions  by  which  men  choose  to  follow  these  counsels  of  perfec- 
tion, they  gave  the  name  of  works  of  supererogation.  They  sup- 
posed that,  by  the  communion  which  subsists  amongst  all  Christians, 
the  benefit  of  works  of  supererogation  performed  by  some  is  imparted 
to  others ;  and  in  the  progress  of  the  corruptions  of  that  church,  it 
was  taught  and  believed  that  the  whole  stock  of  superfluous  merit 
arising  out  of  the  good  works  of  those  who  comply  with  the  counsels 
of  perfection,  is  committed  to  the  management  of  the  Pope,  to  be 
parcelled  out  according  to  his  pleasure,  in  such  dispensations  and  in- 
dulgences as  the  sins  or  infirmities  of  other  members  of  the  church 
appear  to  him  to  stand  in  need  of  It  is  sulficient  for  the  refutation 
of  these  tenets  in  this  place  to  mention  them.  Notwithstanding  the 
preparation  of  ages,  by  which  the  minds  of  men  had  been  conducted 
to  these  articles  of  faith,  and  the  various  interests  which  were  con- 
cerned in  their  being  retained,  the  enormous  abuses  of  that  discre- 

40 


634  SANCTIFICATION. 

tionary  power  with  which  they  invested  the  Pope  were  the  immediate 
cause  of  the  Reformation :  and  although  the  change  then  introduced 
into  the  rehgious  system  of  a  great  part  of  Christendom  was  accom- 
panied with  much  enthusiasm  and  violent  mental  agitation,  yet  the 
principles  upon  which  it  proceeded  approve  themselves  to  the  under- 
standing of  every  sober  inquirer,  who  follows  out,  through  its  seve- 
ral branches,  the  great  doctrine  held  by  the  first  reformers  of  justifi- 
cation by  faith.  For,  according  to  that  doctrine,  the  pardon  of  sin 
and  our  right  to  eternal  life  are  entirely  owing  to  the  merits  of  Christ, 
which  are  counted  as  ours,  in  consequence  of  our  possessing  that 
faith  which  produces  such  good  works  as  the  law  of  God  commands ; 
so  that  although  good  works  are  essential  to  our  own  salvation,  they 
are  not  the  meritorious  cause  of  it ;  and  although  our  good  works 
may  minister  to  the  comfort  and  improvement  of  others  upon  earth, 
"  none  of  us  can  by  any  means  redeem  his  brother,  or  give  to  God  a 
ransom  for  him." 

It  would  be  an  additional  refutation  of  the  merit  of  good  works, 
and  would  demonstrate  the  impossibility  of  works  of  supererogation, 
if  it  could  be  shown  that  even  a  person  who  is  justified  cannot  yield 
a  perfect  obedience  to  the  commands  of  God.  For,  in  that  case,  how- 
ever splendid  some  of  his  actions  might  be,  the  sin  and  the  conse- 
quent guilt  which  adhere  to  others,  would  take  away  from  his  whole 
character  every  claim  of  right  to  a  reward.  Accordingly  there  yet 
remains  one  question  with  regard  to  good  works,  which  requires  to 
be  stated  more  fully  than  any  of  the  preceding,  upon  account  of  the 
principles  that  are  involved  in  the  discussion,  and  the  consequences 
that  flow  from  it.  The  question  is,  whether  it  is  possible  that  the 
good  works  of  Christians  can  be  free  from  every  mixture  of  sin  ;  or, 
to  speak  in  theological  language,  whether  the  sanctification  of  the 
elect  is  in  this  life  complete. 


Section  III. 

It  was  the  principle  of  a  fanatical  sect,  which  arose  early  after  the 
Reformation,  and  was  known  from  a  particular  circumstance  in  their 
practice  by  the  name  of  Anabaptists,  that  the  visible  church  of  Christ 
consists  of  saints,  or  persons  free  from  every  kind  of  sin.  The  doc- 
trine taught  by  Munzer,  the  founder  of  this  sect,  resulted  entirely 
from  this  principle  ;  and  his  enthusiasm  prevented  him  from  perceiv- 
ing that  such  a  church  is  not  to  be  found  upon  earth.  Several  mo- 
dern sects,  which  have  arisen  out  of  the  ancient  Anabaptists,  have 
been  instructed  by  reason,  by  Scripture,  and  by  experience,  to  accom- 
modate their  principles  to  the  present  state  of  human  nature.  But 
while  they  admit  that  many  members  of  the  church  sin,  repent,  and 
are  forgiven,  they  contend  that  it  is  possible  to  attain  that  degree  of 
perfection  in  which  men  are  exempt  from  sinning,  and  they  mean  to 
insinuate  tliat  this  degree  of  perfection  is  often  found  in  their  society. 

This  presumption,  which  in  all  fanatical  sects  has  its  foundation  in 
the  confidence  of  their  being  under  the  immediate  direction  of  the 
Spirit,  is  generally  cherished  by  their  holding  some  form  of  the  Syner- 


SANCTIFICATION.  635 

gistical  doctrine.  Pelagians  and  Socinians,  who  do  not  admit  that 
the  powers  of  human  nature  were  injured  by  tlie  fall,  readily  con- 
clude that  every  man  is  as  able  to  obey  the  commands  of  God,  as 
Adam  was  immediately  after  his  creation ;  that  he  who  abstains  from 
one  sin  may  abstain  from  all ;  and  that  perfect  innocence  is  thus  at- 
tainable by  a  proper  exercise  of  our  own  faculties.  And  all  who 
hold  that  modification  of  these  tenets,  which  is  called  Semi-Pelagian- 
ism,  consider  the  corruption  of  human  nature  as  neither  so  inveterate 
nor  so  universal,  but  that  in  some  persons  the  influence  of  the  Spirit 
being  favourably  received,  and  finding  a  co-operation  of  all  their 
powers,  may,  by  the  continuance  of  a  proper  attention  on  their  part, 
be  rendered  so  effectual  for  their  sanctification  as  to  preserve  them 
from  every  thing  sinful. 

Accordingly  it  is  the  doctrine  of  a  great  part  of  the  church  of  Rome, 
of  the  Franciscans,  and  the  Jesuits,  or  Molinists,  that  perfection  is  at- 
tainable in  this  life.  In  order  to  reconcile  this  position  with  those 
defects  and  errors  which  have  been  observed  in  the  lives  of  the  best 
men  that  ever  lived,  they  make  a  distinction  between  mortal  and 
venial  sins.  By  mortal  sins,  they  understand  actions  which  are  so 
flagrant  a  transgression  of  the  law  of  God,  and  imply  such  deliberate 
wickedness,  as  to  deserve  final  condemnation  ;  and  from  these  they 
consider  every  man,  into  whom  the  grace  of  God  has  been  infused  at 
his  first  justification,  as  completely  preserved.  By  venial  sins,  they 
understand  both  those  sudden  emotions  of  passion  and  inordinate  de- 
sire, which,  so  long  as  they  are  restrained  from  going  forth  into  ac- 
tion, are  regarded  by  them  as  the  constitutional  infirmities  of  human 
nature  ;  and  also  those  actions,  which,  although  contrary  to  the  let- 
ter of  the  law,  are  in  themselves  a  trifling  transgression,  or  are  at- 
tended with  circumstances  alleviating  the  fault  and  indicating  good 
intention.  It  was  meant  by  calling  such  sins  venial,  either  that  they 
deserve  no  punishment  at  all,  or  that  they  are  completely  expiated 
by  temporal  sufferings,  so  as  not  to  be  remembered  in  the  judgment 
of  the  last  day  :  and  it  was  understood,  that  when  the  sins  of  this 
kind,  into  which  it  is  admitted  a  saint  may  fall,  are  set  over  against 
his  uninterrupted  obedience  to  all  the  great  commandments  of  the  law 
and  the  supereminent  excellence  of  his  good  works,  his  character, 
upon  the  whole,  is  entitled  to  be  accomited  perfect. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Dominicans  and  Jansenists  learned,  from 
the  doctrine  of  Augustine  concerning  the  corruption  of  human  nature 
and  the  measure  of  divine  grace,  to  hold  the  following  position,  which 
is  absolutely  inconsistent  with  the  perfection  of  good  works ;  "  that 
there  are  divine  precepts  which  good  men,  notwithstanding  their  de- 
sire to  observe  them,  are  nevertheless  absolutely  unable  to  obey ;  nor 
has  God  given  them  the  measure  of  grace  that  is  essentially  necessary 
to  render  them  capable  of  such  obedience."  This  is  one  of  the  five 
propositions  contained  in  the  book  entitled  Augustinus,  which  was 
often  condemned  in  the  seventeenth  century  by  the  Popes.  Jansenius, 
the  author  of  that  book,  who  meant  to  give  a  faithful  picture  of  the 
sentiments  of  Augustine,  derived  this  proposition  from  tlie  writings  of 
that  father ;  and,  in  like  manner,  all  those  Protestants,  who  hold  that 
system  which  Calvin  also  learned  from  Augustine,  not  only  say  that 
perfection  is  not  in  fact  attained  in  this  life,  but  say  farther  that  it  can- 


636  SANCTIFICATION. 

not  be  attained,  and  that  it  is  part  of  the  economy  of  the  Gospel,  tliat 
sanctification,  although  it  originates  in  the  operation  of  the  Spirit  of 
God,  continues  to  be  incomplete.  Thus  the  Church  of  England  main- 
tains, in  the  twelfth  Article,  "  good  works,  which  are  the  fruits  of 
faith,  and  follow  after  justification,  cannot  put  away  our  sins  and  en- 
dure the  severity  of  God's  judgment :"  in  the  fifteenth  Article,  "  all 
we,  although  baptized  and  born  again  in  Christ,  yet  off"end  in  many 
things ;"  and  in  the  sixteenth  Article,  "  they  are  to  be  condemned 
which  say  they  can  no  more  sin  as  long  as  they  live  here."  In  like 
manner  our  Confession  of  Faith  declares.  Chap.  xiii.  2,  "  Sanctifica- 
tion is  throughout  in  the  whole  man  ;  yet  imperfect  in  this  life,  there 
abiding  still  some  remnants  of  corruption  in  every  part :"  and  Chap, 
xvi.  6,  7,  "  Our  best  works  as  they  arc  wrought  by  us  are  defiled  and 
mixed  with  so  much  weakness  and  imperfection,  that  they  cannot 
endure  the  severity  of  God's  judgment.  Yet,  notwithstanding  the 
persons  of  believers  being  accepted  through  Christ,  their  good  works 
also  are  accepted  in  him,  not  as  tliough  they  were  in  this  life  wholly 
unblameable  and  unreprovable  in  God's  sight;  but  that  he,  looking 
upon  them  in  his  Son,  is  pleased  to  accept  and  reward  that  which  is 
sincere,  although  accompanied  with  many  weaknesses  and  imperfec- 
tions. 

This  doctrine  of  the  imperfection  of  sanctification  in  this  life,  which 
the  two  established  churches  of  this  island  thus  manifestly  agree  in 
holding,  rests  upon  such  grounds  as  the  following.  The  Scriptures, 
while  they  declare  that  "  in  many  things  we  oflend  all,"  give  no  coun- 
tenance to  the  dangerous  distinction  between  venial  and  mortal  shis. 
But  although  they  represent  sins  of  different  magnitudes  and  deserv- 
ing different  degrees  of  punishment,  they  also  represent  every  trans- 
gression of  the  law  of  God.  as  implying  that  guilt  by  which  the 
transgressor  is  under  a  sentence  of  condemnation  ;  and  they  apply  the 
name  of  sin  to  inordinate  desire  even  before  it  is  carried  forth  into 
action,  and  uniformly  describe  it  as  offensive  to  God. 

Further,  they  hold  it  forth  as  the  distinguishing  and  peculiar  cha- 
racter of  the  man  Christ  Jesus,  that  he  was  without  sin,  and  they 
record  many  grievous  sins  committed  by  those,  whom,  from  the  man- 
ner in  which  they  are  spoken  of  in  other  places,  we  are  led  to  consider 
as  having  been  justified  with  God. 

Further,  there  are  in  the  New  Testament  descriptions  of  a  continued 
struggle  between  the  Spirit,  which  is  the  principle  of  sanctification, 
and  the  corruption  of  human  nature,  by  which  that  principle  is  op- 
posed. The  most  striking  passage  of  this  kind  is  to  be  found  in 
Romans  vii.  Calvinists  generally  consider  the  apostle  as  there  speak- 
ing, in  his  own  person,  of  a  man  who  has  been  regenerated  by  the 
grace  of  God.  In  this  case  his  expressions  mark  very  strongly  the 
corruption  that  remains  in  the  hearts  of  the  best  men.  Other  Chris- 
tians, who  deny,  or  who  wish  to  extenuate  this  corruption,  consider 
him  as  speaking  in  the  person  of  a  man  who  has  not  partaken  of  the 
grace  of  God  ;  in  which  case  his  expressions  mark  either  the  combat 
between  appetite  and  reason  which  all  moral  writers  describe,  or  the 
compunction  and  self-reproach  of  a  man  who  is  struggling  by  the 
mere  powers  of  his  own  nature  to  disentangle  himself  from  habits  of 
vice.     The  true  interpretation  of  the  passage  must  be  gathered  by  a 


SANCTIFICATION.  637 

careful  study  of  the  writings  of  Paul,  and  by  the  help  of  the  best  com- 
mentators. There  are  other  passages  in  his  Epistles,  where"  the  same 
struggle  which  the  Calvinists  suppose  to  be  meant  in  Romans  vii. 
seems  to  be  described.  Of  this  kind  is  the  following:  Gal.  v.  17, 
"  The  flesh  lusteth  against  the  Spirit,  and  the  Spirit  against  the  flesh, 
and  these  are  contrary  the  one  to  the  other ;  so  that  ye  cannot  do  the 
things  that  ye  would."  It  appears,  too,  that  the  general  strain  of 
Scripture, — the  image  of  a  warfare  under  which  it  describes  the  Chris- 
tian life, — the  fear  and  circumspection  which  it  enjoins,  and  the  daily 
prayer  for  forgiveness  which  our  Lord  directs  his  followers  to  present, 
all  favour  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  respecting  the  imperfection  of  sanc- 
tification.  To  these  arguments  from  Scripture  it  may  be  added,  that 
this  doctrine  corresponds  Avith  the  circumstances  of  man  in  a  present 
state,  where  he  is  surrounded  with  temptations  to  evil,  and  retains, 
in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  a  propensity  to  yield  to  them  •,  and  that  it 
is  unquestionably  agreeable  to  the  experience  of  the  best  people,  who 
not  only  feel  many  infirmities,  but  who  are  accustomed  to  acknow- 
ledge that,  after  all  their  exertions,  they  fall  very  far  short  of  what 
they  are  in  duty  bound  to  do,  and  that,  with  all  their  circumspection 
and  vigilance,  they  often  commit  sms  for  which  they  have  need  of 
repentance. 

To  a  doctrine  thus  supported  by  Scripture  and  experience,  it  is  not 
enough  to  oppose,  as  the  advocates  for  the  perfection  of  the  saints  are 
wont  to  do,  reasonings  drawn  from  the  power  and  the  holiness  of 
God,  from  the  intention  of  the  death  of  Christ,  or  from  the  gift  of  the 
Spirit.  Far  from  presuming  upon  these  reasonings,  that  a  full  partici- 
pation of  the  benefits  of  the  gospel  will  in  this  life  overcome  the 
corruptions  of  human  nature  so  entirely  as  to  leave  no  remainders  of 
sin,  it  becomes  us  to  correct  our  conjectures  with  regard  to  the  etfect 
of  the  operation  of  God  by  the  declarations  of  his  word,  and  by  the 
measure  in  which  that  effect  is  experienced  by  his  people.  Since 
these  two  rules  of  judging  are,  upon  this  point,  in  perfect  concert, 
every  passage  of  Scripture,  which  appears  to  contradict  the  doctrine 
which  they  unite  in  establishing,  must  receive  such  an  interpretation  as 
shall  render  Scripture  consistent  with  itself;  and  every  branch  of  the 
Calvinistic  system  must  be  held  with  such  qualification  as  this 
doctrine  renders  necessary.  When  we  read,  therefore,  1  John  iii.  9, 
"  Whosoever  is  born  of  God  doth  not  commit  sin  ;  and  he  cannot  sin, 
because  he  is  born  of  God,"  we  understand  the  apostle  to  mean,  not 
that  sin  is  never  committed  by  those  who  are  born  of  God  ;  for  we 
find  him  expressing  himself  thus,  1  John  i.  8,  "  If  we  say  that  we 
have  no  sin,  we  deceive  ourselves,  and  the  truth  is  not  in  us ;"  but 
that  whosoever  is  born  of  God  is  not  an  habitual  sinner,  or  cannot 
obstinately  persist  in  committing  sin.  When  we  meet  with  exhorta- 
tions to  perfection, — when  we  find  the  word  perfect  introduced  into 
some  of  the  characters  drawn  in  Scripture, — when  we  read  of  persons 
"  walking  in  all  the  commandments  and  ordinances  of  the  Lord 
blameless,"  we  understand  a  comparative  perfection  to  be  spoken  of, 
sincerity  of  obedience,  hatred  of  every  kind  of  sin  ;  what  the  Scrip- 
ture often  mentions  along  with  perfection  as  equivalent  to  it,  an 
upright  and  zealous  endeavour  to  conform  in  all  things  to  the  law  of 
5G 


638  SANCTIFICATIONi 

God  ;  what  is  called  by  divines  a  perfection  of  parts,  although  not  of 
degrees.  When  we  speak  of  the  perseverance  of  the  saints,  we  mean, 
not  an  uniform  unsinning  obedience,  but  the  continual  operation  of 
the  principles  communicated  to  their  souls,  and  always  abiding  there, 
by  which  they  are  certainly  recovered  from  the  sins  into  which  they 
are  betrayed,  and  are  enabled,  amidst  all  their  weaknesses  and 
imperfections,  to  "  grow  in  grace,"  And  we  allow  that  the  assurance 
of  grace  and  salvation  is  very  much  interrupted  by  the  sins,  of  which 
the  best  men  are  occasionally  guilty. 

As  all  the  parts  of  the  Calvinistic  system  are  intimately  connected 
with  one  another,  so  the  doctrine  which  we  are  now  illustrating  is 
essentially  necessary  in  order  to  our  holding  the  two  doctrines  last 
mentioned,  the  perseverance  of  the  saints,  and  the  assurance  of  grace 
and  salvation.  For  as  it  is  an  unquestionable  fact  that  all  men  sin, 
unless  it  be  admitted  that  sanctification  is  in  this  life  incomplete,  it 
will  follow  either  that  there  are  none  upon  earth  who  ever  partook 
of  the  grace  of  God,  which  is  to  deny  the  existence  of  the  church  of 
Christ,  or  that  those  who  have  been  sanctified  repeatedly  fall  from 
a  state  of  grace,  and  never  can  have  any  assurance  of  their  final 
salvation.  But  if  the  doctrine  of  the  imperfection  of  sanctification  be 
admitted,  there  is  no  impossibility  in  holding  the  two  others.  At  the 
same  time  it  must  be  acknowledged,  that  the  part  of  the  Calvinistic 
system,  which  is  the  most  liable  to  abuse,  is  the  connection  between 
these  three  doctrines  :  and  there  is  no  subject  upon  which  the  minis- 
ters of  the  gospel  are  called  to  exercise  so  much  caution,  both  in  their 
public  discourses  and  in  their  private  intercourse  with  the  people. 
Many  are  disposed  to  solace  themselves  under  the  consciousness  of 
their  own  sins,  by  the  recollection  of  those  into  which  good  men  have 
formerly  fallen,  and  by  a  confidence  that,  as  sanctification  is  always 
imperfect,  they  may  be  amongst  the  number  of  the  elect,  although 
their  lives  continue  to  be  stained  with  gross  transgression.  It  is  not 
by  holding  forth  ideal  pictures  of  human  perfection,  that  this  danger- 
ous error  is  to  be  counteracted  ;  for  this  is  encouraging  the  indolence 
of  those  who  entertain  it,  by  confirming  them  in  the  belief  that  it  is 
impossible  for  them  to  do  what  is  required.  It  must  be  met  by 
imprinting  upon  the  minds  of  our  hearers  such  important  truths  as 
the  following :  that  the  remainder  of  corruption  which  God  sees  meet 
to  leave  in  the  best,  while  it  serves  to  correct  the  deep  despair  which 
in  some  constitutions  accompanies  religious  melancholy,  is  to  all  a 
lesson  of  humility  and  watchfulness  ;  that  they,  who,  from  experience 
of  this  corruption,  or  from  the  sins  which  it  produces  in  others,  take 
encouragement  to  persist  in  deliberate  and  wilful  transgression, 
discover  a  depravity  of  heart  which  indicates  that  no  saving  change 
has  been  wrought  upon  their  character ;  that  the  repentance,  which 
we  are  called  to  exercise  for  our  daily  offences,  implies  a  desire  and 
an  endeavour  to  abstain  from  sin  ;  that  those  aspirations  after  a  state 
where  the  spirits  of  the  just  shall  be  made  perfect,  which  are  quick- 
ened by  the  consciousness  of  our  present  infirmities,  cannot  be  sincere 
without  the  most  vigorous  efforts  to  acquire  the  sentiments  and  habits 
which  are  the  natural  preparation  for  that  state  ;  that  although  none 
are  in  this  life  faultless,  yet  some  approach  much  nearer  to  the  standard 


SANCTIFICATION.  639 

of  excellence  held  forth  in  the  gospel  than  others  ;  and  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  all,  by  continued  improvements  in  goodness,  to  go  on  to 
perfection. 

These  views,  all  of  which  are  clearly  warranted  by  Scripture,  guard 
against  the  abuse  which  I  mentioned;  and  that  imperfect  but  progres- 
sive sanctification,  which  is  the  work  of  the  Spirit,  opens  the  true 
nature  of  Christian  morality — of  that  evangelical  perfection  which  all 
the  discoveries  of  the  gospel  tend  to  form,  and  which  through  the 
grace  of  the  gospel  is  accepted  of  God  and  crowned  with  an  everlast- 
ing reward.  Christian  morality  has  its  foundation  laid  in  humihty. 
It  excludes  presumption,  and  self-confidence,  and  claims  of  merit.  It 
implies  continual  vigilance  and  solicitude.  Yet  it  is  a  morality  free 
from  gloom  and  despair ;  because  it  is  connected  with  a  dependence 
upon  that  Almighty  power,  and  a  confidence  in  that  exuberant 
goodness,  which  furnish  the  true  remedy  for  the  present  weakness  of 
human  nature.  It  is  a  morality  not  exempt  from  blemishes;  "for 
there  is  no  man  thatsinneth  not."  But  it  is  a  morality  which  extends 
with  equal  and  uniform  care  to  all  the  precepts  of  the  divine  law, 
which  admits  not  of  the  deliberate  continued  indulgence  of  any  sin, 
and  which  follows  after  perfection.  Every  failure  administers  a 
lesson  of  future  circumspection  ;  compunction  for  the  sins  that  are 
daily  repented  of,  and  thankfulness  for  the  grace  by  which  they  are 
forgiven,  bind  the  soul  more  closely  to  the  service  of  God  ;  the  affec- 
tions are  gradually  purified  ;  virtuous  exertion  becomes  more 
vigorous  and  successful ;  there  is  a  sensible  approach,  in  passing 
through  the  state  of  trial,  to  the  unsullied  holiness  which  belongs  to 
the  state  of  recompense.  The  soul,  established  by  a  consciousness  of 
this  progress  in  the  joy  and  peace  of  believing,  cherishes  the  desire 
and  the  hope  of  being  made  like  to  God  ;  and  the  whole  life  of  a 
Christian  upon  earth  corresponds  to  the  words  in  which  the  apostle 
Paul  has  described  his  opinion  of  himself,  his  conduct,  and  his  expec- 
tations. "  Not  as  though  I  had  already  attained,  either  were  already 
perfect ;  but  I  follow  after,  if  that  I  may  apprehend  that  for  which 
also  I  am  apprehended  of  Christ  Jesus.  Brethren,  I  count  not  myself 
to  have  apprehended  ;  but  this  one  thing  I  do,  forgetting  those  things 
which  are  behind,  and  reaching  forth  unto  those  things  which  are 
before,  I  press  toward  the  mark  for  the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of 
God  in  Christ  Jesus.  Let  us,  therefore,  as  many  as  be  perfect,  be 
thus  minded."* 

•  Philippians  iii.  12 — 15. 


640  COVENANT   OF    GRACE. 


CHAPTER  V. 


COVENANT    OF    GRACE. 


Many  of  the  terms,  which  were  introduced  in  the  discussion  of  par- 
ticular theological  questions,  have  now  become  part  of  the  technical 
language  of  theology;  such  as  reconciliation,  satisfaction,  atonement, 
redemption,  and  others  which  belong  to  the  nature  of  the  remedy ; 
predestination,  election,  reprobation,  grace,  and  others  which  belong 
to  the  extent  and  the  application  of  the  remedy.  There  are  other  terms 
including  a  complex  view  of  the  whole  subject,  which  could  not 
properly  be  explained  till  we  had  finished  the  three  great  divisions 
of  it.  I  am  now  to  speak  of  several  terms  which  are  in  common  use 
amongst  all  Christians,  although  not  understood  by  all  in  the  same 
sense,  because  more  or  less  meaning  is  annexed  to  them,  according 
to  the  opinions  entertained  upon  the  diflerent  parts  of  the  whole  sub- 
ject. 

1.  The  dispensation  of  the  gospel  is  often  represented  in  Scripture 
under  the  notion  of  a  kingdom  ;  the  kingdom  of  Christ ;  a  kingdom 
given  to  him  by  the  Father,  in  which  all  power  is  committed  to  him, 
and  all  nations  are  appointed  to  do  him  homage.  Those  who  refuse 
to  submit  to  him  are  his  enemies,  who  shall  illustrate  his  glory  by  the 
punishment  which  he  will  inflict.  Those  who  believe  in  him,  being 
relieved  by  his  interposition  from  misery,  are  his  subjects,  his  people, 
attached  to  their  deliverer  by  gratitude,  admiration,  and  a  sense  of 
duty ;  showing  forth  his  praise  now  by  their  obedience  to  those  laws 
which  he  has  enacted,  and  by  the  peace  and  joy  which,  through  that 
obedience,  they  attain ;  and  destined  to  exhibit  through  all  ages  the 
triumphs  of  the  Captain  of  Salvation,  by  the  supreme  felicity  which 
they  shall  receive  hereafter  as  his  gift.  His  power  is  exerted  in 
applying  the  remedy  to  this  peculiar  people,  or  in  disposing  their 
minds  to  embrace  it,  and  in  forming  and  preserving  that  character  by 
which  they  are  prepared  for  entering  into  the  joy  of  their  Lord.  For 
this  purpose  he  imparts  to  them  those  gifts  which  "  he  received  for 
men  when  he  ascended  on  high;  he  sends  his  Spirit  into  their  hearts; 
he  enables  them  to  overcome  those  spiritual  enemies  which  are  often 
mentioned  in  Scripture  ;  he  makes  the  angels,  who  are  also  subject  to 
him,  ministering  spirits  to  these  heirs  of  salvation  :  and  he  renders  the 
whole  course  of  his  providence  subservient  to  their  improvement. 
^y  all  these  means  he  keeps  their  souls  from  evil  while  they  live  upon 
earth ;  and  having  "  destroyed  him  that  had  the  power  of  death,"  he 
will  raise  their  bodies  from  the  grave,  and  give  them  a  crown  of 
life. 


COVENANT    OP    GRACE,  641 

This  is  a  picture  which  is  presented  not  only  in  the  bold  figures  of 
the  ancient  propliets,  but  also  in  the  more  temperate  language  of 
the  writers  of  the  New  Testament.  Many  of  the  parts  are  very 
pleasing  ;  and  all  unite  with  perfect  consistency  in  forming  a  splendid 
interesting  object,  possessing  that  entire  unity  which  arises  from  a 
continued  reference  to  one  illustrious  person.  Those  who  differ  very 
widely  in  opinion  as  to  the  dignity  of  the  person,  or  the  purpose  and 
the  execution  of  his  undertaking,  cannot  agree  as  to  the  method  of 
filling  up  and  colouring  the  several  parts  of  this  picture.  But  they 
all  profess  to  use  the  same  phrases,  as  being  clearly  founded  in  the 
language  of  Scripture  ;  and  the  interpretation,  by  which  they  accom- 
modate these  phrases  to  their  own  particular  systems,  is  easily  deduced 
from  the  general  principles  of  those  systems.  Hence  it  is  sufficient 
for  me  thus  briefly  to  notice  this  very  extensive  subject  of  popular 
and  practical  preaching. 

2.  There  is  a  second  kind  of  phraseology  founded  upon  the  con- 
nexion between  Jesus  Christ  and  his  subjects,  by  which  they  are 
represented  sometimes  as  parts  of  a  building,  of  which  he  is  the 
corner-stone  ;  sometimes  as  his  branches,  he  being  the  true  vine  ;  and 
more  commonly  as  the  members  of  a  body,  of  which  he  is  the  head, 
deriving  from  him  strength  for  the  discharge  of  every  duty,  and  the 
principles  of  that  life  which  shall  never  end.  This  last  figure  ex- 
presses, in  the  most  significant  manner,  what  is  called  in  theological 
language  the  union  of  believers  with  Christ.  The  bond  of  union  is 
their  faith  in  him  ;  the  effects  of  the  union  are  a  communication  of  all 
the  fruits  of  his  sufferings;  a  sense  of  his  love;  a  continued  influence 
of  his  Spirit;  and  a  security  derived  from  his  resurrection  and  exalta- 
tion that  they  shall  be  raised  and  glorified  with  him.  And  thus, 
while  this  figure  serves  in  a  very  high  degree  to  magnify  the  com- 
pleteness of  the  provision  made  by  Christ  for  the  salvation  of  his 
people,  it  inculcates  at  the  same  time,  with  striking  force,  a  lesson  of 
dependence  upon  him,  and  a  lesson  of  mutual  love.  But  as  all 
figures  are  apt  to  be  abused  by  the  extravagance  of  human  fancy, 
there  are  none,  the  abuse  of  which  is  more  frequent  or  more  dangerous 
than  those  in  which  the  sublimity  of  the  image  serves  to  nourish  pre- 
sumption, or  to  encourage  indolence.  Accordingly  the  expressions 
in  which  Scripture  has  conveyed  this  figure  are  the  passages  most 
commonly  quoted  by  all  fanatical  sects,  as  giving  countenance  to  their 
bold  imagination  of  an  immediate  intercourse  with  heaven.  They 
have  sometimes  also  been  alleged  in  vindication  of  Aiuinomian  tenets. 
IVIuch  caution,  therefore,  is  necessary  when  this  figure  is  used  in  dis- 
courses addressed  to  tlie  people,  that  they  may  never  lose  sight  of  that 
substantial  connexion  which  it  is  meant  to  exhibit,  and  that  the  im- 
pression of  their  being  distinct  and  accountable  agents  may  never  be 
swallowed  up  in  the  confused  apprehension  of  a  mystical  union. 

3.  A  third  kind  of  phraseology,  not  uncommon  in  Scripture,  and 
from  thence  transferred  into  theological  systems,  is  that  according  to 
which  adoption,  a  word  of  the  Roman  law,  which  expressed  a  prac- 
tice recognised  in  former  times  as  legal,  is  apjiliod  to  the  superlative 
goodness  manifested  in  the  gospel.  Some  Christians  consider  this 
phrase  as  marking  nothing  more  than  that  those  religious  privileges, 
upon  account  of  which  Israel  is  called  in  the  Old  Testament  the^son, 

56*  4  P 


642  COVENANT    OF    GRACE. 

the  first  born  of  God,  are  now  extended  to  the  nations  or  large  societies 
of  men  descended  from  heathen  ancestors,  to  whom  the  gospel  is 
published.  Others  consider  it  as  marking  that  imitation  of  the  Su- 
preme Being,  of  which  faith  in  the  revelation  of  the  gospel  is  the 
principle,  and  by  which,  becoming  "  followers  of  God  as  dear  chil- 
dren," we  attain  that  moral  excellence  to  which  the  gospel  was  de- 
signed to  exalt  human  nature.  But  the  greater  part  of  Christians 
consider  the  adoption  spoken  of  in  the  New  Testament  as  including, 
besides  both  these  meanings,  a  particular  view  of  the  change  made 
upon  the  condition  of  all  that  are  justified ;  who,  although  they 
"  were  enemies  by  wicked  works,"  became  through  faith  in  Jesus 
the  children  of  God,  are  received  into  his  family,  are  placed  under 
his  immediate  protection,  are  led  by  his  counsel  and  his  Spirit,  have 
access  to  him  at  all  times,  and  possess  that  security  of  obtaining  eter- 
nal life,  which  arises  from  its  being  their  inheritance  as  the  sons  of 
God.  It  is  obvious  that  while  this  phmse,  thus  understood,  presents 
a  comprehensive  and  delightful  view  of  the  blessings  which  belong 
to  true  Christians,  it  may  also  be  improved  to  the  purpose  of  enforc- 
ing the  discharge  of  their  duty  by  the  most  animating  and  endearing 
considerations ;  and  when  these  two  uses  of  the  phrase  are  properly 
conjoined,  there  is  none  to  be  found  in  Scriptm'e  that  is  more  signifi- 
cant. 

4.  There  is  a  fourth  kind  of  phraseology,  which  will  require  a 
fuller  illustration  than  I  have  thought  it  necessary  to  bestow  upon 
the  others.  It  extends  through  a  great  part  of  what  we  are  accus- 
tomed to  call  the  system ;  many  doctrines  of  which,  although  they 
appear  at  first  sight  far  removed  from  it,  are  found,  upon  examina- 
tion, to  derive  their  peculiar  complexion  from  the  ideas  upon  which 
this  phraseology  proceeds.  It  is  that,  according  to  which  the  terms, 
the  new  covenant,  and  the  covenant  of  grace,  are  applied  as  a  name 
for  the  dispensation  of  the  gospel. 


Section  I. 

The  Greek  word  ^MOt^xtj  occurs  often  in  the  Septuagint,  as  the 
translation  of  a  Hebrew  word,  which  signifies  covenant ;  it  occurs 
also  in  the  gospels  and  the  epistles  ;  and  it  is  rendered  in  our  English 
Bibles  sometimes  covenant,  sometimes  testament.  The  Greek  word, 
according  to  its  etymology,  and  according  to  classical  use,  may  denote 
a  testament,  a  disposition,  as  well  as  a  covenant ;  and  the  gospel  may 
be  called  a  testament,  because  it  is  a  signification  of  the  will  of  our 
Saviour  ratified  by  his  death,  and  because  it  conveys  blessings  to  be 
enjoyed  after  his  death.  These  reasons  for  giving  the  dispensation 
of  the  gospel  the  name  of  a  testament  appeared  to  our  translators  so 
striking,  that  they  have  rendered  6ia9»?x»7  more  frequently  by  the  word 
testament,  than  by  the  word  covenant.  Yet  the  train  of  argument, 
where  BiaOr^xt;  occurs,  generally  appears  to  proceed  upon  its  meaning 
a  covenant ;  and  therefore,  although,  when  we  delineate  the  nature 
of  the  gospel,  the  beautiful  idea  of  its  being  a  testament  is  not  to  be 
lost  sight  of,  vet  we  are  to  remember  tliat  tlie  word  testament,  which 


COVENANT    OF    GRACE.  G13 

we  read  in  the  gospels  and  epistles,  is  the  translation  of  a  word, 
which  the  sense  requires  to  be  rendered  covenant.     When  Jesus  in- 
stituted the  Lord's  supper,  he  said,  "  Tliis  cup  is  ^  xauri  ScaOrjxT]  ti/r^oiuart 
fxov,  or  to  aiua.  tr,i  xaiv*??  hiaSrixru.     As  thcsc  words  arc  applied  to  that 
which  he  intended  to  be  a  memorial  of  his  death,  there  may  seem  to 
be  a  peculiar  propriety  in  rendering  ha,9rixri,  as  our  translators  have 
there  done,  by  the  word  testament.     But  it  is  to  be  observed,  that 
xcuvri  6ia9rjxr;  implies  a  reference  to  a  former,  which  is  often  called  in 
the  epistles  rtaxowt  or  rt^^^rrj  SiaOrjxrj.     Now  there  was  nothing  in  the 
rta>.aia  bioOrjxt]  aualogous  to  the  notion  of  testament.     And,  therefore, 
although  to  the  xcuvr;  SiaOrjxt]  there  did  supervene  this  peculiar  and  in- 
teresting circumstance,  that  the  blessings  therein  promised  are  con- 
veyed by  the  death  of  a  testator,  yet  the  contrast  between  the  ftayjua 
and  xaivr;  SiaOr^xr;  would  bc  better  marked,  if  the  substantive  were  ren- 
dered by  a  word,  which  is  equally  proper  when  applied  to  both 
adjectives,  rather  than  by  a  word,  which,  however  fitly  it  corresponds 
to  one  of  them,  cannot,  without  a  considerable  stretch  of  meanino-, 
be  joined  to  the  other.  In  the  passage,  Heb.  ix.  15,  16,  17,  the  apostle 
appears,  by  our  translation,  to  fomid  an  argument  upon  an  allusion 
to  the  classical  meaning  of  Siadtixtj,  as  signifying  a  testament.     But  so 
far  is  there  from  being  any  necessity  for  translating  it  testament  in 
this  place,  that  the  reasoning  of  the  apostle  is  more  pertinent  and 
forcible,  when  covenant,  the  common  rendering  of  the  word,  is  re- 
tained.    The  following  is  Dr.  Macknight's  translation  of  these  three 
verses :  "  And  for  this  reason,  of  the  new  covenant  he  is  the  media- 
tor, that  his  death  being  accomplished  for  the  redemption  of  the  trans- 
gressions of  the  first  covenant,  the  called  may  receive  the  promise  of 
the  eternal  inheritance.    For  where  a  covenant  [is  made  by  sacrifice] 
there  is  a  necessity  that  the  death  of  the  appointed  sacrifice  be  brought 
in.     For  a  covenant  is  firm  over  dead  sacrifices,  seeing  it  never  hath 
force  whilst  the  appointed  sacrifice  liveth." 

A  covenant  implies  two  parties,  and  mutual  stipulations.  The  new 
covenant  must  derive  its  name  from  something  in  the  nature  of  the 
stipulations  between  the  parties  difterent  from  that  which  existed 
before ;  so  that  we  cannot  understand  the  propriety  of  the  name 
xairjj,  without  looking  back  to  what  is  called  the  rtaxrua,  or  rt^wt??.  On 
examining  the  passages  in  Gal.  iii.  in  2  Cor.  iii.  and  in  Heb.  viii.  ix. 
X.  where  rtcucua  and  xiivr;  Si.a9>^x>]  are  contrasted,  it  will  be  found  that 
fxixaia  h-aSiqxri^  meaus  the  dispensation  given  by  Moses  to  the  children 
of  Israel ;  and  xa"'«7  hMBrixri,  the  dispensation  of  the  gospel  published 
by  Jesus  Christ ;  and  that  the  object  of  the  apostle  is  to  illustrate  the 
superior  excellence  of  the  latter  dispensation.  But,  in  order  to  pre- 
serve the  consistency  of  the  apostle's  writings,  it  is  necessary  to  re- 
member that  there  are  two  different  lights  in  which  the  former  dis- 
pensation may  be  viewed.  Christians  appear  to  draw  the  line  be- 
tween rfaxata  and  xaivri  5ca')i;x);,  according  to  the  light  in  which  they  view 
that  dispensation.  It  may  be  considered  merely  as  a  method  of  pub- 
lishing the  moral  law  to  a  particular  nation  ;  and  then  with  whatever 
solemnity  it  was  delivered,  and  with  whatever  cordiality  it  was  ac- 
cepted, it  is  not  a  covenant  that  could  give  life.  For  being  nothing 
more  than  what  divines  call  a  covenant  of  works,  a  directory  of  con- 
duct requiring  by  its  nature  entire  personal  obedience,  promising  life 


644  COVENANT    OF    GRACE. 

to  those  who  yielded  that  obedience,  but  making  no  provision  for 
transgressors,  it  left  under  a  curse  "  every  one  that  continued  not  in 
all  things  that  were  written  in  the  book  of  the  law  to  do  them."  Tliis 
is  the  essential  imperfection  of  what  is  called  the  covenant  of  works, 
the  name  given  in  theology  to  that  transaction,  in  which  it  is  con- 
ceived that  the  Supreme  Lord  of  the  universe  promised  to  his  crea- 
ture man,  that  he  would  reward  that  obedience  to  his-  law,  which, 
without  any  such  promise,  was  due  to  him  as  the  Creator.  It  is 
understood  in  the  Calvinistic  system  that  this  covenant  was  entered 
into  with  Adam,  as  the  representative  of  the  human  race.  It  is 
allowed  by  those  who  deny  this  representation,  that  a  covenant  of 
works  is  entered  into  with  every  one  of  the  children  of  Adam  by  the 
condition  of  his  being ;  for  "  the  gentiles  show  the  work  of  the  law 
written  in  their  hearts,"  And  they  who  regard  the  covenant  made 
with  Israel  at  Mount  Sinai,  which  has  been  called  the  Sinaitic  cove- 
nant, as  nothing  more  than  a  manner  of  giving  the  moral  law  with 
peculiar  circumstances  of  splendour  and  majesty,  consider  the  follow- 
ing epithets  which  occur  in  the  writings  of  Paul,  as  applicable  hi 
their  full  meaning  to  the  whole  of  the  Mosaic  dispensation  ;  "  weak 
tin-ough  the  flesh,"*  i.  e.  not  containing  a  provision  for  the  salvation 
of  men  suited  to  the  necessity  of  their  nature  ;  "unprofitable,  makhig 
nothing  perfect  ;"t  "  the  ministration  of  death."t 

But  although  some  sects  of  Christians  have  chosen  to  rest  in  this 
view  of  the  Mosaic  dispensation,  there  is  another  view  of  it  opened 
to  us  in  Scripture.  No  sooner  had  Adam  broken  the  covenant  of 
works,  than  a  promise  of  a  final  deliverance  from  the  evils  incurred 
by  the  breach  of  it  was  given.  This  promise  was  the  foundation  of 
that  transaction  which  Almighty  God,  in  treating  with  Abraham, 
condescends  to  call  "  my  covenant  whh  thee,"  and  which,  upon  this  au- 
thority, has  received  in  theology  the  name  of  the  Abrahamic  covenant. 
Upon  the  one  part,  Abraham,  whose  faith  was  counted  to  him  for 
righteousness,  received  this  charge  from  God,  "walk  before  me  and 
be  thou  perfect ;"  upon  the  other  part,  the  God  whom  he  believed, 
and  whose  voice  he  obeyed,  besides  promising  other  blessings  to  him 
and  his  seed,  uttered  these  significant  words,  "  in  thy  seed  shall  all 
the  families  of  the  earth  be  blessed." 

In  this  transaction  then  there  was  the  essence  of  a  covenant,  for 
there  were  mutual  stipulations  between  two  parties ;  and  there  was 
superadded,  as  a  seal  of  the  covenant,  the  rite  of  circumcision,  \vhich, 
being  prescribed  by  God,  was  a  confirmation  of  his  promise  to  all 
who  complied  with  it,  and  being  submitted  to  by  Abraham,  was,  on 
his  part,  an  acceptance  of  the  covenant. 

The  Abrahamic  covenant  appears,  from  the  nature  of  the  stipula- 
tions, to  be  more  than  a  covenant  of  works ;  and  as  it  was  not  con- 
fined to  Abraham,  but  extended  to  his  seed,  it  could  not  be  disan- 
nulled by  any  subsequent  transactions,  which  fell  short  of  a  fulfilment 
of  the  blessing  promised.  The  law  of  Moses,  which  was  given  to 
the  seed  of  Abraham  four  hundred  and  thirty  years  after,  did  not 
come  up  to  the  terms  of  that  covenant  even  with  regard  to  them,  for 
in  its  form  it  was  a  covenant  of  works,  and  to  other  nations  it  did  not 

*  Rom,  viii,  3.  -j-  Heb,  vii.  18,  19,  ^  2  Cor.  iii.  7. 


COVENANT    OF    GRACE.  645 

directly  convey  any  blessings.  But  although  the  Mosaic  dispensation 
did  not  fulfil  the  Abrahamic  covenant,  it  was  so  far  from  setting  that 
covenant  aside,  that  it  cherished  the  expectation  of  its  being  fulfilled  : 
for  it  continued  the  rite  of  circumcision,  which  was  the  seal  of  the 
covenant ;  and  in  those  ceremonies  which  it  enjoined,  there  was  a 
shadow,  a  type,  an  obscure  representation  of  the  promised  blessing. 
Accordingly,  many  who  lived  under  the  na^aia  Sia^^jx??  Avcre  justified  by 
fiiith  in  a  Saviour  who  was  to  come.  The  nation  of  Israel  consi- 
dered themselves  as  the  children  of  the  covenant  made  with  Abra- 
ham ;  and  when  the  Messiah  was  born,  his  birth  was  regarded  by 
devout  Jews  as  a  performance  of  the  mercy  promised  to  their  fathers 
in  remembrance  of  the  holy  covenant  made  with  Abraham.* 

Here,  then,  is  another  view  of  the  Mosaic  dispensation.  "It  was 
added  because  of  transgressions,  till  the  seed  should  come  to  whom 
the  promise  was  made."t  By  delivering  a  moral  law  which  men 
felt  themselves  unable  to  obey,  by  denouncing  judgments  which  it 
did  not  of  itself  provide  any  effectual  method  of  escaping,  and  by 
holding  forth  in  various  oblations  the  promised  and  expected  Saviour, 
"  it  was  a  schoolmaster  to  bring  men  unto  Christ."  The  covenant 
made  with  Abraham  retained  its  force  during  the  dispensation  of  the 
law,  and  was  the  end  of  that  dispensation.  And  the  particular  manner 
of  administering  this  covenant,  which  the  wisdom  of  God  chose  to  con- 
tinue for  a  long  course  of  ages,  is  called  hmmo.  S^aerixr;.  When  the  pur- 
poses for  which  this  manner  was  chosen  were  accomplished,  rtaxaca 
BMOrjxyj,  "  waxing  old,  vanished  away ;"  and  there  succeeded  that 
other  method  of  administering  the  covenant,  which,  in  respect  of  the 
facility  of  all  the  observances,  the  simplicity  and  clearness  with  which 
the  blessings  are  exhibited,  and  the  extent  to  which  they  are  promul- 
gated, is  called  « »»>?  6M9y;x*j ;  bvit  which  is  so  far  from  being  opposite  to 
rtaAata  Saig^jx*?,  or  essentially  different  from  it,  that  it  is  in  substance 
the  very  Gospel  which  was  "preached  before  unto  Abraham,"  and 
was  embraced  by  all  those  who  "  walked  in  the  steps  of  his  faith." 

Writers  upon  theology,  sometimes  from  a  difference  in  general 
principles,  and  sometimes  from  a  desire  to  elucidate  the  subject  by 
introducing  a  new  language,  have  differed  in  the  application  of  the 
terms  now  mentioned.  But  the  views  which  have  been  given  furnish 
the  grounds  upon  which  we  defend  that  established  language,  which 
is  familiar  to  our  ears,  that  there  are  only  two  covenants  essentially 
different,  and  opposite  to  one  another,  the  covenant  of  works,  made 
with  the  first  man,  intimated  by  the  constitution  of  human  nature  to 
every  one  of  his  posterity,  and  having  for  its  terms,  "  Do  this  and 
live;" — and  the  covenant  of  grace,  which  was  the  substance  of  the 
Abrahamic  covenant,  and  which  entered  into  the  constitution  of  the 
Sinaitic  covenant,  but  which  is  more  clearly  revealed  and  more 
extensively  published  in  the  gospel. 

This  last  covenant,  which  the  Scriptures  call  new  in  respect  of  the 
mode  of  its  dispensation  under  the  gospel,  although  it  is  not  new  in 
respect  of  its  essence,  has  received,  in  the  language  of  theology,  the 
name  of  the  covenant  of  grace,  for  the  two  following  obvious  reasons; 
because,  after  man  had  broken  the  covenant  of  works,  it  was  pure 

•  Luke  i.  72,  73.  fGal-iii.  19. 


646  COVENANT    OF    GRACE. 

grace  or  favour  in  the  Almighty  to  enter  into  a  new  covenant  with 
him;  and  because  by  the  covenant  there  is  conveyed  that  grace, 
which  enables  man  to  comply  with  the  terms  of  it.  It  could  not  be 
a  covenant  unless  there  were  terms — something  required,  as  well  as 
something  promised  or  given, —  duties  to  be  performed,  as  well  as 
blessings  to  be  received.  Accordingly,  the  tenor  of  the  new  cove- 
nant, founded  upon  the  promise  originally  made  to  Abraham,  is 
expressed  by  Jeremiah  in  words  which  the  apostle  to  the  Hebrews 
has  quoted  as  a  description  of  it ;  "  I  will  be  to  them  a  God,  and  they 
shall  be  to  me  a  people  :"* — words,  which  intimate,  on  one  part,  not 
only  entire  reconciliation  with  God,  but  the  continued  exercise  of  all 
the  perfections  of  the  Godhead  in  promoting  the  happiness  of  his 
people,  and  the  full  communication  of  all  the  blessings  which  flow 
from  his  unchangeable  love  ;  on  the  other  part,  the  surrender  of  the 
heart  and  affections  of  his  people,  the  dedication  of  all  the  powers  of 
their  nature  to  his  service,  and  the  willing  uniform  obedience  of  their 
lives.  But,  although  there  are  mutual  stipulations,  the  covenant 
retains  its  character  of  a  covenant  of  grace,  and  must  be  regarded  as 
having  its  source  purely  in  the  grace  of  God.  For  the  very  circum- 
stances which  rendered  the  new  covenant  necessary  take  away  the 
possibility  of  there  being  any  merit  upon  our  part :  the  faith  by  which 
the  covenant  is  accepted  is  the  gift  of  God;  and  all  the  good  works 
by  which  Christians  continue  to  keep  the  covenant,  originate  in  that 
cliange  of  character  which  is  the  fruit  of  the  operation  of  his  Spirit. 
By  the  conditions  of  the  covenant  of  grace,  therefore,  are  meant,  not 
any  circumstances  in  our  character  and  conduct  which  may  be 
regarded  as  inducements  moving  God  to  enter  into  a  new  covenant 
with  us,  but  purely  those  expressions  of  thankfulness  which  naturally 
proceed  from  the  persons  with  whom  God  has  made  this  covenant, 
which  are  the  effects  and  evidences  of  the  grace  conveyed  to  their 
souls,  and  the  indispensable  qualifications  for  the  complete  and  final 
participation  of  the  blessings  of  the  covenant.  With  this  caution,  we 
scruple  not  to  say  that  there  are  conditions  in  the  covenant  of  grace, 
and  we  press  upon  Christians  the  fulfilment  of  the  conditions  on  their 
part :  although  this  is  a  language  which  some  of  the  first  reformers, 
in  their  zeal  against  popery,  and  their  solicitude  to  avoid  its  errors, 
thought  it  dangerous  to  hold,  and  which,  unless  it  be  properly 
explained,  still  sounds  offensive  in  the  ears  of  particular  descriptions 
of  men. 

The  question  concerning  the  extent  of  the  covenant  of  grace  turns 
upon  points  that  have  been  already  explained.!  The  difference  of 
opinion  between  the  advocates  for  universal  and  particular  redemption 
does  not  respect  the  number  who  shall  be  saved.  For  whether  God 
intended  to  make  the  covenant  of  grace  with  all  men,  or  whether  he 
intended  to  make  it  only  with  those,  whom  from  the  beginning  he 
elected,  it  is  allowed,  on  both  sides,  that  they  only  are  saved  Avho 
accept  of  the  covenant. 

*  Heb.viii.  10.  f  Book  iv.  ch.  6. 


COVENANT    OF    &RACE.  647 


Section  II. 

It  is  one  most  important  circumstance  in  the  constitution  of  the 
covenant  of  grace,  that  it  was  made  through  the  sufferings  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Thence  arises  the  term  Mediator,  in  the  use  of  which  all 
Christians  agree,  because  it  is  frequently  applied  to  him  in  the  New 
Testament ;  but  concerning  the  meaning  and  import  of  which  they 
differ  widely. 

Jesus  is  called  in  Scripture  fusitr,?,  y.iei,ttii  0£od  xm  avO^unuv,  ii,a9r;xt]i 
x^Httovoi,  xau'rii,  vcoi,  fisfjittji.*  The  word  iii(ictt]i  literally  means  a  person 
in  the  middle,  between  two  parties  ;  and  the  fitness  of  there  benig  a 
mediator  of  the  covenant  of  grace  arises  from  this,  that  the  nature  of 
the  covenant  implies  that  the  two  parties  were  at  variance.  Those,\ 
who  hold  the  Socinian  principles  with  regard  to  the  nature  of  the] 
remedy,  understand  mediator  to  mean  nothing  more  than  a  messen-j 
ger  sent  from  God  to  give  assurance  of  forgiveness  to  his  offending 
creatures.  Those,  who  hold  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement,  understand 
that  Jesus  is  called  the  mediator  of  the  new  covenant,  because  he 
reconciles  the  two  parties,  by  having  appeased  the  wrath  of  God 
which  man  had  deserved ;  and  by  subduing  that  enmity  to  God  by 
which  their  hearts  were  alienated  from  him.  It  is  plain  that  this  is 
being  a  mediator  in  the  strict  and  proper  sense  of  the  word  ;  and  there 
seems  to  be  no  reason  for  resting  in  a  meaning  less  proper  and 
emphatical.  This  sense  of  the  term  mediator  coincides  with  the 
meaning  of  another  phrase  applied  to  him,  Heb.  vii.  22,  where  he  is 
called  x^st-tiovos  hva.eyixr,i  syyvo^.  If  he  is  a  mediator  in  the  last  sense,  then 
he  is  also  ryyvoj,  tlie  sponsor,  the  surety  of  the  covenant.  He  under- 
took on  the  part  of  the  Supreme  Lawgiver,  that  the  sins  of  those  who 
repent  shall  be  forgiven;  and  he  fulfilled  this  undertaking,  by  offer- 
ing in  their  stead  a  satisfaction  to  divine  justice.  He  undertook  on 
their  part  that  they  should  keep  the  terms  of  the  covenant ;  and 
he  fulfils  this  undertaking  by  the  influence  of  his  Spirit  upon  their 
hearts. 

From  this  high  sense  of  the  term  mediator,  in  which  the  general 
strain  of  the  New  Testament  seems  to  warrant  us  to  understand  that 
word,  there  arises  what  are  commonly  called  the  three  offices,  upon 
account  of  his  holding  which,  by  the  designation  of  God,  Jesus  is 
emphatically  styled  the  Christ,  or  the  anointed.  The  three  offices  of 
Christ  are  familiar  to  the  hearers  of  the  gospel  from  the  instruction  of 
our  Catechism:  they  are  generally  acceptable  as  subjects  of  preach- 
ing :  and  they  may  be  improved  so  as  to  furnish  matter  for  useful 
and  excellent  discourses.  The  meaning  which  we  affix  to  the  word 
mediator  suggests  the  following,  as  the  most  natural  order  of  stating 
the  three  offices.  The  Christ  is  a  priest,  who  offered  on  the  cross  a 
true  and  perfect  sacrifice,  by  which  he  has  purchased  forgiveness  for 
all  that  repent ;  he  is  a  prophet,  who  publishes  what  the  apostle  calls 
"the  word  of  reconciliation,"  or  the  terms  of  the  new  covenant;  and 

*  1  Tim.  ii.  5.     Heb.  viii.  6  ;  ix.  15  ;  xii.  24. 


648  COVENANT    OP    GRACE. 

he  is  a  king,  who  establishes  his  throne  in  the  hearts  of  his  people, 
incHiies  them  to  accept  of  the  covenant,  enables  them  to  fulfil  its 
terms,  and  has  power  to  confer  upon  them  all  its  blessings. 

If  a  mediator  be  essential  to  the  covenant  of  grace,  and  if  all  who 
have  been  saved  from  the  time  of  the  first  transgression  were  saved 
by  that  covenant,  it  follows  that  the  mediator  of  the  new  covenant 
acted  in  that  character  before  he  was  manifested  in  the  flesh.  Hence 
the  importance  of  that  doctrine  respecting  the  person  of  Christ ;  that 
all  the  communications  which  the  Almighty  condescended  to  hold 
with  the  human  race  were  carried  on  from  the  beginning  by  this  per- 
son, that  it  is  he  who  spake  to  the  patriarchs,  who  gave  the  law  by 
Moses,  and  who  is  called  in  the  Old  Testament  the  Angel  of  the 
covenant,*  The  views  which  we  have  now  attained  of  the  remedy 
provided  for  the  moral  condition  of  the  human  race,  open  to  us  the 
full  importance  of  a  doctrine,  which  manifestly  unites  in  one  faith  all 
who  obtain  deliverance  from  that  condition.  For  according  to  this 
doctrine,  not  only  did  the  virtue  of  the  blood  which  he  shed  as  a 
priest  extend  to  the  ages  past  before  his  manifestation,  but  all  the 
intimations  of  the  new  covenant  established  in  his  blood  were  given 
by  him  as  the  great  prophet,  and  the  blessings  of  the  covenant  were 
applied  in  every  age  by  the  Spirit,  which  he  as  the  king  of  his  people 
sends  forth. 

The  Socinians,  who  consider  Jesus  as  a  mere  man,  having  no 
existence  till  he  was  born  of  Mary,  necessarily  reject  the  doctrine  now 
stated.  And  the  church  of  Rome,  although  they  admit  the  divinity 
of  our  Saviour,  yet  by  the  system  which  they  hold  with  regard  to  the 
mediation  of  Christ,  agree  with  the  Socinians  in  throwing  out  of  the 
dispensations  of  the  grace  of  God,  that  beautiful  and  complete  unity 
which  arises  from  their  having  been  conducted  by  one  person.  The 
church  of  Rome  considers  Christ  as  mediator,  only  in  respect  of  his 
human  nature.  As  that  nature  did  not  exist  till  he  was  born  of 
Mary,  they  do  not  think  it  possible  that  he  could  exercise  the  oftice 
of  mediator  under  the  Old  Testament;  and  as  they  admit  that  a 
mediator  is  essential  to  the  covenant  of  grace,  they  believe  that  those 
who  lived  under  the  Old  Testament,  not  enjoying  the  benefit  of  his 
mediation,  did  not  obtain  complete  remission  of  sins.  They  suppose, 
therefore,  that  persons  in  former  times  who  believed  in  a  Saviour  that 
was  to  come,  and  who  obtained  justification  with  God  by  this  faith, 
were  detained  after  death  in  a  place  of  the  infernal  regions,  which 
received  the  name  of  Limbus  Patrum;  a  kind  of  prison  where  they 
did  not  endure  punishment,  but  remained  without  partaking  of  the 
joys  of  heaven,  in  earnest  expectation  of  the  coming  of  Christ,  who 
after  suffering  on  the  cross,  descended  to  hell  that  he  might  set  them 
free.  This  fanciful  system  has  no  other  foundation  than  the  slender 
support,  which  it  appears  to  receive  from  some  obscure  passages  of 
Scripture  that  admit  of  another  interpretation.  But  if  Christ  acted  as 
the  mediator  of  the  covenant  of  grace  from  the  time  of  the  first  trans- 
gression, this  system  becomes  wholly  unnecessary;  and  we  may 
believe,  according  to  the  general  strain  of  Scripture,  and  what  we 
account  the  analogy  of  faith,  that  all  who  "  died  in  faith"  since  the 

*  Book  iii.  ch.  5. 


COVENANT    OF    GRACE.  649 

world  began  entered  immediately  after  death  into  that  "heavenly- 
country  which  they  desired." 

Although  the  members  of  the  church  of  Rome  adopt  the  language 
of  Scripture,  in  which  Jesus  is  styled  the  mediator  of  the  new 
covenant,  they  differ  from  all  Protestants  in  acknowledging  other 
mediators ;  and  the  use,  which  they  make  of  the  doctrine  that  Christ 
is  mediator  only  in  his  human  nature,  is  to  justify  their  admitting 
those  who  had  no  other  nature  to  share  that  office  with  him.  Saints, 
martyrs,  and  especially  the  Virgin  Mary,  are  called  mediatores 
secimdarii,  because  it  is  conceived  that  they  hold  this  character  under 
Christ,  and  that,  by  virtue  of  his  mediation,  the  superfluity  of  their 
merits  may  be  applied  to  procure  acceptance  with  God  for  our  im- 
perfect services.  Under  this  character  supplications  and  solemn 
addresses  are  presented  to  them ;  and  the  mediatores  seciuidarii 
receive  in  the  church  of  Rome,  not  only  the  honour  due  to  eminent 
virtue,  but  a  worship  and  homage  which  that  church  wishes  to 
vindicate  from  the  charge  of  idolatry,  by  calling  it  the  same  kind  of 
inferior  and  secondary  worship  which  is  offered  to  the  man  Christ 
Jesus,  who  in  his  human  nature  acted  as  mediator. 

In  opposition  to  all  this,  we  hold  that  Jesus  Christ  was  qualified  to 
act  as  mediator  by  the  union  between  his  divine  and  his  human 
nature ;  that  Jiis  divine  nature  gave  an  infinite  value  to  all  that  he 
did,  rendering  it  effectual  for  the  purpose  of  reconciling  us  to  God, 
while  the  condescension  by  which  he  approached  to  man,  in  taking 
part  of  flesh  and  blood,  fulfilled  the  gracious  intention  for  which  a 
mediator  was  appointed ;  that  the  introducing  any  other  mediator  is 
unnecessary,  derives  no  warrant  from  Scripture,  and  is  derogatory  to 
the  honour  of  him  who  is  there  called  the  "  one  mediator  between  God 
and  men;"  and  that  as  the  union  of  the  divine  to  the  human  nature 
is  the  foundation  of  that  worship,  which  in  Scripture  is  often  paid  to 
the  mediator  of  the  new  covenant,  this  worship  does  not  afford  the 
smallest  countenance  to  the  idolatry  and  will-worship  of  those,  who 
ascribe  divine  honours  to  any  mortal. 


Section  III. 

Prayer  is  the  natural  expression  of  the  sentiments  of  a  dependent 
creature.  But  the  dispensation  of  the  Gospel,  as  a  covenant  of  grace, 
furnishes  a  striking  illustration  of  the  obligation  to  prayer  in  general, 
the  propriety  of  the  several  parts  of  it,  and  the  encouragements  to  the 
regular  performance  of  this  duty.  The  inestimable  value  of  the 
blessings  conveyed  by  this  covenant,  the  unmerited  love  from  which 
they  proceed,  and  the  bright  display  of  the  divine  perfections  in  the 
luethod  of  conferring  them,  quicken  all  those  feelings  of  piety  and 
gratitude  to  God,  with  which  it  is  the  privilege  of  the  human  heart  to 
glow,  and  call  for  the  most  devout  adoration,  and  the  warmest 
thanksgiving.  The  intimate  relations  by  which  the  covenant  of  grace 
connects  Christians  with  one  another,  as  well  as  with  their  common 
Father,  produce  intercessions,  those  expressions  of  benevolence  in 
which  they  commend  one  another  to  his  care.  The  consciousness  of 
57  4  Q 


650  COVENANT    OF    GRACE. 

that  imperfection  which  is  inseparable  from  human  nature,  and  of 
those  sins  which  we  daily  commit,  draws  forth  humble  confessions, 
and  supplications  in  the  presence  of  Him,  who  "  is  faithful  and  just 
to  forgive  us  our  sins."  The  sense  of  our  own  inability  to  discharge 
our  duty,  and  the  desire  of  obtaining  that  heavenly  aid  which  is  pro- 
mised to  them  that  ask  it,  give  the  form  of  petition  to  all  our  purposes 
of  obedience  ;  and  the  hope  of  those  future  blessings  of  the  covenant, 
to  which  we  are  conducted  by  that  obedience,  imparts  to  the  thoughts 
and  affections  that  degree  of  elevation,  which  seeks  for  intercourse 
with  heaven. 

There  is  a  vulgar  notion  concerning  prayer,  which  is  derogatory  to 
the  character  of  the  Almighty,  that  our  importunity  can  extort  bless- 
ings from  him,  and  produce  a  change  in  his  counsels.  This  notion  is 
unreasonable,  and  directly  opposite  to  the  principles  upon  which  the 
Calvinistic  doctrine  of  the  covenant  of  grace  proceeds.  Yet  every 
consideration  suggested  by  the  light  of  nature,  which  shows  prayer  to 
be  a  duty,  is  very  much  enforced  by  the  Calvinistic  doctrine ;  and  all 
the  fervour  which  the  Scripture  recommends  in  performing  the  duty 
appears,  upon  the  principles  of  that  doctrine,  to  be  highly  reasonable, 
as  proceeding  from  that  state  of  mind,  which  enters  into  the  character 
of  those  with  whom  God  has  made  the  covenant  of  grace,  as  cherish- 
ing and  improving  that  character,  as  being  the  preparation  for  their 
receiving  his  blessings,  and  as  an  indispensable  condition,  which  for 
their  sakes  he  has  required.  Accordingly  our  Lord,  while  he  corrects 
different  errors  concerning  prayer,  which  proceed  from  unworthy 
conceptions  of  the  Deity,  delivers  a  form  of  prayer  so  conceived,  as  to 
imply  that  we  are  to  pray  to  God  daily,  and  full  of  instruction  as  to 
the  manner  of  discharging  that  duty.  This  instruction,  the  exposition 
of  which  occupies  a  considerable  part  of  the  catechism  of  our  church, 
is  unfolded  in  every  system  of  theology. 

The  humility  and  self-abasement,  formed  by  all  the  discoveries  of 
the  Gospel,  might  either  restrain  the  mind  from  approaching  the  Al- 
mighty, or  tincture  all  its  devotions  with  a  spirit  of  dejection  and 
melancholy,  were  not  this  tendency  counterbalanced  by  the  character 
under  whicli  the  mediator  of  the  covenant  of  grace  is  revealed.  It  is 
said  that  "  he  mak^th  intercession  for  us  ;"*  he  is  called  "  our  advo- 
cate with  the  Father  ;"t  and  we  are  commanded  to  pray  in  his 
name.  I 

We  must  be  careful  to  separate  from  our  notions  of  the  intercession 
of  Christ  all  those  circumstances  of  tears,  of  earnest  crying,  and  of 
prostration  before  his  Father,  whicli  would  degrade  him  to  the  condi- 
tion of  a  suppliant,  and  also  every  idea  of  his  being  uncertain  with 
regard  to  the  issue  of  the  applications  which  he  makes.  The  inter- 
cession of  Christ  proceeds  upon  the  inexhaustible  merit  of  his  sacrifice ; 
it  is  accomplished  by  his  appearing  in  the  presence  of  God  for  us,  and 
offering  our  prayers  and  services  to  the  Father ;  and,  being  the  inter- 
cession of  him  who  has  power  to  give  eternal  life  to  as  many  as  he 
will,  it  cannot  fail  of  being  effectual  to  the  purpose  of  procuring  for 
his  people  all  those  blessings  which  he  chooses  to  bestow.  The  inter- 
cession of  Christ,  understood  with  these  qualifications,  is  agreeable  to 

•  Rom.  viii.  34.  f  1  John  ii.  1.  ♦  John  ivi.  23. 


COVENANT    OF    GRACE.  651 

the  analoijy  of  tl-^e  whole  scheme  of  salvation,  which  is  uniformly 
represented  as  originating  in  the  love  of  the  Father,  but  as  reachmg 
us  only  through  the  mediation  of  the  Son ;  and  it  is  obvious  to  ob- 
serve that  a  doctrine,  which  teaches  that  our  prayers  are  heard,  and 
our  services  accepted,  not  upon  account  of  any  thing  m  us,  bnt  purely 
upon  account  of  the  righteousness  of  him,  "  in  whom  the  Kaiher  is 
well  pleased,"  while  it  illustrates  the  majesty  and  holiness  ot  the  bii- 
preme  Ruler,  affords  an  encouragement  most  graciously  accommo- 
dated to  the  infirmities  and  sentiments  of  those,  for  whom  Christ 
"maketh  intercession." 

The  nature  and  the  grounds  of  that  entire  dependence  upon  tlie 
Lord  Jesus,  which  Christians  are  everywhere  taught  to  maintain,  ex- 
pose the  grossness  and  the  folly  of  those  errors  which  lead  the  church 
of  Rome  to  address  the  Virgin  Mary,  departed  saints,  and  angels,  as 
intercessors  with  God.     It  is  said,  in  extenuation  ot  these  errors,  that 
the  unrivalled  dignity  of  the  Lord  Jesus  is  preserved  by  calling  him 
mediator  ]jrimarius,  mediator  redcmptionis,  wMe  others  are  only 
mediatores  secundarii,  mediatores  iyitercessionis  ;  and  it  is  alleged 
by  those  who  address  to  the  mediatores  inferces.nonis  such  words  as 
era  pro  nobis,  that  the  prayers  which  they  solicit  are  only  a  continu- 
ation in  heaven  of  the  intercessions  which  good  men  offer  for  one 
another  upon  earth.     But  the  answer  to  all  these  pleas  is  obvious. 
The  Scriptures  give  no  warrant  for  the  distinction  between  mediator 
primarius  and  mediatores  secundarii.     Christ  is  mediator  interces- 
sionis  because  he  is  mediator  redempiionis  ;  and,  upon  this  account, 
his  intercession  is  effectual.      The   intercessions  of  Christians  upon 
earth  are  an  expression  of  benevolence— of  an  earnest  desire  ot  the 
happiness  of  others,  called  forth  by  scenes  which  they  behold,  but  not 
implying  any  presumption,  that  what  others  are  unworthy  to  receive 
will  be  given  because  it  is  asked  by  us ;  whereas  to  solicit  the  inter- 
cession of  the  inhabitants  of  heaven  is  unmeaning,  unless  we  suppose 
that  they  have  a  knowledge  of  our  condition,  and  that  they  have 
power  with  God,— that  kind  of  merit  which  can  insure  their  applica- 
tion for  us  being  heard.     Both  parts  of  this  supposition  being  gratui- 
tously assumed,  the  addresses  offered  in  the  church  of  Rome  to  the 
mediatores  secundarii  only  weaken  the  sense  of  dependence  upon 
the  mediator  of  the  new  covenant,  the  "  King  of  Saints"  and  the  head 
of  the  "innumerable  company  of  angels,"  the  Son  of  God,  through 
whom  Christians  "have  access  to  the  Father;"  and  such  addresses, 
after  the  example  of  the  heathen  mythology,  divide  the  attention  and 
the  worship  of  Christians  amidst  a  multitude  of  inferior  beings,  to 
whom,  without  any  warrant,  thev  may  choose  to   ascribe   certain 
degrees  of  power  and  influence,  and  thus  introduce  what  the  apostle 
calls  "  will-worship."* 


•  Col.  ii.  23. 


652  COVENANT    OF    GRACE. 


Section  IV. 

It  is  usual  for  covenants  amongst  men  to  be  confirmed  by  certain 
solemnities.  In  the  simplicity  of  ancient  times,  the  solemnities  were 
monuments  or  large  stones  erected  as  a  witness  of  the  transaction, 
and  meetings  at  stated  times  between  the  parties  or  their  descendants, 
in  commemoration  of  it.*  In  more  advanced  periods  of  society,  the 
solemnities  have  become  deeds  written  in  a  formal  style,  sealed,  de- 
livered, and  exchanged  between  the  parties  at  the  time  of  the  con- 
tract, and  remaining,  till  they  are  cancelled,  as  vouchers  of  the  origi- 
nal transaction.  As  circumcision  was  ordained  as  the  token  and  seal 
of  the  covenant  with  Abraham,  we  are  led  to  expect  that,  when  the 
Almighty  published  the  covenant  of  grace  by  his  Son,  and  invited  all 
nations  to  enter  into  it,  he  would,  with  the  same  condescension  to  hu- 
man weakness,  grant  some  confirmation  of  the  grace  therein  mani- 
fested, some  sensible  sign  which  might  establish  a  reliance  upon  his 
promise,  and  constitute  the  ground  of  a  federal  act  between  him  and 
his  creatures.  A  great  part  of  the  Christian  world  consider  this  as 
the  intention  of  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  the  two  solemn  rites 
of  our  religion,  which  are  commonly  known  by  the  name  of  Sacia- 
ments. 

This  name  is  nowhere  applied  to  these  rites  in  Scripture,  Sacramen- 
tum,  being  a  word  of  Latin  extraction,  could  not  be  introduced  into 
theology  by  the  original  language,  in  which  the  books  of  the  New 
Testament  were  written  ;  and  in  all  the  places  of  the  Vulgate,  or  old 
Latin  translation  of  the  Bible,  it  is  put  for  the  Greek  Avord  fivatre,<-ov. 
Dr.  Campbell,  in  his  Preliminary  Dissertations  to  a  New  Translation 
of  the  Gospel,  has  discussed  the  difterent  applications  of  the  words 
(.ivorrie,^ov  and  sacramentum  ;  and  he  has  clearly  shown  that  ^va'tr^^wv 
always  means  either  a  secret,  something  unknown  till  it  was  revealed ; 
or  the  latent  spiritual  meaning  of  some  fable,  emblem,  or  type.  Now, 
in  both  these  senses  fivatr^^Mv  is  rendered  in  the  Vulgate  sacramen- 
tum, although  when  we  attend  to  the  etymology  of  the  two  words, 
they  do  not  appear  to  correspond.  Ms-^a  i^ti  ^va-trt^iov ivoieua.^  :  magnum 
est  sacramentum,  pietatis:  ■tonvatt^^tov  tuv  iTttaanti^iov,  sacramentum 
scptem  stellarum  ;  the  hidden  meaning  of  the  seven  stars.  But  al- 
though Scripture  does  not  warrant  the  application  now  made  of  the 
word  sacrament,  it  has  the  sanction  of  very  ancient  practice.  As 
some  of  the  most  sacred  and  retired  parts  of  the  ancient  heathen  wor- 
ship were  called  mysteries,  there  is  reason  to  think  that  the  word 
fivatyj^M  was  early  applied  to  the  Lord's  Supper,  which,  from  the  be- 
ginning. Christians  regarded  with  much  reverence,  which,  in  times 
of  persecution,  they  were  obliged  to  celebrate  in  private,  and  from 
which  they  were  accustomed  to  exclude  both  those  who  had  been 
guilty  of  notorious  sins,  and  those  who  had  not  attained  sufficient 
knowledge.  The  Latin  word  sacramentu7Ji  followed  this  applica- 
tion of  the  Greek  word  ;  and  if  Pliny  is  correct  in  the  information  he 

•  Genesis  and  Joshua,  passim. 


COVENANT    OF    GRACE.  653 

conveys  in  his  letter  to  Trajan,  concerning  the  Christians  in  the  end 
of  the  first  century,  his  expression  may  suggest  that  there  was  con- 
ceived to  be  a  pecuhar  propriety  in  giving  this  name  to  the  Lord's 
Supper,  from  the  analogy  between  the  engagement  to  abstain  from 
sin,  which  those  who  partook  of  that  rite  contracted,  and  the  military 
oath  of  fidelity,  which  was  known  in  classical  writers  by  the  name 
sacra^nentum. 

It  appears,  then,  that  the  word,  in  the  sense  in  whicli  it  is  now 
used,  is  an  ecclesiastical,  not  a  scriptural  word,  and  that  the  amount 
of  that  sense  is  to  be  gatiiered,  not  from  the  original  meaning  of  the 
word,  but  from  the  practice  of  those  with  wliom  it  occurs.  For  from 
the  etymology  nothing  more  can  be  deduced,  than  that  a  sacrament 
is  something,  either  a  word  or  an  action,  connected  with  what  is 
sacred ;  and  this  is  equally  true,  whether  we  annex  to  it  the  Popish 
sense,  the  Socinian  sense,  or  the  sense  in  which  it  is  understood  by 
the  greater  part  of  the  reformed  churches. 

Sacraments  are  conceived  in  the  church  of  Rome  to  consist  of  mat- 
ter, deriving,  from  the  action  of  the  priest  in  pronounchig  certain 
words,  a  divine  virtue,  by  which  grace  is  conveyed  to  the  soul  of 
every  person  who  receives  them.  It  is  supposed  to  be  necessary  that 
the  priest,  in  pronouncing  the  words,  has  the  intention  of  giving  to 
the  matter  that  divine  virtue,  otherwise  it  remains  in  its  original  state. 
On  the  part  of  those  who  receive  the  sacrament,  it  is  required  that 
they  be  free  from  any  of  those  sins  called  in  the  church  of  Rome  mor- 
tal ;  but  it  is  not  required  of  them  to  exercise  any  good  disposition, 
to  possess  faith,  or  to  resolve  that  they  shall  amend  their  lives.  For 
such  is  conceived  to  lie  the  physical  virtue  of  a  sacrament,  adminis- 
tered by  a  priest  Avith  a  good  intention,  that,  unless  when  it  is  op- 
posed by  the  obstacle  of  a  mortal  sin,  the  very  act  of  receiving  it  is^ 
sufficient.  This  act  was  called,  in  the  language  of  the  school,  opus 
operafum,  the  work  done,  independently  of  any  disposition  of  mind 
attending  the  deed  ;  and  the  superiority  of  the  sacraments  of  the  New 
Testament,  over  the  sacraments  of  the  Old,  was  thus  expressed,  that 
the  sacraments  of  the  Old  Testament  were  effectual  ex  opere.  operan- 
tis,  from  the  piety  and  faith  of  the  persons  to  whom  they  were  admi- 
nistered ;  while  the  sacraments  of  the  New  Testament  convey  grace, 
ex  opere  operato,  from  their  own  intrinsic  virtue,  and  an  immediate 
physical  influence  upon  the  mind  of  him  who  receives  them. 

The  arguments  opposed  to  this  doctrine  by  the  first  reformers  will 
readily  occur  to  your  minds,  from  the  simple  exposition  of  it  which  I 
liave  given.  It  represents  the  sacraments  as  a  mere  charm,  the  use 
of  which,  being  totally  disjoined  from  every  mental  exercise,  cannot 
be  regarded  as  a  reasonable  service.  It  gives  men  the  hope  of  re- 
ceiving, by  the  use  of  a  charm,  the  full  participation  of  the  gro.ce  of 
God,  although  they  continue  to  indulge  that  very  large  class  of  sins, 
to  which  the  accommodating  morality  of  the  church  of  Rome  extends 
the  name  of  venial ;  and  yet  it  makes  this  high  privilege  entirely  de- 
pendent upon  the  intention  of  another,  who,  although  he  performs  all 
the  outward  acts  which  belong  to  the  sacraments,  may,  if  he  chooses, 
withhold  the  communication  of  that  physical  virtue,  without  which 
the  sacrament  is  of  none  avail. 

The  Socinian  doctrine  concerning  the  nature  of  the  sacraments  is 
57* 


654  COVENANT    or    GRACE. 

founded  upon  a  sense  of  the  absurdity  and  danger  of  the  popish  doc- 
trine and  a  soUcitude  to  avoid  any  approach  to  it,  and  runs  into  the 
opposite  extreme.  It  is  conceived  that  the  sacraments  are  not  essen- 
tially distinct  from  any  other  rites  or  ceremonies ;  that  as  they  con- 
sist of  a  symbolical  action,  in  which  something  external  and  material 
is  employed  to  represent  what  is  spiritual  and  invisible,  they  may  by 
this  address  to  the  senses  be  of  use  in  reviving  the  remembrance  of 
past  events,  and  in  cherishing  pious  sentiments  ;  but  that  their  eflect 
is  purely  moral,  and  that  they  contribute  by  that  moral  effect  to  the 
improvement  of  the  individual  in  the  same  manner  with  reading  the 
Scriptures,  and  many  other  exercises  of  religion.  It  is  admitted,  in- 
deed, by  the  Socinians,  that  the  sacraments  are  of  further  advantage 
to  the  whole  society  of  Christians,  as  being  the  solemn  badges  by 
"which  the  disciples  of  Jesus  are  discriminated  from  other  men,  and 
the  appointed  method  of  declaring  that  faith  in  Christ,  by  the  public 
profession  of  which  Christians  minister  to  the  improvement  of  one 
another.  But  in  these  two  points,  the  moral  effect  upon  the  indivi- 
dual, and  the  advantage  to  society,  is  contained  all  that  a  Socinian 
holds  concerning  the  general  nature  of  the  sacraments. 

This  doctrine  is  infinitely  more  rational  than  the  popish,  more 
friendly  to  the  interests  of  morality,  and  consequently  more  honour- 
able to  the  religion  of  Christ.  But,  like  all  the  other  parts  of  the  So- 
cinian system,  it  represents  that  religion  in  the  simple  view  of  being 
a  lesson  of  righteousness,  and  loses  sight  of  that  character  of  the 
gospel,  which  is  meant  to  be  implied  in  calling  it  a  covenant  of  grace. 
The  greater  part  of  Protestants,  therefore,  following  an  expression  of 
the  apostle,  Rom.  iv.  11,  when  he  is  speaking  of  circumcision,  con- 
sider the  sacraments  as  not  only  signs,  but  also  seals  of  the  covenant 
of  grace. 

Those  who  apply  this  phrase  to  the  sacraments  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment admit  every  part  of  the  Socinian  doctrine  concerning  the  nature 
of  sacraments,  and  are  accustomed  to  employ  that  doctrine  to  correct 
those  popish  errors  upon  this  subject,  which  are  not  yet  eradicated 
fiom  the  minds  of  many  of  the  people.  But  although  they  admit 
that  the  Socinian  doctrine  is  true  as  far  as  it  goes,  they  c-onsider  it  as 
incomplete.  For  while  they  hold  that  the  sacraments  yield  no  benefit 
to  those,  upon  whom  the  signs  employed  in  them  do  not  produce  the 
proper  moral  effect,  they  regard  these  signs  as  intended  to  represent  - 
an  inward  invisible  grace,  which  proceeds  from  him  by  whom  they 
are  appointed,  and  as  pledges  that  that  grace  will  be  conveyed  to  all 
in  whom  the  moral  effect  is  produced.  The  sacraments,  therefore, 
in  their  opinion,  constitute  federal  acts,  in  which  the  persons  who  re- 
ceive them  with  proper  dispositions,  solemnly  engage  to  fulfil  their 
part  of  the  covenant,  and  God  confirms  his  promise  to  them  in  a  sen- 
sible manner  ;  not  as  if  the  promise  of  God  were  of  itself  insufficient 
to  render  any  event  certain,  but  because  this  manner  of  exhibiting 
the  blessings  promised  gives  a  stronger  impression  of  the  truth  of  the 
promise,  and  conveys  to  the  mind  an  assurance  that  it  will  be  ful- 
filled. 

According  to  this  account  of  the  sacraments,  the  express  institution 
of  God  is  essentially  requisite  to  constitute  their  nature ;  and  in  this 
respect  sacraments  are  distinguished  from  what  may  be  called  tht 


COVENANT    OF    GRACE.  635 

ceremonies  of  religion.  Ceremonies  are  in  their  nature  arbitrary; 
and  ditierent  means  may  be  employed  by  dilierent  persons  with  suc- 
cess, according  to  their  constitution,  their  education,  and  their  circum- 
stances, to  cherish  the  sentiments  of  devotion,  and  to  confirm  good 
purposes.  But  no  rite  which  is  not  ordained  by  God  can  be  conceived 
to  be  a  seal  of  his  promise,  or  the  pledge  of  any  event  that  depends 
upon  his  good  pleasure.  Hence  that  any  rite  may  come  up  to  our 
idea  of  a  sacrament,  we  require  in  it  not  merely  a  vague  and  general 
resemblance  between  the  external  matter  which  is  the  visible  sub- 
stance of  the  rite,  and  the  thing  thereby  signified,  but  also  words  of 
institution,  and  a  promise  by  which  the  two  are  connected  together : 
and  hence  we  reject  five  of  the  seven  sacraments  diat  are  numbered 
in  the  church  of  Rome,  because  in  some  of  the  five  we  do  not  find 
any  matter,  without  which  there  is  not  that  sign  which  enters  into 
our  definition  of  a  sacrament ;  and  in  others  we  do  not  find  any  pro- 
mise connecting  the  matter  used  with  the  grace  said  to  be  thereby 
signified,  although  upon  this  connexion  the  essence  of  a  sacrament 
depends. 

Burnet's  exposition  of  the  25th  article  shows  upon  what  grounds, 
and  with  what  strict  propriety  the  church  of  England  says,  "  those 
five  commonly  called  sacraments,  that  is  to  say,  confirmation,  penance, 
orders,  matrimony,  and  extreme  unction,  are  not  to  be  counted  for 
sacraments  of  the  gospel,  being  such  as  have  grown  partly  of  the 
corrupt  following  of  the  apostles ;  partly  are  states  of  life  allowed  in 
the  Scriptures,  but  yet  have  not  like  nature  of  sacraments  with  bap- 
tism and  the  Lord's  supper ;  for  that  they  have  not  any  visible  sign 
or  ceremony  ordained  by  God."  In  baptism  and  the  Lord's  supper, 
to  which  the  name  of  sacraments  is,  according  to  our  definition,  limit- 
ed, we  find  all  which  that  definition  requires.  In  each  there  is  matter, 
an  external  visible  substance  ;  and  there  is  also  a  positive  institution 
authorising  that  substance  to  be  used  with  certain  words  in  a  religious 
rite.  And  we  think  that  both  from  the  nature  of  the  institution,  and 
from  the  manner  in  which  each  sacrament  is  mentioned  in  other 
places  of  the  New  Testament,  the  two  are  not  barely  signs  of  invi- 
sible grace,  or  badges  of  the  Christian  profession,  but  were  intended 
by  him  who  appointed  them  to  be  pledges  of  that  grace,  and  seals  of 
the  covenant  by  which  it  is  conveyed. 

Erskine's  Dissertations. 

Macknight's  Preliminary  Dissertations. 

Leechman  on  Prayer. 


656  BAPTISM. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


QUESTIONS  CONCERNING    BAPTISM. 


Section  I. 

The  washings  and  sprinklings,  which  formed  part  of  the  religious 
ceremonies  of  all  nations,  arose  probably  from  a  consciousness  of 
impurity,  and  an  opinion  that  innocence  was  acceptable  to  the  gods ; 
and  they  were  originally  intended,  on  the  part  of  the  worshippers,  as 
a  profession  of  their  purpose  to  abstain,  in  future,  from  the  pollutions 
v/hich  they  had  contracted.  Those  who  were  initiated  into  the 
mysteries  of  the  heathen,  religion  bathed,  before  their  initiation,  in  a, 
particular  stream,  where  they  were  supposed  to  leave  all  their  previous 
errors  and  defilements,  and  from  which  they  entered  pure  into  the 
belief  of  new  opinions,  and  the  participation  of  sacred  rites.  When 
any  inhabitants  of  the  countries  adjoining  to  Judea  turned  from  the 
worship  of  idols,  and,  professing  their  faith  in  the  God  of  Israel, 
desired  to  be  numbered  as  his  servants  among  the  proselytes  to  the 
law  of  Moses,  they  were  baptized ;  and  those  who  had  formerly 
been  held  in  abhorrence  were,  by  this  ceremony,  admitted  into  a 
certain  degree  of  communion  with  the  peculiar  people  of  God.  When 
John  appeared  preaching  in  the  land  of  Judea,  he  came  baptizing, 
and  his  baptism  was  emphatically  called  the  baptism  of  repentance, 
because  the  substance  of  his  preaching  was  "  Repent  ye,  for  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  is  at  hand."^  The  people  who  "  went  out  to  him  and 
were  baptized,  confessing  their  sins,"  had  been  accustomed  to  wash 
from  the  errors  of  idolatry  those  who  became  proselytes  to  their  law. 
But  they  themselves  had  need  of  washing,  before  they  were  admitted 
into  the  kingdom  of  the  Messiah  ;  and  his  days  were  the  time  of  the 
fulfilment  of  that  word  which  God  spake  by  the  mouth  of  Ezekiel : 
"  Then  will  I  sprinkle  clean  water  upon  you,  and  ye  shall  be 
clean  ;  from  all  your  filthiness  and  from  all  your  idols  will  I  cleanse 
you."t 

In  accommodation  to  this  general  practice,  and  to  these  peculiar 
opinions  of  the  Jews,  Jesus,  as  soon  as  he  asssumed  the  character  of 
"  a  teacher  sent  from  God,"  employed  his  apostles  to  baptize  those 
who  came  to  him :  and  having  condescended,  in  this  respect,  to  the 

•  Mark  i.  4.  |  Ezek.  xxxvi.  25. 


BAPTISM.  657 

usage  of  the  times  while  he  remained  upon  earth,  he  introduced 
baptism  into  the  last  commission  which  he  gave  his  apostles,  in  a 
manner  which  seems  to  intimate  that  he  intended  it  to  be  the  initiatory 

right    of  his    universal    religion.       llo^ivOci'tei  ow  ^aSritevjate   rtowta  ra  tOvr^, 

l^artn^ovt e i  avfovi.  But  in  Order  to  render  it  a  distinguishing  rite,  by 
which  his  disciples  should  be  separated  from  the  disciples  of  any 
other  teacher  who  might  choose  to  baptize,  he  added  these  words, 

fij  ro  ovofia,  Tov  naf^oj  xo*  tov  'Ttov  xM  tov  aywv  UvivyMtoi-*      TllOSC  who  WCrS 

baptized  among  the  heathen  were  baptized  in  certain  mysteries.  The 
Jews  are  said  by  the  apostle  Paul  to  have  been  "  baptized  unto 
Moses,"  at  the  time  when  they  followed  him  through  the  Red  Sea, 
as  the  servant  of  God  sent  to  be  their  leader.t  Those  who  went  ont 
to  John  "  were  baptized  unto  John's  baptism,"  i.  e.  into  the  expecta- 
tion of  the  person  whom  John  announced,  and  into  repentance  of 
those  sins  which  John  condemned. "J  Christians  are  "  baptized  into 
the  name  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,"  because  in 
this  expression  is  implied  that  whole  system  of  truth  which  the 
disciples  of  Christ  believe  ;  into  the  name  of  the  Father,  the  one  true 
and  living  God  whom  Christians  profess  to  serve  ;  of  the  Son,  that 
divine  person  revealed  in  the  New  Testament,  whom  the  Father  sent 
to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world  ;  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  divine  person 
also  revealed  there  as  the  comforter,  the  sanctifier,  and  the  guide  of 
Christians. 

As  all  who  were  baptized  at  the  first  appearance  of  Christianity 
had  been  educated  in  idolatry,  or  had  known  only  that  preparatory 
dispensation  which  the  Jews  enjoyed,  it  was  necessary  that  they  should 
be  instructed  in  the  meaning  of  that  solemn  expression  which  accom- 
panied their  Christian  baptism.  Accordingly,  the  practice  of  the 
apostles  in  administering  baptism,  judging  by  the  few  instances  which 
the  book  of  Acts  has  recorded,  corresponds  to  the  order  intimated  in 
the  commission  of  our  Lord,  where  the  instruction  that  makes  men 
disciples  is  supposed  to  precede  baptism.  Thus  to  the  minister  of 
the  queen  of  Ethiopia  Philip  first  "  preached  Jesus ;"  he  then  said, 
"  if  thou  believest  with  all  thine  heart,  thou  mayest  be  baptized  ;  and 
when  the  man  answered,  "I  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of 
God,  Philip  baptized  him."§  The  following  phrases,  which  occur  in 
ditferent  epistles,  "the  form  of  sound  words,  the  principles  of  the 
doctrine  of  Christ,  the  doctrine  of  baptism,"  probably  mean  some  such 
short  summary  of  Christian  doctrine,  as  we  know  was  used  in  the  age 
immediately  succeeding  that  of  the  apostles,  for  the  instruction  of 
persons  who  came  to  be  baptized.     Peter's  joining  to  baptism,  1  Pet. 

iii.    21,    aimiSrj'inoi  ayaOrit  iTie^i^ttji^a  ni  Qiov    SCCmS    tO    imply,    that    iu    the 

apostolic  age  questions  were  always  proposed  to  them.  And  this  is 
confirmed  by  the  expression,  Heb.  x.  22,  "  having  our  bodies  washed 
with  pure  water,  let  us  hold  fast  the  profession  of  our  faith :"  tiie 
most  natural  interpretation  of  which  words  is,  that  persons  at  their 
baptism  were  required  to  make  a  declaration  of  their  faith  ;  and  wo 
know  that,  if  not  from  the  beginning,  yet  in  very  early  times,  there 

*  Malt  xxviii.  19.  f  1  Cor.  x.  2. 

i  Acts  xix.  3.  ^  Acts  viii.  35—38. 

4R 


65S  BAPTISM. 

was  joined  with  this  declaration  a  renunciation  of  former  vices,  and 
a  promise  to  lead  a  good  life. 

"  It  appears  from  this  deduction  that  baptism  was,  in  its  original 
institution,  a  solemn  method  of  assuming  the  profession  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  a  mark  of  distinction  between  the  disciples  of  Jesus,  and 
those  who  held  any  other  system  of  faith.  Socinus  and  some  of  his 
followers,  confining  themselves  to  this  single  view  of  baptism,  con- 
sider it  as  an  institution  highly  proper  at  the  first  planting  of  the 
Christian  Church,  which  was  formed  out  of  idolaters  and  Jews,  but 
as  superseded  in  all  Christian  countries  by  the  establishment  and 
general  profession  of  Christianity.  For  it  appears  to  them  that  what 
was  intended  merely  for  the  purpose  of  being  a  discriminating  rite, 
ceases  of  course,  in  circumstances  where  there  is  no  need  for  a 
discrimination ;  and  that  the  observance  of  it  is  of  real  importance 
only  in  those  cases  which  we  very  rarely  behold  when  persons  who 
had  been  educated  in  another  religion  are  converted  to  Christianity. 
Although  the  modern  Socinians  have  not  paid  so  much  respect  to  the 
opinion  of  Socinus  as  to  lay  aside  the  use  of  baptism,  yet  their  senti- 
ments upon  tills  point  are  much  the  same  with  his.  "  They  would 
make  no  great  difficulty,"  to  use  the  words  of  Dr.  Priestley,  "of  omit- 
ting it  entirely  in  Christian  families ;  but  they  do  not  think  it  of 
importance  enough  to  act  otherwise  than  their  ancestors  have  done 
before  them,  in  a  matter  of  so  great  indifiference." 

The  Quakers  are  the  only  sect  of  Christians  who  make  no  use  of 
baptism  ;  and  their  practice  in  this  matter  is  only  a  particular  appli- 
cation of  their  leading  principles.  It  appears  to  them  that,  as  it  is  the 
distinguishing  character  of  the  gospel  to  be  the  dispensation  of  the 
Spirit,  and  as  every  Christian  is  under  the  immediate  guidance  of  an 
inward  light,  all  the  ordinances  of  former  times  only  presignified  that 
effusion  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which,  in  the  age  of  the  gospel,  was  to 
render  the  further  use  of  them  unnecessary.  When  John  the  Baptist 
says,  "  I  indeed  baptize  you  with  water  unto  repentance,  but  he  tliat 
cometh  after  me,  shall  baptize  you  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  with 
fire,"  it  appears  to  the  Quakers,  that  John,  by  this  contrast,  means  to 
represent  his  own  baptism  as  emblematical  of  the  baptism  of  Jesus, 
and  to  give  notice  that  the  baptism  by  water,  which  was  the  emblem, 
should  cease  as  soon  as  the  baptism  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  was 
the  thing  signified,  should  commence.  The  baptism  with  water 
practised  by  the  apostles  of  Jesus,  they  regard  as  merely  an  accom- 
modation to  the  prejudices  of  the  times,  till  the  spiritual  nature  of  the 
gospel  was  understood ;  and  they  consider  the  miraculous  effusion 
of  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit  upon  the  apostles  at  the  day  of  Pentecost, 
which  our  Lord  himself  calls  their  being  baptized  with  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  the  visible  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  some  of  those 
who  were  baptized  by  the  apostles,  as  affording  the  true  interpreta- 
tion of  the  word  baptism,  as  it  occurs  in  the  discourses  of  our  Lord. 
Hence  they  conclude  that  when  he  says  in  the  commission  given  to 
his  apostles,  "  Go,  make  disciples  of  all  nations,  baptizing  them,"  he 
does  not  mean  literally  to  command  his  apostles  to  plunge  in  water 
the  bodies  of  all  who  should  become  his  disciples,  but  he  only  uses  a 
figurative  expression,  borrowed  from  the  ancient  emblematical  prac- 


BAPTISM.  659 

lice,  for  that  communication  of  the  Spirit  which  in  all  ages  was  to 
form  the  characteristical  distinction  of  his  disciples. 

Other  Christians  do  not  find  this  reasoning  sufficient  to  warrant  the 
conclusion  which  the  Quakers  draw  from  it :  that  the  use  of  baptism 
is  now  to  be  laid  aside.  They  do  not  admit  the  general  principle 
that  all  emblems  and  symbols  become  unnecessary,  as  soon  as  the 
thing  signified  is  come;  for  this  principle,  if  followed  out  to  its  full 
extent,  'would  annihilate  all  religious  ceremonies.  With  regard  to 
the  particular  case  of  baptism,  they  consider  the  expression  used  in 
the  commission  giv^en  by  our  Lord,  as  interpreted  to  all  Christians  by 
the  practice  of  baptizing  with  water,  which  the  Apostles  had  used 
before  they  received  the  conunission  ;  which  they  continued  to  use 
after  it ;  and  which,  upon  their  authority,  and  after  their  example, 
was  invariably  followed  in  the  primitive  church.  In  the  commission, 
there  do  not  appear  to  be  any  circumstances  suggesting  that  the  com- 
mand was  not  to  be  universally  obeyed,  according  to  that  literal 
meaning  which  the  apostles  seem  to  have  given  it;  or  that  there  is 
any  limitation  of  time,  after  which  what  was  at  first  understood 
literally  was  to  receive  a  figurative  interpretation ;  and  accordingly, 
all  other  Christians,  besides  the  Quakers,  observe  what  they  consider 
the  explicit  direction  of  our  Lord,  by  employing  baptism,  in  all 
situations  of  the  church,  as  the  initiatory  rite  of  his  religion. 

In  one  circumstance  respecting  the  mode  of  administering  baptism, 
the  greater  part  of  Christians  have  departed  from  the  primitive  prac- 
tice. Both  sprinkling  and  immersion  are  implied  in  the  word 
iSartT-tfw;  both  were  used  in  the  religious  ceremonies  of  the  Jews,  and 
both  may  be  considered  as  significant  of  the  purpose  of  baptism,  and 
as  corresponding  to  the  words  in  which  the  Scripture  represents  the 
spiritual  blessings  thereby  signified.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that 
immersion  was  more  commonly  practised  at  the  beginning.  But  as 
the  numbers  said  in  the  Book  of  Acts  to  have  been  baptized  at  one 
time,*  and  the  circumstances  in  which  they  received  baptism,  seem 
to  suggest  that  even  in  those  days,  sprinkling  was  at  some  times  used, 
the  greater  part  of  Christians  have  found  themselves  at  liberty,  in  a 
matter  very  far  from  being  essential,  to  adopt  that  practice  which  is 
most  convenient,  and  most  suited  to  the  habits  of  colder  climates. 

To  the  administration  of  baptism,  there  is  commonly  annexed,  after 
the  custom  of  the  Jews  when  a  child  was  circumcised,  the  designing  the 
persons  baptized  by  a  particular  name.  This  is  manifestly  an  addition 
to  the  directions  given  by  our  Lord,  and  consequently  is  not  to  be  re- 
garded as  any  part  of  baptism.  A  name  might  be  given  to  a  person 
at  any  other  time  as  well  as  then.  But  the  practice,  of  assuming  the 
name  by  which  we  are  commonly  called  at  the  time  when  we  are 
initiated  as  the  disciples  of  Christ,  may  serve  to  remind  us  of  the 
obligations  implied  in  the  solemnity  with  which  that  name  was 
given. 

•  Acts  iL  41. 


660  BAPTISM. 


Section  II. 

All  who  use  baptism,  consider  it  as  the  initiatory  rite  of  Chris- 
tianity, the  solemn  profession  of  the  Christian  faith.  But  this  account 
of  baptism,  although  true,  appears  to  the  greater  part  of  Christians  to 
be  incomplete :  and  the  grounds  upon  which  they  entertain  a  higher 
opinion  of  it  are  of  the  following  kind. 

Baptizing  into  the  name  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost,  while  it  certainly  implies  a  profession  of  faith  in  them,  also 
exhibits  these  three  persons  under  certain  characters,  and  in  certain 
relations,  which  give  an  assurance  of  the  communication  of  blessings 
to  those  who  are  thus  baptized.  Agreeably  to  this  exhibition  made 
in  the  form  of  baptism,  are  such  expressions  as  these,  "  he  that  be- 
lieveth  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved  :"*  "baptism  saves  us  :"t  "  be 
baptized  for  the  remission  of  sins  :"|  expressions  which  could  not 
have  been  used  unless  there  was  an  intimate  connexion  between  this 
rite  and  the  two  characteristical  blessings  of  the  gospel,  viz.  forgive- 
ness of  sins,  and  the  communication  of  inward  grace.  The  apostle 
Paul,  Rom.  vi.  4,  5,  6,  illustrates  this  connexion  by  an  allusion  drawn 
from  the  ancient  method  of  administering  baptism.  The  immersion 
in  water  of  the  bodies  of  those  who  were  baptized  is  an  emblem  of 
that  death  unto  sin,  by  which  the  conversion  of  Christians  is  generally 
expressed :  the  rising  out  of  the  water,  the  breathing  the  air  again 
after  having  been  for  some  time  in  another  element,  is  an  emblem  of 
that  new  life,  which  Christians  by  their  profession  are  bound,  and  by 
the  power  of  their  religion  are  enabled  to  lead.  The  time  during 
which  they  remained  under  the  water  is  a  kind  of  temporary  death, after 
the  image  of  the  death  of  Christ,  during  which  they  deposited  under 
the  stream  the  sins  of  which  the  old  man  was  composed  :  when  they 
emerged  from  the  water,  they  rose,  after  the  image  of  his  resurrection, 
to  a  life  of  righteousness  here,  and  a  life  of  glory  hereafter.  Here  is 
a  significant  representation  both  of  what  the  baptized  persons  engaged 
to  do,  and  also  of  the  grace  by  which  their  sins  were  forgiven,  and 
the  strength  communicated  to  their  souls :  so  that  the  action  of  bap- 
tism, as  interpreted  by  an  apostle,  rises  from  being  a  profession  of 
faith,  a  mere  external  rite,  to  be  a  federal  act,  by  which  the  mutual 
stipulations  of  the  covenant  of  grace  are  confirmed.  Accordingly, 
the  same  apostle  represents  baptism  as  coming  in  place  of  circum- 
cision. For  to  the  Galalians,  to  whom  he  thus  writes,  v.  2,  3,  "I 
Paul,  say  unto  you,  that  if  ye  be  circumcised,  Christ  shall  profit  you 
nothing;  for  I  testify  again  to  every  man  that  is  circumcised,  that  he 
is  a  debtor  to  the  whole  law,"  he  says,  iii.  21,  "as  many  of  you,  as 
have  been  baptized  into  Christ,  have  put  on  Christ."  And  to  the 
Colossians,  ii.  11,  12,  he  proves  that  circumcision  was  no  longer 
necessary,  by  this  argument,  that  their  being  buried  \vith  Christ  in 
baptism  was  emblematical  of  that  change  of  life,  and  that  internal 
purity,  which  the  rite  of  circumcision  was  meant  to  signify  to  the  Jews. 

•  Mark  xvi.  16.  f  1  Peter  iii.  21.  i^  Acts  ii.  38. 


BAPTISM.  661 

But  the  sign  of  circumcision  is  called  by  the  apostle,  Rom.  iv.  11,  «  a 
seal  of  the  righteousness  of  the  faith  which  Abraham  had,"  i.  e.  a 
seal  of  his  faith  being  counted  to  him  for  righteousness ;  and  as  the 
use  of  the  sign  was  appointed  for  his  posterity,  it  was  to  them  also 
a  seal  of  the  covenant,  confirming,  to  all  who  received  it,  their  share 
in  the  promise  made  to  Abraham.  If  baptism,  therefore,  supply 
under  the  gospel  the  place  of  circumcision  under  the  law,  and  bring 
Christians  under  the  same  obligations  to  Christ,  as  circumcision 
brought  the  Jews  to  the  law,  it  must  also  imply  the  same  security 
and  pledge  for  the  blessings  conveyed  by  Christ. 

These  are  the  grounds  upon  which  the  greater  part  of  Christians 
think  the  Socinian  account  of  baptism  incomplete.  They  agree 
with  the  Socinians  in  considering  it  as  a  solemn  method  of  assuming 
the  profession  of  Christianity ;  as  a  ceremony  intended  to  produce  a 
moral  effect  upon  the  minds  of  those  who  partake  of  it,  or  who  be- 
hold it  administered  to  others,  and  as  in  this  respect  most  salutary  and 
useful.  But  they  consider  it  as  possessing,  besides  both  these  charac- 
ters, the  higher  character  of  a  sacrament,  an  outward  sign  of  an  invi- 
sible grace,  a  seal  of  the  new  covenant. 

However  well  founded  this  opinion  may  appear  to  be,  much  care 
is  necessary  to  separate  it  from  the  errors  of  the  church  of  Rome, 
who,  applying  to  baptism  their  general  doctrine  concerning  the  nature 
of  the  sacraments,  run  into  another  extreme  more  dangerous  and 
more  irrational  than  the  Socinian. 

The  church  of  Rome  considers  baptism,  when  administered  by  a 
priest  having  a  good  intention,  as  of  itself  applying  the  merits  of 
Christ  to  the  person  baptized,  with  an  efficacy  sufficient  to  infuse  into 
his  mind  a  new  character.  Hence  they  deduce  the  absolute  necessity 
of  baptism  in  order  to  salvation,  and  the  propriety  of  its  being  ad- 
ministered to  a  child  who  appears  to  be  dying  by  any  person  present, 
if  a  priest  is  not  at  hand.  Hence,  too,  their  distinction  between  sins 
committed  before  and  after  baptism.  The  corruption  inherited  from 
Adam,  and  all  the  actual  transgressions  which  a  person  may  have 
committed  before  his  baptism,  are,  it  is  said,  completely  annihilated 
by  this  sacrament ;  so  that  if  the  most  abandoned  person  were  to 
receive  it  for  the  first  time  in  articulo  mortis,  all  his  sins  would  be 
•washed  away,  and  he  would  enter  undefiled  into  another  world :  but 
all  sins  committed  after  baptism,  after  the  infusion  of  that  grace  by 
the  conveyance  of  which  this  sacrament  constitutes  a  new  character, 
must  be  expiated  by  the  sacrament  of  penance.  Some  of  them,  how- 
ever, may  be  of  such  a  kind  as  nothing  can  expiate.  In  this  way 
the  church  of  Rome  contrives  to  magnify  the  power  of  both  sacra- 
ments, to  find  room  for  each  without  detracting  from  the  other,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  keep  the  people  in  a  continual  dependence  upon 
itself,  by  an  uncertainty  with  regard  to  the  extent  of  the  remission 
of  sins. 

Many  Christians,  who  do  not  hold  the  opinions  of  that  church, 
seem  to  approach  them  in  what  they  say  of  the  immediate  effect  of 
baptism.  They  understand  the  words  of  our  Lord  to  Nicodemus, 
"  except  a  man  be  born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  God,"  as  declaring  that  no  person  can  be  admit- 
ted to  heaven  who  has  not  been  baptized;  and  from  the  language  of 
5S 


662 


BAPTISM. 


Paul,  Titus  iii.  6,  "  he  saved  us  by  the  washing  of  regeneration  and 
renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  they  conclude  that  a  renovation  of 
mind  accompanies  the  act  of  baptism.  Hence  Augustine  made  a 
distinction  between  those  who  were  regenerated  and  those  who  were 
predestinated.  He  maintained  that  all  who  received  baptism  were 
regenerated  or  born  again,  so  as  to  be  delivered  from  that  corruption 
which  the  children  of  Adam  inherit :  but  that  unless  they  were  pre- 
destinated, they  did  not  persevere  in  that  state  to  which  they  were 
regenerated.  Many  of  the  Lutheran  churches  have  not  departed  so 
far  from  the  doctrine  of  the  church  of  Rome  concerning  baptism,  as 
to  renounce  this  distinction,  but  place  the  efficacy  of  the  sacrament  in 
a  regeneration,  by  which  faith  is  actually  conveyed  to  the  soul  of  an 
infant ;  and  by  consequence  they  hold  baptism  to.  be  indispensably 
necessary.  It  is  a  remnant  of  the  same  doctrine  in  the  minds  of  the 
people  in  this  country,  that  produces  the  horror  which  they  feel  at  the 
thought  of  a  child  dying  unbaptized,  or  even  living  for  a  considera- 
ble time  in  that  state.  '  The  liturgy,  too,  of  the  church  of  England, 
which,  being  formed  soon  after  the  Reformation,  wisely  studied  to 
depart  as  little  as  possible  from  the  ideas  generally  entertained,  seems 
to  proceed  in  this  point  on  the  language  of  Augustine.  For  it  is  said 
in  the  Catechism,  that  by  baptism  they  who  were  "  by  nature  born 
in  sin  are  made  the  children  of  grace  ;"  and  in  the  office  for  baptism 
thanks  are  given  to  God,  "  that  it  hath  pleased  him  to  regenerate  this 
infant  with  his  Holy  Spirit."  Yet  from  both  Burnet's  Exposition  of 
the  thirty-nine  Articles,  and  Seeker's  Lectures  on  the  Catechism, 
books  which  are  considered  as  standards  in  England,  and  which  are 
useful  to  all  clergymen,  it  appears  that  the  church  of  England,  far 
from  approaching  to  the  Popish  idea  of  a  charm  wrought  by  bap- 
tism, agrees  with  us  in  holding  the  rational  doctrine  common  to  all 
the  reformed  churches  with  regard  to  the  effect  of  this  sacrament. 
This  rational  doctrine,  which  lies  in  the  middle  between  the  Popish 
and  Socinian  systems,  may  be  thus  shortly  stated. 

It  is  understood  that  all  the  external  privileges  and  means  of  im- 
provement, which  belong  to  the  members  of  the  Christian  church,  are 
enjoyed  by  every  person  who  has  been  baptized  according  to  the  in- 
stitution of  Christ ;  and  it  is  hoped  that  every  person,  who  by  the 
outward  act  is  entitled  to  the  outward  advantages  of  baptism,  will 
also  partake  of  the  inward  grace.  At  the  same  time,  while  we  judge 
thus  charitably  of  our  brethren,  we  learn  from  the  words  of  the  apos- 
tle, Peter  iii.  21,  "that  the  putting  away  of  the  filth  of  the  flesh"  in 
baptism,  the  mere  act  of  washing,  does  not  save  any  person,  unless 
it  be  accompanied  with  "  the  answer  of  a  good  conscience  towards 
God."  These  words  are  directly  opposite  to  the  Popish  idea  of  bap- 
tism working  as  a  charm  ;  and  they  seem  to  direct  us  to  apply  to  this 
rite  our  general  idea  of  the  nature  of  a  sacrament,  by  considering 
baptism  as  a  federal  act,  in  which  those  who  make  the  sponsion  with 
sincerity  on  their  part,  receive  a  pledge  and  security  that  the  bless- 
ings exhibited  shall  be  conveyed  lO  their  souls.  We  conceive  that 
these  blessings  are  not  the  annihilation  of  past  sins,  and  the  immedi 
ate  infusion  of  a  new  character ;  but  the  forgiveness  of  all  sins  of 
which  they  repent,  and  those  continual  supplies  of  grace,  which  are 
necessary  to  keep  their  souls  from  evil.     We  make  no  distinction, 


BAPTISM.  663 

therefore,  as  to  the  efficacy  of  baptism,  between  sins  committed  be- 
fore, and  sins  committed  after  the  administration  of  it.     We  think  that 
the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  a  total  apostacy  from  Christianity 
are  nnpardonable,  not  because  they  are  committed  after  baptism,  but 
because  the  very  nature  of  these  sins  exchides  that  repentance  with- 
out which  they  cannot  be  forgiven.     We  consider  justification  by 
faith,  through  the  righteousness  of  Christ,  as  including  a  right  to  the 
remission  of  every  sin  that  is  repented  of,  as  well  as  a  deliverance 
from  the  curse  entailed  upon  the  posterity  of  Adam  ;  and  we  regard 
baptism  as  by  no  means  the  physical  instrument  of  that  justification, 
but  only  as  a  seal  of  it  vouchsafed  to  us  by  God.     Hence,  although 
we  account  it  a  presumptuous  sin  to  despise  the  seal,  yet,  as  the  re- 
mission of  sins  rests  upon  the  promise  of  God  in  Christ,  we  do  not 
account  the  seal  so  indispensably  necessary,  as  to  render  the  promise 
void  to  those  who  have  not  the  means  of  receiving  baptism  according 
to  the  original  institution.     We  think,  that  if  the  words  of  our  Lord 
to  Nicodemus  have  any  reference  to  baptism,  they  only  mean  that  a 
man  does  not  bear  the  profession  of  a  Christian,  which  is  called  "  en- 
tering into  the  kingdom  of  God,"  unless  he  submits  to  the  rite  ap- 
pointed by  the  author  of  Christianity.     We  think,  that  when  the 
apostle  calls  baptism  "  the  washing  of  regeneration,"  he  only  employs 
a  phraseology  suggested   by  the  sacramental  relation  between  the 
sign  and  the  thing  signified ;  that  as  circumcision  is  called  the  cove- 
nant,* because  it  was  the  sign  of  the  covenant,  so  baptism  receives  a 
name  from  that  which  is  certainly  conveyed  to  all,  wlio  perform  their 
part  in  this  federal  act.     We  think,  in  the  last  place,  that  our  Lord 
guards  us  against  supposing  that  baptism  is  essential  to  salvation ; 
for,  when  he  says,  Mark  xvi.  16,  "  he  that  believeth  and  is  baptized 
shall  be  saved;  but  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned;"  he 
teaches,  in  the  first  clause,  that  baptism  does  not  save  us  unless  we 
believe  ;  and  by  omitting  the  mention  of  baptism  in  the  second  clause, 
he  seems  to  intimate  that  the  want  of  it  is  not  to  be  put  upon  a  foot- 
ing with  the  want  of  faith. 


Section  HI. 

To  the  view  now  given  of  the  nature  of  this  sacrament,  there  seems 
to  arise  an  msurmountable  objection  from  the  practice  of  infant  bap- 
tism. If  baptism  were  merely  a  discriminating  badge,  we  might  con- 
ceive, according  to  the  view  which  Dr.  Priestley  gives  of  this  subject, 
that  when  a  father  brings  his  children  in  their  earliest  days  to  receive 
that  badge,  he  exercises  the  patria  potestas.  If  baptism  were  a 
charm  communicating  a  certain  virtue  which  might  be  received  by  a, 
child  as  well  as  a  man,  we  might  conceive  its  being  early  adminis- 
tered to  be  important  for  the  improvement  of  the  moral  character, 
and  necessary  for  salvation  in  case  of  an  untimely  death.  But  if 
baptism  be  a  federal  act,  there  seems  to  be  the  strongest  reason  for  its 
being  delayed  till  the  party,  upon  whose  sponsions  its  efficacy  with 

♦  Acts  vii.  8.  Gen.  xvii.  13. 


664  BAPTISM. 

regard  to  himself  entirely  depends,  shall  understand  the  nature  of  the 
sponsion.  The  intrinsic  force  of  this  argument  against  infant  baptism 
appears  to  receive  an  accession  of  strength  from  its  being  observed, 
that  all  those,  whose  baptism  is  explicitly  mentioned  in  Scripture, 
were  persons  capable  of  making  that  confession  of  faith,  which  our 
account  of  the  ordinance  implies.  To  the  sect  founded  by  Munzer, 
about  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  the  practice  appeared  blamewor- 
thy for  this  further  reason,  that  it  admitted  into  the  church  of  Christ, 
persons  of  whose  future  life  no  certain  judgment  could  be  formed. 
They  were  accustomed,  therefore,  to  delay  this  solemn  act  of  admis- 
sion into  the  church  till  that  advanced  period  of  life,  when  the  former 
behaviour  of  a  person  might  be  supposed  to  afford  satisfying  evi- 
dence of  his  being  worthy  of  that  privilege  :  and  they  received  the 
name  of  Anabaptists,  because,  considering  early  baptism  as  prema- 
ture, they  rebaptized  those  members  of  other  Christian  societies  whom 
they  admitted  into  their  communion. 

The  controversy  concerning  infant  baptism  has  been  discussed  in 
many  large  treatises,  and  continues  to  be  agitated  with  much  keen- 
ness between  the  several  branches  of  the  ancient  Anabaptists,  and 
those  who  defend  the  established  practice.  The  heads  of  the  argu- 
ment for  that  practice  may  be  stated  in  a  short  compass. 

God  said  to  Abraham,  "  every  man-child  among  you  that  is  eight 
days  old  shall  be  circumcised."*  By  this  command  circumcision, 
which  was  the  initiatory  rite  of  the  Abrahamic  covenant,  and  which 
is  declared  by  Paul  to  be  the  sign  and  seal  of  that  covenant,!  was 
administered  to  infants.  If  the  covenant  of  grace  be  the  same  in 
substance  with  the  Abrahamic  covenant,  and  if  baptism  comes  in 
place  of  circumcision,  the  presumption  is,  that  Jesus,  by  the  general 
words,  "  make  disciples  of  all  nations,  baptizing  them,"  meant  that 
baptism  also  should  be  administered  to  infants.  This  presumption 
might  indeed  be  destroyed  by  an  express  prohibition,  or  by  a  prac- 
tice in  Scripture  directly  opposite.  But  so  far  from  any  prohibition 
being  given,  there  are  many  expressions  in  Scripture,  which,  although 
they  would  not  of  themselves  warrant  infant  baptism,  seem  to  inti- 
mate that  the  Jewish  practice  is  to  be  followed.  When  Jesus,  Mark 
X.  14,  says  to  his  disciples,  who  were  rebuking  those  that  brought 
young  children  to  him,  "  suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  me, 
and  forbid  them  not ;  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  God,"  his  ex- 
pression is  calculated  to  mislead,  if  the  dispensation  of  the  gospel 
was,  in  this  respect,  to  be  distinguished  from  the  Mosaic,  that  it  was 
not  to  comprehend  little  children.  When  Peter  says.  Acts  ii.  38,  39, 
"  Be  baptized  every  one  of  you  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ ;  for  the 
promise  is  unto  you  and  to  your  children,"  he  is  speaking  to  Jews, 
who  knew  that  the  promise  of  Abraham  was  to  them  and  to  their 
children,  and  who  would  infer  from  his  words  that  the  blessings  of 
the  gospel  and  baptism,  which  they  were  exhorted  to  receive  as  the 
seal  of  those  blessings,  were  no  less  extensive.  And  an  expression 
of  the  apostle,  1  Cor.  vii.  14,  "  now  are  your  children  holy,"  seems 
to  imply,  that  amongst  Christians,  as  amongst  Jews,  there  is  a  com- 
munication of  the  privileges  of  believers  to  their  children.     In  con- 

*  Gen.  xvii.  10,  12.  f  Rom.  iv.  11. 


BAPTISM.  665 

formity  to  this  principle,  we  read  that  the  apostles  baptized  those  who 
believed,  and  their  household,  Acts  xvi.  23,  cSafffiaOr;  avto?  xm  ol  avrov 
fiavrii.  We  have  reason  to  think  that  infant  baptism  was  practised  in 
very  early  ages  of  the  Christian  church  ;  and,  although  many  ideas 
concealing  the  indispensable  necessity  of  baptism  which  we  do  not 
hold,  may  have  contributed  at  ditferent  times  to  continue  this  prac- 
tice, yet  the  principles  upon  which  it  rests  are  so  universally  acknow- 
ledged by  Christians,  that,  with  the  exception  of  the  difierent  branches 
of  Anabaptists,  it  has  been  uniformly  observed. 

It  cannot  be  supposed  by  any  reasonable  person,  that  infants,  at 
the  time  of  their  baptism,'  are  brought  under  an  obligation  by  an  act 
which  they  do  not  understand.  And  yet  to  perform  the  act,  and  to 
rehearse  the  words  without  any  corresponding  obligation,  would  have 
the  appearance  of  making  baptism  a  charm.  On  this  account,  as 
under  the  Jewish  law  parents,  through  whom  their  children  inherited 
the  blessings  of  the  covenant,  brought  them  to  be  circumcised,  so 
Christian  parents  originally  brought  their  children  to  baptism ;  and 
being  accustomed  to  engage  for  them  in  many  civil  transactions,  they 
were  accustomed  also  in  this  solemn  action  to  make  those  declara- 
tions, which  it  was  supposed  the  children  would  have  made  had  they 
been  possessed  of  understanding.  When  the  parents  were  dead,  or 
were  incapable  of  acting,  other  persons  appeared  as  sureties  for  the 
children,  and  there  was  thus  introduced  the  practice,  observed  in  the 
church  of  England,  and  in  many  other  churches,  of  the  children  be- 
ing presented  by  godfathers  and  godmothers,  who  are  considered  as 
sureties  in  addition  to  the  parents.  Our  church,  following  out  the  dic- 
tates of  nature,  and  the  ideas  upon  which  the  children  of  tliose  who 
believe  are  admitted  to  baptism,  always  requires  the  parents,  unless 
they  are  disqualified,  to  present  their  children ;  and  the  nature  of  the 
sponsion  made  by  them  in  this  presentation  is  different  from  that  pre- 
scribed in  the  church  of  England.  There  the  godfathers  and  god- 
mothers promise,  in  the  name  of  the  infant,  "  that  he  will  renounce 
the  devil  and  all  his  works,  and  constantly  believe  God's  holy  word, 
and  obediently  keep  his  commandments."  With  us,  the  parents  do 
not  make  any  promise  for  the  child,  but  they  promise  for  themselves, 
that  nothing  shall  be  wanting  on  their  part  to  engage  the  child  to  un- 
dertake, at  some  future  time,  that  obligation  which  he  cannot  then 
understand.  The  practice  of  our  church,  then,  leads  us  to  regard  the 
baptism  of  infants  as  a  provision  for  perpetuating  the  church  of  Christ, 
and  transmitting  his  religion  to  the  latest  generations.  It  is  a  privi- 
lege which  children,  born  of  Christian  parents,  enjoy,  that  their  re- 
ceiving the  most  important  of  all  instructions,  a  pious  and  virtuous 
education,  is  not  left  merely  to  discretion  or  natural  affection,  but  is 
bound  upon  their  parents  by  a  solemn  vow  ;  and  whatever  other  at- 
tention parents  may  bestow  upon  the  health,  the  improvement,  and 
advancement  of  their  children,  they  are  guilty  of  impiety  if  they  do 
not  fulfil  this  vow,  by  being  careful  to  afford  them  every  opportunity 
for  acquiring  just  notions  and  favourable  impressions  of  religion. 

In  whatever  manner  infant  baptism  has  been  administered,  it  rests 

with  the  children,  after  having  enjoyed  the  advantages  which  flow 

from  the  practice,  to  confirm  this  early  dedication.     To  give  them  a 

solemn  opportunity  of  taking  the  vows  of  that  covenant,  of  which, 

58*  4  S 


666  BAPTISM. 

ill  their  infancy,  they  received  the  seal,  it  was  customary,  from  a  very 
early  period,  for  those  who  had  been  baptized  in  infancy,  to  be  brought, 
at  a  certain  age,  to  the  bishop  or  minister,  to  give  an  account  of  the 
faith,  in  which,  by  that  time,  they  had  been  instructed,  and  on  de- 
claring their  adherence  to  that  faith,  to  be  dismissed  with  his  blessing. 
From  this  practice  arose  that  ceremony,  known  in  the  church  of  Eng- 
land by  the  name  of  confirmation,  in  which  baptized  persons,  being 
come  to  the  years  of  discretion,  renew  the  vow  made  in  their  name 
at  their  baptism,  ratifying  and  confirming  the  same  in  their  own  per- 
sons, and  acknowledging  themselves  bound  to  believe,  and  to  do  all 
those  things  which  their  godfathers  and  godmothers  then  undertook 
for  them.  After  this  they  kneel  in  order  before  the  bishop,  who, 
laying  his  hand  severally  upon  the  head  of  every  one  of  them,  offers 
a  short  prayer.  The  church  of  England  agrees  with  us  in  thinking 
that  there  is  no  warrant  for  considering  confirmation,  according  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  church  of  Rome,  as  a  sacrament ;  for  there  is  no  mat- 
ter, the  imposition  of  hands  being  only  a  gesture  designing  a  particu- 
lar person,  and  significant  of  good  will ;  there  are  no  words  appointed 
by  God  to  be  used  in  performing  this  action;  and  there  is  no  promise 
of  a  special  blessing.  The  church  of  England  differs  from  us  in 
considering  confirmation  as  not  only  authorized,  but  recommended 
by  the  actions  of  Peter  and  John.  Being  sent  down  by  the  body  of 
the  apostles  to  Samaria,  they  laid  their  hands  upon  those  whom  Philip 
had  baptized  in  that  city ;  after  which  action,  accompanied  with 
prayer,  these  persons  received  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  appears  to  us,  that 
an  action  of  the  apostles,  who  had  the  power  of  conferring  extraor- 
dinary gifts  of  the  Spirit,  does  not  form,  without  a  particular  com- 
mand, a  precedent  for  Christians  in  succeeding  ages ;  and  as  the 
primitive  salutary  practice,  which  has  been  mentioned,  was  laid  aside 
by  some  of  the  first  reformers,  upon  accomit  of  the  corruptions  which 
it  had  been  the  occasion  of  introducing  into  the  church  of  Rome,  we 
do  not  feel  ourselves  bound  to  revive  it.  At  the  same  time,  Calvin 
expresses  a  wish  that  it  were  restored ;  and  we  are  very  far  from 
condemning  confirmation  as  practised  in  the  church  of  England. 
Although  we  account  it  a  ceremony  merely  of  human  institution,  we 
think  it  such  a  ceremony  as  the  rulers  of  every  Christian  society  are 
entitled  to  appoint,  according  to  their  views  of  what  may  best  pro- 
mote the  edification  of  those  committed  to  their  charge  ;  and,  as  we 
have  no  such  ceremony,  we  endoavour  to  supply  the  want  of  it,  in 
the  manner  which  appears  to  us  effectual  for  the  same  purpose,  and 
agreeable  to  the  directions  of  Scripture.  We  think  ourselves  bound 
to  exercise  a  continued  inspection  over  the  Christian  education  of 
those  who  have  been  baptized ;  that,  as  far  as  our  authority  or  exer- 
tions can  be  of  any  avail,  parents  may  not  neglect  to  fulfil  their  vow. 
And  when  young  persons  partake,  for  the  first  time,  of  the  Lord's 
supper,  Ave  are  careful  to  impress  upon  their  minds  a  sense  of  the 
solemnity  of  that  action,  and  to  lead  them  to  consider  themselves  as 
then  making  that  declaration  of  faith,  and  entering  into  those  engage- 
ments, which  would  have  accompanied  their  baptism  had  it  been  de- 
layed to  their  riper  years.  We  believe  that,  as  they  have  enjoyed 
the  advantages  of  infant  baptism,  and  are  thereby  prepared  for  making 
"the  answer  of  a  good  conscience  towards  God,"  all  the  inward 


BAPTISM.  667 

grace  which  that  sacrament  exhibits  will  be  conveyed  to  their  souls, 
when  they  partake  worthily  of  the  other :  for  then  the  covenant  with 
God  is  upon  their  part  confirmed  ;  and  as  certainly  as  they  know  that 
they  fulfil  what  he  requires  of  them,  so  certainly  may  they  be  assured 
that  he  will  fulfil  what  he  has  promised. 

Priestley.     Barclay's  Apology.     Seeker.     Calvin. 


668  THE  lord's  supper. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

QUESTIONS    CONCERNING    THE    LORD's    SUP?ER. 


The  other  rite,  to  which  Protestants  give  the  name  of  a  sacrament, 
is  commonly  called,  after  the  example  of  Paul,  1  Cor.  xi.  20,  the 
Lord's  supper,  as  the  Lord's  day  is  called,  ^v^iaxt;  r^^n^a,  Rev.  i.  10. 
It  derives  its  name  from  having  been  instituted  by  Jesus,  after  he  had 
supped  with  his  apostles,  immediately  before  he  went  out  to  be  de- 
livered into  the  hands  of  his  enemies. 

In  Egypt,  for  every  house  of  the  children  of  Israel,  a  lamb  was 
slain  upon  that  night,  when  the  Almighty  punished  the  cruelty  and 
obstinacy  of  the  Egyptians  by  killing  their  first-born  ;  but  charged 
the  destroying  angel  to  pass  over  the  houses  upon  which  the  blood 
of  the  lamb  was  sprinkled.  This  was  the  original  sacrifice  of  the 
passover.  In  commemoration  of  it,  the  Jews  observed  the  annual 
festival  of  the  passover,  when  all  the  males  of  Judea  assembled  be- 
fore the  Lord  in  Jerusalem.  A  lamb  was  slain  for  every  house,  the 
representative  of  that  whose  blood  had  been  sprinkled  in  the  night  of 
the  escape  from  Egypt.  After  the  blood  was  poured  under  the  altar 
by  the  priests,  the  lambs  were  carried  home  to  be  eaten  by  the  peo- 
ple in  their  tents  or  houses  at  a  domestic  feast,  where  every  master 
of  a  family  took  the  cup  of  thanksgiving,  and  gave  thanks  with  his 
family  to  the  God  of  Israel.  Jesus  having  fulfilled  the  law  of  Moses, 
to  which  in  all  things  he  submitted,  by  eating  the  paschal  supper, 
with  his  disciples,  proceeded  after  supper  to  institute  a  rite, 
which,  to  any  person  that  reads  the  words  of  the  institution  with- 
out having  formed  a  previous  opinion  upon  the  subject,  will  pro- 
bably appear  to  have  been  intended  by  him  as  a  memorial  of  that 
event,  which  was  to  happen  not  many  hours  after.  Luke  xxii. 
19,  20.  "  He  took  bread  and  gave  thanks,  and  brake  it,  and  gave 
it  unto  them,  saying,  this  is  my  body  which  is  given  for  you: 
this  do  in  remembrance  of  me.  Likewise  also  the  cup  after  supper, 
saying,  this  cup  is  the  new  testament  in  my  blood,  which  is  shed  for 
you."  He  took  the  bread  which  was  then  on  the  table,  and  the 
wine,  of  which  some  had  been  used  in  sending  round  the  cup  of 
tlianksgiving  ;  and  by  saying,  "  This  is  my  body,  this  is  my  blood, 
do  this  in  remembrance  of  me,"  he  declared  to  his  apostles  that  this 
was  the  representation  of  his  death,  by  which  he  wished  them  to 
commemorate  that  event.  The  apostle  Paul,  not  having  been  pre- 
sent at  the  institution,  received  it  by  immediate  revelation  from  the 
Lord  Jesus ;  and  the  manner  in  which  he  delivers  it  to  the  Corin- 
thians, 1  Cor.  xi.  23 — 26,  implies  that  it  was  not  a  rite  confined  to  the 
apostles  who  were  present  when  it  was  instituted;  but  that  it  was 


THE  lord's  supper.  669 

meant  to  be  observed  by  all  Christians  to  the  end  of  the  world. 
"  As  often  as  ye  eat  this  bread,  and  drink  this  cup,  ye  do  show  tlie 
Lord's  death  till  he  come."  Whether  we  consider  these  words  as 
part  of  the  revelation  made  to  Paul,  or  as  his  own  commentary  upon 
the  nature  of  the  ordinance  which  was  revealed  to  him,  they  mark, 
with  equal  significancy  and  propriety,  the  extent  and  the  perpetuity 
of  the  obligation  to  observe  that  rite  which  was  first  instituted  in  pre- 
sence of  the  apostles. 

There  is  a  striking  correspondence  between  this  view  of  the  Lord's 
supper,  as  a  rite  by  which  it  was  intended  that  all  Christians  should 
commemorate  the  death  of  Christ,  and  the  circumstances  attending 
the  institution  of  the  feast  of  the  passover.  Like  the  Jews,  we  have 
the  original  sacrifice;  "  Christ  our  passover  is  sacrificed  for  us,"  and 
by  his  substitution,  our  souls  are  delivered  from  death.  Like  the 
Jews,  we  have  a  feast  in  which  that  sacrifice,  and  the  deliverance 
purchased  by  it,  are  remembered.  Hence  the  Lord's  supper  was 
early  called  the  eucharist,  from  its  being  said  by  Luke,  ^a.§uiv  a^tov, 
evxa^i^otrjea^  ix%ass.  Jesus  whcu  he  took  the  bread  gave  thanks ;  and 
his  disciples  in  all  ages,  when  they  receive  the  bread,  keep  a  feast  of 
thanksgiving.  To  Christians  as  to  Jews,  there  "  is  a  night  to  be 
much  observed  unto  the  Lord,"  in  all  generations.  To  Christians  as 
to  Jews,  the  manner  of  observing  the  night  is  appointed.  To  both, 
it  is  accompanied  with  thanksgiving.  And  thus,  as  difterent  expres- 
sions led  us  formerly  to  conclude,  that  the  initiatory  rite  of  Christi- 
anity comes  in  place  of  the  initiatory  rite  of  the  Abrahamic  covenant, 
we  now  find  that  the  other  sacrament  of  the  New  Testament  also 
has  its  counterpart  under  the  Old. 

The  Lord's  supper  exhibits  by  a  significant  action,  the  characteris- 
tical  doctrine  of  the  Christian  faith,  that  the  death  of  its  author,  which 
seemed  to  be  the  completion  of  the  rage  of  his  enemies,  was  a  volun- 
tary sacrifice,  so  efficacious  as  to  supersede  the  necessity  of  every 
other ;  and  that  his  blood  was  shed  for  the  remission  of  sins.  By 
partaking  of  this  rite,  his  disciples  publish  an  event  most  interesting  to 
all  the  kindreds  of  the  earth  ;  they  declare  that,  far  from  being  ashamed 
of  the  sufferings  of  their  master,  they  glory  in  his  cross ;  and  while 
they  thus  perform  the  office  implied  in  that  expression  of  the  apostle, 
tov  ^lutov  tov  Kd^iov  xa.Ta//ycxxets,  they  at  the  samc  tiine  cherish  the  senti- 
ments, by  which  then'  religion  ministers  to  their  own  consolation  and 
improvement.  They  cannot  remember  the  death  of  Christ,  the  cir- 
cumstances which  rendered  that  event  necessary,  the  disinterested 
■love,  and  the  exalted  virtues  of  their  deliverer,  without  feeling  their 
obligations  to  him.  Unless  the  vilest  hypocrisy  accompany  an  ac- 
tion, which,  by  its  very  nature,  professes  to  flow  from  warm  affec- 
tion, "the  love  of  Christ"  will  "constrain"  them  to  fulfil  tlie  pur- 
poses of  his  death,  by  "  living  unto  him  who  died  for  them ;"  and  we 
have  every  reason  to  hope  that,  in  the  places  where  he  causes  his 
name  to  be  remembered,  he  will  come  and  bless  his  people.  From 
these  views  of  the  Lord's  supper,  the  command  of  Jesus,  "  do  this  in 
remembrance  of  me,"  has  been  held  in  the  highest  respect  ever  since 
the  night  in  which  it  was  given  ;  and  the  action  has  appeared  so  na- 
tural, so  pleasing,  so  salutary  an  expression  of  all  that  a  Christian 
feels,  that,  with  the  exception  only  of  the  Quakers,  whose  spiritUcd 


670  THE  lord's  supper. 

system,  far  refined  above  the  condition  of  humanity,  despises  all  those 
helps  which  he  who  knows  our  weakness  saw  to  be  necessary,  it  has 
been  observed  in  the  Christian  church,  from  the  earliest  times  to  the 
present  day. 

This  is  the  pleasing  picture  of  the  Lord's  supper,  which  we  wish 
always  to  present :  and  happy  had  it  been  for  the  Christian  world,  if 
this  were  all  that  required  to  be  said  upon  the  subject.  But  it  has  so 
happened,  that  an  ordinance,  which  is  the  natural  expression  of  love 
to  the  common  master  of  Christians,  and  which  seems  to  constitute  a 
bond  of  union  amongst  them,  has  proved  the  source  of  corruptions, 
the  most  dishonourable  to  their  religion,  and  of  mutual  contentions 
the  most  bitter  and  the  most  disgraceful.  For  while,  with  a  trifling 
exception,  all  Christians  have  agreed  in  respecting  and  observing  this 
sacrament,  they  have  been  very  far  removed  from  one  another  in 
their  opinions  as  to  its  nature  ;  and  these  opinions  have  not  been  al- 
ways speculative,  but  have  often  had  a  considerable  influence  upon  a 
great  part  of  their  practice. 

Had  the  Scriptures  represented  the  Lord's  supper  in  no  other  light 
than  as  a  remembrance  of  the  death  of  Christ,  there  could  hardly  have 
been  room  for  this  variety  of  opinion.  But  as  there  are  expressions, 
both  in  the  words  of  the  institution,  and  in  other  places  of  Scripture, 
which  seem  to  open  a  further  view  of  this  ordinance,  the  different 
interpretations  of  these  passages  have  given  occasion  to  diflerent  sys- 
tems. In  the  words  of  the  institution,  Jesus  calls  the  cup  "  the  new 
testament,  or  covenant,  in  my  blood,"  which  implies  a  connexion  of 
some  kind,  in  conceiving  and  stating  which  men  may  differ,  between 
the  cup  drunk  in  the  Lord's  supper  and  the  new  covenant.  He  says 
also,  "this  is  my  body;  this  is  my  blood;  which  implies  a  sacred- 
ness,  of  the  degrees  of  which  very  different  apprehensions  may  be 
entertained,  arising  from  the  connexion  between  the  subject  and  the 
predicate  of  these  propositions.  The  apostle  Paul,  in  reciting  the 
words  of  the  institution  in  his  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  for  the 
purpose  of  correcting  certain  indecencies  in  celebrating  this  ordinance 
which  had  arisen  in  the  infant  Church  of  Corinth,  speaks  of  the  guilt 
and  danger  of  eating  and  drinking  unworthily,  in  a  manner  which  to 
some  conveys  an  awful  idea  of  the  sanctity  of  the  Lord's  supper,  and 
to  many  suggests  the  most  precious  benefits  as  the  certain  consequence 
of  eating  and  drinking  worthily.  This  suggestion  appears  to  be  con- 
firmed by  the  incidental  mention  which  Paul  has  made  of  the  Lord's 
supper  in  the  10th  chapter  of  that  Epistle.  "The  cup  of  blessing 
which  we  bless,  is  it  not  the  communion  of  the  blood  of  Christ  V 
Lastly,  there  is  a  long  discourse  of  our  Lord  in  John  vi.  which  some 
consider  as  nothing  more  than  a  continued  figure,  without  any  special 
relation  to  the  Lord's  supper,  whilst  others  apply  it  either  in  its  literal, 
or  at  least  in  its  highest  sense  to  this  ordinance.  Upon  these  pas- 
sages of  Scripture  are  founded  the  four  diflerent  systems  concerning 
the  Lord's  supper,  of  which  I  mean  to  give  a  concise  view. 

1.  The  first  to  be  mentioned,  is  that  monstrous  system  which  is 
held  in  the  church  of  Rome,  the  several  parts  of  which  may  be  thus 
shortly  brought  together.  It  is  conceived  that  the  words,"  this  is  my 
body,  this  is  my  blood,"  are  to  be  understood  hi  their  most  literal 
sense ;  that  when  Jesus  pronounced  these  words,  he  changed,  by  his 


THE    LOKD  S    SUPPER.  671 

almighty  power,  the  bread  upon  the  table  into  his  body,  and  the  wine 
into  his  blood,  and  really  delivered  his  body  and  blood  into  the  hands 
of  his  apostles;  and  that  at  all  times,  when  the  Lord's  supper  is 
administered,  the  priest,  by  pronouncing  these  words  with  a  good 
intention,  has  the  power  of  making  a  similar  change.  This  change 
is  known  by  the  name  of  transubstantiation  ;  the  propriety  of  which 
name  is  conceived  to  consist  in  this,  that  although  the  bread  and  wine 
are  not  changed  in  figure,  taste,  weight,  or  any  other  accident,  it  is 
believed  that  the  substance  of  them  is  completely  destroyed  ;  that  in 
place  of  it,  the  substance  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  although 
clothed  with  all  the  sensible  properties  of  bread  and  wine,  is  truly 
present ;  and  that  the  persons  who  receive  what  has  been  consecrated 
by  pronouncing  these  words,  do  not  receive  bread  and  wine,  but 
literally  partake  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  and  really  eat  his 
flesh  and  drink  his  blood.  It  is  further  conceived  that  the  bread  and 
wine,  thus  changed,  are  presented  by  the  priest  to  God  ;  and  he 
receives  the  name  of  priest,  because  in  laying  them  upon  the  altar  he 
otFers  to  God  a  sacrifice,  which,  although  it  be  distinguished  from  all 
others,  by  being  without  the  shedding  of  blood,  is  a  true  propitiatory 
sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  the  dead  and  of  the  living — the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ,  which  were  presented  on  the  cross,  again  presented 
in  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass.  It  is  conceived,  that  the  materials  of  this 
sacrifice,  being  truly  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  possess  an  in- 
trinsic virtue,  which  does  not  depend  upon  the  disposition  of  him 
who  receives  them,  but  operates  immediately  upon  all  who  do  not 
obstruct  the  operation  by  a  mortal  sin.  Hence  it  is  accounted  of 
great  importance  for  the  salvation  of  the  sick  and  dying,  that  parts  of 
these  materials  should  be  sent  to  them ;  and  it  is  understood  that  the 
practice  of  partaking  in  private  of  a  small  portion  of  what  the  priest 
has  thus  transubstantiated,  is,  in  all  respects,  as  proper  and  salutary 
as  joining  with  others  in  the  Lord's  Supper.  It  is  further  conceived, 
that  as  the  bread  and  wine,  when  converted  into  the  body  and  blood 
of  Christ,  are  a  natural  object  of  reverence  and  adoration  to  Chris- 
tians, it  is  highly  proper  to  worship  them  upon  the  altar,  and  that  it 
is  expedient  to  carry  them  about  in  solemn  procession,  that  they  may 
receive  the  homage  of  all  who  meet  them.  What  had  been  tran- 
substantiated was  therefore  lifted  up  for  the  purpose  of  receiving 
adoration,  both  when  it  was  shown  to  the  people  at  the  altar,  and 
when  it  was  carried  about.  Hence  arose  that  expression  in  the 
church  of  Rome,  the  elevation  of  the  host  5  elevatio  hostias.  But, 
as  the  wine  in  being  carried  about  was  exposed  to  accidents  in- 
consistent with  the  veneration  due  to  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  it 
became  customary  to  send  only  the  bread  ;  and,  in  order  to  satisfy 
those  who  for  this  reason  did  not  receive  the  wine,  they  were  taught 
that,  as  the  bread  was  changed  into  the  body  of  Christ,  they  partook 
by  concomitancy  of  the  blood  with  the  body.  In  process  of  time,  the 
people  were  not  allowed  to  partake  of  the  cup  ;  and  it  was  said,  that 
when  Jesus  spake  these  words,  "  drink  ye  all  of  it,"  he  was  address-  ■ 
ing  himself  only  to  his  apostles,  so  that  his  command  was  fulfilled 
when  the  priests,  the  successors  of  the  apostles,  drank  of  the  cup, 
although  the  people  were  excluded.  And  thus  the  last  part  of  this 
system  conspired  with  the  first  in  exalting  the  clergy  very  far  above 


672  THE  lord's  supper. 

the  laity.  For  the  same  persons,  who  had  the  power  of  changing 
bread  and  wine  into  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  and  who  presented 
what  they  had  thus  made,  as  a  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  others,  enjoyed 
the  privilege  of  partaking  of  the  cup,  while  communion  in  one  kind 
only  was  permitted  to  the  people. 

The  absurdities  of  this  system  have  been  fully  exposed  by  Calvin, 
Tillolson,  Burnet,  and  the  numberless  writers,  who,  since  the  time  of 
the  Reformation,  have  directed  the  artillery  of  reason,  philosophy, 
ridicule,  and  Scripture,  against  this  enormous  fabric.  So  much  sound 
sense  and  logical  acuteness  have  been  displayed  in  the  attack,  that  It 
may  often  be  matter  of  wonder  how  such  a  system  could  be  swallow- 
ed. To  account  for  this,  you  must  recollect  the  universal  ignorance 
which  for  many  ages  overspread  Europe,  the  natural  progress  of 
error,  the  credulity  of  superstition,  the  artifice  with  which  this  system 
was  gradually  unfolded,  and  the  deep  and  continued  policy  which,  by 
availing  itself  of  figurative  expressions  in  Scripture,  of  the  glowing 
language  of  devout  writers,  of  the  superstition  of  the  people,  and  of 
every  favourable  occurrence,  compounded  the  whole  into  such  a  form, 
as,  when  brought  to  maturity,  engaged  various  interests  in  maintain- 
ing its  credit.  It  appears,  from  ecclesiastical  history,  that  it  was  not 
without  much  opposition  that  this  system,  the  result  of  the  growing 
corruptions  of  succeeding  ages,  was  finally  established.  Although, 
from  the  beginning,  the  Lord's  supper  was  regarded  with  such 
reverence  as  would  easily  degenerate  into  superstition,  and,  although 
in  all  ages  of  the  church  there  had  been  an  opinion  founded  upon  the 
words  of  our  Lord,  that  communicants  partake  of  his  body  and-blood, 
yet  when  an  attempt  was  made  in  the  ninth  century  to  define  the 
manner  of  this  participation,  by  saying  that  the  body  which  suffered 
on  the  cross  was  locally  present  in  the  Lord's  supper,  the  attempt 
was  resisted  ;  and  the  rational  doctrine,  by  which  Joannes  Scotus 
Erigena  combated  this  attempt,  was  maintained  and  illustrated  in  the 
eleventh  century  by  Berenger.  Even  after  the  name  transubstantia- 
tion  was  invented  in  the  thirteenth  century,  and  declared  by  the 
authority  of  the  Pope  in  the  fourth  Lateran  council  to  be  an  article 
of  faith,  impressions  made  by  the  doctrine  of  Berenger  were  not 
effaced  from  the  minds  of  men  :  and  some,  who  did  not  venture  to 
profess  their  disbelief  of  an  article  which  the  supreme  authority  of  the 
church  had  imposed  upon  all  Christians,  tried  to  avoid  the  palpable 
absurdities  of  that  article,  by  substituting,  about  the  end  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  in  place  of  transubstantiation,  the  word  consub- 
stantiation.  This  word  was  adopted  by  Luther  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Reformation,  and  is  commonly  employed  to  express  the 
distinguishing  character  of  the  second  system  concerning  the  Lord's 
supper. 

2.  It  appeared  to  Luther,  from  the  words  of  the  institution,  and 
from  other  places  of  Scripture,  that  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  are 
really  present  in  the  Lord's  supper.  But  he  saw  the  absurdity  of 
supposing  that,  in  contradiction  to  our  senses,  what  appears  to  us  to 
be  as  much  bread  and  wine,  after  the  consecration  as  before  it,  is 
literally  destroyed,  or  changed  into  another  substance  ;  and,  therefore, 
he  taught  that  the  bread  and  wine  indeed  remain,  but  that,  together 
with  them,  there  is  present  the  substance  of  the  body  and  blood  of 


THE  lord's  supper.  673 

Christ,  which  is  Uterally  received  by  communicants.     As  in  a  red-hot 
iron,  he  said,  two  distinct  substances,  iron  and  fire,  are  united,  so  is 
the  body  of  Christ  joined  with  the  bread.     Some  of  the  immediate 
followers   of  Luther,  perceiving   that   similes  of  this  kind,   which 
certainly  contain  no  argument,  did  not  throw  any  light  upon  the 
subject  to  which  they  were  applied,  contented  themselves  with  say- 
ing, that  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  are  really  present  in  the  sacra- 
ment, although  the  manner  of  that  presence  is  a  mystery  which  we 
cannot  explain.     Other  followers  of  Luther,  wishing  to  give  a  more 
accurate  account  of  this  article  of  their  faith,  had  recourse  to  the 
avtc8o3Li  tSico^arwv,  the  communication  of  properties,  which  was  mention- 
ed formerly,  as  resulting  from  the  union  between  the  divine  and 
human  natures  of  Christ."*     They  said  that  all  those  properties  of 
the  divine  nature,  the  exercise  of  which  is  essential  to  the  office  of 
mediator,  were  communicated  to  the  human  nature.     It  appeared  to 
them,  therefore,  that  as  the  mediator  of  the  new  covenant  can  only 
act  where  he  is,  and  as  the  human  nature  of  Christ  enters  into  our 
conception   of  his  being   mediator,  there  is  communicated   to   that 
nature  what  they  called  onmipresentia  majestatica,  by  which  the 
body  of  Christ,  although  a  true  body,  might  be  in  all  places  at  the 
same  time.     Having  thus  satisfied  themselves  of  the  possibility  of  the 
real  presence  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  in  the  Lord's  supper, 
they  found  it  easy  to  believe,  that  when  these  words,  "  this  is  my 
body,  this  is  my  blood,"  were  pronounced,  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ,  being  really  present,  united  themselves  to  the  bread  and  wine, 
and  that  boUi  were  at  once  received  by  the  people. 

The  great  proportion  of  Christians,  who  hold  -what  I  called  the 
Catholic  opinion  concerning  the  person  of  our  Saviour,  understand 
the  o.vt<.borM  ^h^ixat^v  in  a  different  sense.     They  consider,  that  in  conse- 
quence of  the  intimate  union  between  the  two  natures  of  him  who  is 
both  God  and  man,  every  thing  that  is  true  concerning  the  human 
nature  may  be  affirmed  of  the  same  person,  of  whom  everything  true 
concerning  the  divine  nature  may  also  be  affirmed.     So  it  may  be 
said  that  the  Son  of  God  died,  because  he  died  in  respect  of  his  human 
nature;   or   that  "the  Son   of  man   hath   power  to  forgive   sins," 
because  the  Son  of  man  is  also  the  Son  of  God.     But  considering 
each  nature  as  true  and  complete  by  itself,  they  account  it  as  impossi- 
ble that  any  of  the  properties  of  the  divine  nature  should  beloirg  to 
the  human,  as  that  any  of  the  weaknesses  of  humanity  should  be 
imparted  to  the  divinity  of  Christ.     Other  Christians,  therefore,  who 
believe   in   the  divinity   of  our  Saviour,  while  they  admit  that,^  n\ 
respect  of  his  divine  nature,  he  is  always  present  with  his  disciples, 
believe  also  that  his  body,  which  was  upon  earth  during  his  abode 
here,  and  which  was  removed  from  earth  at  the  time  of  his  ascension, 
is  no'w  confined  to  that  place  which  it  inhabits  in  heaven  ;  and  they 
consider  ubiquity  as  a  property  inconsistent  with  the  nature  of  body. 
The  ubiquity  of  the  body  of  Christ,  which  other  Christians  upon  this 
ground  reject,  was  not  held  either  by  Luther  himself,  or  by  all  his 
followers,  but  was   invented  by  some   of  them  as  a  philosophical 
explication  of  that  tenet,  concerning  the  real  presence  of  the  body 


59 


•   Book  iiJ.  ch.  8. 
4T 


674  THE  lord's  supper, 

and  blood  of  Christ  in  the  Lord's  supper,  which  they  derived  from 
hiin. 

It  is  not  easy  to  form  a  precise  notion  of  the  manner  in  which  this 
tenet  is  explained,  or  defended  by  the  modern  Lutherans,  who 
appear  to  feel  the  force  of  all  the  objections  that  have  been  urged 
against  it.  They  disclaim  the  various  errors  and  absurdities,  which 
appear  to  us  to  be  connected  with  ascribing  to  a  true  body  a  local 
presence  at  all  times,  in  all  places  ;  and  they  employ  a  multitude  of 
words,  which  I  profess  I  do  not  understand,  to  reconcile  the  limited 
extension  which  enters  into  our  conceptions  of  body  with  that  omni- 
presence of  the  body  of  Christ,  which  appears  to  them  to  flow  from 
the  inseparable  union  between  the  divine  and  human  natures.  They 
reject  the  term  consubstantiation,  because  that  may  seem  to  imply 
that  the  body  of  Christ  is  incorporated  with  the  substance  of  the  bread 
and  wine.  They  reject  another  term  also,  which  had  been  used  upon 
this  subject,  impanation,  because  that  may  seem  to  imply  that  the 
body  of  Christ  is  enclosed,  and  lodged  in  the  bread.  But  still  they 
profess  to  hold  that  doctrine,  which  is  expressed  in  all  the  standard 
books  of  the  Lutheran  churches,  and  is  one  of  the  principal  marks  of 
distinction  between  them  and  the  reformed  churches  ;  that,  besides 
the  earthly  matter,  which  is  the  object  of  our  senses  in  the  sacrament, 
there  are  also  present  aSiaararwj,  in  such  a  manner  as  not  to  be  removed 
at  any  distance  from  it,  the  real  body  and  blood  of  Christ ;  so  that  by 
all  who  partake  of  the  Lord's  supper  cwn  pane  corpus  Christi 
ore  accipiatur  et  manducelur ;  cum  vino  autem  sanguis  ejus 
bibatur. 

This  opinion,  although  free  from  some  of  the  absurdities  of  tran- 
substantiation,  appears  to  us  to  labour  under  so  many  palpable  diffi- 
culties, that  we  are  disposed  to  wonder  at  its  being  held  by  men  of  a 
philosophical  mind.  It  is  fair,  however,  to  mention,  that  the  doctrine 
of  the  real  presence  is  in  the  Lutheran  church  merely  a  speculative 
opinion,  having  no  influence  upon  the  practice  of  those  by  whom  it 
is  adopted.  It  appears  to  them  that  this  opinion  furnishes  the  best 
method  of  explaining  a  Scripture  expression :  but  they  do  not  con- 
sider the  presence  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  with  the  bread 
and  wine,  as  imparting  to  the  sacrament  any  physical  virtue,  by 
which  the  benefit  derived  from  it  is  independent  of  the  disposition  of 
him  by  whom  it  is  received ;  or  as  giving  it  the  nature  of  a  sacrifice ; 
or  as  rendering  the  bread  and  wine  an  object  of  adoration  to  Chris- 
tians. And  their  doctrine  being  thus  separated  from  the  three  great 
practical  errors  of  the  church  of  Rome,  receives,  even  from  those  who 
account  it  false  and  irrational,  a  kind  of  indulgence  very  different 
from  that  which  i:s  shown  to  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation. 

3,  A  system  free  from  all  the  objections  which  adhere  to  that  of 
Luther,  was  held  by  some  of  his  first  associates  in  the  Reformation, 
and  constitutes  the  third  system  concerning  the  Lord's  supper  which 
I  have  to  delineate. 

Carolostadt,  a  professor  with  Luther  in  the  university  of  Witten- 
berg, and  Zuinglius,  a  native  of  Switzerland,  the  founder  of  the 
reformed  churches,  or  those  Protestant  churches  which  are  not  Lu- 
theran, taught  that  the  bread  and  wine  in  the  Lord's  supper  are  the 
signs  of  the  absent  body  and  blood  of  Christ ;  that  when  Jesus  said, 


THE  lord's  supper.  675 

"  this  is  my  body,  this  is  my  blood,"  he  used  a  figure  exactly  of  the 
same  kind  with  that,  by  which,  according  to  the  abbreviations  con- 
tinually practised  in  ordinary  speech,  the  sign  is  often  put  for  the 
thing  signified.  As  this  figure  is  common,  so  there  were  two  circum- 
stances which  would  prevent  the  apostles  from  misunderstanding  it, 
when  used  in  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  supper.  The  one  was, 
that  they  saw  the  body  of  Jesus  then  alive,  and  therefore  could  not 
suppose  that  they  were  eating  it.  The  other  was,  that  they  had  just 
been  partaking  of  a  Jewish  festival,  in  the  institution  of  which  the 
very  same  figure  had  been  used.  For  in  the  night  in  which  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel  escaped  out  of  Egypt,  God  said  of  the  lamb  which  he 
commanded  every  house  to  eat  and  slay,  "  it  is  the  Lord's  passover;"* 
not  meaning  that  it  was  the  action  of  the  Lord  passing  over  every 
house,  but  the  token  and  pledge  of  that  action.  It  is  admitted  by  all 
Christians,  that  there  is  such  a  figure  used  in  one  part  of  the  institu- 
tion. When  our  Lord  says,  "  this  cup  is  the  new  covenant  in  my 
blood,"  none  suppose  him  to  mean  that  the  cup  is  the  covenant,  but 
all  believe  that  he  means  to  call  it  the  memorial,  or  the  sign,  or  the 
seal  of  the  covenant.  If  it  be  understood,  that,  agreeably  to  the 
analogy  of  language,  he  uses  a  similar  figure  when  he  says,  "  This 
is  my  body,"  and  that  he  means  nothing  more  than  "  this  is  the  sign 
of  my  body,"  we  are  delivered  from  all  the  absurdities  implied  in 
the  literal  interpretation,  to  which  the  Roman  Catholics  think  it  ne- 
cessary to  adhere.  We  give  the  words  a  more  natural  interpretation 
than  the  Lutherans  do,  who  consider  "  this  is  my  body"  as  intended 
to  express  a  proposition  which  is  totally  different,  "  my  body  is  with 
this ;"  and  we  escape  from  the  difficulties  in  which  they  are  involved 
by  their  forced  interpretation. 

Further,  by  this  method  of  interpretation  there  is  no  ground  left 
for  that  adoration,  which  the  church  of  Rome  pays  to  the  bread  and 
wine ;  for  they  are  only  the  signs  of  that  which  is  believed  to  be  ab- 
sent. There  is  no  ground  for  accounting  the  Lord's  supper,  to  the 
dishonour  of  "  the  high  priest  of  our  profession,"  a  new  sacrifice 
presented  by  an  earthly  priest ;  for  the  bread  and  wine  are  only  the 
memorials  of  that  sacrifice  which  was  once  offered  on  the  cross.  And, 
lastly,  this  interpretation  destroys  the  popish  idea  of  a  physical  virtue 
in  the  Lord's  supper ;  for  if  the  bread  and  wine  are  signs  of  what  is 
absent,  their  use  must  be  to  excite  the  remembrance  of  it ;  but  this 
is  a  use  which  cannot  possibly  exist  with  regard  to  any,  but  those 
whose  minds  are  thereby  put  into  a  proper  frame  ;  and  therefore  the 
Lord's  supper  becomes,  instead  of  a  charm,  a  mental  exercise,  and 
the  efficacy  of  it  arises  not  ex  opere  operato,  but  ex  opere  operantis. 

An  interpretation  recommended  by  such  important  advantages 
found  a  favourable  reception  with  many,  whose  minds  were  opened 
at  the  Reformation  to  the  light  of  philosophy  and  Scripture.  Its  lead- 
ing principles  are  held  by  all  the  reformed  churches,  as  one  mark  by 
which  they  are  distinguished  from  the  Lutheran  ;  and  it  was  adopted 
as  a  full  account  of  the  Lord's  supper,  by  that  large  body  of  Protes- 
tants who  are  known  by  the  name  of  Socinians,  because  it  coincides 
entirely  with  their  ideas  of  a  sacrament.    It  has  been  illustrated  very 

*  Exod.  xii.  11. 


676  THE    LORD  ?    SUPPER. 

fully  in  two  treatises  ;  the  one  written  in  the  beginning  of  last  cen- 
tury by  Bishop  Hoadleyj  entitled,  A  Plain  Account  of  the  Nature 
and  Ends  of  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  ;  the  other  written 
about  twenty  years  ago,  by  Dr.  Bell,  entitled.  An  Attempt  to  ascer- 
tain the  Authority,  Nature,  and  Design  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  The 
leading  principle  of  the  two  treatises  is  the  same,  and  may  be  thus 
shortly  stated  in  the  words  of  Dr.  Bell.  "  That  the  Lord's  supper  is 
nothing  more  than  Avhat  the  words  of  the  institution  fully  express,  a 
religious  commemoration  of  the  death  of  Christ ;  which  it  is  the  ab- 
solute duty  of  every  one  who  beheves  in  Christ  to  celebrate  ;  that 
the  performance  of  it  is  not  attended  with  any  other  benefits  than 
those  we  ourselves  take  care  to  make  it  productive  of,  by  its  religious 
influence  on  our  principles  and  practice ;  but  that,  of  all  mere  acts 
of  religious  worship,  it  is  naturally  in  itself  adapted  to  possess  our 
minds  most  strongly  with  religious  reflections,  and  to  induce  as  well 
as  enable  us  to  strengthen  most  effectually  every  virtuous  resolu- 
tion." 

Bishop  Hoadley  and  Dr.  Bell  avail  themselves  of  the  rational  in- 
terpretation which  Zuinglius  gave  of  these  words,  "  this  is  my  body ;" 
and  of  the  plain  meaning  of  the  other  words  of  the  institution,  "  do 
this  in  remembrance  of  me."  They  consider  the  discourse  of  our 
Lord  in  John  vi.  as  having  no  relation  to  the  Lord's  supper.     They 

interpret    xowuwa  tov  ai.uat'oj,  xoivutvia  Tov  (jwiuatoj  r'ov  XftffT'OD,     1     Cor.     X.    1  6, 

which  we  render  "the  communion  of  the  blood,  the  communion  of 
the  body  of  Christ,"  as  meaning  nothing  more  than  the  participation 
of  his  body  and  blood,  i.  e.  of  the  signs  of  his  body  and  blood.  Ac- 
cording to  them,,  the  apostle  refers  in  that  chapter  merely  to  the  pub- 
lic profession  of  Christianity,  which  all  who  partake  of  the  Lord's 
supper  solemnly  and  jointly  make  ;  and  the  unworthy  communicating, 
■which  is  condemned  in  1  Cor.  xi,  is  confined  to  those  who  make  no 
distinction  between  the  bread  and  wine,  which  they  receive  at  the 
Lord's  supper,  as  signs  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  and  the  bread 
and  wine  which  they  receive  at  any  other  time. 

This  third  system  is  not  necessarily  connected  with  the  two 
distinguishing  tenets  of  the  Socinians.  For  those  who  hold  the 
Catholic  opinion  with  regard  to  the  person  of  Christ  and  the  atone- 
ment, may  consider  the  Lord's  supper  as  of  no  other  advantage  to 
the  individual,  than  by  leading  him  to  remember  that  event,  the  de- 
vout recollection  of  which  has  a  tendency  to  minister  to  his  improve- 
ment. But  it  so  liappens,  that  all  those  who  are  called  Calvinists 
have  adopted  a  further  view  of  the  Lord's  supper;  and,  as  the  thirty- 
nine  articles  of  the  church  of  England  were  composed  by  Calvinists, 
that  view  is  expressed  as  strongly  in  the  articles  which  treat  of  the 
I^ord's  supper,  and  in  the  office  for  the  communion,  as  in  our  Con- 
fession of  Faith  and  catechism. 

4.  This  farther  view,  which  forms  a  fourth  system  concerning  the 
Lord's  supper,  originated  in  the  language  of  Calvin  upon  this  sub- 
ject. He  knew  that  former  attem})ts  to  reconcile  the  systems  of 
Luther  and  Zuinglius  had  proved  fruitless.  But  he  saw  the  impor- 
tance of  uniting  Protestants  upon  a  pohit,  with  respect  to  which  they 
agreed  in  condemning  the  errors  of  the  church  of  Rome ;  and  his 
zeal  in  renewing  the  attempt  was  probably  quickened  by  the  sincere 


THE  lord's  supper.  677 

friendship  which  he  entertained  for  Melancthon,  who  was  the  suc- 
cessor of  Luther,  while  he  liimself  had  succeeded  ZuingUus  in  con- 
ducting the  Reformation  in  Switzerland.  He  thought  that  the  system 
of  Zuinghus  did  not  come  up  to  the  force  of  the  expressions  used  in 
Scripture  ;  and,  akhough  he  did  not  approve  of  the  manner  in  which 
the  Lutherans  explain  these  expressions,  it  appeared  to  him  that  there 
was  a  sense  in  which  the  full  significancy  of  them  might  be  preserved, 
and  a  great  part  of  the  Lutheran  language  might  continue  to  be  used. 
As  he  agreed  with  ZuingUus,  in  thinkhig  that  the  bread  and  wine 
were  the  signs  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  which  were  not 
locally  present,  he  renounced  both  transubstantiation  and  consubstan- 
tiation.     He  agreed  farther  with  ZuingUus,  in  thinking  that  the  use 
of  these  signs,  being  a  memorial  of  the  sacrifice  once  offered  on  the 
cross,  was  intended  to  produce  a  moral  effect.     But  he  taught,  that 
to  all  who  remember  the  death  of  Christ  in  a  proper  manner,  Christ, 
by  the  use  of  these  signs,  is  spiritually  present, — present  to  their 
minds  ;  and  he  considered  this  spiritual  presence  as  giving  a  signifi- 
cancy, that  goes  far  beyond  the  Socinian  sense,  to  these  words  of 
Paul ;  "  the  cup  of  blessing  which  we  bless,  is  it  not  the  communion 
of  the  blood  of  Christ ;  the  bread  which  we  break,  is  it  not  the  com- 
munion of  the  body  of  Christ?"    It  is  not  the  blessing  pronounced 
which  makes  any  change  upon  the  cup,  but  to  all  who  join  with  be- 
coming affection  in  the  thanksgiving  then  uttered  in  the  name  of  the 
congregation,  Christ  is  spiritually  present,  so  that  they  may  emphat- 
ically be  said  to  partake,  xoi,vav£i.v,  fistcx^'''',  of  his  body  and  blood ;  be- 
cause his  body  and  blood  being  spiritually  present  convey  the  same 
nourishment  to  their  souls,  the  same  quickening  to  the  spiritual  life, 
as  bread  and  wine  do  to  the  natural  life.     Hence  Calvin  was  led  to 
connect  the  discourse  in  John  vi.  with  the  Lord's  supper ;  not  in  that 
literal  sense  which  is  agreeable  to  Popish  and  Lutheran  ideas,  as  if 
the  body  of  Christ  was  really  eaten,  and  his  blood  reaUy  drunk  by 
any ;  but  in  a  sense  agreeable  to  the  expression  of  om*  Lord  in  the 
conclusion  of  that  discourse,  "  the  words  that  I  speak  unto  you,  they 
are  spirit  and  they  are  life  ;"  i.  e.  when  I  say  to  you,  "  whoso  eateth 
my  flesh  and  drinketh  my  blood,  dwelleth  in  me  and  I  in  him ;  he 
shall  live  by  me,  for  my  flesh  is  meat  indeed,"  you  are  to  understand 
these  words,  not  in  a  literal  but  in  a  spiritual  sense.     The  spiritual 
sense  adopted  by  the  Socinians  is  barely  this,  that  the  doctrine  of 
Christ  is  the  food  of  the  soul,  by  cherishing  a  life  of  virtue  here,  and 
the  hope  of  a  glorious  Ufe  hereafter.     The  Calvinists  think,  that  into 
the  full  meaning  of  the  figure  used  in  these  words,  there  enter  not 
merely  the  exhortations  and  instructions  which  a  belief  of  the  gos- 
pel affords,  but  also  that  union  between  Christ  and  his  people,  whicli 
is  the  consequence  of  faith,  and  that  communication  of  grace  and 
strength,  by  which  they  are  quickened  in  well-doing,  and  prepared 
for  the  discharge  of  every  duty. 

According  to  this  fourth  system,  the  full  benefit  of  the  Lord's  sup- 
per is  peculiar  to  those  who  partake  worthily.  For  while  all  who 
eat  the  bread  and  drink  the  wine  may  be  said  to  show  the  Lord's 
death,  and  may  also  receive  some  devout  impressions,  they  only  to 
whom  Jesus  is  spiritually  present  share  in  that  spiritual  nourishment 
which  arises  from  partaking  of  his  body  and  blood.  According  to 
59* 


678  THE  lord's  supper. 

this  system,  eating  and  drinking  unworthily  has  a  further  sense  than 
enters  into  the  Socinian  system,  and  it  becomes  the  duty  of  every 
Christian  to  examine  himself,  not  only  with  regard  to  his  knowledge, 
but  also  with  regard  to  his  general  conduct,  before  he  eats  of  that 
bread  and  drinks  of  that  cup.  It  becomes  also  the  duty  of  those  who 
liave  the  inspection  of  Christian  societies,  to  exclude  from  this  ordi- 
dance  persons,  of  whom  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  they  are 
strangers  to  the  sentiments  which  it  presupposes,  and  without  which 
none  are  prepared  for  holding  that  communion  with  Jesus  which  it 
implies. 

This  fourth  system  may,  with  proper  judgment  and  discretion,  be 
rendered  in  a  high  degree  subservient  to  the  moral  improvement 
of  Christians ;  but  there  is  much  danger  of  its  being  abused.  The 
notion  of  a  communion  with  Christ  in  this  particular  ordinance,  more 
intimate  than  at  any  other  time,  may  foster  a  spirit  of  fanaticism, 
unless  the  nature  and  the  fruits  of  that  communion  are  carefully 
explained.  The  humble  and  contrite  may  be  overwhelmed  with 
religious  melancholy,  when  the  state  of  their  minds  does  not  corres- 
pond to  the  descriptions  wliich  are  sometimes  given  of  that  com- 
munion. Presumptuous  sinners  may  be  confirmed  in  the  practice 
of  wickedness  by  feeling  an  occasional  glow  of  affection ;  or,  on  the 
other  hand,  a  general  neglect  of  an  ordinance,  which  all  are  com- 
manded to  observe,  may  be,  and  in  some  parts  of  Scotland  is,  the  conse- 
quence of  holding  forth  notions  of  the  danger  and  guilt  of  communi- 
cating unworthily,  more  rigorous  than  are  clearly  warranted  by  Scrip- 
ture.* 

I  have  now  delineated  the  four  capital  systems  of  opinion,  to 
which  the  few  passages  in  Scripture  that  mention  the  Lord's  supper 
have  given  occasion.  I  leave  to  your  private  study  a  critical  examina- 
tion of  the  several  passages,  and  a  particular  discussion  of  the  various 
arguments,  by  which  each  system  has  been  supported.  In  prose- 
cuting this  study,  you  will  find  that  the  passage  in  1  Cor.  x.  has  sug- 
gested the  idea  of  a  feast  after  a  sacrifice,  as  the  true  explication  of 
the  Lord's  supper.  The  idea  was  first  illustrated  by  Cudworth,  in  a 
particular  dissertation,  printed  at  the  end  of  that  edition  of  his  Intel- 
lectual System,  which  the  learned  Mosheim,  a  Lutheran  divine,  pub- 
lished in  Latin,  and  has  enriched  with  the  most  valuable  notes.  The 
idea  was  adopted  by  the  ingenious  Warburton,  and  applied  by  him, 
in  one  of  his  sermons,  in  a  treatise  on  the  Lord's  supper,  and  in  a 
supplemental  volume  of  the  Divine  Legation  of  Moses,  as  an  effectual 
answer  to  both  the  Popish  and  the  Socinian  systems.  When  you 
examine  what  Cudworth,  Mosheim,  Warburton,  Hoadley,  and  IBell 
have  written,  you  will  probably  think  that  this  idea,  like  many  others 
Avhich  learned  and  ingenious  men  lay  hold  of,  has  been  pushed  too 
fat;  that,  although  there  are  points  of  resemblance  between  the 
Lord's  supper,  and  those  feasts  which,  both  amongst  heathens  and 
Jews,  followed  after  sacrifices,  yet  the  resemblance  is  too  vague,  and 
fails  in  too  many  respects  to  furnish  the  ground,  either  of  a  clear 
exposition  of  the  nature  of  the  ordinance,  or  of  any  solid  argument  in 
opposition  to  those  who  have  mistaken  its  nature. 

*  Hill's  Theological  Institutes,  Part.  iii.  2. 


THE  lord's  supper.  679 

In  the  fourth  system  the  church  of  England  and  we  perfectly  agree, 
as  may  be  seen  by  comparing  Articles  xxviii.  and  xxix.  with  our 
standards.  With  regard  to  the  differences  between  us,  as  to  the  times, 
the  places,  and  the  manner  of  receiving  the  Lord's  supper,  they  are 
too  insignificant,  I  do  not  say  to  be  discussed,  but  to  be  mentioned 
here  ;  "  for  the  kingdom  of  God  is  not  meat  and  drink,  but  righteous- 
ness, and  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  One  circumstance  only 
may  appear  to  be  important.  The  nature  of  the  ordinance,  as  well 
as  the  words  of  Paul, "  As  often  as  ye  eat  this  bread,"  implies  this 
difference  between  the  two  sacraments,  that  while  baptism  is  not  to 
be  repeated,  the  Lord's  supper  is  to  be  received  frequently.  But  as 
the  spiritual  religion  of  Jesus  has,  in  no  instance,  given  a  precise 
directory  for  the  outward  conduct,  the  frequency  of  celebrating  it  is 
left  to  be  regulated  by  the  prudence  of  Christian  societies.  The  early 
Christians  were  accustomed  to  partake  of  the  Lord's  supper,  every 
time  that  they  assembled  for  public  worship.  It  is  certainly  fit  that 
Christians  should  not  assemble  for  that  purpose,  without  remembering 
the  great  event  which  is  characteristical  of  their  religion.  But  as  that 
evetit  may  be  brought  to  their  remembrance  by  prayer,  by  reading 
the  Scriptures,  by  the  discourses  delivered  when  they  assemble,  and 
by  the  sacrament  of  baptism,  it  does  not  appear  essential,  that  the 
particular  and  solemn  method  of  showing  the  Lord's  death,  which  he 
has  appointed,  should  form  a  part  of  their  stated  worship.  In  latter 
times,  the  Lord's  supper  is  celebrated  by  some  churches,  at  the  return 
of  stated  festivals  throughout  the  year ;  by  others,  without  any  fixed 
time,  according  to  circumstances,  either  oftener  in  the  year,  or,  in 
imitation  of  the  Jewish  passover,  only  once.  There  are  advantages 
attending  all  the  modes,  which  it  is  difficult  precisely  to  estimate ;  for 
if  the  impressions  connected  with  this  ordinance  are  oftener  excited 
in  one  mode,  it  may  be  expected  that  they  will  be  deeper  and  more 
lasting  in  another.  Very  worthy  people  have  differed  as  to  the  obli- 
gation of  communicating  frequently,  and  consequently  as  to  the  dis- 
tance of  time  at  which  such  opportunities  should  be  afforded  to  large 
societies  of  Christians.  But  at  whatever  time  the  Lord's  supper  is 
administered,  all  who  hold  the  fourth  system  agree  in  thinking  them- 
selves warranted,  by  these  words  of  our  Lord,  "  this  cup  is  the  new 
covenant  in  my  blood,"  to  represent  this  ordinance  as  the  appointed 
method,  in  which  Christians  renew  their  covenant  with  God.  For 
while  they  engage,  at  a  time  when  every  sentiment  of  piety  and 
gratitude  may  be  supposed  to  be  strong  and  warm  in  their  breasts, 
that  they  will  fulfil  their  part  of  their  covenant,  they  behold  in  the 
actions  which  they  perform  a  striking  representation  of  that  event,  by 
which  the  covenant  was  confirmed  ;  and  they  receive,  in  the  grace 
and  strength  then  conveyed  to  their  souls,  a  seal  of  that  forgiveness 
of  sins,  which,  through  the  blood  of  the  covenant,  is  granted  to  all 
that  repent,  and  a  pledge  of  the  future  blessings  promised  to  those 
who  are  "  faithful  unto  death." 

Mosheim's  Eccles.  Hist.     Cudworth  with   Mosheim's  Notes.     Warbiirton.     Hoadley 
Bell.     Bagot. 


680  CONDITION    OF    MEN    AFTER    DEATH. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


CONDITION    OF    MEN    AFTER    DEATH. 


The  concluding  topic  of  the  ordinary  system  of  theology  is  enti- 
tled De  novissimis,  i.  e.  De  resurrectione,  extremo  judicio,  eterna 
viorte,  eterna  vita.  It  comprehends  various  questions  respecting  the 
condition  of  men  after  death.  It  might  appear  strange  if  I  were  to 
omit  the  mention  of  this  topic  :  and  yet  I  do  not  think  any  particular 
discussion  of  it  necessary  in  this  place.  For  all  the  questions  gene- 
rally arranged  under  this  topic  are  included  in  former  parts  of  the 
course,  or  turn  upon  principles  that  belong  to  other  sciences,  or  are 
of  such  a  nature  as  not  to  admit  of  any  solution.  The  great  doctrine 
which  theology  clearly  teaches,  with  regard  to  the  future  condition 
of  men,  is  this,  that  by  the  righteousness  of  Jesus  Christ  there  is  con- 
veyed, to  all  who  repent  and  believe,  a  right  to  eternal  life.*  This  is 
the  only  point  which  it  is  of  importance  for  us  distinctly  to  understand  ; 
for  if  God  is  to  give  eternal  life  to  his  servants  through  Jesus  Christ, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  will  be  a  happy  life,  although  the  pre- 
sent state  of  our  faculties  may  not  admit  of  our  forming  an  adequate 
conception  of  the  nature  of  its  felicity.  The  various  images,  which 
are  used  in  Scripture,  may  indeed  be  employed  with  great  propriety 
by  persons  of  correct  taste,  and  of  a  sober  and  chastised  judgment,  in 
filling  up  such  a  pictiu'e  of  a  future  state,  as  may  minister  to  the  con- 
solation and  improvement  of  Christians.  But  this  is  rather  a  subject 
of  popular  discourse  than  of  theological  discussion  ;  because  the  data 
are  not  sufficient  to  establish,  beyond  doubt,  any  one  position  con- 
cerning the  particulars  that  constitute  the  happiness  of  a  future  state, 
as  the  only  position  that  can  be  seriously  maintained  by  those  who 
receive  the  Scripture  accounts. 

Besides  questions  concerning  the  nature  of  the  happiness  of  heaven, 
there  have  also  arisen  questions  concerning  the  state  of  the  soul,  in  the 
interval  between  death  and  the  general  resurrection.  But  these  ques- 
tions belong  to  pneumatology.  For  if  we  believe,  with  Dr.  Priestley, 
that  the  soul  is  not  a  substance  distinct  from  the  body,  we  must  believe 
with  him  that  the  whole  of  the  human  machine  is  at  rest  after  death, 
till  it  be  restored  to  its  functions  at  the  last  day ;  but  if  we  are  con- 
vinced of  the  immateriality  of  the  soul,  we  shall  not  think  the  soul  so 
entirely  dependent  in  all  its  operations  upon  its  present  companion, 
but  that  it  may  exist  and  act  in  an  unembodied  state.  And  if  once 
we  are  satisfied  that  a  state  of  separate  existence  is  possible,  we  shall 

•  Book  iv.  ch.  4. 


CONDITION    OF    MEN    AFTER    DEATH.  681 

easily  attach  credit  to  the  interpretation  commonly  given  of  the  vari- 
ous expressions  in  Scripture,  which  seem  to  intimate  tiiat  the  souls 
of  good  men  are  admitted  to  the  presence  of  God  immediately  after 
death,  although  we  soon  find  that  a  bound  is  set  to  our  speculations, 
concerning  the  nature  of  this  intermediate  state.  The  subject  is  han- 
dled by  I3urnet,  De  Statu  Morluoruni  et  Resurgentiiim  ;  and  it 
lias  of  late  been  rendered  an  object  of  attention  by  the  bold  specula- 
tions of  Dr.  Priestley,  and  by  an  opinion  which  Law  has  expressed 
very  fully  in  the  Appendix  to  Considerations  on  the  Theory  of  Reli- 
gion, and  which  many  English  divines  have  not  scrupled  to  avow  ; 
that  immortality  was  not  the  condition  of  man's  nature,  but  an  addi- 
tional privilege  conferred  through  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  the  Christian 
revelation  of  an  immortality  lays  the  chief,  if  not  the  whole,  stress 
upon  a  resurrection. 

One  branch  of  the  opinions  that  have  been  held  concerning  an  in- 
termediate state  is  the  popish  doctrine  of  purgatory,  a  doctrine  which 
appears,  upon  the  slightest  inspection  of  the  texts  that  have  been  ad- 
duced in  support  of  it,  to  derive  no  evidence  from  Scripture  ;  which 
originated  in  the  error  of  the  church  of  Rome  in  assigning  to  personal 
suffering  a  place  in  the  justification  of  a  sinner ;  and  which  is  com- 
pletely overturned  by  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith,  and  by  the 
general  strain  of  Scripture,  which  represents  this  life  as  a  state  of 
probation  upon  our  conduct  during  which  our  everlasting  condition 
depends. 

The  certainty  of  a  general  resurrection  is  included  in  that  right  to 
eternal  life,  which  enters  into  the  nature  of  the  Gospel  remedy.  But 
it  has  been  asked,  with  regard  to  the  resurrection,  whether  the  same 
bodies  rise.  In  giving  the  answer,  we  are  obliged  to  resort  to  the 
principles  of  physiology,  and  soon  find  ourselves  entangled  in  a  dis- 
pute about  words,  upon  this  abstruse  and  undefinable  question  in  me- 
taphysics ;  what  is  the  principle  of  identity  in  a  substance  undergoing 
such  perpetual  changes  as  the  human  body  ?  A  question  has  also 
been  agitated,  with  regard  to  the  eternity  of  hell  torments.  That 
view  of  the  benevolence  of  the  divine  administration,  and  of  the  final 
efficac}'-  of  that  benevolence,  which  seems  to  be  implied  in  the  opi- 
nion that  hell  torments  are  not  eternal,  naturally  creates  a  prejudice 
in  favour  of  it.  But  in  speaking  of  the  extent  of  the  Gospel  remedy, 
I  stated  the  extreme  caution  with  which  we  ought  to  speculate  upon 
subjects  so  infinitely  removed  beyond  the  sphere  of  our  observation  ; 
and  the  only  thing  which  I  have  now  to  add  is,  that  the  Scriptures, 
by  applying  the  very  same  expression  to  the  happiness  of  the  righte- 
ous, and  the  punishment  of  the  wicked,  seem  to  teach  us  that  both 
are  of  equal  duration. 

Burnet. — Priestley. — Law. — Horsley. — Confession  of  Faith. — Marckii  Medulla. — Cal- 
vin's Institutes.     Seeker's  Lectures  on  the  Catechism,  and  Five  Sermons  against  Popery. 


4U 


BOOK  VI. 

OPINIONS   CONCERNING   CHURCH    GOVERNMENT. 


CHAPTER  I. 


FOUNDATION  OF  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT. 


The  followers  of  Jesus  are  united  by  the  mutual  consideration,  the 
tenderness  in  bearing  with  the  infirmities  of  others,  the  solicitude  to 
avoid  giving  offence,  the  care  to  make  their  light  to  shine  before  men, 
so  as  to  draw  them  to  the  practice  of  virtue,  and  the  brotherly  zeal 
in  admonishing  them  of  their  duty,  and  in  reproving  their  faults, 
which  flow  from  the  native  spirit  of  the  gospel,  which  form  the  sub- 
ject of  many  particular  precepts,  and  by  means  of  which  Christians 
are  said  to  '*  edify  one  another." 

But  their  union  is  produced  and  cemented,  not  only  by  those  affec- 
tions which  their  religion  cherishes,  but  also  by  their  joint  acknow- 
ledgment of  that  system  of  truth  which  it  reveals.  "  There  is  one 
body,  and  one  Spirit,  even  as  ye  are  called  in  one  hope  of  your  calling; 
one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,  one  God  and  Father  of  all."*  As 
the  public  worship  of  the  "  one  God  and  Father  of  all,"  who  is 
known  by  the  light  of  nature,  forms  one  of  the  duties  of  natural 
religion,  so  Christians,  who  by  bearing  that  name,  profess  to  believe 
in  the  person,  whose  interposition  has  opened  a  scheme  for  the  salva- 
tion of  sinners,  are  required  to  "  confess  him  before  men,"  and  by 
attending  certain  ordinances,  to  give  a  public  testimony  that  they 
entertain  the  sentiments  which  are  supposed  common  to  all  his 
disciples.  The  avowal  of  their  belief  of  that  system  of  truth,  which 
may  be  learned  from  the  revelation  received  by  them  as  divine,  is  not 
left  optional  to  Christians.  He  whom  they  acknowledge  as  their 
Master,  has  judged  it  proper  to  appoint  that  they  shall  solemnly  be 
admitted  amongst  the  number  of  his  disciples  by  baptism,  that  they 

683 
»  Eph.  iv.  4,  5,  6. 


684        rouNDATiox  of  church  government. 

shall  statedly  join  in  different  acts  of  worship  presented  to  the  Father 
in  his  name,  and  that  they  shall  declare  the  reverence  and  gratitude 
with  which  Ihey  receive  the  characteristical  doctrine  of  his  religion, 
the  redemption  of  the  world  through  his  blood,  by  partaking  frequent- 
ly of  the  Lord's  supper. 

If  the  whole  Christian  world  could  assemble  together  for  the 
purpose  of  observing  the  institutions  of  Christ,  they  would  form  one 
visible  society,  distinguished  from  the  rest  of  mankind,  and  united 
amongst  themselves,  by  employing  the  same  external  rites  as  expres- 
sions of  their  holding  the  same  truth.  It  was  not  the  intention  of  the 
author  of  the  gospel  that  this  visible  unity  of  the  Christian  society 
should  be  long  preserved,  because  his  religion  was  to  spread  rapidly 
throughout  the  world.  But  although,  from  the  earliest  times,  different 
assemblies  of  Christians  have,  of  necessity,  met  in  separate  places,  yet 
the  very  act  of  their  meeting,  proceeding  from  the  same  general 
principles,  and  being  directed  to  the  same  purpose,  is  such  an  expres- 
sion of  union,  as  their  distance  from  one  another  admits;  and  all  the 
assemblies  of  Christians  in  every  quarter  of  the  globe,  professing  to 
hold  "  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,"  and  to  worship  God  according  to 
the  appointment  of  Christ,  are  to  be  regarded  as  branches  of  what  has 
been  significantly  called  the  catholic  or  universal  church,  the  great 
society  of  the  followers  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  who  would  meet  together 
if  they  could. 

Separation  of  place,  which  the  propagation  of  Christianity  renders 
unavoidable,  has  conspired  with  other  causes  to  produce  an  apparent 
breach  of  the  unity  of  the  catholic  church.  Difierent  interpretations 
of  Scripture  have  led  to  an  opposition  amongst  Christians,  in  respect 
to  the  great  doctrines  of  the  gospel ;  different  opinions  as  to  the  mode 
of  worship,  and  the  manner  of  observing  the  rites  of  religion  have 
been  accompanied  by  corresponding  differences  in  practice  ;  and 
some  who  call  themselves  disciples  of  Christ  have  departed  so  far 
from  the  sentiments  generally  entertained  by  their  brethren,  as  to 
judge  all  rites  unnecessary. 

If  the  followers  of  Jesus  form  a  distinct  society,  and  are  bound  to 
profess  their  faith  by  the  observance  of  certain  institutions,  there  will 
probably  be  found  in  the  gospel  some  regulations  as  to  the  time  and 
manner  of  observing  them,  some  appointment  of  persons  to  administer 
them,  some  principles  of  order,  and  some  provision  of  authority  for 
guarding  the  honour  and  purity  of  the  Christian  association.  All  this 
flows  by  natural  consequence  from  the  general  idea  of  an  obligation 
upon  Christians  to  assemble  together,  for  the  purpose  of  professing 
their  faith  by  the  observance  of  certain  rites.  But  if  there  is  no  such 
obligation,  if  religion  is  merely  a  personal  concern,  and  all  the  inter- 
course of  a  Christian  with  his  Saviour  and  his  God  may  be  carried  on 
in  secret,  then  the  whole  idea  of  church-government  vanishes,  and 
the  followers  of  Christ,  as  such,  have  no  other  bond  of  connexion 
except  brotherly  love. 

The  first  point,  therefore,  to  which  our  attention  must  be  turned,  is 
an  inquiry  into  the  opinion  of  those  who  deny  the  perpetual  obliga- 
tion of  the  rites  observed  by  other  Christians,  that  we  may  thus 
ascertain  whether  we  are  warranted  by  Scripture  to  lay  the  founda- 
tion of  church-government,  in  its  being  the  duty  of  Christians  to 


FOUNDATION    OF    CHURCH    GOVERNMENT.  685 

assemble  together  for  tlie  observance  of  those  rites.  This  inquiry  is  a 
branch  of  the  first  general  head,  under  which  I  arrange  the  questions 
that  have  been  agitated  concerning  church-government.  They  respect 
either  the  persons  in  whom  church-government  is  vested,  or  the 
extent  of  power  which  the  lawful  exercise  of  church-government 
implies. 

King  on  the  Creed. 

Neale's  History  of  the  Puritans. 

Mailox  against  Neale. 

Potter  on  Church-Government. 

Rogers's  Visible  and  Invisible  Church. 

Rogers's  Civil  Establishment  of  Religion. 

Benson. 

Anderson  against  Rhynd. 

Stillingfleet's  Irenicum. 

Cyprianus  Isotimus,  by  Jamieson. 

Calvin's  Institutes. 

Burn's  Ecclesiastical  Law. 

Atterbury. 

Bennet  on  Convocations. 

Hooker's  Ecclesiastical  Polity. 

Divine  Right  of  Church  Government,  by  London  Ministers. 

King  on  the  Primitive  Church. 

Grey's  Abridgment  of  Gibson. 

Warburton. 

Wake. 

Sherlock  on  Jude,  3d  verse. 


60 


6S6  QUAKERS. 


CHAPTER  II. 


OPINIONS     CONCERNING     THE    PERSONS    IN    WHOM     CHURCH      GOVERN- 
MENT   IS    VESTED. 


The  different  opinions  respecting  the  persons  in  whom  church  go- 
vernment is  vested  will  be  brought  under  review,  by  attending  to  the 
systems  of  the  Quakers,  the  Independents,  the  church  of  Rome,  the 
Episcopalians,  and  the  Presbyterians. 


Section  I. 

QUAKERS. 

The  dangerous  and  delusive  spirit,  known  by  the  name  of  fanati- 
cism, was  the  principle  of  many  sects  which  appeared  after  the  Re- 
formation, particularly  of  some  of  the  rigid  separatists  from  the 
church  of  England  in  the  seventeenth  century.  It  continues  to  tinc- 
ture, more  or  less,  the  religious  system  of  many  individuals,  and  of 
different  bodies  of  men  :  but  the  Quakers  are  the  sect  best  known  in 
our  times,  who  profess  what  we  call  fanaticism  as  their  peculiar  tenet, 
and  who  follow  it  out  in  all  its  consequences.  It  is  the  character  of 
fanaticism  to  consider  the  revelation  of  the  words  and  actions  of 
Christ  contained  in  the  Scriptures,  and  all  the  ordinances  and  outward 
performances  there  prescribed,  as  of  very  inferior  value,  when  com- 
pared with  the  immediate  influence  exerted  by  the  Spirit  upon  the 
mind  of  the  individual.  It  is  conceived  that  this  inward  light  consti- 
tutes a  man  a  Christian,  even  although  he  has  not  the  knowledge  of 
the  truth  ;  that  he  is  to  feel  the  impulse  of  the  Spirit  in  all  the  impor- 
tant actions  of  his  life,  but  more  especially  in  the  worship  of  God ; 
and  that,  walking  continually  by  this  perfect  guidance,  he  would  be 
degraded  if  he  were  obliged  to  perform  any  external  action  in  a  cer- 
'  tain  manner. 

This  principle  easily  extends  its  influence,  both  to  the  positive  rites 
of  Christianity,  and  to'all  the  circumstances  that  attend  public  worship. 
The  Quakers  consider  baptism  and  the  Lord's  supper,  which  other 
Christians  think  themselves  obliged  to  observe,  merely  as  symbolical 
actions,  the  one  shadowing  forth  the  inward  purification  of  the  soul  ; 
the  other,  the  intimate  communion  which  Christians  enjoy  with 
Christ :  as  figures  for  the  time  then  present,  which  our  Lord,  in  ac- 
commodation to  the  weakness  of  those  with  whom  he  lived,  conde- 


QUAKERS.  687 

scended  to  use  before  the  age  of  the  Sphit  commenced  ;  but  as  become 
unnecessary  to  all  who  understand  the  genius  and  the  life  of  Christi- 
anity, since  the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost. In  like  manner,  fixed  times  for  the  worship  of  God,  stated 
prayer,  and  exhortations  given  by  certain  persons  at  certain  seasons, 
are  considered  as  intrusions  upon  the  office  of  the  Spirit,  and  are  con- 
demned as  implying  a  distrust  of  his  operations.  It  is  allowed  that 
Christians  ought  to  assemble  in  the  expectation  of  being  moved  by 
the  Spirit,  and  that  the  act  of  assembling  may  prepare  their  minds  for 
receiving  his  influence.  But  it  is  understood,  that  in  their  assemblies 
every  one  ought  to  speak  as  he  is  moved  by  the  Spirit ;  that  the  office 
of  prayer  and  exhortation  is  the  gift  of  the  Spirit ;  that  the  office  con- 
tinues during  his  operation  ;  that  it  comes  to  an  end  when  the  im- 
pulse is  exhausted  ;  and  that  any  person  who  prays  and  exhorts 
without  this  impulse  acts  presumptuously,  because  he  acts  without 
warrant.  From  these  principles  it  follows  that  an  order  of  men  in- 
vested with  the  character,  and  exercising  what  we  account  the  office, 
of  the  ministry,  is  not  only  unnecessary,  but  also  unlawful.  It  is  ob- 
vious too  that  these  principles  are  incompatible  with  a  regular  asso- 
ciation. For  although  Christians  who  hold  these  principles  may 
agree  as  to  the  time  and  place  of  meeting,  yet  as  often  as  the  inward 
monitor  speaks  to  any  of  them,  that  individual  is  set  above  the  con- 
trol of  his  brethren,  and  amongst  any  number  of  individuals  follow- 
ing out  these  principles  to  their  full  extent,  there  cannot  be  that 
subordination,  without  which  it  is  impossible  for  a  society  to  subsist. 
When  the  Quakers  first  appeared  in  the  seventeenth  century,  they 
avowed,  without  disguise,  the  principles  which  have  now  been 
stated.  They  declaimed  with  violence  against  the  office  of  the  minis- 
try as  sinful ;  and  in  that  fervour  of  spirit  which  was  cherished,  partly 
by  the  novelty  of  their  doctrine,  and  partly  by  the  troubled  state 
of  the  times,  they  committed  various  outrages  against  those  as- 
semblies of  Christians,  who  performed  the  stated  services  of  re- 
ligion under  the  direction  of  fixed  pastors.  The  experience  of  that 
punishment,  whicli  must  always  be  inflicted  upon  those  who  dis- 
turb the  tranquillity  of  others,  soon  taught  the  Quakers  great  cir- 
cumspection of  conduct ;  and  the  abilities  of  some  men  of  learning 
and  of  extensive  views,  who  early  embraced  this  persuasion,  gave 
their  religious  system  a  more  plausible  form,  than  it  seemed  at  first 
capable  of  admitting.  Barclay's  Apology,  published  in  Latin,  in 
1675,  is  a  well-digested  exposition  of  fifteen  theses,  which  contain 
what  he  calls  the  true  Christian  theology.  It  is  properly  termed  an 
apology ;  for,  while  it  throws  into  the  shade  the  most  obnoxious 
tenets  of  the  Quakers,  it  presents  all  that  it  does  publish  in  the  most 
favourable  light,  and  with  much  art  and  ingenuity  it  attempts  to  give 
a  rational  vindication  of  a  system,  which  disclaims  the  use  of  reason. 
Barclay's  Apology  is  the  ostensible  creed  of  the  Quakers  ;  and,  hi  the 
spirit  which  dictated  that  book,  they  have,  for  more  than  a  century, 
been  accommodating  their  principles  to  the  spirit  of  the  times. 
While  they  have  insured  the  protection  of  government,  and  obtained 
the  most  indulgent  condescension  to  all  their  scruples,  by  uniformly 
distinguishing  themselves  as  orderly  and  peaceable  citizens,  they  have 
adopted  many  internal  regulations  which  are  fitted  to  preserve  their 


688  QUAKERS. 

existence  as  a  peculiar  sect.  There  are,  in  every  particular  meeting, 
two  or  three  of  the  gravest  and  most  respectable  men,  who,  under  the 
name  of  elders,  are  invested  with  a  degree  of  authority,  whose  cha- 
racter claims  a  kind  of  subjection  from  the  brethren,  who  occasionally 
admonish  or  reprove,  and  who  even  address  a  word  of  exhortation  to 
those  meetings,  in  which  none  of  the  brethren  finds  himself  moved  to 
speak.  There  are  monthly  meetings  of  the  congregations  in  a  parti- 
cular district,  and  quarterly  meetings  of  a  larger  district ;  and  there 
is  an  annual  meeting  in  London  at  Whitsuntide,  to  which  represen- 
tatives are  sent  from  all  parts  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland, 
which  receives  appeals  from  the  inferior  meetings,  and  which  issues 
an  epistle  addressed  to  the  brethren  in  all  the  three  kingdoms,  and  con- 
taining general  advice,  or  such  particular  directions  as  circumstances 
may  seem  to  require.  Here  then  is  a  great  political  association  ;  here 
are  office-bearers,  a  subordination  of  courts,  and  a  supreme  executive 
authority ;  and  although  the  power,  both  of  the  office-bearers  and  of 
the  courts,  is  avowedly  very  limited,  yet  it  proceeds  so  far  as  to  deny, 
i.  e.  to  exclude  from  the  society,  disorderly  walkers, — those  who  are 
either  contumacious,  or  whose  conduct,  in  the  transactions  of  civil 
life,  is  such  as  to  bring  disgrace  upon  the  society  ;  so  that,  in  effect, 
it  is  all  the  power  which  any  society  purely  ecclesiastical  has  a  title 
to  exercise. 

But  although  a  regard  to  their  own  safety,  and  the  ascendant  ac- 
quired at  different  times  by  the  wealth,  the  talents,  or  the  virtues  of 
leading  men  of  the  persuasion,  have  formed  the  Quakers  into  a  great 
political  association,  it  is  manifest  that  their  religious  principles  have 
no  tendency  to  keep  them  united.  To  Christians  who  consider  a 
standing  ministry  as  useless  and  unlawful,  and  who  understand  that 
every  man  is  to  be  guided  in  the  worship  of  God  purely  by  the  im- 
pulses which  he  feels,  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  church  govern- 
ment properly  so  called  ;  and  the  regulations  now  stated  have  been 
adopted  as  a  counterbalance  to  the  disunion  and  disorder,  which  are 
the  natural  consequences  of  this  defect. 

That  we  may  not  then  regard  the  description  of  persons  invested 
with  churcli  government,  concerning  which  the  Christian  world  has 
entertained  various  opinions,  and  all  the  powers  which  these  persons 
claim,  as  merely  a  human  invention,  it  is  of  importance,  before  we 
proceed  further  in  this  discussion,  to  satisfy  ourselves  that  that  annihi- 
lation of  church  government,  which  results  from  the  tenets  of  the 
Quakers,  is  not  countenanced  by  Scripture. 

The  principles  of  fanaticism  are  repugnant  not  only  to  the  system 
of  those,  who  consider  the  natural  powers  of  man  as  sufficient  for  the 
discharge  of  his  duty,  but  also  to  the  system  of  those,  who  believe 
that  the  operation  of  the  Spirit  is  essentially  necessary  for  the  con- 
version and  the  final  salvation  of  a  sinner.  The  great  body  of  Chris- 
tians, who  hold  that  system,  conceive  that  the  operation  of  the  Spirit 
is  conveyed  to  the  soul  by  the  use  of  means.  They  consider  the 
Scriptures  as  a  complete  unchangeable  rule  of  faith  and  practice,  and 
the  ordinances  of  religion  as  perpetual  institutions  to  be  observed  by 
all  Christians,  according  to  the  directions  of  their  master  ;  and,  far 
from  thinking  that  these  means  are  superseded  by  the  grace  given  to 


QUAKERS.  689 

any  individual,  they  understand  that  this  grace  only  enables  him,  in 
the  diligent  use  of  the  Scriptures,  and  of  the  positive  rites  of  religion, 
to  attain  the  "  end  of  his  faith,  even  the  salvation  of  his  soul." 

This  opinion,  with  regard  to  the  manner  of  the  operation  of  the 
Spirit,  appears  from  the  statement  of  it,  to  be  sound  and  rational  and 
agreeable  to  the  constitution  of  man.  It  implies  that  there  is  an 
orderly  method  of  administering  the  rites  of  Christianity  ;  and  as  the 
method  cannot  continue  orderly  unless  there  are  certain  persons  to 
whom  this  oftice  is  committed,  the  existence  of  such  a  description  of 
persons  is  a  consequence  which  seems  fairly  to  result  from  the  opinion. 
When  we  proceed  to  try  our  conclusions  upon  this  subject  by  their 
conformity  with  Scripture,  the  consequence  now  mentioned,  as  well 
as  the  opinion  from  which  we  deduced  it,  is  found  to  receive  every 
kind  of  confirmation. 

Those  whom  the  Scriptures  suppose  to  be  led  by  the  Spirit  are 
there  addressed  as  in  the  full  possession  of  reason,  and  in  the  habitual 
use  of  certain  means.  Our  Lord,  by  choosing  apostles,  and  sending 
them  forth  to  make  disciples  of  all  nations,  intimated  that  he  was  to 
employ  in  the  conversion  of  the  \vorld,  not  merely  an  immediate 
illapse  of  the  Spirit,  but  also  the  ministration  of  men  holding  and 
exercising  an  office.  Of  the  three  thousand,  who  were  added  to  the 
church  immediately  after  the  extraordinary  efl'usion  of  the  gifts  of  the 
Spirit  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  it  is  said.  Acts  ii.  42,  r,iw  x^oaxa^re^uvtra 
tri  hihaxvi  tui/  artodroXur,  i.  e.  they  Continued  to  listen  to  the  teaching  of 
the  apostles.  Paul  gives  Titus  a  charge  to  ordain  elders  in  every 
city  ;*  the  office-bearers  of  different  churches  are  occasionally  men- 
tioned ;  and  a  considerable  part  of  the  first  epistle  to  the  Corinthians 
is  intended  to  apply  a  remedy  to  the  disorders,  which  the  abundance 
of  spiritual  gifts  had  occasioned  in  that  church.  For  this  purpose  tlie 
apostle  declares  that  ail  those  gifts  were  distributed  for  the  edification 
of  the  church;  and  he  delivers  this  general  ru!r,  1  Cor.  xiv.  32,  o'.i ; 
"  And  Ihe  spirits  of  the  prophets  are  subject  to  the  prophets.  For  ( 
God  is  not  the  author  of  confusion,  but  of  peace,  as  in  all  churches  of 
the  saints  :"  a  rule  which,  when  taken  in  conjunction  with  the  occa- 
sion upon  which  it  was  delivered,  and  the  reason  upon  which  it  is 
grounded,  seemsintended  to  furnish  a  perpetual  preservative  against 
that  very  confusion,  which  the  Quakers  experienced  as  soon  as  they 
presumed  to  disregard  it,  by  exalting  the  exercise  of  the  supposed 
gifts  of  individuals,  above  the  ordinary  performances  of  a  standing 
m.inistry.  When  they  considered  the  spirits  of  the  prophets  as  not 
subject  to  the  prophets,  the  peace  of  their  society  was  continually 
disturbed  ;  and  many  of  the  regulations  adopted  in  their  political 
association  were  meant  to  apply  a  remedy  to  the  disorder  that  was 
thus  introduced. 

There  is  no  promise  in  Scripture  of  any  future  age  like  that  which 
ushered  Christianity  into  the  u'orld ;  and  if  stated  teachers  were 
required  even  in  that  first  age,  which  may  be  called  the  age  of  the 
Spirit,  because  his  operations  were  then  visible  in  many  that  believed, 
it  should  seem  that  they  will  be  more  necessary  in  all  succeeding 
ages,  when  his  extraordinary  gifts  are  withdrawn,  and  when,  not- 

»  Titus  i.  5. 

60*  4  X 


690  QUAKERS. 

withstanding  the  pretensions  of  the  early  Quakers,  or  of  the  multi- 
farious sects  in  modern  times,  founded  on  the  principles  of  fanaticism, 
Christians  have  no  warrant  from  Scripture  to  expect  any  other,  than 
that  continued  influence  of  the  Spirit  by  which  he  "  helpeth  our  in- 
firmities." It  cannot  be  said  that  the  office  of  a  standing  ministry, 
although  fitly  vested  in  the  apostles,  was  meant  to  expire  with  them ; 
for  they  committed  "  the  form  of  sound  words,"  which  they  had 
taught,  to  "faithful  men,  able  to  teach  others  also;"*  and  to  these  men 
they  appear  to  have  conveyed  part,  at  least, of  the  powers  which  they 
derived  from  their  master.  The  epistle  to  the  Phihppians  is  addressed, 
"  to  all  the  saints  at  Philippi,  with  the  bishops  and  deacons."!  Peter 
thus  exhorts  "  the  elders ;  feed  the  flock  of  God  which  is  among  you, 
taking  the  oversight  thereof."!  -'■"  other  epistles  Christians  are  com- 
manded "  to  esteem  those  that  are  over  them  in  the  Lord,"  and  to 
''' obey  them  that  have  the  rule  over  them,  and  that  watch  for  their 
souls."§  The  epistles  to  Timothy  and  Titus  direct  them  in  the  exer- 
cise of  that  authority  which  they  had  received,  and  mention  office- 
bearers of  different  ranks  in  the  Christian  society,  vested  with  special 
powers.  In  the  book  of  the  Revelation  there  are  letters  to  the  seven 
churches  of  Asia,  i.  e.  to  regular  Christian  associations  then  formed  in 
seven  different  cities  of  Asia  Minor ;  and  the  letters  are  addressed, 
not  to  the  churches,  although  they  contain  much  general  exhortation, 
but  to  the  angels,  or  ministers  of  the  churches  ;  which  is  a  proof,  that 
in  every  church  there  was  a  person  distinguished  from  the  rest,  and 
qualified  by  his  station  to  distribute  the  exhortations  with  effect. 

There  is  one  place  in  the  New  Testament,  where  we  can  trace  the 
succession  of  Christian  teachers  beyond  the  immediate  successors  of 
the  apostles.  If  you  compare  the  7th  and  17th  verses  of  Hebrews 
xiii.  you  will  find  that  the  apostle  speaks  in  the  7th  verse  of  persons 
then  deceased,  who  had  had  the  rule  over  the  Hebrews,  and  had  spoken 
to  them  the  word  of  God  ;  and  in  the  17th  verse  of  persons  then  alive, 
who  had  the  rule  over  them,  and  were  at  that  time  watching  for  their 
souls  :  so  that  the  Hebrews,  after  having  been  illuminated  by  the 
apostles,  and  confirmed  in  the  faith  by  a  second  set  of  teachers,  were 
enjoying  the  ministrations  of  a  third.  The  succession,  which  we  are 
thus  able  to  trace  in  Scripture,  is  agreeable  to  the  promise  which  our 
Lord  made  to  his  apostles  when  he  left  them  :  xm  tSov,  syw  jus9'  i^wv  st/a 
7ta.saii!a.^  r2fji.i^a.t.,i<^ii;rii  6vvfi%'cia.i-eovm,u>voi'  The  duration  of  the  promise 
was  not  exhausted  by  the  time  during  which  the  apostles  abode  upon 
earth,  but  reaches  to  the  end  of  that  age  which  the  Messiah  intro- 
duced ;  and  therefore  the  promise  must  be  understood  as  conveying 
an  assurance  of  the  presence  of  Jesus  with  those,  who,  in  all  the 
periods  of  that  age,  succeed  to  the  office  of  the  apostles. 

The  same  idea  of  the  perpetuity  of  the  office  of  the  ministry  is 
expressed  by  Paul  in  a  remarkable  passage,  Eph.  iv.  11,  12,  13.  He 
had  mentioned  the  gifts  which  Christ,  when  he  ascended,  received  for 
men,  and  which  he  distributes  to  every  one  as  he  will.  He  states,  as 
one  immediate  end  attained  by  the  distribution  of  the  gifts,  Ttcoitov 
}cata.^tiafibv  tuv  ayiMi^,  ftj  f^yop  Staxowaj.     But  this  work,  being,  as  the  name 

*  2  Tim.  ii.  2.  f  Phil.  i.  1.  ^  I  Pet.  v.  1,  2. 

§  1  Thcs.  V.  12,  13.     Heb.  xiii.  17. 


INDEPENDENTS.  691 

implies,  ministerial,  or  subservient  to  a  higher  end,  must  continue  till 
that  end  be  attained.  The  liigher  end  is,  the  unity  in  faith,  and  the 
perfection  in  virtue,  of  all  the  elect  of  God  ;  an  end  which  the  dispen- 
sations of  providence  and  grace  are  carrying  forward,  but  which,  in 
the  nature  of  things,  cannot  be  accomplished  during  this  state  of  trial. 
From  the  apostle,  then,  we  learn,  that  till  the  end  of  the  world,  the 
work  of  the  ministry  is  to  continue,  as  we  had  learned  from  the  pro- 
mise of  Jesus,  that  till  the  end  of  the  world  he  is  to  be  with  those  who 
are  employed  in  that  work. 

These  are  the  heads  of  argument  which  the  members  of  the  church 
of  Rome,  and  of  the  Episcopal  and  Presbyterian  churches  agree  in 
opposing  to  the  presumptuous  conclusion,  by  which  a  spirit  of  fana- 
ticism would  represent  the  offices  of  a  standing  ministry  as  useless  ; 
and  the  consent  of  the  great  body  of  Christians  in  the  use  of  these 
arguments  may  encourage  us  to  assume  in  the  beginning  of  this 
discussion,  as  an  established  point,  that  the  general  idea  of  church 
government,  and  the  existence  of  a  particular  description  of  men 
invested  with  that  kind  of  rule  which  church  government  implies,  are 
agreeable  to  Scripture. 


Section  II. 

INDEPENDENTS. 

The  opinion  which  falls  naturally  to  be  stated  in  the  second  place, 
concerning  the  description  of  persons  invested  with  church  govern- 
ment, is  that  which  was  held  by  the  Independents  of  the  seventeenth 
century. 

Robinson,  the  author  of  the  sect  to  which  this  name  properly 
belongs,  had  been  educated  in  that  presumptuous  fanaticism,  which 
regards  the  office  of  a  standing  ministry  as  useless.  But  conviction 
or  expediency  led  him  to  adopt  a  more  moderate  opinion  with  regard 
to  church  government ;  and  that  opinion,  after  being  improved  and 
digested  for  a  course  of  years,  was  published  in  1658,  in  the  declara- 
tion of  their  faith,  then  emitted  by  the  Independent  congregations  in 
England.  The  leading  principle  of  their  system  is  thus  expressed  by 
themselves.  "  Every  particular  society  of  visible  professors,  agree- 
ing to  walk  together  in  the  faith  and  order  of  the  gospel,  is  a  complete 
church,  and  has  full  power  within  itself  to  elect  and  ordain  all  church 
officers,  to  exclude  all  offenders,  and  to  do  all  other  acts  relating  to 
the  edification  and  well-being  of  the  church."* 

According  to  this  fundamental  principle  it  is  understood  by  the 
Independents  that  any  number  of  Christians,  whom  neighbourhood 
.'and  agreement  in  opinion  as  to  the  great  doctrines  of  the  gospel  lead 
to  assemble  for  public  worship  in  the  same  place,  possess  within  them- 
selves all  the  power  that  is  implied  under  the  notion  of  church 
government.  The  whole  body  retains,  in  its  own  hands,  the  power 
of  admitting  and  excluding  members  ;  but  for  the  orderly  admuiistra- 

•  Nealc,  iv.  164^ 


692  INDEPENDENTS. 

tion  of  the  sacraments,  and  the  regular  performance  of  various  offices 
that  may  minister  to  edification,  the  whole  body  sets  apart  with 
rehgious  solemnity,  certain  persons  under  the  name  of  pastors, 
teacliers,  or  elders,  who  derive  their  title  to  act  in  that  capacity  solely 
from  tlie  nomination  of  the  society,  and  who,  in  virtue  of  that 
nomination,  are  the  only  persons  entitled  to  perform  within  that 
society  the  acts  connected  with  their  character.  As  every  assembly 
of  Christians  is  conceived  to  be  a  complete  church,  immediately  under 
Christ,  and  independent  of  all  other  churches,  those  who  adopted  this 
scheme  were  originally  called  Independents;  but  as  that  name  came 
to  be  employed  in  a  political  sense,  and  was  applied,  during  the 
commotions  of  the  seventeenth  century,  to  many  who  entertained 
principles  hostile  to  civil  government,  those  who  wished  to  hold  them- 
selves forth  as  peaceable  subjects  of  the  powers  that  were,  and  as 
distinguished  from  other  Christians,  merely  by  their  peculiar  notions 
of  church  government,  chose  rather  to  take  the  name  of  Congrega- 
tional Brethren,  The  name  implies  all  that  is  meant  by  the  word 
Independents,  when  used  in  an  ecclesiastical  sense,  and  marks  this  as 
their  principle,  that  every  separate  congregation  lias  all  the  powers 
of  church  government,  of  which  it  delegates  such  portion  as  it  pleases 
to  its  own  officers. 

This  principle  is  held  with  different  modifications  by  several  of  the 
more  recent  sects  which  have  arisen  in  Scotland,  and  by  a  considera- 
ble part  of  the  English  dissenters.  From  peculiar  tenets  they  may 
be  known  by  other  names,  but  in  church  government  they  are  Inde- 
pendents;  and  although  the  spirit  of  the  constitution  of  the  two 
established  churches  in  Britain  is  most  opposite  to  Independency,  yet 
some  approach  to  it  may  often  be  discerned  in  the  sentiments,  and  the 
conduct,  of  many  individual  members  of  both  churches.  Indeed  it 
appears  to  me  the  prevailing  error  of  the  times  in  relation  to  church 
government, — the  opinion  which,  without  due  care  in  fortifying  the 
mind,  there  is  the  greatest  danger  of  imbibing. 

In  order  to  prove  their  fundamental  principle  the  Independents  at- 
tempt to  show,  that  all  the  churches  mentioned  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment were  single  congregations  which  met  in  o]ie  place.  But  you 
will  probably  be  satisfied  that  they  fail  in  the  attempt.  The  labours 
of  the  apostles  in  planting  the  four  principal  churches  that  are  spoken 
of  in  the  book  of  Acts,  Jerusalem,  Corinth,  Antioch,  and  Ephesus, 
the  success  of  their  labours,  and  the  number  of  teachers  and  prophets 
who  ministered  under  the  apostles  to  a  multitude  of  believers,  are 
mentioned  in  such  terms  as  render  it  impossible  for  us  to  suppose, 
that  all  the  Christians  in  any  of  the  four  cities  could  assemlile  to- 
gether; more  especially  when  we  consider  that  the  Christians  were 
not  at  that  time  in  possession  of  any  public  places  of  worship,  and 
that  they  would  be  solicitous  to  avoid  any  ostentation  of  their  num- 
ber, because  their  meetings,  instead  of  being  authorised  by  the  laws 
of  the  state,  were  obnoxious  to  the  magistrate.  Yet  the  different 
congregations,  into  which  the  Christians  of  every  one  of  these  four 
cities  were  from  necessity  divided,  are  spoken  of  in  the  new  Testa- 
ment as  one  body.  For  although  the  separate  associations  of  Chris- 
tians in  different  provinces  are  thus  designed,  "  the  churches  through- 


INDEPENDENTS.  693 

out  all  Judea,  and  Galilee,  and  Samaria,"*  the  plural  is  never  ap- 
plied to  the  Christians  of  one  city,  but  we  read  of  "  the  churcli  which 
was  in  Jerusalem,  the  church  at  Corinth,  the  churcli  at  Antioch,  the 
churcli  at  Ephcsus  ;"  so  that  whatever  was  the  bond  of  union  among 
the  different  congregations  of  one  city,  the  apostles  seem  to  have  con- 
sidered them  as  constituting  one  church. 

But  even  although  we  should  allow  the  Independents  the  propo- 
sition which  they  attempt  to  prove,  it  does  not  appear  that  they 
would  gahi  much.  If,  in  the  times  of  which  the  book  of  Acts  gives 
the  history,  all  the  Christians  of  every  city  might  conveniently  assem- 
ble for  worship  in  one  place,  such  regulations  as  suited  this  scanty 
number  could  not  be  a  proper  pattern  for  after-times,  when  Chris- 
tians multiplied  beyond  the  possibility  of  meeting  together  :  and  if  in 
the  one  congregation  which  was  formed  at  first,  many  individuals 
and  many  families  were  united  by  their  common  faith  under  one  go- 
vernment, this  early  union,  which  was  all  that  the  circumstances  of 
the  case  required,  is  very  far  from  implying  any  condemnation  of 
that  future  union  of  different  congregations,  which  their  vicinity 
might  prompt. 

The  state  of  the  congregations  described  in  the  New  Testament 
not  furnishing  Scripture-authority,  or,  what  was  called  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  a  divine  right  for  the  Independent  form  of  govern- 
ment, the  plea  of  authority  must  be  set  aside,  and  we  are  left  to  try 
the  fundamental  principle  of  this  form  by  those  general  maxims, 
which  are  founded  in  reason  and  Scripture. 

In  appreciating  its  merits,  there  are  three  concessions  which  will  be 
readily  made  by  every  impartial  examiner. 

1.  We  admit  that  the  Independent  form  of  government  is  very 
much  superior  to  the  presumptuous,  unconnected  spirit  of  fanaticism  : 
for  it  implies  tiie  perpetual  obligation  of  the  positive  rites  of  Christia- 
nity ;  it  provides,  by  the  appointment  of  a  particular  order  of  men, 
for  their  being  regularly  administered  ;  and  it  exhibits  not  a  political 
association,  but  an  ecclesiastical  society  possessing  and  exerting  the 
powers,  which  it  believes  to  be  founded  in  the  institution  of  Christ, 
and  which  it  considers  as  necessary  for  its  preservation. 

2.  We  admit  that  church  government  was  instituted,  not  for  the 
aggrandizement  of  any  order  of  men,  but  for  the  edification  of  the 
people.  If  the  form  of  government  adopted  by  the  Independents  is 
radically  defective,  the  defect  does  not  lie  in  their  mistaking  the  ob- 
ject of  church  power,  but  in  their  confounding  the  source  from  which 
it  riows,  with  the  purpose  for  which  it  is  conferred.  They  were  led 
into  the  mistake  by  their  experience  of  what  they  considered  as 
abuses  of  church  power,  what  they  accounted  acts  of  oppression  and 
invasions  of  rights  of  conscience,  under  the  ecclesiastical  government 
of  men  who  professed  to  derive  their  power  from  a  higher  source  ; 
and  they  thought  that  they  should  effectually  guard  against  the  in- 
troduction of  such  abuses  in  the  separate  societies  which  they  formed, 
by  declaring  as  their  fundamental  principle,  that  the  power,  which 
was  to  be  exerted  for  their  edification,  resided  originally  in  them- 
selves, and  was  delegated  by  them  to  their  own  officers. 

*  Acts  ix.  31. 


694  INDEPENDENTS. 

3.  We  admit  that  cases  may  occur  where  the  principles  of  Inde- 
pendents must  be  followed  out  in  practice.  If  a  body  of  Ciiristians 
were,  by  any  calamity,  placed  for  a  length  of  time  in  such  a  situation, 
that  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  obtain  the  ministrations  of  a  per- 
son regularly  invested  with  the  pastoral  character, — placed  in  an 
island  without  a  pastor,  and  separated  from  all  other  Christian  socie- 
ties, it  would  still  continue  their  duty  to  join  in  the  worship  of  God, 
and  to  celebrate  the  rites  of  Christianity  :  but  that  these  services 
might  be  performed  in  a  manner  the  most  orderly,  and  the  most 
agreeable  to  the  institution  of  Christ  which  circumstances  permitted, 
it  would  also  be  their  duty  to  call  from  among  themselves  the  per- 
sons whom  they  thought  best  qualified  to  preside  in  the  public  wor- 
ship, and  to  administer  the  rites ;  and  it  is  not  to  be  doubted  that  the 
blessing  of  God  would  supply  the  unavoidable  defect. 

But  even  after  these  three  concessions  are  made,  the  Independent 
form  of  goverinnent  remains  liable  to  strong  objections,  in  respect 
both  of  the  mode  of  appointment  to  the  office  of  the  ministry  which 
it  enacts,  and  of  the  disunion  of  the  Christian  society  which  it  implies. 

In  illustrating  these  two  objections,  which  are  intimately  connected 
toorether,  I  shall  state  the  substance  of  the  treatises  written  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  in  opposition  to  the  congregational  brethren. 

I.  This  method  of  conveying  the  office  of  the  ministry  by  the  act 
of  the  people  not  only  is  destitute  of  the  authority  of  any  example  in 
the  New  Testament,  but  is  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  all  the  directions 
there  given  upon  that  subject.  Our  Lord  chose  men  to  be  apostles, 
endowed  them  with  the  necessary  qualifications,  and  then  gave  them 
a  commission  to  preach  and  to  baptize.  We  read  in  the  short  history 
of  their  progress,  that  they  ordained  elders  in  the  churches.  Paul 
speaks  to  Timothy  of  "  the  gift  which  is  in  thee,  by  the  putting  on  of 
my  hands,  of  the  gift  which  was  given  thee  by  prophecy,  with  the 
laying  on  of  the  hands  of  the  presbyter  :"*  he  says  to  Titus,  "  for 
this  cause,  left  I  thee  in  Crete,  that  thou  shouldst  ordain  elders  in 
every  city,  as  I  had  appointed  thee  ;"t  and  he  enjoins  Timothy  to 
"  lay  hands  suddenly  on  no  man. "J  These  passages,  when  taken 
together,  seem  to  imply  that  the  office  of  the  ministry,  which  Timo- 
thy and  Titus  had  received  from  Paul,  and  other  office-bearers  joined 
with  him,  was  with  like  solemn  imposition  of  hands  to  be  conveyed 
by  them  to  others.  It  is  true  that  in  Acts  vi.  the  apostles  desire  the 
multitude  of  the  disciples  to  look  out  among  them  seven  men  of 
honest  report  to  superintend,  with  the  name  of  deacons,  the  daily  mi- 
nistration of  their  charity.  But  although  there  was  a  manifest  pro- 
priety in  desiring  the  people  to  propose  the  persons,  whom  they 
judged  worthy  of  being  intrusted  with  the  distribution  of  their  charity, 
yet  the  men  thus  nominated  did  not  begin  the  distribution  till  they 
received  from  the  apostles  a  solemn  appointment ;  and  with  regard 
to  those  offices  in  the  church  which  were  not,  like  the  office  of  dea- 
cons, chiefly  secular,  but  which  implied  the  exercise  of  spiritual  au- 
thority, there  is  not  any  passage,  which,  when  fairly  examined,  will 
be  found  to  intimate  that  it  was  conferred  by  the  act  of  the  people. 

*   1  Tim.  iv.  14.    2  Tim.  i.  6.  -J-  Titus  i.  5. 

+  1  Tim.  V.  23. 


INDEPENDENTS.  695 

One  passage  which  is  chiefly  rcHed  on  as  giving  countenance  to  Inde- 
pendency is  Acts  xiv.  23  ;   a:f''C"*'o'''?''<^»''^'«  ^^auToij  ft^caSiti^ovs  xat'  cxx\riaiav. 

But  besides  tliat  x^'-Co'^ofnv,  before  the  time  of  Luke,  was  used  for  sim- 
ple designation,  without  tlie  exercise  of  suffrage,  as  is  plain  from  his 
own  expression,  Acts  x.  41,  it  is  applied  in  this  passage,  not  to  the 
people,  but  to  Paul  and  Barnabas,  so  that  whatever  be  the  meaning 
of  the  word,  it  can  only  be  considered  as  making  known  the  part, 
which  these  disciples  took  in  the  appointment  of  elders. 

Accordingly  the  qualifications  of  those  who  were  to  be  made 
bishops,  and  elders,  and  deacons,  are  mentioned,  not  in  epistles  to  the 
churches,  but  in  epistles  to  Timothy  and  Titus,  who  are  directed  to 
the  proper  method  of  trying  such  as  might  be  admitted  to  take  part 
with  them  in  overseeing  the  church  of  God.  The  judgment  of  the 
quaUfications  is  vested  in  those  who,  having  been  themselves  found 
qualified,  may  be  supposed  capable  of  trying  others;  their  act,  follow- 
ing upon  their  approbation,  is  the  solemn  investiture  of  those  whom 
they  have  found  worthy  ;  and  they  are  the  instruments  by  v/hich 
Jesus  Cin-ist  conveys  to  that  order  of  men,  which  he  meant  to  con- 
tinue in  his  church  till  the  end  of  the  Vv^orld,  the  authority  implied  in 
the  exercise  of  their  oflice. 

II.  The  second  great  objection  to  the  Independent  form  of  govern- 
ment is  the  disunion  of  the  Christian  society  which  it  implies.  It  con- 
siders the  followers  of  Jesus  as  constituting  so  many  separate  associa- 
tions, every  one  of  which  cares  for  itself,  is  complete  within  itself,  and 
has  only  a  casual  connexion  with  others.  If,  therefore,  in  the  exer- 
cise of  the  separate  authority  of  any  congregation,  wrong  be  done  to 
an  individual,  he  is  left,  while  he  remains  a  member  of  that  congrega- 
tion, without  the  possibility  of  redress ;  and  if  neighbouring  associa- 
tions should  quarrel,  which,  considering  the  caprice  and  violence  of 
human  passions,  is  perliaps  not  much  less  likely  than  that  they  will 
live  in  peace,  no  method  is  provided  for  terminating  their  dissensions, 
or  for  preserving,  amidst  these  dissensions,  the  continuance  of  their 
agreement  in  any  common  principles.  But  this  is  directly  opposite 
to  the  Scripture  idea  of  the  Christian  society,  or  Catholic  church, 
which  is  represented  as  "one  body,"  professing  one  faith,  separated, 
indeed,  by  the  necessity  of  circumstances  into  associations  meeting  in 
different  places,  but  retaining  amidst  this  separation  all  the  unity 
which  is  possible.  To  this  Catholic  church,  founded  by  the  labours 
of  the  apostles,  spread  in  idolatrous  nations  by  the  preaching  of  those 
whom  the  apostles  ordained,  and  still  maintained  and  extended  in  the 
world  by  the  ministrations  of  all  the  servants  of  Christ,  the  promises 
are  made :  for  its  gifts  continue  to  be  distributed  ;  and  the  rites,  which 
the  great  body  of  Christians  agree  in  celebrating,  are  tlvo  rites  not  of 
this  or  that  association,  but  of  the  church  of  Christ,  A  person  must 
receive  baptism  from  a  particular  association  ;  but,  by  being  baptized, 
he  becomes  a  member  of  the  great  society  ;  or,  in  the  language  of  the 
book  of  Acts,  "  he  is  added  to  the  church."  He  must  join  in  the 
Lord's  Supper  with  a  particular  body  of  Christians ;  but  by  eating 
that  one  bread,  and  drinking  that  one  cup,  he  holds  communion  with 
all  in  every  place,  who  "  show  the  Lord's  death."  When  he  forfeits, 
by  his  own  fault,  his  right  to  be  numbered  amongst  that  body  of 
Christians  with  whom  he  formerly  associated,  he  ceases  to  be  a  mem- 


696  INDEPENDENTS. 

ber  of  the  Catholic  church :  and  he  remains  without  the  church,  till 
he  be  found  worthy  of  being  re-admitted  by  those  who  had  excluded 
him. 

According  to  these  views,  the  different  meetings  of  Christians  are 
branches  of  one  society,  united  as  parts  of  a  whole  ;  and  the  first 
thing  which  enters  into  our  conception  is  the  whole,  while  the  cir- 
cumstances, which  rendered  it  necessary  for  this  whole  to  be  divided, 
are  a  matter  only  of  secondary  consideration.  When,  therefore,  in 
our  speculations  concerning  that  government  which  "  God  hath  set  in 
the  church,"  we  begin  with  considering  government  in  reference  to 
the  whole,  and  from  thence  descend  to  the  several  divisions,  we  fol- 
low the  order  of  nature.  Whereas,  if,  like  the  Independents,  we  con- 
fine our  attention  to  the  divisions,  we  lose  sight  of  the  unity  of  that 
which  is  divided  ;  and,  as  we  invert  the  process  by  which  the  society 
that  we  analyze  was  constituted  and  enlarged,  we  shall  probably 
arrive  at  conclusions  unfounded  in  fact,  and  very  remote  from  the 
intention  of  the  Author  of  the  society. 

If  every  association  of  Christians  be  viewed  as  independent  of  every 
other,  it  will  unavoidably  follow  that  ordination  is  the  act  of  the 
people ;  for  whence  is  a  separate  unconnected  body  of  Christians  to 
receive  a  pastor,  unless  from  their  own  nomination  ?  But  if  we  pre- 
serve the  view  of  a  great  society  divided, into  many  branches,  then  it 
follows,  that  in  the  same  manner  as  every  one  who  is  baptized 
becomes  a  member  of  the  Catholic  church,  so  every  one  who  is 
ordained,  by  the  laying  on  of  hands  of  the  office-bearers  of  the  church, 
becomes  a  minister  of  the  church  universal.  He  is  invested  with  that 
character,  in  a  manner  the  most  agreeable  to  the  example  and  the 
directions  contained  in  the  New  Testament ;  and  by  this  investiture 
he  receives  authority  to  perform  all  the  acts  belonging  to  the  character. 
He  cannot  perform  these  acts  to  the  church  universal,  because  it  is 
nowhere  assembled ;  and  the  separation  of  the  church  universal 
renders  it  expedient,  that  the  place  in  which  he  is  to  perform  them 
shall  be  marked  out  to  him.  But  this  assignation  of  place  is  merely 
a  matter  of  order,  which  is  not  essential  to  his  character,  which  does 
not  detract  from  the  powers  implied  in  his  character,  and  which  serves 
no  other  purpose  than  to  specify  the  bounds  in  which  the  church 
universal,  by  the  hands  of  whose  ministers  he  received  the  power, 
requires  that  the  powers  shall  be  exercised. 

What  is  the  most  proper  manner  of  assigning  the  limits  for  the 
exercise  of  the  powers  conveyed  by  ordination,  is  a  question  which 
has  been  violently  agitated  both  in  ancient  and  in  modern  times.  It 
was  the  subject  of  the  controversy  which  was  waged  for  many 
centuries  between  the  Pope  and  the  princes  of  Europe,  about  what 
was  called  the  investiture  of  church  benefices ;  and  it  is  the  same 
question  which  has  appeared  in  Scotland  under  the  form  of  a  compe- 
tition between  patronage,  a  call  by  heritors  and  elders,  and  popular 
election.  The  decision  of  this  question,  in  every  country,  depends 
upon  civil  regulations ;  and  if  the  church  proceeds  without  the 
authority  of  the  state,  to  assign  the  limits  of  exercising  ministerial 
powers,  she  introduces  a  collision  between  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
governments.  Her  business  is  to  convey  the  powers  to  those  whom 
she  finds  qualified.     By  ordination  they  become   ministers  of  the 


INDEPENDENTS.  697 

church  universal ;  for,  having  been  tried  by  a  particular  branch  of 
the  church,  acting  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  and  in  virtue  of  the  trust 
derived  from  him,  they  receive  authority  and  a  conmiission  to  perform 
all  the  acts,  which  belong  to  those  who  are  called  in  Scripture 
ambassadors,  stewards,  rulers,  and  overseers.  Subsequent  to  tins 
authority  and  commission,  and  essentially  distinct  from  it  in  nature, 
although  often  conjoined  with  it  in  practice,  is  the  itrvitation  or 
appointment,  applying  the  exercise  of  the  authority  to  a  particular 
district  of  the  church.  The  invitation,  when  Christians  are  not 
recognised  by  the  laws  of  the  land  as  entitled  to  their  protection,  is, 
of  necessity,  and  of  right,  the  act  of  the  people  to  whom  the  person  is 
to  minister;  but  when  Christianity  enjoys  the  benefit  of  being 
incorporated  with  the  constitution  of  the  state,  it  comes,  in  conse- 
quence of  that  civil  advantage,  to  be  modified  in  such  manner  as  the 
government  of  the  state  is  pleased  to  direct. 

You  will  find  yourselves  involved  in  inextricable  difficulties  upon 
many  questions  in  church  government,  unless  you  are  careful  thus  to 
separate  in  your  minds  ordination,  which  is  the  appointment  of  Jesus 
Christ,  conveying  a  character  by  the  instrumentality  of  the  office- 
bearers of  his  church,  from  the  election  of  a  minister,  which  is  the 
appointment  of  men  applying  or  limiting  the  exercise  of  this  character, 
in  such  manner  as  they  please,  and  with  more  or  less  wisdom,  as  it 
happens.  It  is  the  leading  feature  in  the  system  of  Independency  to 
confound  these  two  ;  and  you  will  find,  in  your  future  experience  of 
ecclesiastical  business,  that  all  the  approaches  to  Independency,  which 
appear  in  the  sentiments  or  the  conduct  of  particular  persons,  arise 
from  their  not  keeping  them  perfectly  distinct.  Whenever  ordination 
is  considered  as  the  act  of  Jesus  Christ,  by  his  office-bearers  constitut- 
ing a  minister  of  the  church  universal,  the  idea  of  one  great  society  is 
preserved.  The  whole  may  be  diversified  in  outward  circumstances, 
but  it  does  not  cease  to  be  a  whole ;  for,  from  this  principle  there 
result  subordination  to  superiors,  which  is  essential  to  church  govern- 
ment, and  a  bond  of  union  amongst  those,  who  are  so  far  removed  in 
place  as  not  to  be  amenable  to  the  same  earthly  superior.  But  when- 
ever ordination  is  confounded  with  election,  the  unity  of  the  great 
society  is  lost ;  the  whole  is  crumbled  into  factions;  there  is  no  legal 
redress  for  the  wrong  which  may  be  done  by  small  unrelated  jurisdic- 
tions; and  there  is  no  constitutional  mean  of  deciding  the  controver- 
sies, which,  arising  among  the  separate  associations  merely  from 
their  neighbourhood,  may  disturb  their  peace  and  embitter  their 
minds. 

I  have  entered  thus  fully  into  the  discussion  of  the  Independent 
form  of  government,  because,  in  canvassing  its  merits,  I  have  been  led 
to  lay  down  some  fundamental  principles  of  church  government,  in 
which  Roman  Catholics,  Episcopalians,  and  Presbyterians  are  agreed, 
and  which  we  shall  carry  along  with  us  in  comparing  their  different 
schemes.  These  principles  are  the  foundation  of  a  distinction,  which, 
although  not  expressed  in  Scriptural  terms,  appears  to  us  agreeable 
to  Scriptural  views ;  I  mean  the  distinction  very  early  made  between 
the  clergy  and  the  laity.  We  shall  afterwards  find,  that  this  distinc- 
tion has  been  supposed  to  imply  powers  and  exemptions  on  the  part 
of  the  clergy,  to  which  no  order  of  men  derives  any  title  from  the 
61  4Y 


698  CHURCH    OF    ROME. 

gospel  of  Christ ;  and  a  submission  on  the  part  of  the  laitj'-,  to  which 
no  order  of  men  is  there  degraded.  But  the  distinction  is  not  the  less 
real  that  it  has  been  abused ;  and  it  is  proper  that  it  should  be  main- 
tained, both  in  opposition  to  those,  who  add  to  all  the  other  contempt 
which  they  pour  upon  the  gospel,  by  representing  the  Christian 
priesthood  as  a  political  contrivance,  a  continuation  of  the  same  craft 
which  imposed  upon  the  vulgar  in  the  times  of  idolatry ;  and  also  in 
opposition  to  those  Christians,  who,  professing  to  reverence  the  Scrip- 
tures, attempt  to  guard  against  the  abuse  of  church  power,  and  to 
reconcile  the  mention  made  of  it  in  Scripture  to  their  notions  of 
liberty,  by  representing  it  as  given  by  Christ  to  the  people,  and  trans- 
ferred by  them  at  their  pleasure  to  those  whom  they  choose.  Against 
both,  we  Presbyterians  join  with  the  church  of  Rome  and  the  church 
of  England,  in  holding  that  the  persons  vested  with  church  govern- 
ment derive  their  powers,  not  from  the  people,  but  from  Jesus  Christ 
by  his  ministers;  and  our  church  has,  in  her  Confession  of  Faith, 
expressed  this  fundamental  proposition  in  the  following  words ; 
"The  Lord  Jesus,  as  King  and  Head  of  his  church,  hatii  therein 
appointed  a  government  in  the  hand  of  church-officers,  distinct  from 
the  civil  magistrate." 


Section  III. 

CHURCH    OF    ROME. 

In  stating  the  system  of  the  church  of  Rome,  with  regard  to  tlie 
description  of  persons  invested  with  church  government,  which  is 
diametrically  opposite  to  that  of  the  Independents,  it  is  necessary  to 
begin  with  illustrating  the  distinction  between  those,  who  are  called 
Papists,  and  those,  who  are  called  Roman  Catholics. 

The  Papists  hold  that  the  bishop  of  Rome,  commonly  known  by 
the  name  of  the  Pope,  has,  as  the  successor  of  Peter,  the  prince  of  the 
apostles,  a  primacy  over  the  great  society  of  Christians  ;  that  he  is  the 
vicar  of  Christ  upon  earth,  the  visible  head  of  the  universal  church, 
whose  power  extends  over  all  its  members  ;  that  as  he  may  himself 
enact  laws  binding  upon  the  whole  church,  determine  all  controver- 
sies by  his  own  infallible  authority,  and  either  inflict  censures  or  grant 
absolution  according  to  his  pleasure,  so  he  is  the  fountain  of  pastoral 
jurisdiction  and  dignity,  from  whom  all  who  exercise  the  powers  of 
church  government  in  any  district  of  the  Christian  world  ought  to 
receive  their  commission,  to  whom  they  are  bound  to  swear  true 
obedience  in  the  discharge  of  their  office,  and  to  whom  they  are 
accountable ;  that  as  their  persons  and  their  actions  are  in  all  things 
under  his  control,  so  the  sentences  which  they  pronounce  in  the  exer- 
cise of  the  powers  committed  to  them  are  subject  to  his  revisal ;  that 
appeals  may  be  made  from  all  ecclesiastical  judicatories  to  the  judg- 
ment of  the  bishop  of  Rome ;  but  that  he  himself  is  not  obliged  to 
give  account  to  any,  and  that  from  his  sentence  there  is  no  appeal. 

This  is  the  complete  system  of  church  government  avowed  in  the 
public  confessions  of  their  faith,  by  those  who  are  properly  called 


CHURCH  OF  ROME.  699 

Papists.  But  this  system  is  not  held  in  its  full  extent  by  all  who  pro- 
fess the  doctrine,  and  adhere  to  the  communion  of  the  church  of  Rome. 
The  Papists  derive  their  name  from  their  attachment  to  the  Pope, 
their  belief  of  his  infallibility,  and  their  submission  to  his  sovereign 
and  uncontrollable  power.  Those  who  call  themselves  Roman 
Catholics  acknowledge  that  the  bishop  of  Rome,  the  most  dignified 
member  of  the  church  universal,  and  the  successor  of  Peter,  holds  a 
primacy  and  superiority  which  they  consider  as  a  common  centre  of 
unity  to  the  whole  society,  and  to  which  they  are  wiUing  to  pay  a 
becoming  respect.  But  they  do  not  allow  the  personal  infallibility 
of  the  Pope ;  they  consider  the  head  as  subject,  no  less  than  the 
members,  to  the  decrees  of  the  church  universal ;  and  if  the  head 
should  attempt  to  infringe  the  constitutions  of  the  church  universal, 
should  violate  the  rights  of  particular  churches,  or  should  err  in 
matters  of  faith,  they  conceive  that  it  is  competent  for  a  general  council 
to  correct  his  mal-administration :  to  maintain  the  liberties  of  the 
whole  body,  and  of  the  several  parts  in  opposition  to  his  encroach- 
ments; to  defend  the  truth  which  he  abandons;  and,  if  other  means 
do  not  appear  sufficient,  to  provide  for  the  safety  or  reformation  of 
the  church,  by  suspending  or  deposing  him  from  his  office. 

This  doctrine  was  declared  by  many  general  councils  held  in  the 
15th  and  16th  centuries,  several  of  which  proceeded  to  follow  out 
their  doctrine  into  practice,  by  pronouncing  sentence  upon  Popes, 
whom  they  considered  as  heretical  or  contumacious.  It  was  the  sub- 
ject of  endless  discussions  in  those  days,  between  the  doctors  of  Italy, 
who  maintained  the  infallible  and  uncontrollable  authority  of  the 
Pope,  and  the  doctors  of  France,  who  considered  him  as  subject  to 
the  decrees  of  general  councils.  The  former  boldly  set  the  Pope 
above  all  general  councils;  the  latter  held  that  no  Papa  simply,  but 
Papa  cum  coiicilio,  is  the  head  of  the  church.  This  last  opinion, 
although  it  appears  to  impose  a  most  reasonable  restraint  upon  the 
exorbitant  power  of  one  man,  was  involved  in  many  difficulties.  For, 
even  admitting  the  opinion  to  be  true,  it  remains  to  be  inquired,  who 
is  to  summon  the  general  council  which  is  to  control  and  try  the 
Pope;  who  is  to  preside  in  it;  who  are  to  have  the  right  of  voting, 
and  what  constitutes  a  free  general  council,  in  whose  censure  of  the 
first  officer  of  the  church  the  whole  Christian  world  is  bound  to 
acquiesce  ?  The  difficulties  attending  these  questions,  which  satisfy  us 
in  our  days,  that  a  general  council  is  a  thing  impracticable,  were  very 
much  muhiplied  to  those,  who,  even  while  they  wished  to  correct  the 
abuses  of  papal  power,  professed  to  retain  a  high  veneration  for  the 
bishop  of  Rome,  as  the  successor  of  Peter;  and  it  is  not  always  easy 
to  reconcile  the  connexion,  which  the  Roman  Catholics  are  desirous 
to  maintain  with  the  Pope,  and  the  doctrine  by  which  they  make  him 
inferior  to  a  council. 

Notwithstanding  these  difficulties,  however,  this  doctrine  spread, 
both  before  and  after  the  Reformation,  thi'ough  many  parts  of  Chris- 
tendom, the  inhabitants  of  which  wished  to  be  delivered  from  the 
grievances  of  papal  usurpation,  although  they  were  not  prepared  to 
follow  the  first  reformers,  so  far  as  to  depart  from  the  received  articles 
of  faith,  and  to  separate  from  the  communion  of  the  church  of  Rome. 
It  became,  even  in  the  seventeenth  century,  the  national  creed  of 


f^. 


700  CHURCH    OF    ROME. 

France,  where  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  powers  united  in  declaring, 
not  only  that  the  Pope  is,  in  spiritual  matters,  subject  to  a  general 
council,  but  that,  in  temporal  matters,  he  has  no  sovereignty  or 
authority  over  the  rulers  of  tliose  states  who  are  in  conmiunion  with 
him.  These  two  positions  constitute,  what  were  called  in  those  days, 
the  liberties  of  the  Galilean  church.  They  have  been  uniformly  and 
zealously  maintained  in  opposition  to  the  claims  of  the  Pope,  even 
while  profound  veneration  was  expressed  for  his  person,  and  while 
the  established  faith  of  the  kingdom  consisted  of  the  tenets  of  the 
Apostolical  See  of  Rome,  without  any  mixture,  often  without  any 
toleration  of  the  opinions  of  the  Reformers. 

The  Catholics  of  Great  Britain  have,  of  late,  solemnly  disclaimed 
that  entire  subjection  to  the  Pope,  which  forms  the  distinguishing 
character  of  Papists ;  and,  instead  of  taking  the  name  of  Roman 
Catholics,  which  might  seem  to  imply  a  connection  approaching  to 
a  dependence  upon  the  church  of  Rome,  they  call  themselves  simply 
the  Catholics  of  Great  Britain.  Even  in  those  countries  which  pro- 
fess still  to  believe  in  the  sovereignty  of  the  Pope,  the  changes  upon 
the  state  of  Europe,  the  progress  of  science,  and  the  view  of  those 
blessings  which  tlieir  neighbours  have  derived  from  the  Reformation, 
'^  are  undermining  that  fabric  which  was  reared  in  times  of  ferocity  and 
ignorance  ;  and  the  papal  power,  which  has  already  lost  almost  all  its 
terrors  to  those  who  acknowledge  its  existence,  will  probably,  at  no 
very  distant  period,  become,  throughout  the  whole  extent  of  Christen- 
dom, the  tale  of  former  years. 

The  progress  of  Popery  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  portions  of 
ecclesiastical  history.  The  slow,  but  sure  steps  with  which  this  power 
advanced,  during  a  course  of  ages,  to  the  greatness  which  it  attained, 
the  skill  and  artifice  with  which  its  pretensions  were  gradually  ex- 
tended, the  multiplicity  of  interests  which  were  combined  in  its  sup- 
port, and  the  profound  policy  with  which  it  distributed  through  all 
Christian  states  many  zealous  champions  of  its  claim — all  together 
form  a  picture,  which  arrests  the  attention  of  every  intelligent  observer 
of  human  affairs,  and  is  fitted  to  administer  much  useful  instruction. 
It  is  not  my  province  to  fill  up  or  to  colour  this  picture.  I  have  only 
to  discuss  the  arguments  upon  which  the  Bishop  of  Rome  professed 
to  build  his  claims:  and  if  these  arguments  shall  appear  to  you  a  very 
slender  foundation  for  such  a  superstructure,  you  must  have  recourse 
to  the  history  of  popery  for  an  explication  of  the  manner  in  which  it 
was  reared,  and  of  the  props  by  which  it  was  supported  ;  you  must 
recollect  that  arguments,  which  the  plainest  understanding  now  per- 
ceives to  be  remote,  inconclusive, and  inapplicable  to  the  subject,  found 
the  minds  of  men  in  such  a  state  of  preparation  for  receiving  them, 
that  they  were  assented  to  without  being  examined  ;  and  you  must 
not  be  surprised,  if  an  ordinary  eye,  now  that  the  charm  is  broken, 
can  discern  all  the  deformity  of  an  object,  which  was  long  seen  at  a 
distance,  through  a  deceitful  medium,  and  was  esteemed  too  sacred 
and  too  magnificent  for  close  inspection. 

The  extent  of  the  papal  power  receives  a  specious  support  from  the 
unity,  which  it  seems  to  give  to  the  Catholic  church.  While  the 
Independent  form  of  government  breaks  one  great  society  into  many 
lUiconuected  parts,  the  sovereignty  of  the  Pope  forms  a  common  centre 


CHURCH    OF    ROME.  701 

of  unity  to  the  various  associations,  into  which  Christians,  from  the 
necessity  of  circumstances,  must  be  divided.  If  there  is  one  visible  , 
head,  whom  all  of  tlicm  acknowledge,  liis  authority,  pervoding  the 
great  society,  controlling  and  regnlatuig  all  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction, 
is  fitted  to  preserve  that  consent  in  articles  of  faith,  and  that  iniiform- 
ity  in  worship  and  rites,  which,  however  agreeable  to  tlie  nature  of 
the  Christian  society,  the  wide  extent  of  it  seems  to  render  impracti- 
cable without  such  a  paramount  authority.  "The  Son  of  God,"  says 
Bossuet,  in  his  Exposition  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
"  being  desirous  his  church  should  be  one,  and  solidly  built  upon 
unity,  hath  established  and  instituted  tiie  primacy  of  St.  Peter  to 
maintain  and  cement  it ;  upon  which  account,  we  acknowledge  this 
primacy  in  the  successors  of  St.  Peter,  the  prince  of  the  apostles, 
which  is  the  common  centre  of  all  Catholic  unity." 

The  argnment,  when  proposed  in  this  general  form,  has  a  spccioiis 
appearance.  But  there  are  many  steps  between  the  first  position, 
that  Jesus  Christ  intended  his  church  should  be  one,  and  the  last 
position,  that  the  primacy  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  ought  to  be  acknow- 
ledged by  all  Christians ;  and  when  we  come  to  analyze  the  argu- 
ment, by  tracing  the  connexion  which  the  first  position  has  with  the 
last,  the  weakness  of  the  whole  canse  opens  upon  us  at  every  step. 

Although  Jesus  often  expressed  a  desire  that  his  church  should  be 
one,  and  although  an  endeavour  to  maintain  unity  is  earnestly 
recommended  to  his  disciples,  it  does  not  follow  that  they  were  to 
have  that  kind  of  unity  which  arises  from  subjection  to  one  visible 
head.  Jesus  is  liimself  styled  "the  head  of  the  body,  the  church."* 
His  prayer  for  those  who  should  believe  on  him,  through  the  word 
of  the  apostles,  is  this,  "  that  they,  Father,  may  be  one  in  us."t  ^VheIl 
the  apostle  speaks  of  one  body,  one  spirit,  one  faith,  he  speaks  also 
of  one  Lord,  that  is,  Christ. |  As  this  Lord  shall  continue  till  the  end 
of  the  world  to  rule  in  his  kingdom,  he  may  employ  other  means 
besides  the  government  of  a  visible  head  to  preserve  unity.  It  is 
possible  too,  that  knowledge  of  the  truth,  attachment  to  one  Saviour, 
and  the  excitements  of  love  and  mutual  forbearance  inspired  by  his 
religion,  may  be  the  chief  bonds  of  union  which  he  intended  should 
subsist  amongst  his  followers;  and  that  attempts  to  establish  a 
stricter  uniformity  than  what  results  from  these  principles  may  be 
attended  with  greater  evils,  and  may  be  more  repugnant  to  the  spirit 
of  the  gospel,  than  those  breaches  of  unity  which  the  power  of  a 
visible  head  might  correct. 

When  perfect  wisdom  and  perfect  goodness  are  united  in  the 
character  of  a  person,  his  power  will  be  exerted  for  the  best  purposes; 
and  the  extent  of  his  power  may  insure  the  harmony,  as  well  as  the 
happiness,  of  those  who  are  subject  to  it.  But  such  a  character  is 
not  to  be  found  upon  earth  ;  and  all  the  experience  of  mankind 
teaches  them  to  provide  for  the  security  of  their  rights,  by  imposing 
such  limitations  as  may  guard  most  eftectually  against  the  abuse  of 
power.  In  one  place,  Matth.  xx.  25,  26,  our  Lord  warns  his  disciples 
against  thinking  that  they  were  entitled  to  exercise  in  his  name  tl^at 
kind  of  co-active  authority,  by  wliicli  the  princes  of  the  earth  main- 

•  Col.  L  18.  t  John  xvii.  21.  4  Ephes.  iv.  4,  5. 

61* 


702  CHURCH    OF    ROME. 

tain  their  sovereignty.  In  another  place,  Matth.  xxiii.  8,  9,  he  \varns 
his  disciples  against  submitting  their  understandings  to  men,  and 
requires  the  free  and  manlj?^  exercise  of  their  own  judgment,  both  as 
a  testimony  of  the  respect  due  to  him,  and  as  a  security  against  their 
being  turned  aside  from  his  doctrine.  Although  such  warnings,  when 
compared  with  other  passages  of  Scripture,  do  not  condemn  church, 
government  in  general,  they  certainly  modify  the  authority  that  is  to 
be  exercised,  and  the  subjection  that  is  to  be  yielded  ;  and  therefore 
they  imply  a  condemnation  of  a  form  of  church  government,  which, 
by  committing  Christians  in  all  places  of  the  world  to  the  inspection 
and  the  absolute  government  of  one  man,  exalts  him  to  a  station,  and 
intrusts  him  with  an  otiice,  to  which  the  natural  powers  of  the  wisest 
and  the  best  of  the  sons  of  men  are  wholly  inadequate. 

It  will  be  said,  indeed,  that  inspiration  can  easily  supply  the 
unavoidable  defects  of  human  nature,  and  that  the  information  and 
comprehension  of  the  vicar  of  Christ  upon  earth  may,  in  this  way,  be 
rendered  commensurate  to  the  extent  of  his  office.  But  as  our 
judgment  of  the  proper  seasons  and  degrees  of  inspiration  ought 
always  to  proceed,  not  upon  our  own  speculations,  but  upon  our 
experience  of  what  God  has  done ;  so  when  we  attend  to  the  fact  in 
this  case,  it  does  not  appear  that  such  a  measure  of  inspiration  as  the 
office  requires  has  been  bestowed,  because  the  effects  of  the  sove- 
reignty claimed  and  exercised  by  the  bishop  of  Rome  have  by  no 
means  corresponded  to  the  advantages,  which  are  stated  as  a  presump- 
tion in  support  of  the  claim.  Protestants  hold  that  it  has  not  preserv- 
ed purity  of  doctrine  ;  for  they  think  they  are  able  to  prove  that  the 
faith  of  the  church  of  Rome  is,  in  many  important  articles,  contrary 
to  Scripture.  All  who  read  ecclesiastical  history  must  acknowledge 
that  it  has  not  preserved  the  unity  of  the  church  ;  for  the  Eastern 
church  never  submitted  to  the  authority  of  the  Pope.  JVIany  parts 
of  Europe  have,  since  the  Reformation, 'disclaimed  all  subjection  to 
him  ;  and  there  has,  in  all  ages,  been  much  difference  of  opinion, 
even  amongst  those  who  professed  to  believe  that  he  is  the  vicar  of 
Christ.  Popes  have  contradicted  one  another  upon  articles  of  faith: 
the  controversies  respecting  predestination  and  grace  have  agitated 
the  Romish  no  less  than  the  Reformed  churches ;  and  the  attempts 
of  the  Roman  Pontiff,  by  his  authority,  to  define  the  ceremonies  of 
religion,  have  often  produced  altercation,  mutual  hatred,  and  perse- 
cution. 

Had  the  Roman  empire  maintained  its  ascendency  over  the  na- 
tions of  the  earth,  advantages  might  have  resulted  from  the  primacy 
of  a  visible  head  of  the  church.  If  from  the  same  city,  which  was 
the  mistress  of  the  world,  the  mandates  of  the  supreme  ruler  of 
the  Christian  society  had  been  transmitted  to  the  separate  associations 
in  the  most  remote  regions,  this  would  have  been  a  centre  of  unity, 
however  discordant  from  the  simple  unassuming  spirit  of  the  Gospel, 
yet  certainly  analogous  to  the  political  situation  of  human  aflairs, 
and  admirably  fitted  to  preserve  an  uniformity  in  religious  rites.  But 
\vhen  the  Roman  empire  was  dismembered,  when  independent 
princes  arose  throughout  the  whole  extent  of  Christendom,  and  that 
civil  government,  which,  in  all  the  different  modifications  that  cir- 
cumstances may  give  it  in  different  countries,  is  the  ordinance  of  God» 


CHURCH    OF    ROME.  703 

was  vested  in  the  hands  of  persons  who  had  no  connexion  with  Rome, 
the  existence  of  a  supreme  ecclesiastical  power  residing  in  that  city, 
and  issuing  its  mandates  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  came  to  be  attended 
with  insuperable  difficulties  ;  and  what  in  the  former  case  might 
have  been  a  centre  of  unity,  was  converted  into  a  principle  of  discord, 
and  a  perpetual  source  of  contention.  A  sovereign  pontiff,  who 
claimed  from  the  clergy  in  every  state  an  implicit  obedience  to  all 
his  injunctions,  who  could  summon  them  at  his  pleasure  from  any 
part  of  the  world,  who  reviewed  all  their  sentences,  and  who  could 
call  to  his  own  court  the  trial  of  any  cause,  which  came  in  the  first 
instance  before  them,  was  formidable  to  civil  government.  This 
foreign  jurisdiction  interrupted  the  orderly  proceedings  of  every  sti.te  ; 
it  weakened  the  authority  of  the  magistrate  ;  it  created  an  interest  in 
opposition  to  the  public  good ;  and  it  afforded  various  pretexts  for 
superinducing  very  dangerous  civil  claims.  Accordingly,  the  history 
of  a  great  part  of  Europe,  and  particularly  of  Britain  for  a  considera- 
ble time,  is  occupied  with  collisions  between  the  jurisdiction  claimed 
by  the  Pope,  and  that  which  the  sovereigns  of  Europe  considered  as 
of  right  belonging  to  themselves  within  their  own  territories.  In 
England  the  Reformation  did  not  begin  with  the  discussion  of  points 
of  doctrine.  It  originated  in  resistance  to  the  growing  encroach- 
ments of  the  court  of  Rome  ;  and  it  was  accomplished  by  law,  because 
the  sovereign,  the  clergy,  and  the  people  felt  tliat  their  rights  were 
invaded. 

Any  person  who  recollects  the  submission  which  our  Lord  and  his 
apostles  uniformly  yielded  to  the  civil  power,  the  many  exhortations 
to  obedience  which  the  epistles  contain,  and  the  quiet  accommodat- 
ing spirit  in  all  things  not  sinful,  which  the  Gospel  forms,  will  not 
readily  believe  that  the  method,  which  Christ  adopted  for  preserving 
the  unity  of  his  church,  was  a  method  so  hostile  to  the  peace  of  so- 
ciety ;  and  any  person  who  considers  that  the  Gospel,  assuming  the 
character  of  an  universal  religion,  delivers,  with  consummate  wisdom, 
doctrines  and  precepts  which  readily  apply  to  all  different  situations, 
will  perceive  the  inconsistency  of  supposing  that  it  would  create  a 
perpetual  dependence  upon  a  particular  city,  in  which  one  of  its  mi- 
nisters resided  ;  and  by  this  single  circumstance,  would  subject  the 
disciples,  who  were  to  be  gathered  out  of  all  nations,  to  many  of  the 
inconveniences  of  a  local  institution. 

It  appears,  then,  that  when  we  come  to  reason  from  the  unity  of 
the  church  to  the  primacy  of  the  bishop  of  Rome,  there  arise,  upon 
general  grounds,  very  strong  objections  against  tliis  specious  argu- 
ment ;  and  we  require  the  most  satisfying  direct  evidence  that  a  me- 
thod of  preserving  unity,  in  itself  so  exceptionable,  is,  indeed,  the  ap- 
pointment of  Christ.  The  Papists  assert  that  it  is:  and  if  they  could 
prove  what  they  assert,  our  notions  of  inexpediency  would  yield  to 
liis  authority. 

Their  assertion  consists  of  three  positions,  every  one  of  which  must 
be  proved ;  that  our  Loixl  gave  to  Peter  a  primacy  over  all  the  other 
apostles — that  Peter  was  Bishop  of  Rome — and  that  it  was  the  inten- 
tion of  Christ,  that  the  powers  possessed  by  Peter  should  be  trans-, 
mitted  to  the  Bishops  of  Rome  in  all  succeeding  ages.  If  they  fail  in 
the  proof  of  any  one  of  these  positions,  the  primacy  of  the  Pope  be- 


704  CHURCH    OF    ROME. 

comes  a  human  invention,  which  may  be  wise  or  unwise,  but  which 
cannot  be  regarded  as  tlie  institution  of  Christ. 

As  to  the  primacy  of  Peter,  they  argue  from  Peter's  appearing 
throughout  the  Gospels  more  ready  to  speak  and  to  act  'than  the 
other  apostles,  being  often  peculiarly  addressed  by  our  Lord,  and 
often  answering  in  the  name  of  the  rest ;  from  his  being  placed  at  the 
head  of  every  complete  enumeration  of  the  apostles,  and  called  by 
Matthew, "the  first;" from  our  Lord's  saying,  "I  have  prayed  for  thee, 
that  thy  faith  fail  not ;"  from  his  giving  him  a  command  to  feed  his 
sheep ;  and  from  these  remarkable  words,  "  Thou  art  Peter ;  and 
upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my  church  ;  and  I  will  give  unto  thee  the 
keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  As  to  the  second  position,  they 
argue  partly  from  its  being  said  by  some  ancient  writers,  that  Peter 
lived  for  some  time  at  Rome,  that  Peter  and  Paul  founded  the  Chris- 
tian church  there,  and  that  Peter  died  there  ;  and  partly  from  the  ex- 
pression at  the  end  of  his  first  epistle.  "  The  church  of  Babylon 
saluteth  you."  It  is  known  that  Babylon,  in  the  book  of  the  Reve- 
lation, is  the  mystical  name  for  Rome,  the  only  city  which  answers 
to  the  description  there  given  ;  and  it  is  supposed  that  Peter,  by  using 
this  name  in  his  epistle,  meant  to  give  an  intimation  that  Rome  was 
the  place  of  his  residence.  As  to  the  third  position,  they  find  no  sup- 
port in  Scripture.  But  they  argue  from  tradition  ;  from  the  deference 
which  they  say  was  in  all  ages  paid  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome  ;  from 
the  names  given  to  him  by  ancient  writers ;  from  the  probability 
that  the  successors  of  Peter  would  be  distinguished  above  the  succes- 
sors of  the  other  apostles ;  and  from  the  miracles  or  other  extraordi- 
nary gifts,  by  which  his  claim  to  infallibility  and  primacy  has  been 
attested. 

Such  are  the  arguments  alleged  in  support  of  the  three  essential 
positions  of  the  Popish  system  :  I  shall  now  give  a  specimen  of  the 
answers  that  are  made  to  them. 

As  to  the  primacy  of  Peter,  it  is  admitted  that  as  in  every  body  of 
men  there  are  individuals  who  appear  to  take  the  lead  of  others,  the 
fervour  of  Peter's  spirit  rendered  him,  upon  all  occasions,  forward 
to  speak;  and  that  upon  account  either  of  this  fervour  or  of  his  age 
he  is  not  only  called  the  first,  but  seems  at  some  times  to  have  acted 
as  the  foreman  or  speaker  of  the  apostolical  college.  But  it  is  not 
admitted  that  this  implies  any  superiority  of  office ;  for,  when  our 
Lord  first  called  the  apostles,  and  when  he  spoke  to  them  after  his 
resurrection,  and  immediately  before  his  ascension,  he  gave  them  the 
same  commission,  and  invested  them  with  the  same  powers.  He  said 
that  they  should  sit  on  twelve  thrones,  judging  the  twelve  tribes  of 
Israel.*  Before  their  minds  were  enlightened,  they  disputed  which 
should  be  the  greatest ;  but,  after  the  day  of  Pentecost,  they  appear 
to  have  understood  that  there  was  a  perfect  equality  amongst  them ; 
and  there  is  not,  in  the  epistles,  the  most  distant  mention  of  any 
prerogative  enjoyed  by  one  of  the  apostles.  Assembled  in  a  council 
at  Jerusalem,  Peter  does  not  preside.!  He  is  sent  by  the  other 
apostles,  along  with  John,  to  Samaria.J  The  work  of  the  apostleship 
was  afterwards  distributed  between  Peter  and  Paul.     To  the  former 

•  Matt.  xix.  28.  f  Acts  xv.  i  Acts  viii.  14. 


CHURCH    OF    ROME,  705 

was  committed  the  gospel  of  the  circumcision,  i.  e.  the  office  of  preach- 
ing to  the  Jews;  to  the  latter  the  gospel  of  the  uncircumcision,  /.  e. 
the  office  of  preaching  to  the  Gentiles.*  Paul  says  that  in  the  dis- 
charge of  his  office  "he  was  not  a  whit  behind  the  very  chiefest  of 
the  apostles  •,"!  and  upon  one  occasion  he  withstood  Peter  to  the  face, 
reprehending  a  part  of  his  conduct  which  he  thought  blameworthy.J 
The  most  striking  circumstance  in  the  history  of  Peter  is  the  solemn 
denial  of  his  Master,  which  does  not  appear  to  lay  a  good  foundation 
for  the  infallibility  of  his  successors,  which  was  more  culpable  than 
the  cowardice  of  the  other  apostles,  and  to  which  there  is  a  reference 
in  the  prayer  of  our  Lord  for  Peter,  in  the  message  sent  him  after 
the  resurrection,  "  Go  tell  my  disciples  and  Peter,"  and  in  the  manner 
of  giving  him  the  charge,  "Feed  my  sheep."  The  same  charge  is 
said  to  be  committed  by  the  Holy  Ghost  to  all  ministers  or  overseers 
TioLuciiviiv  Tr;v  exx7.r]t;i,av.  But  bccausc  Peter  had  thrice  denied  his  Master, 
he  is  solemnly  re-instated  in  the  office  from  which  he  had  fallen,  by 
our  Lord's  saying  to  him  thrice,  rtoi^cuif,  jSoaxt  ta  rt^oSafa [iov.§ 

In  examining  the  strength  of  what  the  Papists  account  their  im- 
pregnable fortress,  the  words  addressed  to  Peter  in  Matthew  xvi,  16, 
17,  IS,  you  will  find  that  these  words  were  spoken  upon  occasion  of 
a  question  put  to  all  the  apostles,  "  Whom  say  ye  that  I  am  ?"  The 
answer  is  made  by  Peter,  "  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living 
God."  But  it  is  obvious  that  here,  as  at  other  times,  he  speaks  in 
the  name  of  his  brethren  as  well  as  in  his  own  name  ;  and,  therefore, 
although  our  Lord,  in  his  reply,  addresses  the  person  who  had  spoken, 
it  is  natural  to  understand  the  promise  which  he  gives  as  a  reward  of  the 
confession, extended  to  all  in  whose  name  the  confession  had  been  made. 
Accordingly,  one  part  of  the  promise,  "  Whatsoever  thou  shalt  bind 
on  earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven ;  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  loose 
on  earth,  shall  be  loosed  in  heaven,"  is  repeated  by  the  same  Evange- 
list soon  after,  Matt,  xviii.  IS,  and  is  there  addressed  to  all  fhe 
apostles.  And  a  promise,  which  we  understand  to  be  the  same  in 
substance, "  Whose  soever  sins  ye  remit,  they  are  remitted  unto  them  ; 
and  whose  soever  sins  ye  retain,  they  are  retained,"  was  made  to  ten 
of  the  apostles  after  the  resurrection.il  It  is  understood  by  that  great 
body  of  Christians  who  do  not  hold  the  primacy  of  Peter,  that  these 
two  passages  express  all  that  is  meant  by  the  phrase,  "  I  will  give 
thee  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven;"  and,  therefore,  as  no  other 
powers  but  such  as  all  the  apostles  enjoyed  were  at  any  future  time 
communicated  to  Peter,  or  exercised  by  him,  we  hold,  that  although 
our  Lord  says  "  I  will  give  thee  the  keys,"  he  is  conveying,  by  these 
words,  to  all  the  apostles,  the  powers  which  we  shall  afterwards  find 
to  be  implied  in  the  lawful  exercise  of  church  government.  There 
is  another  part,  indeed,  of  the  promise  in  Matt.  xvi.  which  appears 
to  be  special  to  Peter, — "  And  I  say  also  unto  thee,  that  thou  art  Peter, 
and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my  church  ;  and  the  gates  of  hell 
shall  not  prevail  against  it."  These  words,  say  the  Papists,  assign  to 
Peter  a  dignity  and  importance  in  the  establishment  of  the  Chrstian 
church,  that  cannot  be  common  to  him  and  the  other  apostles,  because 

*  Gal.  ii.  7.  12  Cor.  xi.  5.  *  Gal.  ii.  1 1. 

§  John  xxi.  15,  17.  ||  John  xx.  23. 

4Z 


70fi  CHURCH    OF    ROME. 

it  is  connected  with  his  name.  To  this  argunaent  two  answers  are 
given.  The  one  is,  that  this  expression  does  not  necessarily  imply 
that  the  church  was  to  be  built  upon  Peter.  As  in  the  Old  Testament 
there  was  often  a  close  connexion  in  meaning  between  the  name 
given  to  a  person,  and  some  transaction  to  which  he  had  a  special 
relation ;  and  as  our  Lord  was  accustomed  in  all  his  discourses  to 
refer  to  surrounding  objects,  or  to  things  familiar  to  his  hearers,  so 
here,  when  he  means  to  speak  of  the  stability  of  his  church,  he  alludes 
to  the  import  of  the  name,  which  he  had  given  to  Simon  when  he 
called  him  to  be  a  disciple.  Hell  is  personified,  representing  the 
enemy  and  destroyer  of  mankind,  who  brought  death  into  the  world. 
The  gates  of  hell  are  all  the  power  and  policy  which  this  person  can 
employ,  because  the  gates  of  cities  were  strongly  fortified,  and  they 
were  the  places  where  the  wise  men  of  the  city  met  to  deliberate. 
The  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  my  church,  for  it  is 
founded  upon  that  confession  now  made  by  thee,  which,  as  the  name 
given  thee  imports,  is  immoveable.  He  does  not  say,  "  Upon  thee 
will  I  build  my  church."     He  does  not  even  say,  f^i- 1^  nn^^Cf,.    But 

av   «5  rtst^o?,  XM  ijti  iavfrj  -trj  rtet^a  oixodopLtjuoi  ■trjv  ixxXTqaia-v  fiov,    changing    the 

substantive  noun,  it  would  seem,  in  order  to  intimate  that  he  meant 
only  an  allusion  to  the  name,  and  not  the  person  to  whom  the  name 
belonged.  The  confession  made  by  Peter,  "  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the 
Son  of  the  living  God,"  is  adopted  by  all  Christians,  and  is  the  foun- 
dation of  the  Christian  church.  There  would  have  been  no  Christian 
church,  if  this  confession  had  not  been  made  by  some ;  and  the  Chris- 
tian church  will  continue  till  the  end  of  the  world,  because,  as  the 
proposition  is  true  in  itself,  so  there  never  will  be  wanting  some,  who 
believe  and  acknowledge  the  truth  of  it.  All  the  early  Christian 
writers  understood  T'ai'fffT'y  rtEf^a  to  mean  the  confession  that  Jesus  is 
the  Christ ;  and  both  the  sense  and  the  expression  lead  us  to  follow 
their  interpretation. 

But  there  is  another  answer  to  the  argument  of  the  Papists.  If  the 
allusion  here  made  to  the  name  of  the  person  who  uttered  this  confes- 
sion, should  be  admitted  to  imply  that  there  is  a  sense,  in  which  the 
church  was  built  upon  him  as  well  as  upon  his  confession,  still  that 
sense  must  be  so  figurative  and  improper,  as  not  to  convey  any 
power  over  the  other  apostles.  For  the  only  person  who  can  be  truly 
regarded  as  the  foundation  of  the  Christian  church  is  the  divine 
author  of  it.  "  Other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that  is  laid, 
which  is  Jesus  Christ."  He  is  the  rock  upon  whom  the  whole 
building  stands  secure  ;  and,  therefore,  many  understand  TfavtY]  r>;  rtsr^a 
to  mean  Christ.  The  apostles,  indeed,  are  sometimes  conjoined  with 
him  upon  account  of  their  labours  in  making  the  first  converts.  "Ye 
are  built  upon  the  foundation  of  the  apostles  and  prophets,  Jesus 
Christ  himself  being  the  chief  corner  stone."*  The  wall  of  the  New 
Jerusalem,  which  John  saw,  "  had  twelve  foundations,  and  in  them 
the  names  of  the  twelve  apostles  of  the  Lamb."t  These  two  passages 
extend  to  all  the  apostles  the  honour  given  to  Peter,  and  are  to 'be 
interpreted  in  the  same  figurative  sense.  According  to  this  figurative 
sense  the  promise  was  fulfilled.     For  as  all  the  apostles  laboured  in 

*  Ephes.  ii.  20.  f  Rev.  xxi.  14. 


CHURCH    OF    ROME. 


707 


laying  the  foundation  of  the  church,  so  Peter  had  the  honour  of 
preaching  the  first  sermon  after  the  effusion  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  by 
which  three  thousand  souls  were  added  to  the  church;  and  "God  also 
made  choiceamongtheapostlesthattheGentilesbyhismouth,  when  he 
was  sent  to  Cornelius,  "  should  hear  the  word  of  the  gospel,  and 
believe  "  In  this  sense  it  may  be  said  that  the  keys  of  the  kmgdom 
of  heaven,  i.  e.  of  the  dispensation  of  the  gospel,  were  given  to  Peter; 
for  his  preaching  opened  the  door  by  which  all  that  believe  are 
admitted,  and  the  zeal,  with  which  he  declared  to  others  the  truth 
which  he  had  confessed,  was  the  beginning  of  the  gathering  of  that 
church,  which  has  continued  to  increase,  and  which  shall  never  perish 

from  the  earth.  .  ,  •  .     t   i 

By  one  or  other  of  the  rational  interpretations  which  1  have 
mentioned,  Protestants  think  they  are  able  to  remove  the  countenance, 
which  this  singular  expression  may  appear  to  give  to  the  high  clairns 
of  a  primacy  in  Peter  over  the  other  apostles ;  a  claim  manifestly 
contradicted  by  the  whole  strain  of  the  rest  of  the  New  Testament, 
and  by  the  analogy  of  faith. 

On  the  other  two  positions  I  need  not  dwell.  When  you  examine 
the  evidence  that  Peter  died  bishop  of  Rome,  you  will  find  it 
extremely  doubtful  whether  he  ever  was  in  that  city.  It  is  a  question 
in  the  ordinary  systems.  An  Petrus  Romse  fuer'it,  ibique  episcopa- 
iuniper  vlures  annos  tenuerit ;  and  the  arguments  for  the  negative 
are  much  the  strongest.  Innumerable  difficulties,  m  point  of  chrono- 
logy, arise  from  supposing  that  Peter  resided  at  Rome  ;  and  his  being 
bishop  of  that  city  contradicts  the  distribution  made  between  Paul 
and  him,  by  which  Peter  was  the  apostle  of  the  Jews,  and  Paul  of 
the  Gentiles.  Paul  makes  no  mention  of  him  in  his  Epistle  to  the 
Romans.  Peter  never  speaks  of  having  been  at  Rome ;  and  no  reason 
occurs  why  the  name  of  Babylon,  in  the  end  of  his  first  Epistle,  should 
be  understood  to  mean  any  thing  else  than  the  ancient  capital  of  the 
Assyrian  empire,  which  continued  the  metropolis  of  those  districts,  to 
the  strangers  scattered  through  which  that  epistle  is  addressed. 

If  Pete^r  was  not  bishop  of  Rome,  the  popes  arc  not  his  successors. 
But  even  admitting  that  he  had  been  bishop  of  that  city,  then-  claim 
of  deriving  from  him,  and  of  continuing  in  all  ages  to  enjoy,  the 
primacy  which  they  suppose  our  Lord  conferred  upon  his  apostle, 
rests  upon  evidence  so  slender,  and  so  inapplicable  to  the  subject,  that 
it  is  fatiguing  to  expose  the  weakness  of  it.  This  third  position,  that 
the  bishops  of  Rome,  as  the  successors  of  Peter,  possess  the  primacy 
by  which  he  was  distinguished,  involves  this  manifest  absurdity,  that 
the  apostle  John,  "  the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved,"  was,  for  the 
thirty  years  during  which  he  survived  the  other  apostles,  subject  to 
the  bishop  of  Rome,  the  successor  of  another  apostle.  The  position 
assumes  as  its  grounds,  a  supposed  expediency  which  we  saw 
formerly  does  not  exist,  a  power  of  working  miracles  which  are 
known  to  be  false,  a  succession  which  has  often  been  interrupted,  a 
tradition  which,  far  from  being  authentic  and  uniform,  often  contra- 
dicts the  position,  and  is  often  manifestly  forged  when  it  appears  to 
speak  in  support  of  it.  The  infallibility  and  primacy  of  the  Pope 
have  been  disclaimed  by  many  bishops  of  Rome,  and  were  for  many 
ages  disputed  by  the  church  :  and  we  are  under  no  necessity  of  having 


708  CHURCH    OF    ROME. 

recourse  to  privileges  derived  from  Peter,  in  order  to  account  for  the 
power  which  the  bishops  of  Rome  long  exercised,  because  we  can 
easily  trace  both  the  first  introduction  of  that  claim,  and  the  manner 
in  which  it  was  extended  and  recognised.  In  the  pre-eminence 
allowed  by  the  councils  of  the  church  to  the  bishops  of  principal 
cities,  in  the  ancient  dignity  of  the  city  of  Rome,  and  in  the  opportu- 
nities which  the  bishops  of  that  city  derived  from  the  removal  of  the 
seat  of  empire  to  Constantinople,  we  find  the  circumstances  which 
gave  occasion  to  the  claim.  In  a  deep  and  persevering  policy  which 
accommodated  its  measures  to  the  times,  and  availed  itself  of  every 
favourable  occurrence,  we  find  a  satisfying  account  of  the  progress 
and  establishment  of  those  spiritual  and  civil  pretensions,  which 
subjected  a  great  part  of  the  Christian  world  to  a  tyranny  inconsistent 
with  the  genius  of  Christianity,  degrading  to  the  human  mind,  and 
destructive  of  the  tranquillity  and  prosperity  of  nations. 

The  Christians  of  former  days,  who  struggled  to  emancipate  them- 
selves from  this  tyranny,  were  encouraged  in  their  exertions  by 
regarding  the  Pope,  meaning  by  that  name  not  any  individual,  but 
the  pretended  succession  of  vicars  of  Christ,  as  the  antichrist,  whose 
appearance  and  whose  destruction  are  foretold  in  Scripture.  Protes- 
tants continue  to  find  in  the  characters  of  papal  usurpation  a  literal 
fulfilment  of  various  predictions  concerning  the  corruptions  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  and  their  faith  in  the  truth  of  their  religion  is  confirmed,  by 
tracing  the  correspondence  between  the  prediction  and  the  event.  It 
may  therefore  be  useful  to  subjoin  to  the  argumentative  view  of  the 
third  form  of  church  government,  that  scriptural  and  historical  view 
of  it  which  arises  from  attending  to  the  train  and  connexion  of  the 
prophecies  respecting  this  subject.  I  take  as  the  ground-work  of  the 
observations  about  to  be  made,  the  first  part  of  2  Thess.  ii. 

This  second  epistle  was  written  at  no  great  distance  of  time  from 
the  first,  principally  with  a  view  to  correct  an  error  which  prevailed 
among  the  Thessalonians.  From  a  mistaken  apprehension  of  the 
meaning  of  some  expressions  in  the  first  letter,  or  by  the  artifice  of 
some  false  teachers,  they  had  been  led  to  conceive  that  the  day  of 
judgment  was  at  hand,  and  their  minds  being  wholly  occupied  with 
the  tremendous  prospect,  they  neglected  the  ordinary  business  of  life, 
?4.nd  waited  in  consternation  and  dismay  for  the  coming  of  the  Lord. 
The  apostle  hastens  to  undeceive  and  relieve  their  minds.  He  de- 
clares that  no  expression  ever  used  by  him  bore  that  interpretation ; 
and  he  brings  to  their  recollection  some  parts  of  his  discourses  when 
at  Thessalonica,  which  might  have  satisfied  them  that  this  day  of  the 
Lord  was  not  at  hand,  because  he  had  given  notice  of  a  series  of  im- 
portant events  which  were  first  to  take  place.  These  events  are  the 
apostasy,  the  revelation  of  the  man  of  sin,  his  continuing  for  some 
time  to  act  in  the  character  which  he  assumed,  and  his  destruction.  I 
call  it  the  apostasy,  for  the  expression  in  our  English  Bibles,  "  a 
falling  away,"  is  by  no  means  equivalent  to  the  Greek  word  57  aTtoata- 
OM,  the  departing  from  the  faith,  as  it  is  rendered  1  Tim.  iv.  1,  cor- 
rupting the  simplicity  and  purity  of  the  gospel.  The  article  prefixed 
to  it,  "  the  apostasy,"  marks  not  only  that  it  would  be  great  and  sig- 
nal, but  that  it  had  been  foretold  that  it  might  be  known,  and  that  it 
was  to  be  expected  by  those  who  studied  the  ancient  prophets.     In 


CHURCH    OF    ROME.  709 

the  progress  of  this  apostasy,  there  was  to  be  revealed  or  made  mani- 
fest 0  ai'^cwrtoj  ttji  a^a^naj,  o  woj  trji  artuT^ia^.     This  docs  not  iiecessarily  de- 
note a  single  person.     But  as  the  high  priest  under  the  Jewish  law 
meant  the  persons  who  in  succeeding  ages  bore  that  office,  "  the  man 
of  sin"  may  denote  a  succession  of  persons,  who,  as  well  as  the  apos- 
tasy, had  been  foretold,  and  so  might  be  known ;  and  who  deserved 
that  name,  either  from  being  infamous  for  their  own  wickedness,  or 
very  instrumental  in  promoting  the  wickedness  of  others.     The  title, 
"  the  son  of  perdition,"  having  been  applied  by  our  Lord  to  Judas, 
and  being  transferred  to  this  man  of  sin,  may  suggest  that,  under  the 
semblance  of  a  friend,  he  should  betray  his  master,  and  certainly  in- 
timates the  destruction  ordained  for  those  whom  he  corrupted,  and 
for  himself     This  man  of  sin,  or  the  succession  of  persons  who  de- 
serve that  name,  is  further  described  in  the  4th  verse,  as  an  enemy  to 
the  truth,  exerting  his  power  in  opposition  to  that  which  is  truly  the 
cause  of  God, — as  assuming  great  state  and  dignity,  exalting  himself 
above  those  civil  powers,  which  are  called  in  Scripture,  Gods,  above 
all  that  is  held  in  reverence  by  men, — yet  preserving  the  appearance 
of  an  ecclesiastic,  for  "he  sitteth  in  the  temple  of  God,"  whicli,  as 
the  Jewish  temple  was  soon  to  be  destroyed,  can  mean  nothing  but 
the  Christian  church.     Continuing,  therefore,  outwardly  a  member 
of  the  church,  and  grounding  his  power  upon  the  station  which  he 
held  there,  he  was  to  claim  divine  honours,  to  take  to  himself  the 
name  and  titles  of  God,  and  to  show  himself,  to  those  who  follow  him, 
as  a  God.     There  is,  in  all  this,  a  striking  resemblance  to  the  succes- 
sion of  persons  who,  in  the  progress  of  the  corruptions  of  the  church 
of  Rome,  encouraged  sin  by  many  of  their  doctrines  and  practices, 
opposed  the  truth,  assumed  titles,  and  claimed  powers  which  belong 
to  no  mortal.     But  bare  resemblance  is  not  sufficient  to  warrant  this 
application  of  the  prophecy.     We  must  not  only  perceive  that  the 
description  here  given  may  apply  to  the  succession  of  the  bishops  of 
Rome,  but  we  must  discover  limiting  circumstances,  which  prevent 
us  from 'applying  the  description  to  any  other.     Some  such  limiting 
circumstances  the  apostle  seems  to  suppose  were  known  to  the  Thes- 
salonians,  for  he  refers  in  the  5th  verse  to  an  explication  of  the  sub- 
ject of  his  prophecy,  which  he  had  given  when  he  was  with  them. 
But  the  reference  is  so  short  and  obscure,  that,  whatever  it  might 
bring  to  the  recollection  of  the  Thessalonians,  it  conveys  no  informa- 
tion to  us.     The  5th  and  7th  verses  give  no  hint  of  what  it  was,  tliot 
restrained  the  manifestation  of  the  man  of  sin.     They  only  declare 
that  the  Thessalonians  knew  it.     In  order,  then,  to  discover  those 
limiting  circumstances  which  are  hinted  at  without  being  explained, 
we  must  recollect  that  all  the  prophecies  of  Scripture,  from  the  be- 
ginning to  the  end  of  the  Bible,  form  one  continued  scheme.     The 
more  ancient  and  the  more  recent  predictions  point  to  the  same  great 
dispensation  of  Providence,  and  they  throw  light  upon  one  another. 
The  prophecy  in  this  chapter  speaks  of  a  corruption  of  Christianity, 
which  was  to  attain  its  height  in  a  future  time,  but  was  already  be- 
ginning to  work.  Now  the  other  inspired  writers,  wlio  received  power 
from  God  to  speak  of  the  same  event,  are  Daniel  the  prophet,  and 
John  the  divine.     Paul  comes  between  the  two  :  and  his  words  may 
receive  illustration  from  both. 
62 


710  CHURCH    OF    ROME. 

There  was  imparted  to  Daniel,  a  man  greatly  beloved  of  God,  a 
vision,  Dan.  vii.  which  was,  in  part,  explained  to  him,  and  which,  by 
means   of  that  explication,  is  clearly  understood  to  represent  four 
great  empires  which  succeeded  one  another,  and  the  course  of  whose 
history  led  to  the  times  and  the  fortunes  of  the  church  of  Christ.  The 
empire  of  Babylon  is  represented  by  the  lion  that  had  eagle's  wings, 
upon  account  of  the  rapidity  and  extent  of  the  conquests  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar.   The  kingdom  of  the  Medes  and  Persians  is  represented 
by  the  bear,  a  voracious  animal  which  thirsts  after  blood,  because 
they  exercised  the  greatest  cruelty  against  the  Babylonians,  and  are 
called  by  the  prophet  spoilers.*     The  empire  which,  by  the  rapid 
victories  of  Alexander  the  Great,  was  erected  in  a  few  years  upon 
the  ruins  of  the  Persian,  is  represented  by  the  leopard,  an  animal  re- 
markable for  its  swiftness.  The  fourth  beast  is  known  by  the  descrip- 
tion to  denote  the  empire  of  the  Romans.     But  it  has  no  particular 
name,  because  there  is  no  animal  that  corresponds  to  the  greatness, 
the  strength,  and  the  extent  of  the  Roman  empire.  The  fourth  beast, 
as  it  is  explained  to  the  prophet,  is  a  fourth  kingdom,  "  diverse  from 
all  kingdoms,"  being  not  governed  by  a  king,  like  the  three  former 
empires ;  but  a  republic,  where  the  supreme  power  was  vested  in  a 
senate  and  assembly.     It  "  shall  devour  the  whole  earth,  and  break 
it  in  pieces,"  because  the  Romans  subdued  many  parts  of  Europe 
and   Africa,  which  were  not  conquered  by  Alexander,  not  being 
known  to  him ;  and  although  gentle,  according  to  their  principle,  to 
those  who  submitted,  brought  the  ravages  of  war  upon  those  who 
opposed  their  power.    The  beast  had  ten  horns,  which  are  explained 
to  the  prophet  to  be  "  ten  kings  that  should  arise"  out  of  the  fourth 
kingdom.     The  barbarous  nations,  with  whom  the  Romans  had  in- 
tercourse, being  invited,  by  the  different  parties  who  contended  at 
Rome  for  the  government  of  the  state,  to  assist  them  in  their  struggle, 
became  acquainted  both  with  the  wealth  and  with  the  corruption  of 
the  Roman  empire.  They  made  incursions,  obtained  settlements,  and 
established  different  kingdoms  within  the  empire  ;  and  the  number  of 
independent  kingdoms,  which  arose  out  of  the  empire,  has  been  com- 
puted, by  the  most  accurate  examiners,  to  be  ten.     Now,  as  the  pro- 
phet had  seen  among  the  ten  horns  of  tire  beast  "  another  little  horn, 
before  whom  were  three  of  the  first  horns  plucked  up,"  so  it  is  ex- 
plained to  him,  that,  after  the  ten  kings  had  arisen  out  of  the  fourth 
kingdom,  i.  e.  after  the  Roman  empire  had  been  split  into  ten  king- 
doms, "  there  shall  arise  another  king,  diverse  from  the  first,  and  he 
shall  subdue  three"  of  the  ten  "  kings."    This,  by  the  place  which  it 
holds  in  the  description,  can  be  none  other  than  the  power  of  the 
pope,  which  grew  through  a  course  of  ages,  so  that  from  being  a  ser- 
vant of  the  lowly  Jesus,  the  successor  of  his  humble  apostles,  he  be- 
came a  temporal  prince,  possessed  of  a  large  territory,  and  claiming 
to  be  the  head  of  the  whole  Christian  church.     He  was  "  diverse 
from  the  first,"  because  his  was  a  spiritual,  as  well  as  a  civil  power. 
The  distinction  was  not  always  accurately  marked  between  those 
claims  which  he  advanced  as  the  bishop  of  Rome,  and  those  which 
he  advanced  as  a  temporal  prince ;  and  the  one  assisted  the  other. 

*  Isaiah  xxi.  2. 


CHURCH    OF    ROME.       •  711 

Before  the  end  of  the  eighth  century,  the  popes  had  by  diflerent 
means  obtained  three  of  the  kingdoms  into  which  the  Roman  empire 
was  spht,  as  an  emblem  of  which  they  continue  to  this  day  to  wear 
a  triple  crown.  The  little  horn  did  then  "  subdue  three  kings."  It 
is  said  also  tiiat,  he  had  "  a  look  more  stout  than  his  fellows,  a  mouth 
that  spake  very  great  things,  and  that  he  shall  speak  great  words 
against  the  Most  High."  This  he  did  by  calling  himself  infallible, 
interpreting  Scripture  according  to  his  pleasure,  requiring  instant  obe- 
dience to  his  decrees  in  opposition  to  the  plain  sense  of  Scripture.  It 
is  said,  "  he  shall  make  war  with  the  saints,  and  prevail  against 
them,  and  wear  out  the  saints  of  the  Most  High."  This  he  did  by 
the  court  of  inquisition,  by  the  wars  which  he  excited  against  Pro- 
testants, and  by  the  various  bloody  methods  which  he  employed  to 
oppress  those  who  resisted  his  usurpation.  It  is  said  "he  shall  think 
to  change  times  and  laws."  This  he  did  by  indulgences,  by  tradi- 
tions, by  new  modes  of  worship,  new  articles  of  faith,  and  new  prac- 
tices, as  penances,  fasts,  and  pilgrimages.  The  propliecy  concludes 
with  foretelling  the  destruction  of  this  strange  power,  and  the  triumph 
of  the  saints  of  the  Most  High  over  their  oppressor :  and  it  even  sets 
a  season  for  that  event. 

In  this  passage  of  Daniel,  then,  and  there  are  others  in  this  book 
of  the  same  import,  it  is  plainly  foretold,  that  there  was  to  arise  a 
po"\ver  of  a  very  singular  character  in  opposition  to  true  religion  ;  that 
this  power  was  to  arise  in  that  part  of  the  world  which  was  properly 
called  the  Roman  empire,  and  that  it  was  to  arise  after  the  empire 
was  divided  into  ten  kingdoms. 

The  other  inspired  person,  who  speaks  of  this  power,  is  John  the 
Divine.  In  his  epistles  the  expressions  are  general.  1  John  ii.  18, 
"  Ye  have  heard  that  antichrist  shall  come  ;"  antichrist,  i.  e.  a  person, 
or  a  succession  of  persons,  in  opposition  to  Christ,  to  his  dignity,  to 
his  doctrine,  and  to  the  spirit  of  his  religion.  "  Ye  have  heard  it." 
It  is  one  of  the  traditions  of  the  Christian  church,  proceeding  from 
the  first  preachers  of  Christianity,  and  diffused  with  the  knowledge 
of  the  Gospel  through  the  whole  world.  1  John  iv.  3,  "  This  is  that 
spirit  of  antichrist  whereof  ye  have  heard  that  it  should  come,  and 
even  now  already  it  is  in  the  world."  The  spirit  of  this  opposition 
is  already  working,  although  the  time  of  its  full  manifestation  is  what 
you  have  been  taught  to  look  for  as  yet  future. 

Both  these  passages  are  general,  and  only  furnish  a  name  for  that 
corrupt  usurping  power,  which  Daniel  had  described.  But  John  is  most 
particular  in  his  book  of  prophecy.  When  he  was  in  the  spirit  in  the 
isle  of  Patmos,  he  "saw  the  things  which  shall.be  hereafter;"  and 
amongst  other  things  there  were  shown  to  him.  Rev.  xvii.  the  future 
corruptions  of  religion,  by  the  vision  of  a  woman  sitting  upon  a  porten- 
tous beast,  having  seven  heads  and  ten  horns."  Here,  as  in  Daniel,  the 
vision  isexplained.  For  when  John  "wondered  with  great  admiration" 
at  what  he  saw,  the  angel  told  him  "  the  mystery,"  i.  e.  the  hidden  im- 
port "  of  the  woman  and  of  the  beast.  The  seven  heads  are  seven 
mountains  on  which  the  woman  sitteth.  The  woman  is  that  great  city 
which  reigneth  over  the  kings  of  the  cartli.  And  the  ten  horns  are  ten 
kings  which  have  received  no  kingdom  as  yet ;  but  receive  power  as 
kings  one  hour  with  the  beast.     For  God  hath  put  it  in  their  heart  to 


712  CHURCH    OF    ROME. 

fulfil  his  will,  and  to  agree,  and  give  their  kingdom  unto  the  beast, 
until  the  words  of  God  shall  be  fulfilled."  Here  we  are  brought 
back  to  the  prophecy  of  Daniel ;  for  the  city  of  seven  hills  which 
reigneth  over  the  kings  of  the  earth,  is  the  characteristical  description 
of  Rome.  She  was  the  mistress  of  the  world  ;  and  the  peculiarity  ot 
her  situation,  which  her  own  poets,  and  all  travellers  mark,  is,  that 
within  one  wall  she  enclosed  seven  hills  or  eminences, 

Septemque  una  sibi  muro  circumdabit  arces.  The  universal 
empire  which  she  attained  under  the  first  of  her  emperors  was,  in 
succeeding  ages,  split  into  ten  kingdoms,  so  that  she  is  fitly  marked 
by  tlie  beast  with  seven  heads  and  ten  horns.  In  the  character  which 
John  draws  of  the  woman,  we  recognise  the  features  of  that  king, 
diverse  from  all  other  kings,  who  was  represented  in  Daniel  by  the 
little  horn.  She  has  a  cup  in  her  hand,  with  which  she  teaches  the 
nations  to  commit  idolatry.  She  is  "  drunk  with  the  blood  of  the 
saints,  and  with  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  of  Jesus."  She  receives, 
power  from  the  ten  kings,  and  she  rides  them,  i.  e.  directs  them  at 
her  pleasure.  Here  is  an  antichristian  power,  and  the  time  and  the 
place  of  it  are  marked.  It  is  to  exist  along  with  the  ten  kings,  receiv- 
ing its  kingdom  from  them ;  and,  at  length,  when  they  are  tired  of 
its  usurpation,  to  be  destroyed  by  them.  It  is  the  city  of  Rome,  de- 
scribed in  words,  which  to  any  person  acquainted  with  history,  can 
mark  no  other  city  in  the  world,  the  capital  of  that  empire,  out  of  the 
division  of  which  the  strange  power  was  to  arise.  The  later  pro- 
phecy then,  according  to  the  practice  in  the  chain  of  prophecy  upon 
all  other  subjects,  has  rendered  the  ancient  more  intelligible,  and  more 
pointed ;  and  when  we  compare  Daniel  and  John  together,  we  can 
entertain  no  doubt  that  the  seat  of  the  antichristian  power,  whicli  both 
agree  in  describing,  was  to  be  the  city  of  Rome,  after  the  division  of 
the  Roman  empire. 

So  far  Daniel  and  John.  Now  here  comes  in  the  Aposde  Paul  be- 
tween the  two,  manifestly  describing  the  same  antichristian  power 
of  which  they  speak  ;  a  power  which  "  opposeth,  and  exalteth  itself 
above  all  that  is  called  God,  and  showeth  itself  that  it  is  God."  His 
description  is,  in  some  respects,  not  so  intelligible  as  theirs.  We 
should  not  be  able  to  learn  from  him  either  the  time  or  the  place  of 
the  appearance  of  this  power.  But  we  find  him  referring,  for  the 
explication  of  the  short  expressions  which  are  here  used,  to  what  he 
had  said  when  he  was  at  Thessalonica,  and  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
subject  which  was  generally  diff"used  through  the  Christian  church. 
"  Remember  ye  not  that  I  have  told  you  these  things.  Ye  know 
what  withholdeth."  We  are  warranted  then,  we  are  obliged  by  the 
authority  of  the  apostle  himself,  to  take  in  this  general  knowledge  as 
the  commentary  upon  his  words,  i.  e.  we  are  obliged  to  make  the  pro- 
phecy of  Daniel,  and  the  information  of  which  John  says  Christians 
were  in  possession,  and  which  his  prophecy  extended,  to  make  them 
the  interpreters  of  Paul ;  and  when  we  do  so,  the  meaning  of  this 
apostle  appears  plain. 

Paul  wrote  to  the  Thessalonians  when  the  Roman  empire  existed 
in  all  its  glory,  during  the  reign  of  some  of  the  first  emperors, 
and  before  any  disaster  had  befallen  the  state,  or  any  inroad  had 
been  made  by  the  barbarians.     But  this  flourishing  condition  of  the 


CHURCH    OP    ROME.  713 

empiJe  withheld  the  man  of  sin  from  being  revealed.  He  could  not 
be  revealed,  while  the  empire  was  one  and  undivided  ;  for  the  pro- 
phecy of  Daniel  had  expressly  marked,  that  antichrist  was  to  arise 
after  the  dismemberment  of  the  empire  ;  and  the  prophecy  of  John 
says,  that  he  was  to  exist  with  the"  ten  kings.  It  was  many  ages 
after  the  date  of  this  epistle,  that  independent  kingdoms  were  esta- 
blished in  the  empire  ;  and  it  was  not  till  the  fifth  century  that  Rome 
was  taken,  and  the  Roman  empire  destroyed  by  the  barbarians. 
Then  *'  he  who  letteth,"  o  xatext-iv,  "  was  taken  out  of  the  way." 
The  power  and  dignity  of  the  emperor  being  abolished,  the  bishop  of 
Rome  became  the  most  conspicuous  person  in  the  western  world. 
Availing  himself  of  all  the  advantages  which  the  weakness,  the  divi- 
sions, and  the  continual  wars  of  the  barbarous  princes  afforded  him, 
he  silently  reared  his  head,  extended  his  claims,  enlarged  his  domi- 
nions ;  and  before  the  end  of  the  eighth  century,  was  in  possession  of 
the  territory  of  three  of  the  ten  kings,  was  acknowledged  as  a  sove- 
reign prince,  and  was  submitted  to  as  the  vicar  of  Christ. 

This  interpretation  of  the  obscure  expression  of  Paul,  which  we 
derive  easily  from  the  words  of  the  two  other  prophets,  contains  a 
satisfying  reason  why  he  wrote  thus  darkly.  There  would  have  been 
a  great  impropriety  in  a  dutiful  subject  of  the  empire,  as  the  apostle 
alwaj^s  professed  to  be,  speaking  openly  in  a  letter  which  was  to  be 
circulated  through  the  Christian  world,  of  the  dissolution  of  the  em- 
pire, and  of  events  respecting  the  Christians,  which  were  to  happen, 
after  that  dissolution.  Such  a  letter  would  justly  have  been  ac- 
counted treason  against  the  state,  and  might  have  exposed  both  the 
writer  of  it,  and  those  who  held  it  in  veneration,  to  civil  punislmient. 
The  apostle,  therefore,  darkly  refers  to  what  he  had  said  at  Thessa- 
lonica,  and  by  this  cautious  mode  of  expressing  himself  avoids  an  un- 
necessary danger.  But  although  he  does  not  here  explain  what  he 
had  said,  the  knowledge  of  it  was  carried  from  Thessalonica,  or  I'rom 
other  churches  where  he  had  given  the  same  instruction,  through  all 
the  Christian  world,  and  as  the  intimation  agreed  exactly  with  the 
prediction  of  Daniel,  it  came  to  be  generally  understood  by  the  Chris- 
tians, that  as  soon  as  the  Roman  empire  was  dismembered  antichrist 
should  appear.  "  Therefore,"  says  Tertullian  in  his  apology,  writ- 
ten in  the  second  century,  "  we  Christians  are  under  a  particular 
necessity  of  praying  for  the  emperors,  and  for  the  continued  state  of 
the  empire,  because  we  know  the  dreadful  power  which  hangs  over 
the  whole  world  ;  and  the  conclusion  of  the  age,  which  threatens  the 
most  horrible  evils,  is  retarded  by  the  continuance  of  the  time  ap- 
pointed for  the  Roman  empire.  We  pray,  therefore,  that  this  evil 
may  be  deferred  by  the  perpetuity  of  the  state."  Jerome,  who  lived 
to  see  Rome  taken  by  the  Goths,  exclaims,  "  He  which  letted  is  now 
taken  away,  and  from  hence  we  understand  that  antichrist  is  near." 

Although  the  revelation  of  the  man  of  sin  was  in  this  manner 
delayed,  or  letted,  for  ages  after  the  apostle  wrote,  yet  the  seeds  of 
this  corruption  were  sown  in  the  Christian  church  even  during  his 
days;  for  he  says,  to  juinjf jj^tov  r^Srj  (vt^yntai  tr-^  arouoxj.  Mystery  is  the 
Scripture  name  for  any  thing  that  is  secret,  whose  nature  is  not 
perfectly  discovered.  The  gospel  is  called  "the  mystery  of  godliness," 
because  its  divine  and  spiritual  nature  was  unknown  to  the  world  at 
62*  5  A 


714  CHURCH    OF    ROME. 

the  time  of  its  publication  ;  and  the  corruptions  of  the  gospel  are 
called"  the  mystery  of  iniquity,"  because  they  long  worked  secretly, 
before  their  influence  in  encouraging  iniquity  was  manifest.  We  find 
many  traces  of  them  in  the  apostolical  writings;  contentions  for  pre- 
eminence ;  the  abuse  of  Christian  liberty  so  as  to  make  it  a  pretext 
for  vindicating  rebellion  and  a  contempt  of  the  higher  powers ;  false 
philosophy  perverting  the  simplicity  of  the  truth  ;  the  distinction  of 
meats  ;  the  worship  of  angels  ;  the  observance  of  days  and  months, 
and  other  superstitious  ceremonies ;  voluntary  humility ;  affected 
mortification  ;  abstinence  from  things,  '•  which  God  hath  created  to 
be  received  with  thanksgiving;"  a  respect  for  the  traditions  and 
doctrines  of  men  ;  and  an  endeavour  to  substitute  outward  compliance 
with  the  commandments,  in  place  of  that  "righteousness,  peace,  and 
joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  is  the  kingdom  of  Christ."  All  this  is 
poperJ^  Under  whatever  name,  or  in  whatever  form  it  appears,  it  is 
the  spirit  of  the  "  man  of  sin."  The  apostles  testify  against  it  in  their 
epistles  ;  and  by  the  very  strong  censures  with  which  they  brand  the 
first  fruits  of  this  spirit,  they  teach  Christians  to  hold  it  in  abhorrence 
wheresoever  it  makes  itself  manifest.  So  long  as  the  Roman  emperors 
were  heathen,  and  the  Christians  were  exposed  to  persecution  under 
their  government,  this  spirit  was  repressed,  and  could  not  do  much 
mischief.  But  after  the  conversion  of  Constantine  lent  the  aid  of  the 
civil  magistrate  to  the  decrees  of  the  church,  tins  spirit  became  con- 
spicuous in  the  articles  of  faith,  which  were  established  by  authority, 
and  enforced  upon  the  Christian  world.  The  worship  of  saints  and 
angels,  many  superstitious  customs,  and  much  foolish  abstinence, 
became  the  law  of  the  church;  and  this  law  was  esteemed  as  of 
equal  authority  with  the  word  of  God.  Stiil,  however,  the  dignity 
and  power  of  the  Roman  emperor  restrained  the  complete  manifesta- 
tion ofthe  "' man  of  sin."  J3ut  when  a  barbarous  race  invaded  the 
seat  of  the  Roman  empire,  levelled  all  that  was  held  venerable  in  the 
state,  and  spread  ignorance  and  anarchy  over  those  lands  which  had 
been  blessed  wiiii  science  and  equal  government,  then  was  the  oppor- 
tunity ofthe  "man  of  sin,"  rai  savT'oD  xat^9,  his  occasion,  his  favourable 
time  ;  when  meeting  with  no  obstacle,  and  finding  in  the  weakness, 
the  divisions,  and  the  brutality  of  the  barbarous  princes,  a  subject 
upon  which  his  arts  might  be  practised  with  success,  "  he,  as  God, 
seated  himself  in  the  temple  of  God,  showing  himself"  to  his  deluded 
followers,  "that  he  is  God."  The  power  which  had  been  occasionally 
exercised  by  the  general  councils,  under  the  protection  of  the 
emperors,  and  with  a  prudent  regard  to  circumstances,  was  then 
boldly  asserted  as  the  right  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  By  his  own 
infallibility  he  declared  what  should  be  the  faith  of  Christians  ;  he 
enacted  the  discipline  and  ceremonies  of  the  church;  and  he  separated 
from  Christ,  and  persecuted  with  the  sword,  those  who  refused  to 
submit  to  his  decrees.  With  strict  propriety  the  apostle  calls  him,  in 
the  8th  verse,  6avo,u«j,  the  lawless  one;  since  it  is  said  of  him  by  those, 
who,  in  their  public  writings,  profess  to  give  a  true  picture  of  the 
extent  of  his  authority,  that  he  is  subject  to  no  law,  that  by  the  pleni- 
tude of  his  power,  he  can  make  right  wrong,  and  wrong  right,  and 
that  he  may  do  all  things  above  law,  without  law,  and  against  law. 
A  time  of  anarchy  was  the  season,  xai^oj,  for  the  revelation  of  such  a 


CHURCH    OP    ROME.  715 

man;  and  the  progress  of  just  notions  with  regard  to  the  rights  of 
sovereigns  and  the  hberiies  of  mankind  must,  in  the  nature  of  things, 
circumscribe  such  extravagant  claims. 

But  before  we  speak  of  his  destruction,  let  us  attend  to  the  intima- 
tion given  in  this  prophecy  of  the  acts,  by  which  this  "  mystery  of 
iniquity"  was  to  be  established.     The  apostle  mentions  two  ;  false 
miracles,  or  "all  power,  and  signs,  and  lying  wonders;"  and  what 
he  calls  '''all  dcccivableness  of  unrighteousness."     One  of  the  marks, 
by  which  the  church  of  Rome  says  it  may  be  known  that  she  is  the 
true  church,  is  the  power  of  working  miracles.     Accordingly,   the 
legends  of  the  church  are  filled  with  wonderful  cures  performed  at 
the  shrines  of  the  saints  or  by  their  bones  and  relics ;  and  with  stories 
more  marvellous  and  more  ridiculous,  than  any  of  those  which  we 
now  read  for  amusement.    In  a  superstitious  and  ignorant  age,  when 
it  was  the  interest  of  the  priests  to   deceive  the  people,  and  when  it 
was  the  wish  of  the  people  to  be  deceived,  exploits  which  appear  to 
us  palpable  and  gross  forgeries  were  received  without  examination  as 
real  and  great  miracles.     Indeed,  in  most  of  the  instances,  the  forgery 
was  so  gross,  that  it  has  been  acknowledged  by  several  writers  in  the 
Romish  church  ;  and  it  does  not  seem  necessary  to  suppose  that  the 
power  of  any  evil  spirit  was  exerted.     But  these  lying  wonders  are 
here  said  to  have  been  wrought  zar'  fvf^ytiav  tov  Satam,  because  Satan 
is  the  Father  of  lies  ;  and  their  influence  upon  the  minds  of  men  in 
preparing  them  to  receive  and  to  retain  the  corruptions  of  the  truth, 
was  an  instrument  in  which   he  delighted,  by  which  he  had  lield  a 
part  of  the  dominion  which  he  exercised  over  the  heathen  world,  and 
by  which,  after  the  appearance  of  Christianity,  lie  kept  many  of  the 
followers  of  Christ  in  nearly  the  same  darkness,  idolatry,  and  slavery, 
which  formed  the  character  of  those  to  whom  the  true  God  had  never 
been  preached.     The  other  instrument  of  establishing  the  usurped 
authority  of  the  "  man  of  sin"  is  styled  rfa(T>7  artafrj  tt^i  aSixiaj :  an  expres- 
sion which  comprehends  all  the  false  doctrines,  and  delusive  promises, 
and  groundless  fears,  by  which  the  church  of  Rome  rules  over  the 
minds  of  its  votaries;  the  forgeries  of  books  ;  the  perversion  of  Scrip- 
ture; the  arts  of  captious  reasoning;  the  expectationof  purgatory,  that 
invisible  fire  which  may  be  rendered  longer  or  shorter,  more  intense 
or  more  gentle,  according  to  the  pleasure   of  the  Pope  ;  that  reliance 
upon  the  intercession  of  the  saints,  and  upon  the  powers  of  indulgence 
and  absolution  said  to  be  vested  in  the  church  of  Rome,  by  which 
men  are  accommodated  in  the  practice  of  iniquity,  and  relieved  from 
the  reproaches  of  conscience. 

The  effectual  preservative  against  the  influence  of  both  these  in- 
struments is  the  "love  of  truth."  An  acquaintance  with  the  nature 
and  evidence  of  the  miracles  of  the  Gospel  exposes  the  falsehood  of 
the  lying  wonders  of  the  church  of  Rome  ;  and  "  the  truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus,"  detained  in  faith  and  love,  guards  us  against  "  all  the  deceiva- 
bleness  of  unrighteousness."  But,  if  men  will  not  exercise  their  own 
understandings,  they  may  be  led  into  dangerous  errors,  and  may, 
finally,  fall  into  that  condemnation  from  which  the  holding  the  truth 
would  have  delivered  them.  The  apostle,  however,  is  not  to  be  un- 
derstood as  meaning,  by  the  strong  expressions  which  he  has  sub- 
joined to  this  prophecy,  that  all  who  ever  believed  the  errors  of 


7J6  CHURCH    OF    ROME. 

popery  are  certainly  damned.  So  uncharitable  a  sentiment  forms  no 
part  of  the  Protestant  faith.  We  believe  that  many  worthy,  pious 
men,  by  the  prejudices  of  education,  and  custom,  have  been  so  con- 
firmed in  doctrines,  which  we  know  to  be  erroneous,  that  they  were 
unable  to  extricate  themselves.  Yet  they  might  be  preserved  by  the 
grace  of  God  from  that  unrighteousness,  to  which  the  same  errors  led 
many  otliers  ;  and  there  might  be  in  their  breasts  a  "love  of  truth," 
although  the  thickness  of  the  surrounding  cloud  kept  them  in  dark- 
ness. The  condemnation  is  pronounced  against  those,  who  "  received 
not  the  love  of  the  truth  that  they  might  be  saved,"  who  greedily 
embraced  error,  who  cherished  it  because  it  encouraged  them  in  sin, 
and  were  led  by  means  of  it,  to  a  security  and  an  excess  of  trans- 
gression. Whether  such  were  the  teachers  or  the  hearers  of  this  cor- 
rupt form  of  Christianity,  their  condemnation  is  just;  for  although  the 
guilt  of  those  who  lead  others  into  sin  is  most  heinous,  yet  no  man  is 
entitled  to  plead  his  being  misled,  as  an  excuse  for  the  perversion  of 
his  understanding,  or  the  corruption  of  his  life.  "  For  every  man 
shall  bear  his  own  burden." 

"  The  love  of  truth"  is  the  preservative  against  the  usurped  do- 
minion of  the  "  man  of  sin,"  and  the  diffusion  of  the  knowledge  of 
the  truth  will  prove  the  destruction  of  that  dominion.  For  as  the 
prophecies  of  the  great  apostasy,  in  Daniel  and  John,  speak  clearly 
of  better  times,  when  truth  and  righteousness  shall  flourish  upon 
earth ;  so  the  apostle  says,  "  Then  shall  that  wicked  be  revealed, 
whom-  the  Lord  shall  consume  with  the  spirit  of  his  mouth,  and  shall 
destroy  with  the  brightness  of  his  coming."  "  The  spirit  or  breath 
of  his  mouth"  is  a  common  Scripture  expression  for  the  word  of  God. 
The  church  of  Rome  forbade  the  people  to  read  the  Scriptures  ;  and 
it  was  the  ignorance  produced  by  this  prohibition  that  kept  the  world 
in  bondage.  But  when  our  forefathers  presumed,  at  the  time  of  the 
Reformation,  to  open  the  Bible ;  when  it  was  translated  into  the  lan- 
guages of  all  countries,  and  was  everywhere  read  and  explained,  it 
shook  the  pillars  of  the  dominion  of  "  the  man  of  sin."  Many  parts 
of  the  Christian  world  were  soon  emancipated  from  subjection  to  him. 
The  temporal  power  which  he  had  assumed  over  Christian  princes 
and  states  was  almost  everywhere  resisted ;  and  even  in  those  coun- 
tries which  still  acknowledge  him  as  the  head  of  the  Christian  church, 
his  spiritual  pretensions  are  abated,  and  he  is  no  longer  the  object  of 
servile  dread.  And  we  are  thus  prepared  for  believing  what  the  apostle 
declareSjthat  the  Lord, by  the  brightness  of  his  coming,by  some  striking 
interposition  of  Providence,  or  by  the  instrumentality  of  men,  shall 
refine  bis  church  from  this  corruption,  and  leave  no  portion  of  the 
dross.  The  times  are  in  his  hand.  We  presume  not  to  say,  when  it 
shall  be,  or  what  are  the  steps  by  which  it  is  to  be  accomplished.  But 
we  wait  with  faith  and  hope  for  that  clear  explication  of  the  ob- 
scurest words  of  the  prophecy,  which  the  event  will  give  to  some  age 
of  the  Christian  church  ;  and  we  regard  the  diminution  of  both  the 
temporal  and  the  spiritual  authority  of  the  Pope,  the  progress  of  the 
Reformation,  and  the  emancipation  of  many  states  which  he  once 
held  in  subjection,  as  pledges  that  all  the  parts  of  the  prophecy  will, 
in  their  season,  be  accomplished. 

Barrow.     Mede.     VVarburton.    Newton.     Hurd.    Halifax,    Bagot.    Macknight  on  tho 
■Enistles. 


EPISCOPACY    AND    PRESBYTERY.  717 


Section  I. 


EPISCOPACY    AND    PRESBYTERY. 


The  jurisdiction  and  supremacy  of  the  Pope  never  was  acknow- 
ledged by  what  is  caUed  the  Eastern  or  Greek  church,  i.  e.  by  large 
bodies  of  Christians  inhabiting  the  Eastern  part  of  Europe,  and  a 
great  part  of  Asia,  or  by  those  Christians  that  are  found  in  some  dis- 
tricts of  Africa;  and  the  era  of  the  Reformation  separated  a  consider- 
able part  of  what  had  been  called  the  Latin  or  Western  church  from 
the  communion  of  the  bishop  of  Rome.  But  the  Protestants,  although 
they  united  in  combating  that  description  of  church  government, 
which  is  given  either  by  the  Papists  or  by  the  Roman  Catholics,  did 
not  agree  as  to  what  was  to  be  substituted  in  its  place.  Minuter 
shades  of  difference  in  the  external  polity  and  visible  form  of  Pro- 
testant churches  may  be  overlooked.  But  there  are  two  general 
systems  of  church  government  that  obtain  amongst  Protestants,  whicli 
are,  ia  many  respects,opposed  to  one  another.  We  are  accustomed 
to  express  the  points  of  difference  in  one  word,  by  calling  some  Pro- 
testant churches  Episcopal,  and  others  Presbyterian  ;  and  these  two 
systems  form  an  interesting  object  in  Great  Britain,  because  the  one 
is  established  by  law  in  England,  the  other  in  Scotland. 

The  Episcopal  form  of  church  government  professes  to  find  in  the 
days  of  the  apostles  the  model  upon  which  it  is  framed.  While  our 
Lord  remained  upon  earth,  he  acted  as  the  immediate  governor  of  his 
church.  Having  himself  called  the  apostles,  he  kept  them  constantly 
about  his  person,  except  at  one  time,  when  he  sent  them  forth  upon  a 
short  progress  through  the  cities  of  Judea,  and  gave  them  particular 
directions  how  they  should  conduct  themselves.  The  seventy  disci- 
ples, whom  he  sent  forth  at  another  time,  are  never  mentioned  again 
in  the  New  Testament.  But  the  apostles  received  from  him  many 
intimations  that  their  office  was  to  continue  after  his  departure  ;  and 
as  one  great  object  of  his  ministry  was  to  qualify  them  for  the  execu- 
tion of  this  office,  so  in  the  interval  between  his  resurrection  and  his 
ascension,  he  explained  to  them  the  duties  of  it,  and  he  invested 
them  with  the  authority  which  the  discharge  of  those  duties  implied. 
"  Go,"  said  he,  "  make  disciples  of  all  nations,  baptizing  them,  teach- 
ing them ;  and  lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the 
world.  As  my  Father  hath  sent  me,  even  so  send  I  you.  Receive 
ye  the  Holy  Ghost."* 

Soon  after  the  ascension  of  Jesus,  his  apostles  received  those  extra- 
ordhiary  gifts  of  which  his  promise  had  given  them  assurance ;  and 
immediately  they  began  to  execute  their  commission,  not  only  as  the 
witnesses  of  his  resurrection,  and  the  teachers  of  his  religion,  but  aa 
the  rulers  of  that  society  wliich  was  gathered  by  their  preaching.  In ' 
Acts  vi.  we  find  the  apostles  ordering  the  Christians  at  Jerusalem  to 

*  Matt,  ixviii.  19,  20.     John  xx.  21,  22. 


718  EPISCOPACY    AND    PRESBYTERY. 

"  look  out  seven  men  of  honest  report,"  who  might  take  charge  of  the 
daily  ministrations  to  the  poor,  and  to  bring  the  men  so  chosen  to 
them,  that  "  we,"  said  the  apostles,  "  may  appoint  them  over  this 
business."  The  men  accordingly  were  "  set  before  the  apostles  ;  and 
when  they  had  prayed,  they  laid  their  hands  on  them."  Here  are 
the  apostles  ordaining  deacons.  Afterwards  we  find  Paul,  in  his  pro- 
gress through  Asia  Minor,  ordaining  in  every  church  elders,  Tt^taSv-fs- 
govs ;  the  name  properly  expressive  of  age  being  transferred,  after  the 
practice  of  the  Jews,  as  a  mark  of  respect  to  ecclesiastical  rulers.* 
The  men  thus  ordained  by  Paul  appear  from  the  book  of  Acts  and 
the  Epistles  to  have  been  teachers,  pastors,  overseers  of  the  flock  of 
Christ ;  and  to  Timothy,  who  was  a  minister  of  the  word,  Paul  speaks 
of  "the  gift  which  is  in  thee  by  the  putting  on  of  my  hands."t  Over 
the  persons  to  whom  he  thus  conveyed  the  office  of  teaching  he  ex- 
ercised jurisdiction  ;  for  he  sent  to  Ephesus,  to  the  elders  of  the  church 
to  meet  him  at  Miletus,  and  there  in  a  long  discourse  gave  them  a 
solemn  charge  ;|  and  to  Timothy  and  Titus  he  wrote  epistles  in  the 
style  of  a  superior. 

As  Paul  unquestionably  conceived  that  there  belonged  to  him  as  an 
apostle  an  authority  over  other  office-bearers  of  the  church,  so  his 
Epistles  contain  two  examples  of  a  delegation  of  that  authority.  He 
not  only  directs  Timothy,  whom  he  had  besought  to  abide  at  Ephe- 
sus, how  to  behave  himself  in  the  house  of  God  as  a  minister,  but  he 
sets  him  over  other  ministers.  He  empowers  him  to  ordain  men  to 
the  work  of  the  ministry.  2  Tim.  ii.  2.  "  The  things  that  thou  hast 
heard  of  me  among  many  witnesses,  the  same  commit  thou  to  faithful 
men,  who  shall  be  able  to  teach  others  also."  He  gives  them  direc- 
tions about  the  ordination  of  bishops  and  deacons:  he  places  both 
these  kinds  of  office-bearers  in  Ephesus  under  his  inspection,  instruct- 
ing him  in  what  manner  to  receive  an  accusation  against  an  elder 
who  laboured  in  word  and  doctrine  ;  and  he  commands  him  to  charge 
some  that  they  teach  no  other  doctrine  but  the  form  of  sound  words. 
In  like  manner,  he  says  to  Titus,  i.  5,  "  For  this  cause  left  I  thee  in 
Crete,  that  thou  shouldest  set  in  order  the  things  that  were  wanting, 
and  ordain  elders  in  every  city,  as  I  had  appointed  thee."  He 
describes  to  Titus  the  qualifications  of  a  bishop  or  elder,  making  him 
the  judge  how  far  any  person  in  Crete  was  possessed  of  these  qualifi- 
cations :  he  gives  him  authority  over  all  orders  of  Christians  there, 
and  he  empowers  him  to  reject  heretics. 

Here,  then,  is  that  apostle,  with  whose  actions  we  are  best  ac- 
quainted, seemingly  aware  that  there  would  be  continual  occasion  in 
the  Christian  church  for  the  exercise  of  that  authority  over  pastors 
and  teachers,  which  the  apostles  had  derived  from  the  Lord  Jesus ; 
and  by  these  two  examples  of  a  delegation  given  during  his  lifetime, 
preparing  the  world  for  beholding  that  authority  exercised  by  the 
successors  of  the  apostles  in  all  ages. 

Accordingly  the  earliest  Christian  writers  tell  us  that  the  apostles, 
to  prevent  contention,  appointed  bishops  and  deacons ;  giving  orders 
too,  that  upon  their  death,  other  approved  men  should  succeed  in  their 
ministry.     We  are  told  that  the  other  apostles  constituted  their  first 

*  Acts  xiv.  23,  f  2  Tim.  i.  6.  :(:  Acts  xx.  17—35. 


EPISCOPACY    AND    PRESBYTERY.  719 

fruits,  i.  e.  their  first  disciples,  after  they  had  proved  them  by  the 
Spirit,  bishops  and  deacons  of  those  who  were  to  bcheve  ;  and  (hat 
tlie  apostle  John,  who  survived  the  rest,  after  returning  from  Patmos, 
the  place  of  his  banishment,  went  about  the  neighbouring  nations, 
ordaining  bishops,  establishing  whole  churches,  and  setting  apart  par- 
ticular persons  for  the  ministry,  as  they  were  pointed  out  to  him  by 
the  Spirit.  As  bishops  are  mentioned  in  the  earliest  times,  so  eccle- 
siastical history  records  the  succession  of  bishops  through  many  ages ; 
and  even  during  the  first  three  centuries,  before  Christianity  was  in- 
corporated with  the  state,  every  city,  where  the  multitude  of  Chris- 
tians required  a  number  of  pastors  to  perform  the  stated  offices,  pre- 
sents to  us,  as  far  as  we  can  gather  from  contemporary  writers,  an 
appearance  very  much  the  same  with  that  of  the  church  of  Jerusalem 
in  the  days  of  the  apostles.  The  apostle  James  seems  to  have  resided 
in  that  city.  But  there  is  also  mention  of  the  elders  of  the  church, 
who,  according  to  the  Scripture  representation  of  elders,  must  have 
discharged  the  ministerial  office,  but  over  whom  the  apostle  James 
presided.  So  in  Carthage,  where  Cyprian  was  bishop,  and  in  every 
other  Christian  city  of  which  we  have  particular  accounts,  there  was 
a  college  of  presbyters ;  and  there  was  one  person  who  had  not  only 
precedency,  but  jurisdiction  and  authority  over  the  rest.  They  were 
his  council  in  matters  relating  to  the  church,  and  they  were  qualified 
to  preach,  to  baptize,  and  to  administer  the  Lord's  supper ;  but  they 
could  do  nothing  without  his  permission  and  authority.  It  is  a  prin- 
ciple in  Christian  antiquity,  "j  tTiiaxonoi,  i.aa  txx-Kt;s(.a.  The  one  bishop 
had  the  care  of  all  the  Christians,  who,  although  they  met  in  separate 
congregations,  constituted  one  church ;  and  he  had  the  inspection  of 
the  pastors,  who,  having  received  ordination  from  the  bishop,  offi- 
ciated in  the  separate  congregations,  performed  the  several  parts  of 
duty  which  he  prescribed  to  them,  and  were  accountable  to  him  for 
their  conduct. 

In  continuation  of  this  primitive  institution  we  find  episcopacy  in 
all  concerns  of  the  church  of  Christ.  Until  the  time  of  the  Reforma- 
tion there  were  in  every  Christian  states  persons  with  the  name,  the 
rank,  and  the  authority  "of  bishops;  and  the  existence  of  such  persons  , 
was  not  considered  as  an  innovation,  but  as  an  establishment,  which,!  i 
by  means  of  catalogues  preserved  in  ecclesiastical  writers,  may  be 
traced  back  to  the  days  of  the  apostles. 

Upon  the  principles  which  have  now  been  stated  it  is  understood, 
according  to  the  Episcopal  form  of  government,  that  there  is  in  the 
church  a  superior  order  of  office-bearers,  the  successors  of  the  apos- 
tles, Avho  possess  in  their  own  persons  the  right  of  ordination  and 
jurisdiction,  and  who  are  called  frfwxortoi,  as  being  the  overseers  not 
only  of  the  people,  but  also  of  the  clergy  ;  and  an  inferior  order  of 
ministers,  called  presbyters,  the  literal  translation  of  the  word  7<^(68vtt^o(,, 
which  is  rendered  in  our  English  Bibles  elders,  persons  who  receive, 
from  the  ordination  of  the  bishop,  power  to  preach  and  to  administer 
the  sacraments,  who  are  set  over  the  people,  but  are  themselves  un- 
der the  government  of  the  bishop,  and  have  no  right  to  convey  to 
others  the  sacred  office,  which  he  gives  them  authority  to  exercise 
under  him.  According  to  a  phrase  used  by  Charles  I.,  who  was  by 
no  means  an  unlearned  defender  of  that  form  of  government  to  which 


720  EPISCOPACY    AND    PRESBYTERY. 

i  he  was  a  martyr,  the  presbyters  are  episcopi  gregis  ;  but  the  bishops 
are  episcopi  gregis  et  pastorum. 

In  what  manner  bishops  of  a  province  or  nation  are  associated 
amongst  themselves,  and  what  degree  of  subordination  subsists  be- 
tween them  and  their  metropohtans  or  archbishops,  is  generally  un- 
derstood to  be  a  matter  of  civil  regulation,  depending  upon  mutual 
agreement,  or  upon  national  establishment.  But  the  authority  of  a 
bishop  within  his  own  diocese,  the  word  employed  to  denote  the  ex- 
tent of  territory  committed  to  his  care,  his  jurisdiction  over  all  the 
Christians  that  live  in  it,  and  his  superintendence  of  the  clergy  that 
officiate  there,  is  conceived  to  be  a  right  conveyed  to  him  by  succes- 
sion from  the  apostles,  in  the  exercise  of  which  he  may  be  supported 
by  the  civil  magistrate,  but  which  is  itself  founded  upon  the  word  of 
God,  and  is  agreeable  to  the  ancient  and  uninterrupted  practice  of  the 
Christian  church. 

The  Presbyterian  form  of  church  government  professes,  like  the 
Episcopal,  to  find,  in  the  times  of  the  apostles,  the  model  upon  which 

'  it  is  framed. 

In  order  to  perceive  how  two  opposite  forms  can  claim  to  be  de- 
rived from  the  same  origin,  the  point  at  which  they  separate  must  be 
carefully  marked.  Both  Episcopalians  and  Presbyterians  agree,  that 
amongst  the  various  powers  committed  to  the  apostles  there  was  an 
authority  vested  in  them,  as  the  governors  of  the  church,  to  exercise 
the  most  ample  inspection  and  jurisdiction  over  those  whom  they  or- 
dained, as  well  as  over  the  Christian  people :  and  both  agree  that 
there  are  instances  in  Scripture  of  a  delegation  of  some  part  at  least 
of  this  governing  power.  But  they  differ  as  to  the  description  of  the 
persons  to  whom  the  delegation  was  made.  Timothy  and  Titus, 
who,  by  the  directions  contained  in  the  Epistles  addressed  to  them, 
were  unquestionably  constituted  Episcopi  et  pastorum  et  gregis, 
are  accounted  by  the  Episcopalians,  the  stated  bishops  of  Ephesus 
and  Crete,  office-bearers  of  the  same  order  with  the  succession  of 
bishops  in  other  ages. 

According  to  the  Presbyterians,  Timothy  and  Titus  were  extraor- 
dinary office-bearers  suited  to  the  infant  state  of  the  Christian  church, 
who  are  called  in  the  New  Testament  evangelists,  and  whose  office 
is  thus  described  in  the  fourth  century  by  Eusebius.  "  They,  laying 
only  the  foundation  of  the  faith  in  places  which  had  not  heard  the 
Gospel,  and  appointing  other  pastors  to  whom  they  delivered  the  cul- 
tivation of  these  new  plants,  passed  on  themselves  to  other  countries 
and  nations." 

The  proof  that  Timothy  and  Titus  were  of  the  order  of  evangelists 
is  of  this  kind.  Timothy  is  mentioned  in  the  Acts  and  the  Epistles  as 
an  attendant  of  Paul  in  his  different  journeys.  Paul  says,  1  Tim.  i. 
3,  that  he  had  besought  him  to  abide  still  at  Ephesus,  which  implies 
that  this  was  not  his  fixed  station,  where  a  sense  of  duty  called  him 
to  reside,  but  a  place,  where  the  prospect  of  his  doing  some  special 
service  rendered  a  temporary  stay  expedient.  In  2  Tim.  iv.  5,  Timo- 
thy is  called  an  evangelist, « ^yoc  rcoirinov  ivojyyi-uotov.  Paul  appoints  him, 
2  Tim.  iv.  9,  21,  to  come  to  him  at  Rome,  from  whence  the  second 
Epistle  was  written,  and  to  come  before  winter ;  which  implies  that 


EPISCOPACY    AND    PRESBYTERY.  721 

he  was  not  soon  to  return  to  Ephesus.  From  these  circumstances 
it  appears  probable,  that,  ahhough  in  the  postscript  of  tlie  second 
Epistle,  which,  being  no  part  of  the  canon  of  Scripture,  is  of  no  autho- 
rity, Timothy  is  styled  the  first  Bishop  of  the  church  of  the  Ephesians, 
and  although  those  who  have  made  catalogues  of  bishops,  begin  the 
succession  at  Ephesus  with  this  respectable  name,  yet  Timothy  was 
not  a  stated  office-bearer  in  that  church ;  but  a  person  whom  Paul, 
from  intimate  acquaintance  with  his  zeal  and  his  talents,  sent  to 
Ephesus,  where  he  himself  had  resided  two  years,  and  had  ordained 
elders.  This  is  rendered  the  more  probable  by  our  being  able  to  ex- 
plain the  circumstances,  which  made  it  proper  to  send  such  a*person 
as  Timothy  with  an  extraordinary  character  to  Ephesus.  In  the 
solemn  charge  which  Paul  addressed  to  the  elders  of  that  church, 
when  he  summoned  them  to  meet  him  at  Miletus,  there  are  these 
words.  Acts  xx.  29,  30  ;  "For  I  know  this,  that  after  my  departing 
shall  grievous  wolves  enter  in  among  you,  not  sparing  the  flock. 
Also  of  your  ownselves  shall  men  arise,  speaking  perverse  things,  to 
draw  away  disciples  after  them.  Therefore  watch."  As  this  warn- 
ing suggests  that  there  might  be  much  expediency  in  sending  an  ex- 
traordinary teacher  to  Ephesus,  so  we  are  told  by  some  ancient  Chris- 
tian writers,  that  Timothy  was  left  at  Ephesus  in  order  to  oppose 
Judaizing  teachers ;  and  many  parts  of  the  Epistles  show,  that  the 
arts  of  the  false  teachers  at  Ephesus  had  seduced  some,  and  that  the 
nature  of  their  teaching  implied  such  a  display  of  learning,  and  such 
a  perversion  of  Christian  doctrine,  as  required  an  able  and  skilful  an- 
tagonist. 

Titus  is  styled,  in  the  postscript  of  the  epistle  addressed  to  him, 
Bishop  of  the  church  of  Cretians.  But  the  postscripts  of  the  epistles 
are  known  to  be  of  no  authority,  being  the  additions  of  a  later  age ; 
and  it  appears  from  two  circumstances,  that  Titus  was  an  evangelist, 
and  not,  as  the  postscript  bears.  Bishop  of  the  church  of  the  Cretians. 
or  a  stated  office-bearer  in  that  church.  1.  From  the  account  given 
of  his  being  left  there.  Titus  i.  5.  "  For  this  cause  left  I  thee  in 
Crete,  that  thou  shouldest  set  in  order  the  things  that  are  wanting, 
and  ordain  elders  in  every  city  ;"  which,  according  to  the  description 
that  we  find  in  Eusebius,  is  the  very  work  of  an  evangelist.  2.  From 
a  direction  given  him,  Titus  iii.  12.  "When  I  shall  send  Artemas 
unto  thee,  or  Tychicus,  be  diligent  to  come  unto  me  to  Nicopolis :  for 
I  have  determined  there  to  winter."  Nicopolis  was  a  town  in  Ma- 
cedonia, or  in  Epirus.  Whichever  of  the  two  we  understand  it  to  be, 
Titus  had  to  sail  from  Crete  the  whole  length  of  the  Mare  Aegeurti, 
in  those  days  a  very  difficult  navigation,  before  he  could  reach  the 
apostle.  The  direction,  therefore,  seems  to  imply  that  the  work  as- 
signed him  in  the  first  chapter  was  temporary.  When  it  was  finished, 
he  was  to  rejoin  the  apostle,  that  he  might  be  sent  elsewhere ;  and, 
accordingly,  in  the  second  epistle  to  Timothy,  which  is  generally  un- 
derstood to  be  one  of  the  last  of  Paul's  epistles,  and  was  certainly 
written  after  Titus  had  left  Crete,  it  is  said  "  Titus  is  departed  unto 
Balmatia." 

If  these  are  arguments  sufficient  to  prove  that  Timothy  and  Titus 
were  extraordinary  office-bearers,  suited  to  the  infant  state  of  the 
Christian  church,  then  these  two  instances,  of  a  delegation  of  the 
63  5  B 


722  EPISCOPACY    AND    PRESBYTERY, 

apostolical  powers  of  inspection  and  government,  are  no  proof  that 
such  delegation  to  single  persons  ought  to  be  continued,  or  that  the 
apostles  hitended  it  should  remain  in  the  Christian  church.  But,  if 
the  support  which  the  episcopal  form  of  government  derives  from  the 
powers  committed  to  Timothy  and  Titus  be  withdrawn,  the  Presby- 
terians contend,  that  the  Scriptures  furnish  no  unequivocal  instance 
of  inspection  over  pastors  being  exercised  by  any  office-bearer  infe- 
rior to  an  apostle ;  and  they  think  they  are  able  to  prove  that  the 
distinction  between  bishops  and  presbyters  has  no  foundation  in  Scrip- 
ture. Even  after  they  prove  this  point,  they  have  still  to  combat  the 
arguments,  which  the  Episcopalians  derive  from  the  universal  estab- 
lishment of  Episcopacy,  and  from  the  succession  of  bisiiops  since  the 
days  of  the  apostles.  These,  however,  are  matters  of  secondary  con- 
sideration. The  first  thing  incumbent  upon  those,  who  contend  that 
Episcopal  government  does  not  come  to  us  recommended  by  apos- 
tolical authority,  is  to  show,  that  presbyters  are  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment put  upon  a  level  with  bishops,  and  are  there  invested  with  those 
powers  of  ordination  and  jurisdiction,  which,  according  to  the  Epis- 
copal form  of  government,  belong  exclusively  to  the  higher  order  of 
office-bearers.  The  amount  of  the  reasoning  of  the  Presbyterians 
upon  this  fundamental  point  may  be  thus  stated. 

They  begin  their  argument  with  distinguishing  carefully  between 
those  extraordinary  powers,  which  exalt  the  apostles  of  Jesus  above 
all  other  office-bearers  in  his  church,  and  those  ordinary  functions  im- 
plied in  their  office  as  teachers,  which  are  in  all  ages  necessary  for  the 
edification  of  the  body  of  Christ.  The  universal  commission,  which 
they  received  from  their  Master,  to  make  disciples  of  all  nations, 
could  not  be  permanent  as  to  the  extent  of  it,  because  it  was  their 
practice  to  ordain  elders  in  every  city,  and  because  the  course  of  hu- 
man affairs  required  that,  after  Christianity  was  established,  the 
teachers  of  it  should  officiate  in  a  particular  place.  The  infallible 
guidance  of  the  Spirit,  under  which  the  apostles  acted  in  the  execu- 
tion of  their  universal  commission,  was  not  promised,  in  the  same 
measure,  to  succeeding  teachers.  But  being,  in  their  case,  vouched 
by  the  power  of  working  miracles,  it  directed  the  Christians  of  their 
days  to  submit  implicitly  to  their  injunctions  and  directions ;  it  placed 
their  words  upon  a  footing  with  the  words  of  their  Master ;  and  it 
warrants  the  Christian  world,  in  all  ages,  to  receive  with  entire  con- 
fidence that  system  of  faith  and  morality,  which  they  were  authorised 
to  deliver  in  his  name.  But,  as  all  Protestants  hold  that  this  system 
was  completed  when  the  canon  of  Scripture  was  closed,  and  that 
neither  individuals,  nor  any  body  of  men,  have  authority  to  add  any- 
new  articles  of  faith,  it  is  admitted  by  them  that  a  great  part  of  the 
apostolical  powers  ceased  with  those  to  whom  Jesus  first  committed 
them :  and,  therefore,  the  Presbyterians  cannot  appear  to  contradict 
the  analogy  of  faith,  when  they  rank  amongst  the  extraordinary 
powers,  which  were  to  cease  after  the  days  of  the  apostles,  that  su- 
preme right  of  inspection  and  government  over  Christian  pastors, 
which  was  implied  in  their  universal  commission,  and  in  their  hands 
,  was  not  liable  to  abuse.  Amongst  the  ordinary  functions  belonging 
to  their  office  as  teachers,  which  were  to  remain  always  in  the  Chris- 
tian church,  are  to  be  ranked,  not  only  preaching  the  word  and  dis- 


EPISCOPACY    AND    PRESBYTERY.  723 

pensing'the  sacraments,  but  also  that  rule  and  government  over 
Christians  as  such,  which  is  implied  in  the  idea  of  the  church  as  a 
society ;  and  the  Presbyterians  contend,  that  the  right  of  exercising 
all  these  ordinary  functions  was  conveyed  by  the  apostles  to  rc^eaevtf^oi,, 
whom  they  ordained.  In  order  to  prove  that  none  of  those  ordinary 
functions  were  reserved,  as  the  distinguishing  privilege  of  a  higher 
class  of  office-bearers,  but  that  the  Presbyters  derived,  from  the  ordi- 
nation of  the  apostles,  a  right  to  govern  the  church  as  well  as  to 
preach  and  to  dispense  the  sacraments,  the  Presbyterians  are  accus- 
tomed to  dwell  upon  this  incontrovertible  proposition,  that  the  two 
names  iTtiuxoTtot,  and  rc^in8vti^oi  are  used  by  the  apostles  promiscuously; 
from  whence  this  inference  seems  clearly  to  follow,  that  a  distinction 
between  s^toxortot  and  rf^saffiff^ot,  as  if  they  denoted  different  classes  of 
office-bearers,  is  a  distinction  unknown  to  the  New  Testament.  When 
the  apostle  Paul  sent  for  the  elders  of  Ephesus  to  meet  him  at  Mile- 
tus, although  they  are  called  tovi  7t^sc6vie^ovi  trji  ixx7.r,aMi,  he  thus  ad- 
dresses them.  Acts  XX.  28,  Jt^oatxi-rs  ovf  lavroij,  xat,  fiavti  r^  rtoi^wcj,  cv  lo  r^aj 
'f0  7ivn'ixa'toayiovi9iio(tii.axo7tov<;,rtoifnaivfivfr]Vfxx7.r!riiavfot@(ov.  Here  the  rt^foUuff^ot 

are  called  erti-oxonoL,  and  are  addressed  as  having  the  government  of  the 
church,  Paul  says  to  Titus,  "  I  left  thee  in  Crete  na  xataatfjrjr^i  xato. 
TtoTiiv  rt^taevte^ovi.''  He  mcutions  some  qualifications  which  ought  to 
be  required  in  them ;  and  he  adds  as  a  reason  for  requiring  such 
qualifications,  Sn  ya^  tov  cTtLaxojtov  aviyxKvjtov  nvM ;  intimating  that  the  two 
names  were  convertible.     The  epistle  to  the  Philippians  is  addressed 

rtaat  rotj  oytoij  tv  "K^tstct   Irjeov,  ■fotj  ovcrii'  ev  ^iXtrtrtotj,  cfw  frtiaxortoij  xat  Siaxoi<oi$  : 

the  natural  interpretation  of  which  is,  that  these  eHtaxonoi,  resided  at 
Philippi  in  connexion  with  the  Christians  of  that  church ;  and  that 
as  there  is  no  mention  of  Tt^saSvti^ot  in  the  address,  the  same  persons 
whom  the  writers  of  the  Ncav  Testament,  in  speaking  of  other 
churches,  call  Tt^saev-ttgot,,  are  here  termed  tTtioxortoi.  Lastly,  as  ft^eoGvti^at. 
are  thus  called  fmioxortot,  so  the  apostles,  the  highest  office-bearers  in 
the  church,  did  not  think  it  beneath  them  to  take  the  name  7ipco6vri^oi,. 
John  begins  his  second  and  third  epistles  with  the  words  o  rt^ia6i;tf^oi, 
— and  Peter  thus  writes  to  the  Christians  whom  he  addresses,  1  Pet. 
V.  1 ;  "  The  elders  which  are  among  you,  I  exhort,  who  am  also  an 
elder.  Feed  the  flock  of  God  which  is  among  you,  taking  the  over- 
sight thereof.  And  when  the  chief  Shepherd  shall  appear,  ye  shall 
receive  a  crown  of  glory."  Here  are  powers  of  government  com- 
mitted to  rt^eaSvtf^oi,.  The  apostle,  by  calling  himself  wftngf nffvT-f^o?,  seems 
to  intimate  that  they  possessed  all  the  authority  in  the  Christian 
church,  which  was  to  remain  after  the  death  of  the  apostles ;  and  the 
introduction  of  the  a^x<-^oiur^v  appears  inconsistent  with  the  idea  of  the 
rtffoSvTf^ct  being  accountable  to  any  individual  teacher,  after  the  apos- 
tles ceased  to  represent  the  authority  of  the  chief  Shepherd  upon 
earth. 

The  Presbyterians  say  further,  that  it  may  be  gathered  from  the 
New  Testament,  that  Tt^foffvff^-rt,  having  received,  by  ordination  from 
the  apostles,  the  right  of  governing  the  church,  had  also  the  right 
of  conveying  to  others,  by  ordination,  all  the  powers  with  which  they 
had  been  invested.  Tliis  appears,  in  the  first  place,  because  they  are 
not  prohibited  from  so  doing.  For  since  it  was  the  intention  of  Christ, 
that  there  should  be  a  succession  of  office-bearers  having  rule  in  his 


724  EPISCOPACY    AND    PRESBrTERY. 

church,  and  since  the  natural  method  of  continuing  this  succession  is 
through  those  who  have  been  themselves  invested  with  the  character, 
nothing  less  than  an  express  inhibition  can  satisfy  us  that  the  Tt^saevts^oi, 
the  first  office-bearers  whom  the  apostles  ordained,  were  restrained 
from  ordaining  others.  But  there  neither  is  any  such  inhibition, 
nor  is  it  possible  there  can  be ;  because  the  names  sTtiaxoyrot  and 
Ti^icSvts^oi,,  being  used  in  the  New  Testament  promiscuously,  even 
although  there  were  any  passages,  as  there  are  none,  investing 
sftcsxofioi  with  the  right  of  ordination,  still  we  could  not  be  sure  that 
those,  who  in  other  places  are  called  Tt^Baevtc^oi,  were  not  included 
under  this  name.  But,  in  the  second  place,  that  ft^iaSvre^oo  were  not 
excluded  from  the  right  of  ordination,  is  made  manifest  by  what  the 
apostle  says  of  Timothy.  For,  as  if  to  show  that  the  office  of 
7t^£o6vte^o(,  was  not  degraded  by  the  temporary  authority,  which  we 
understand  to  have  been  conveyed  to  this  extraordinary  officer,  we 
are  told  that  they  had  a  part  in  his  ordination.  The  apostle  indeed 
speaks,  2  Tim.  i.  6,  of  x'^e,'''^^^^  ''oi'  <S)hov,  6  sani'  iv  sot,  5«*  ti^i  tftidsssui  tuv  xn^iov 
f^ov.    But  he  speaks,  1  Tim.  iv.  14,  of  the  same  ;i:a€"^M»»  "  ^^o^v  <""  5'" 

Tt^oprjtHas,  fisfa.  sriiOscssui  'tuv  ;t«''?"''  t'ov  rt^ss6vfs^i.ov.       So  that  the  apOStlc,  who 

had  ordained  many  elders  before  he  met  with  Timothy,  appears  to 
have  called  their  assistance  in  the  ordination  of  this  person ;  which 
may  be  regarded  as  an  apostolical  acknowledgment  of  what  we  found 
to  be  implied  in  the  nature  of  their  office,  that  they  have  a  right  to 
ordain. 

Although  this  train  of  reasoning,  employed  by  the  Presbyterians, 
should  be  understood  to  prove  that  the  distinction  between  the  order 
of  bishops  and  the  order  of  presbyters,  which  is  the  foundation  of  the 
Episcopal  form  of  government,  is  unknown  to  the  New  Testament, 
yet  if  it  could  be  shown  that  this  distinction  has  obtained  in  the 
Christian  church  ever  since  the  days  of  the  apostles,  it  might  appear 
to  derive,  from  this  early  and  uniform  practice,  a  sanction  nearly 
equivalent  to  the  express  appointment  of  Scripture.  For  it  might  be 
argued,  that  although  the  apostles  had  not  unequivocally  declared 
this  distinction  in  their  writings,  the  fact  unquestionably  proved  that 
they  had  established  it  in  the  churches  which  they  planted,  and 
that  from  those  who  had  the  best  opportunity  of  knowing  their  minds, 
there  was  diffused  an  universal  impression  that  they  intended  it  should 
be  continual.  In  this  manner,  the  Episcopal  form  of  government 
would  seem  to  stand  nearly  upon  the  same  ground  with  the  consecra- 
tion of  the  Lord's  day.  There  is  no  commandment  in  the  New 
Testament  appointing  the  change  of  the  Sabbath,  from  the  seventh 
day  of  the  week  to  the  first ;  and  the  instances  of  the  apostles  meeting 
for  public  worship,  upon  the  first  day,  recorded  in  the  New  Testament, 
are  not  of  themselves  sufficient  to  prove  that  they  had  laid  aside  the 
practice  of  attending  public  worship,  as  our  Lord  did,  on  the  seventh 
day ;  or  that  they  meant  the  first  day  to  be  always  kept  holy.  But 
when  we  conjoin  with  those  instances,  the  primitive,  universal,  and 
uninterrupted  practice  of  the  Christian  world ;  when  we  gather  from 
the  first  Christian  writers,  from  heathens,  and  from  every  kind  of 
authentic  evidence,  that  the  disciples  of  Jesus  everywhere  agreed  in 
the  observance  of  the  Lord's  day,  amidst  their  differences  upon  almost 
every  other  point,  we  cannot  doubt  that  the  change  was  made  by  an 


EPISCOPACY    AND    PRESBYTERY.  725 

authority  which  all  Christians  recognised.  Episcopal  writers  are 
accustomed,  in  the  course  of  their  argument,  to  refer  to  this  as  a 
parallel  case ;  and  affirming  that  there  is  the  same  evidence  of  an 
apostolical  appointment,  in  the  distinction  between  bishops  and  pres- 
byters, as  in  the  change  of  the  Sabbath,  they  conclude  that  the  alleged 
ambiguity  in  those  passages  of  Scripture,  where  they  think  this  dis- 
tinction may  be  found,  is  completely  removed,  when  we  interpret 
them  in  the  legitimate  manner,  by  the  practice  of  the  Christian  church 
ever  since  those  passages  were  written. 

This  mode  of  arguing  is  very  plausible  ;  but  when  thoroughly  can- 
vassed, it  affords  a  more  uncertain  support  to  the  apostolical  institu- 
tion of  Episcopacy  than  it  seems  at  first  sight  to  give.— You  will  be 
sensible  of  this,  by  attending  to  the  three  following  circumstances. 

1.  There  is  no  authentic  catalogue  of  the  names  of  those  who  were  ' 
bishops,  for  many  of  the  ages  immediately  following  the  days  of  the 
apostles.  The  persecution  to  which  the  early  Christians  were  exposed, 
the  smallness  of  their  numbers  in  many  of  the  places  where  they 
assembled,  and  the  secrecy  with  which  they  were  obliged  to  hold 
their  meetings,  did  not  admit  of  records  regularly  kept,  and  trans- 
mitted in  a  state  of  preservation  to  distant  ages.  Of  the  succession  ^ 
in  many  churches,  during  the  first  and  second  centuries,  we  know 
nothing:  and  even  with  regard  to  those,  which,  either  from  their 
being  mentioned  in  Scripture,  or  from  the  celebrity  of  the  cities  where 
they  were  planted,  make  a  conspicuous  figure  in  ecclesiastical  Instory, 
there  is  the  greatest  intricacy,  and  contradiction,  and  doubtful  con- 
jecture in  the  attempts  to  ascertain  the  succession  of  their  teachers. 
These  attempts  could  not  be  conducted  with  much  probability  of 
success,  till  after  Christianity  became  the  established  religion  of  the 
empire.  We  meet  with  an  example  in  the  ecclesiastical  history  of 
Eusebius.  He  was  bishop  of  Cesarea,  and  a  man  of  great  influence 
at  the  court  of  Constantino.  Yet  even  with  all  his  solicitude  to  dis- 
cover the  truth,  and  all  the  means  of  information  which  he  had  it  in. 
his  power  to  command,  he  begins  his  catalogue  with  declaring,  that 
"  it  is  not  easy  to  say  who  were  the  disciples  of  the  apostles,  that 
were  appointed  to  feed  the  churches  which  they  planted,  excepting 
only  those  whom  we  may  learn  from  the  writings  of  Paul."*  It  is 
manifest,  that  an  argument  founded  upon  the  uninterrupted  succes- 
sion from  the  days  of  the  apostles  is  very  much  weakened,  when, 
upon  tracing  back  this  succession,  we  find  an  unavoidable,  and  an 
acknowledged  uncertainty,  at  the  very  time  when  it  is  of  most  im- 
portance to  the  argument  to  know  exactly  what  was  done. 

2.  This  deficiency  of  catalogues  cannot  be  supplied  by  the  manner  / 
in  which  ancient  writers  speak  of  what  the  apostles  did.  Although  ' 
the  names  were  lost,  there  might  be  so  clear  a  description  of  the 
powers  of  the  different  offices,  as  would  decide  the  controversy.  But 
this  is  far  from  being  the  case.  The  same  ambiguity  in  the  meaning  of 
the  word  bishop,  which  we  remark  in  Scripture,  pervades  the  testi- 
mony which  the  earliest  Christian  writers  bear  to  the  establishment 
of  Episcopacy.  Thus  when  Clemens,  one  of  the  apostolical  fathers, 
who  wrote  in  the  first  century  an  epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  says  in  a 

*  Hist.  Eccleg.  iii.  4. 
63* 


726  EPISCOPACY    AND    PRESBYTERY. 

passage  already  referred  to,  "  the  apostles  preached  through  cities 
and  countries,  appointing  their  first  disciples,  after  having  proved 
them  by  the  Spirit,  to  be  ertiaxoTtovg  xm  Siaxovov^  tutv  p.iViMvti^v  rtiotfvfu',  and 
left  them  directions  that,  after  their  death,  other  approved  men  should 
succeed  in  their  ministry,"  here  is  evidence  of  a  succession  of  teachers, 
but  no  evidence  that  any  of  those  teachers  possessed  the  powers 
which  are  conceived  to  distinguish  those,  whom  we  now  call  bishops, 
from  presbyters."*  For  Clemens  uses  a  word  which  in  Scripture  is 
applied  to  all  Christian  teachers ;  and  by  the  omission  of  Tt^fofJvtf^ot 
in  this  early  enumeration  of  office-bearers,  he  seems  to  consider 
tTiiaxortot,  and  jt^tsSvti^oi  as  equivalent.  Other  ancient  writers,  too,  in 
those  very  passages  which  have  been  quoted  as  their  testimony  to 
the  uninterrupted  succession  of  bishops,  are  found,  upon  a  critical  at- 
tention to  their  words,  to  mean  nothing  more  than  the  succession  of 
apostolical  doctrine  conveyed  through  the  men,  whom  the  apostles 
appointed  to  teach  it,  whether  those  men  are  called  imoxonoi  or  ^gsaffn- 

■tt^ot,. 

3.  Lastly,  with  regard  to  this  point  of  apostolical  succession,  it  is 
to  be  considered  that  we  have  no  reason  to  presume,  that  in  all  the 
places  where  the  apostles  preached,  they  observed  one  fixed  course 
of  settling  church  government.  The  book  of  Acts,  after  the  conver- 
sion of  the  apostle  Paul,  is  chiefly  a  history  of  his  journeyings ;  and 
by  comparing  incidental  passages  of  that  book,  with  the  information 
which  may  be  collected  from  his  epistles,  we  are  enabled  to  form  a 
conception  of  the  plan  of  government  which  he  established  in  some 
churches  ;  or  rather  dilferent  systems  with  regard  to  that  plan  have 
been  built  upon  his  words.  But  we  have  no  means  of  following  him 
in  a  great  part  of  his  progress ;  and  of  what  was  done  by  the  other 
apostles,  who,  in  the  execution  of  their  universal  commission,  visited 
difterent  quarters  of  the  world.  Scripture  gives  little  information,  and 
ancient  writers  speak  very  generally  and  uncertainly.  Our  know- 
ledge, therefore,  extends  to  only  a  part  of  the  practice  of  one  apostle. 
But  it  is  a  conclusion  which  the  premises  by  no  means  warrant,  that 
what  was  done  by  one  apostle  in  planting  some  churches,  was  done 
by  every  other  apostle  in  planting  all  churches.  The  presump- 
tion rather  is,  that  the  apostles  would  accommodate  establishments 
to  circumstances,  to  the  numbers  whom  they  had  converted,  or 
the  numbers  of  future  converts  whom  the  largeness  of  the  city  or  the 
situation  of  the  country  might  lead  them  to  expect ;  and  that  they 
would  leave  many  things  to  be  settled  as  the  future  occasions  of  the 
church  might  require.  This  is  so  agreeable  to  the  course  of  human 
affairs,  to  the  shortness  of  the  stay  which  the  apostles  could  afford  to 
make  in  most  places,  and  to  the  general  and  prudential  directions 
contained  in  the  Epistles  of  Paul,  that  although  we  had  no  particular 
authority  for  it,  a  candid  inquirer  would  be  inclined  to  suppose  it 
must  have  happened.  But  the  fact  is,  that  some  other  writers  say 
nearly  the  same  thing,  and  Epiphanius,  a  bishop  of  the  fourth  century, 
gives  precisely  this  account  of  the  matter.  The  apostles,  he  states, 
were  not  able  to  settle  all  things  at  once.  But  according  to  the  num- 
ber of  believers,  and  the  qualifications  for  the  different  offices  which 

*  King  on  Prim.  Church,  iv.  3. 


EPISCOPACY    AND    PRESBYTERY.  727 

those  whom  they  found  appeared  to  possess,  they  appointed  in  some 
places  only  a  bishop  and  deacons,  in  others,  presbyters  and  deacons ; 
in  others,  a  bishop,  presbyters,  and  deacons ;  and  this,  says  Epipha- 
nius,  accounts  for  the  variety  in  the  addresses  used  by  Paul  in  his 
Epistles,  as  he  wrote  according  to  the  present  state  of  things  before 
the  church  had  received  all  its  offices.* 

As  far  as  the  authority  of  Epiphanius  is  of  any  weight,  this  state- 
ment contradicts  the  opinion  of  an  universal  establishment  of  Epis- 
copacy by  the  apostles,  and  a  continued  succession  of  bishops  from 
their  days.  But  it  will  occur  to  you,  that  he  seems  to  represent  tlie 
Episcopal  form  of  government  as  the  completion  of  that  plan  which 
they  began,  and  which  they  would  have  completed  themselves,  if  cir- 
cumstances had  permitted.  Here,  then,  is  a  strong  ground  to  which 
the  defenders  of  that  form  may  betake  themselves,  after  all  that  has 
been  said.  For  allowing,  what  they  do  not  allow,  that  in  Scripture 
there  is  no  evidence  of  an  intention  to  establish  a  permanent  distinc- 
tion between  bishops  and  presbyters,  and  allowing  that  there  is  a 
chasm  of  many  years  after  the  days  of  the  apostles,  in  which  there  is 
no  evidence  of  a  succession  of  persons  having  those  peculiar  powers 
which  are  ascribed  to  bishops,  yet,  it  is  certain,  that  the  history  of 
the  Christian  church  presents  to  every  observer  that  form'  of  govern- 
ment which  is  called  Episcopal.  There  may  have  been,  from  vari- 
ous local  causes,  instances  of  church  government  being  conducted  for 
many  years  without  bishops ;  and  it  may  be  true,  that  some  nations, 
as  has  been  affirmed  with  regard  to  Scotland  in  early  times,  had  no 
Christian  teachers  bearing  that  name.  But  these  partial  interruptions 
or  irregularities  are  overlooked  by  one  who  attends  to  the  general  ap- 
pearance of  Christendom.  For,  although  in  Scripture,  and  in  the 
writings  of  the  apostolical  fathers,  bishops  and  presbyters  may  be  con- 
founded, yet,  in  the  second  century,  the  name  bishops  appears  to  have 
been  appropriated  to  an  order  of  men,  who  had  a  priority  in  rank 
above  other  Christian  teachers ;  and  from  the  second  century  to  the 
time  of  the  Reformation,  it  is  unquestionable  that  this  order  of  men 
continued  to  exist  in  almost  all  parts  of  the  Christian  world,  was 
acknowledged  to  possess  the  right  of  exercising  peculiar  powers,  and 
was  looked  up  to  with  respect,  and  a  degree  of  submission,  by  botli 
clergy  and  laity.  Now,  this  general  consent  of  the  Christian  church 
seems  to  afford  convincing  evidence,  that  the  distinction  between 
bishops  and  presbyters,  if  not  founded  in  Scripture  or  apostolical  ap- 
pohitment,  was  a  continuation  of  that  establishment  which  the  apos- 
tles began,  and  probably  the  consequence  of  directions  which  they 
gave  in  planting  churches.  At  least,  it  appears  to  be  incumbent  upon 
those,  who  have  departed  from  this  early  and  general  practice,  to  give 
some  other  account,  equally  rational  and  probable,  of  the  manner  in 
which  it  was  introduced. 

The  challenge  is  undoubtedly  a  fair  one  :  and  the  strength  of  the) 
Episcopal  cause  lies  in  the  statement  which  I  have  now  given.    Yet,' 
notwithstanding  the  presumption  in  favour  of  the  apostolical  ajipoint- 
ment  of  Episcopacy,  which  certainly  arises  from  its  having  had  pos- 
session of  the  Christian  church  for  so  many  ages,  we  think  we  are 

•  Irenicum,  vi. 


728  EPISCOPACY    AND    PRESBYTERY. 

able  to  show  that  the  form  of  government,  to  which  Presbyterians 
have  recurred,  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  novel  invention. 

From  various  circumstances  formerly  mentioned  it  appears  proba- 
ble, that  though  the  apostles  did  not  follow  one  uniform  course,  yet, 
in  many  of  the  principal  cities  which  they  visited,  they  ordained  a 
number  of  teachers,  whom  they  called  Tt^Eogurfgot.  In  Ephesus,  Co- 
rinth, Jerusalem,  and  other  places,  the  number  of  believers,  even 
during  the  life  of  the  apostles,  was  probably  too  great  to  assemble  in 
one  house,  so  that  in  those  places  there  miglit  be  a  necessity  for  more 
than  one  teacher.  But,  independently  of  this  circumstance,  the  apos- 
tles, according  to  an  expression  that  occurred  in  the  passage  lately 
quoted  from  Clemens,  had  a  regard  to  the  interests  f^v  ixst^xovhuv  Tuativnv ; 
and  when,  being  themselves  upon  the  spot,  they  could  exercise  that 
gift  of  "  discerning  spirits,"  which  was  one  of  the  extraordinary 
powers  conferred  upon  them  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  they  chose  to  pro- 
vide for  the  future  increase  of  believers  in  diiferent  districts,  by  set- 
ting apart,  "  for  the  work  of  the  ministry,"  such  as  they  found  worthy. 
This  coetus  jiresbi/ieroi'um  attended  to  all  the  spiritual  concerns  of 
the  Christians  in  the  city  where  they  resided,  apportioning  among 
themselves  the  diiferent  offices  which  might  minister  to  their  edifica- 
tion and  comfort ;  and  they  were  ready  to  embrace  every  favourable 
opportunity  of  communicating  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  adjoining 
region,  those  glad  tidings  which  had  been  unfolded  in  the  city  by  the 
apostles  themselves.  A  body  of  presbyters,  acting  in  concert  for 
these  ends,  would  naturally  hold  frequent  meetings,  that  individuals 
might  report  their  success,  and  that  all  the  members  might  con- 
sult about  the  most  prudent  methods  of  promoting  their  common 
object.  In  these  meetings  some  person  would  preside  for  the  sake  of 
order :  and  whether  this  precedency  went  by  seniority,  or  by  rota- 
tion, or  was  a  permanent  office  conferred  by  election  upon  one  of  the 
presbyters,  it  implied,  in  the  person  who  held  it,  a  precedency,  an 
efficiency,  a  degree  of  control  over  the  rest,  and  a  title  to  respect.  To 
this  person  two  names  appear  to  have  been  applied  in  very  ancient 
times,  trticjxo.-tos  and  ayyt^^j.  There  was  a  peculiar  propriety  in  giving 
him  the  name  frttdxortoj,  while  the  other  members  of  the  coetus  retain- 
ed the  name  7t^£^>Svte^oi.,  because,  as  these  two  names  are  in  Scripture 
equivalent,  this  appropriation  did  not  imply  that  he  possessed  any 
powers  diiferent  in  kind  from  those  of  presbyters ;  it  only  intimated 
his  being  invested  by  office  with  a  certain  inspection.  The  other 
name  ayyixoi  was  probably  borrowed  from  the  service  of  the  Jewish 
synagogue,  where  it  was  applied  to  the  person  who  presided  in  the 
worship,  and  exhorted  the  people.  It  is  found  in  the  epistles  sent  by 
the  apostle  John,  in  the  book  of  the  Revelation,  to  the  seven  churches 
of  Asia,  every  one  of  which  is  inscribed  Tf^  ayyixa  tru  'Efpiawrn  (xxxyiai-a;, 

trii  exxXriauui  Suv^i-attor,  trj^  iv  IlE^^a^^  £xx>.»;5iaj,  &C.    We  kuOW  that  at  EpllC- 

sus,  one  of  the  seven  churches,  there  were  several  elders  whom  Paul 
had  ordained.  But  if  one  of  this  coetus  preshyterorum  was  presi- 
dent, it  was  natural  for  the  apostle  to  inscribe  the  epistle  to  him ;  and 
as  the  name  *a,  ayysx&j  t'jjj  sxxxrj^Mi  certainly  leads  us  to  think  of  one,  and 
not  of  many,  we  consider  it  as  the  name  of  the  president.  While 
the  joint  employment  of  the  pastors,  in  caring  for  the  spiritual  inte- 
rests of  the  Christians  in  the  city,  thus  gave  occasion  to  the  existence 


EriSCOPACY    AND    PRESBYTERY.  '729 

of  a  person  who  stood  forth  distmguished  from  the  rest,  their  labours 
m  converting  the  inhabitants  of  the  adjoining  country  tended  to  pro- 
duce the  same  effect.  If  these  labours  were  crowned  with  any  de- 
gree of  success,  the  congregations  formed  by  them  would  feel  a  con- 
nexion with  the  mother  church,  from  which  they  had  received  their 
pastors.  The  presbyters  settled  in  the  country  would  probably  wish 
to  maintain  a  fellowship  with  the  coetus  presbyteroriun  to  which 
they  had  belonged ;  or  the  care  of  all  the  Christians,  both  in  the  city 
and  in  the  country,  would  be  considered  as  belonging  to  the  whole 
ccetus,  who  would  assign  tasks  and  departments  to  individual  riiem- 
bers,  as  appeared  to  them  most  expedient.  In  either  case,  this  in- 
crease of  the  number  of  Christians  would  multiply  the  occasions, 
upon  which  the  person  who  presided  over  the  coetus  would  appear  in 
his  character  of  president,  and  afford  him  various  opportunities  of 
extending  his  claims,  and  enlarging  his  powers;  so  that  with  no 
greater  degree  of  sagacity  and  attention  to  the  succession  of  events 
than  is  commonly  displayed  in  the  conduct  of  human  affairs,  the  pre- 
sident of  the  coetus  preshyierorum  might  establish  himself  in  such 
a  pre-eminence  over  the  individual  members,  as  corresponds  to  the 
description  given  in  the  second  and  third  centuries  of  the  dignity  of 
bishop. 

We  cannot  doubt  that  common  prudence  would  dictate  that  gra- 
dual extension  of  the  powers  of  the  bishop,  which  might  create  the 
least  possible  alarm ;  and  yet  we  are  unable  to  tell  all  the  steps  by 
which  the  president  of  the  college  of  presbyters  rose  to  the  estima- 
tion of  being  an  office-bearer  exalted  above  presbyters  by  special 
powers ;  nor  can  we  assign  the  dates  of  the  several  extensions  of  his 
privileges.  But,  if  the  most  zealous  friends  of  episcopacy  are  obliged 
to  plead  the  deficiency  of  all  the  ecclesiastical  records  of  early  times, 
as  an  apology  for  their  not  producing  authentic  catalogues  of  that 
succession  of  bishops  which  they  pretend  to  have  existed,  we  are 
equally  entitled  to  plead  the  same  deficiency,  in  excuse  of  the  want 
of  particularity  in  our  delineation  of  that  progress  by  which  we  ac- 
count for  the  introduction  of  episcopacy.  We  hold  that  the  progress 
is  abundantly  probable,  by  being  agreeable  to  the  course  of  human 
affairs  in  other  things ;  and  we  find  this  general  probability  very 
much  confirmed  by  two  particular  circumstances  belonging  to  this 
subject.  One  is,  that,  after  the  days  of  the  apostles,  there  did  arise, 
by  human  institution,  an  imparity  among  the  bishops.  For  althougli 
every  bishop  claims,  in  respect  of  his  office,  to  be  a  successor  of  the 
apostles,  and  aUhough  ancient  writers  agree  that  a  bishop  of  the 
poorest  city  has  the  same  priesthood  as  a  bishop  of  the  richest,  and 
that,  in  the  care  of  his  own  diocese,  he  has  full  power  to  determine 
for  himself,  and  is  subject  to  none  but  Christ,  yet  there  was  introduced 
in  the  first  four  centuries,  the  gradation  of  patriarchs,  metropolitans, 
archbishops,  and  bishops.  There  were  the  patriarchs  of  Rome,  Con- 
stantinople, Alexandria,  and  Antioch,  whose  jurisdiction  extended 
overall  the  Christian  church;  under  these  were  the  metropolitans, 
who  presided  in  the  several  provinces;  and  under  them  the  arch- 
bishops, each  of  whom  had  the  inspection  of  several  bishops  in  a 
'  district.  This  gradation  was  probably  introduced  by  those  general 
councils,  which,  in  the  second  century,  began  to  be  held  by  Christians, 

5C 


730  EPISCOPACY    AND    PRESBYTERT. 

"^^  and  in  which  it  was  considered  as  a  piece  of  respect  due  to  the  prin- 

\         cipal  cities  of  the  empire,  that  the  bishops  of  those  cities  should  pre- 
♦  side.     Various  circumstances  led  the   Christians,  even  before  their 

4;  religion  had  the  benefit  of  a  public  establishment,  to  accommodate 

the  government  of  the  church  to  the  government  of  the  state ;  and 
when  the  empire  became  Christian,  Constantine  judged  it  a  matter  of 
policy  to  complete  this  accommodation.  In  conformity  to  the  ex- 
archates, provinces,  and  districts,  into  which  he  divided  the  empire, 
he  established  a  hierarchy  composed  of  different  orders  of  bishops, 
who  were  distinguished  from  one  another,  not  only  in  respect  of  rank, 
but  also  in  respect  of  privileges  and  power ;  and  so  agreeable  was 
this  establishment  to  the  practice  which  the  Christians  themselves  had 
begun,  and  to  their  sentiments,  that  the  council  of  Nice,  which  met 
so  early  as  A.  D.  325,  recognised  the  prerogativ^es  claimed  by  the 
bishops  of  Rome,  Antioch,  and  Alexandria,  as  to.  a^xa^o-  lOy;,  and  de- 
clared that  it  would  disown  every  bishop,  who  is  ordained  x^^i.?  yviou-^i 
tov  fi*jt^o7to\i.tov.  Now,  if  this  limitation  of  the  powers  of  bishops,  and 
this  subjection  of  many  of  them  to  those  with  whom  they  were  ori- 
ginally equal,  had  become  so  general  during  the  first  three  centuries, 
as  to  obtain,  in  325,  the  highest  ecclesiastical  sanction,  we  have  no 
reason  to  be  surprised,  if,  in  the  same  time,  a  bishop  should  be  exalt- 
ed from  being  the  first  among  equals  chosen  by  their  suffrage,  to  be 
accounted  an  office-bearer  of  a  higher  order  than  presbyters.  The 
Episcopal  writers  say  that  the  cases  are  by  no  means  similar,  because 
all  bishops  are  by  their  office  equal,  whereas  bishops  and  presbyters 
are  so  essentially  distinct,  that  it  never  was  accounted  lawful  for 
presbyters  to  intermeddle  in  those  actions  which  are  appropriated  to 
a  bishop.  But,  in  answer  to  this,  we  bring  forward  a  second  circum- 
stance, that  many  expressions  in  ancient  writers  correspond  to  this 
accoimt  of  the  origin  of  Episcopacy,  and  that  there  are  some  pas- 
sages in  which  the  same  accoimt  is  given.  There  are,  it  is  true, 
books  that  assume  a  very  early  date,  which  speak  clearly  and  strongly 
of  the  superiority  of  bishops  above  presbyters; — such  as  the  aposto- 
lical constitutions,  and  the  larger  epistles  of  Ignatius.  But  it  is  now 
generally  understood  by  learned  men,  that  these  books  are  full  of  in- 
terpolations, the  works  of  a  much  later  age,  inserted  for  the  very 
purpose  of  magnifying  the  Episcopal  office.  Those  writers  of  the 
second  and  third  centuries,  whose  works  are  admitted  to  be  genuine, 
abound  with  expressions  which  represent  the  presbyters  as  partners 
with  the  bishops,  in  the  honours  and  duties  of  the  episcopal  office. 
They  call  the  presbyters,  as  well  as  the  bishops,  the  successors  of  the 
apostles ;  and  Cyprian,  bishop  of  Carthage,  who  is  esteemed  one  of 
the  most  zealous  defenders  of  Episcopacy,  declares  that  it  was  his 
invariable  rule  to  do  nothing  without  the  advice  and  concurrence  of 
his  co-presbyters.*  Jerome,  who  lived  about  the  end  of  the  fourth 
century,  gives  in  different  parts  of  his  works,  precisely  the  same  ac- 
count of  the  origin  of  Episcopacy  as  we  do.  In  one  place,  where  he 
quotes  all  the  passages  of  the  New  Testament,  in  which  the  names 
bishops  and  presbyters  appear  to  be  synonymous,  he  says  that,  be- 
fore there  were  parties  in  religion,  churches  were  governed  communi 

*  King  on  the  Prim.  Church,  iv,  4 ;  v.  6. 


EPISCOPACY    AND    PRESBYTERY.  731 

consi/io  presbi/terorum.  But  that  afterwards,  in  order  to  pull  up 
the  roots  of  division,  foio  orbe  decretuni  est,  i.  e.  it  became  an  uni- 
versal practice  founded  upon  experience  of  its  expediency,  that  one 
of  the  presbyters  should  be  chosen  by  the  rest  to  be  the  head,  and 
that  the  care  of  governing  the  church  should  be  committed  to  him. 
Let  presbyters,  therefore,  lie  says,  know  that  they  are  subject,  by  the 
custom  of  the  church,  to  him  who  presides  over  them  ;  and  let  bishops 
know  that  they  are  greater  than  presbyters,  rather  by  custom  than  by 
the  appointment  of  the  Lord,  and  that  still  the  church  ought  to  be 
governed  in  common. 

So  pointed  a  testimony  against  the  apostolical  institution  of  Epis- 
copacy, proceeding  from  a  writer  so  respectable  and  so  ancient  as 
Jerome,  whom  Erasmus  calls  without  controversy  the  most  learned 
of  Christians,  forms  an  authority  which  the  Presbyterians  gladly  lay 
hold  of,  and  which  their  antagonists  show  an  extreme  solicitude  to 
invalidate.  It  is  said  that  Jerome  was  too  late  to  know  the  truth  ; 
that  being  himself  only  a  presbyter,  he  was  willing  to  propagate  a 
system  which  might  bring  bishops  nearer  to  a  level  with  himself,  and 
that  in  this  system  he  is  singular.  We,  on  the  other  hand,  are  not 
disposed  to  entertain  any  suspicion  with  regard  to  the  motives  of  his 
testimony,  because  he  appears  to  us  only  to  assert,  at  a  time  when  he 
had  more  opportunities  of  information  than  we  have,  the  same  thing 
which  we  gather  from  the  words  of  Scripture,  from  the  general  ap- 
pearance of  the  primitive  church,  and  from  various  particular  ex- 
pressions of  Christian  writers.  We  do  not  account  his  testimony 
singular,  although  no  person  has  said  precisely  the  same  thing.  But 
when  Ave  find  Augustine,  who  was  a  bishop,  writing  to  Jerome, 
Secundum  honorum  vocabula  quae  jam  ecclesiae  usus  obtinuit,  epis- 
copatus  presbyterio  major  est  ;*  when  we  find  Isidore,  bishop  of 
Seville,  two  hundred  years  after,  where  he  has  stated  the  different 
offices  in  which  presbyters  are  partners  with  bishops,  adding  these 
words.  Sola  propter  auctoritatem  summo  sacerdoti  clericorum  or- 
dinatio  reservata  est,  ne  a  multis  ecclesise  disciplina  vindicata  con- 
cordiam  solver et : — and  when  Ave  find  the  second  council  of  Seville, 
about  the  same  time,  using  these  words,  Quamvis  cum  episcopis  plu- 
rium  presbyteris  ministtriorum  communis  sit  dispensatio,  qusedam 
novellis  et  ecclesiasticis  regulis  sibi  prohibit  a  noverint  ;^  we  cannot 
entertain  a  doubt,  that  an  opinion  somewhat  similar  to  ours,  concern- 
ing the  introduction  of  Episcopacy  as  a  matter  of  order,  and  the 
gradual  extension  of  the  claims  and  privileges  of  bishops,  was  veiy 
far  from  being  peculiar  to  Jerome.  It  is  true  that  this  opinion,  al- 
though corresponding  with  various  incidental  expressions  in  number- 
less writers,  was  not,  before  the  Reformation,  generally  brought  for- 
ward in  clear  words.  But  this  we  think  may  be  accounted  for,  by 
an  apprehension  that  the  dignity  and  authority  of  the  Episcopal  order, 
which  was  esteemed  essential  to  the  honour  and  peace  of  the  church, 
would  be  weakened  by  recalling  to  the  minds  of  the  people  the  man- 
ner in  which  it  arose.  The  reformers,  by  whom  the  Presbyterian 
church  was  settled,  were  restrained  by  no  such  delicacy.  Considering 
the  distinction  between  bishops  and  presbyters  as  having  no  founda- 

*  Aug.  Ep.  xxii.  f  Irenicura,  chap.  vi. 


732  EPiscoPAcr  and  presbytery. 

tion  in  Scripture,  and  wishing  to  apply  an  effectual  remedy  to  the 
abuses  which  had  been  introduced  in  the  progress  of  human  ambi- 
tion, by  the  practice  of  investing  bishops  with  powers  superior  to 
presbyters,  they  did  not  consider  the  antiquity  or  universality  of  the 
practice  as  any  reason  for  its  being  continued  ;  and  they  resolved  to 
provide  for  the  order  of  the  Christian  society,  by  recurring  to  what 
appeared  to  them  the  primitive  Scripture  model.  The  fundamental 
principle,  therefore,  of  the  government  which  they  established  is  this, 
that  all  ministers  of  the  gospel  are  equal  in  rank  and  in  power. 
While  certain  parts  of  the  apostolical  office  expired  with  the  persons 
to  whom  it  was  committed  by  the  Lord  Jesus,  the  right  of  perform- 
ing all  the  ministerial  functions,  which  were  intended  to  be  perpetual 
in  the  Christian  church,  is  conceived  to  be  conveyed  by  the  act  of 
ordination,  so  that  every  person  who  is  ordained  is  as  much  a  suc- 
cessor of  the  apostles  as  any  teacher  of  religion  can  be.  This  essen- 
tial equality  of  all  the  ministers  of  the  gospel  is  inconsistent  with  the 
idea  of  prelacy,  or  any  superiority  of  office  in  the  Christian  church 
above  that  of  presbyters ;  and  it  admits  no  other  official  preference, 
but  that  which  is  constituted  by  voluntary  agreement  for  the  sake  of 
order.  Thus,  if  a  number  of  those,  who  are  called  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament indiscriminately  Jt^saevt i^oi,  or  cftcaxojioi,  have  the  charge  of  a 
large  city  or  a  territory,  it  is  necessary  for  the  conduct  of  their  deli- 
berations, and  the  execution  of  their  sentences,  that  some  one  should 
preside  in  their  meetings ;  and  in  the  mode  of  nominating  the  presi- 
dent, there  may  be  considerable  variety.  The  members  may  succeed 
to  the  office  by  seniority,  or  one  may  be  elected  for  life,  or  a  new 
president  may  be  chosen  at  stated  times.  In  some  of  those  churches 
upon  the  Continent,  which  acknowledge  a  parity  of  orders,  there  are 
superintendents,  propositi,  or  inspectores,  who  are  appointed  for  life 
to  preside  in  the  council  of  presbyters,  and  are  invested  with  a  kind 
of  inspection  over  the  individual  pastors.  But  having  no  other  supe- 
riority than  that  which  is  necessarily  implied  in  the  office  of  presi- 
dent, and  no  claim  to  any  powers  or  privileges  from  which  presbyters 
are  necessarily  excluded,  they  are  only  accounted /?r/m/  inter  pares. 
The  greater  part  of  Presbyterian  churches,  from  a  jealousy  lest  pre- 
lacy be  introduced  under  the  form  of  superintendency,  prefer  the 
frequent  election  of  a  new  president  or  moderator,  who,  being  the 
executive  officer  of  the  society  in  which  he  presides,  acts  in  their 
name,  and  appears  at  their  head,  but  who,  when  his  term  is  expired, 
returns  to  a  perfect  equality  with  his  brethren.* 

*  This  is  the  fundamental  principle  of  the  Presbyterian  government,  and  a  general  ac- 
count of  the  method  of  preserving  order,  vyhich  is  there  substituted  in  place  of  Episcopacv. 
A  more  particular  delineation  of  the  system  erected  upon  this  foundation,  together  with 
some  remarks  suggested  by  the  review  which  has  been  taken  of  the  Episcopal  and  Pres- 
byterian forms  of  church  government,  will  be  found  in  Section  II.  of  A  View  of  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  published  by  the  author  in  1817.  The  question  respect- 
ing the  office  of  lay  elders  is  there  briefly  discussed,  the  heads  of  argument  only  being 
given.  The  argument  might  have  been  somewhat  extended  here  from  the  author's  manu- 
scripts ;  but  it  did  not  seem  material  to  swell  the  present  work,  by  enlarging  on  the  sub- 
ject.— Ed. 


NATURE    AND    EXTENT,    ETC.  733 


CHAPTER  III. 


NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  POWER  IMPLIED  IN  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT. 


I  COME  now  to  the  second  great  division,  into  which  all  the  ques- 
tions that  have  arisen  upon  the  subject  of  church  government  may  be 
resolved,  viz.  the  opinions  that  have  been  maintained  r-especting  the 
nature  and  the  degree  of  power  implied  in  that  government. 

There  were  times  when  these  opinions  held  an  importance  in  the 
public  estimation,  and  were  defended  with  a  zeal  and  animosity,  of 
which  it  is  difficult  for  us  in  our  day  to  form  a  conception.  I  am  very 
far  from  wishing  to  revive  any  portion  of  that  bitterness ;  nor  do  I 
think  it  necessary  for  you  to  be  intimately  acquainted  with  all  the 
tenets  and  arguments  which  have  been  broached  in  this  voluminous 
controversy.  I  shall  be  able  sufficiently  to  accomplish  the  purpose 
of  this  part  of  my  course,  by  reducing  all  that  maybe  said  concerning 
the  powers  implied  in  church  government,  under  five  general  positions. 
In  illustrating  these  positions,  I  shall  introduce  the  chief  opinions  that 
have  been  held  upon  this  subject ;  and,  by  this  manner  of  introducing 
them,  I  shall  state,  in  the  order  which  it  will  be  easiest  for  you  to- 
follow  and  to  retain,  because  it  is  the  most  natural  order,  both  the 
principles  from  which  the  several  opinions  flow,  and  the  sources  from 
which  the  antagonists  of  each  of  them  derived  what  they  accounted 
a  sufficient  confutation. 

1.  The  first  general  position  is  this,  that  the  power  implied  in  the 
exercise  of  church  government  it  not  a  power  created  by  the  state,  or 
flowing  entirely  from  those  regulations,  which  the  supreme  rulers  of 
the  state  may  choose  to  make  with  regard  to  the  Christian  society. 

It  is  necessary  to  begin  with  opposing  this  fundamental  position  to 
an  opinion,  which,  from  its  author,  is  known  by  the  name  of  Eras- 
tianism.  In  the  course  of  the  sixteenth  century  there  flourished 
Erastus,  a  native  of  Switzerland,  an  acute  philosopher,  and  a  learned 
physician.  In  opposition  to  the  judicial  astrology  which  was  then 
esteemed  and  practised,  he  recommended  and  improved  the  study  of 
chemistry.  Amongst  other  branches  of  the  learning  of  the  times 
which  engaged  his  researches,  he  did  not  neglect  theology.  He 
embraced  the  reformed  religion  from  conviction :  but  in  consequence 
of  the  exorbitant  claims  advanced  both  by  the  Pope  and  by  the  rulers 
of  some  of  the  reformed  churches,  he  conceived  it  was  his  duty  as  a 
good  Protestant,  in  the  beginning  of  the  Reformation,  to  resolve  all 
the  powers  exercised  by  church  governors  into  the  will  of  the  state. 
-It  was  his  opinion,  that  the  office-bearers  in  the  Christian  church,  as 
such,  are  merely  instructors,  who  fulfil  their  office  by  admonishing 
64 


734  NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OP 

and  endeavouring  to  persuade  Christians,  but  who  have  no  power, 
unless  it  is  given  them  by  the  state,  to  inflict  penalties  of  any  kind. 
Every  thing,  therefore,  which  we  are  accustomed  to  call  ecclesiastical 
censure,  was  considered  by  him  as  a  civil  punishment,  which  the  state 
might  employ  the  ministers  of  religion  to  inflict,  but  which,  as  to  the 
occasion,  the  manner  and  the  effect  of  its  being  inflicted,  was  as  com- 
pletely under  the  direction  of  the  civil  power,  as  any  branch  of  the 
criminal  code. 

We  shall  afterwards  find,  that  the  inconveniencies,  which  this 
opinion  was  meant  to  remedy,  may  be  obviated  in  other  ways.  As 
to  the  opinion  itself,  it  discovers  those  partial  views  which  the  con- 
sideration of  inconveniencies  often  occasions  ;  and  it  seems  impossible 
for  any  person,  whose  mind  comprehends  the  whole  subject,  not  to 
perceive  that  the  opinion  is  false.  Even  were  the  Christian  society 
merely  a  voluntary  association,  into  which  men  entered  without 
being  obliged  to  it,  still  this  society  would  possess  the  right  which  is 
inherent  in  the  nature  of  all  societies,  of  defending  itself  against  intru- 
sion and  insult,  and  of  preserving  the  character  which  it  chose  to 
assume,  by  refusing  to  admit  those  whom  it  judged  unworthy  of  being 
members,  or  by  requiring  them  to  depart.  But  the  Christian  church 
is  to  be  regarded  in  a  much  higher  light  than  as  a  voluntary  association. 
It  is  a  society  created  by  divine  institution,  founded  in  the  duty  which 
Jesus  requires  of  his  disciples  to  "  confess  him  before  men,"  and  to 
unite  for  the  purpose  of  performing  certain  rites.  The  members  of 
this  society,  as  his  disciples,  profess  to  believe  certain  doctrines,  and 
declare  that  they  are  bound  to  maintain  a  certain  character.  This 
profession  and  declaration,  being  the  very  terms  which  bind  the 
society  together,  are  implied  in  the  solemnities  by  which  every  mem- 
ber is  admitted,  or  expresses  his  resolution  to  continue  in  the  society. 
The  administration  of  these  solemnities,  therefore,  while  it  prevents 
those  who  do  not  comply  with  the  terms  from  being  admitted, 
indicates  a  warrant  from  the  founder  of  the  society,  to  deprive  of  all 
its  privileges  those,  who,  after  having  been  admitted,  depart  from  the 
terms  upon  which  their  admission  proceeded.  It  is  reasonable  to 
think  that  the  same  persons,  who  are  appointed  to  administer  the 
solemn  rites  by  which  the  society  is  distinguished  from  all  others, 
will  be  intrusted  with  the  power  of  judging  who  are  to  be  admitted 
and  who  may  deserve  to  be  excluded  from  the  society ;  and  it  is 
obvious  to  every  one  who  reads  the  New  Testament,  that  the  names 
there  given  to  those  persons  are  expressive  of  the  degree  of  inspection 
and  authority,  which  this  act  of  judgment  implies.  They  are  called 
riyovfjiivov,  trtinxortoi,,  rtgofdt'uji'f J.  They  are  commanded  not  only  SibaaxHv, 
vovOstiiv,  Tta^axaiKHv,  but  also  iXsyxu'V^iTii'ti^Hf.  Our  Saviour,  in  the  days 
of  his  ministry,  before  he  had  fully  constituted  his  church,  spoke  of  a 
case  in  which  it  was  the  duty  of  Christians  to  consider  a  person,  who 
had  been  a  brother,  as  having,  by  his  own  fault,  forfeited  that 
character,  so  as  to  deserve  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  heathen  and  a 
publican.  Matth.  xviii.  17.  After  the  church  was  constituted,  the 
apostle  speaks  of  xvSi^vrjini,  as  well  as  Si,8a6xayj>vi; ,  being  set  in  it  by 
God.  1  Cor.  xii.  28.  He  claims  an  e^ovsia  as  belonging  to  him.  2 
Cor.  X.  He  exercises  that  s^ovsm  by  commanding  the  Corinthians 
flow-gfij'  a  wicked  person  who  had  been  a  member  of  that  church ;  he 


POWER    IMPLIED    IN    CHURCH    GOVERNMENT.  735 

exhorts  Christians  i^rj  awavafnyvvGOcu,  lav  tL^  oSsT^o^  ovofia^oixcvoiT^oLSo^oitr;  fitOvaoi, 

71  a^Tto^,  &c. ;  he  represents  it  as  their  duty  xe,<.viiv  ov  tovi  f|w,  oxxa.  tovi  raw ; 
and  he  assigns  as  a  reason  for  their  exercising  tliis  judicial  power  over 
those  who  were  metnhers  of  the  church,  that  the  wicked  person,  by 
being  thus  separated,  might  be  amended,  or  brought  to  a  better  mind, 
and  that  the  infection  of  his  wiclcedness  might  be  prevented  from 
spreading.  1  Cor.  v.  Now  these  are  general  reasons  arising  from  the 
nature  and  purposes  of  the  Christian  society,  and  totally  independent 
of  any  authority  which  the  church  may  derive  from  the  state ;  and 
the  church  acted  upon  these  reasons,  both  in  the  days  of  the  apostles, 
and  in  the  subsequent  ages,  when  it  derived  no  countenance  or  sup- 
port from  the  state,  but  suffered  persecution.  Even  then  it  exercised 
the  power  resulting  from  its  character,  delegated  to  it  by  its  author, 
and  implied  in  the  designations  given  to  its  office-bearers,  by  rebuking 
and  censuring  the  faults  of  its  members,  and  by  expelling  those  wliom 
it  judged  unworthy  of  its  privileges. 

These  reasonings  and  facts  seem  to  establish,  with  incontroverti- 
ble evidence,  that  some  kind  of  authority  over  the  members  belongs 
essentially  to  the  governors  of  the  Christian  society ;  that,  as  the 
church  did  exist  before  it  was  united  with  the  state,  it  may  exist  with- 
out any  such  union  ;  and  that  it  will  possess,  in  this  state  of  separa- 
tion, when  it  can  derive  no  aid  from  civil  regulations,  all  the  autho- 
rity which  Christ  meant  to  convey  through  his  apostles  to  their  suc- 
cessors, and  of  the  exercise  of  which  the  apostles  have  left  examples. 
The  same  reasoning  and  facts  also  prove,  that  when  the  church  re- 
ceives the  protection  and  countenance  of  the  civil  power,  she  does 
not,  by  this  alliance,  lose  those  rights  and  powers  which  are  implied 
in  church  government,  as  such.  But  as  the  church  may  encroach 
upon  the  state,  by  advancing  claims  which  are  not  warranted  by  the 
purpose  of  her  institution,  or  the  will  of  her  founder ;  so,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  state  may  violate  the  immunities  of  the  church,  may 
intrench  upon  that  jurisdiction  which  is  essential  to  her  character, 
and  may  forcibly  subject  the  members  of  the  Christian  society  to  civil 
regulations  with  regard  to  those  parts  of  their  conduct,  which,  from 
their  nature,  fall  under  the  authority  of  the  office-bearers  of  the 
church.  It  requires  a  sound  judgment,  a  mind  which  can  easily  dis- 
embarrass itself  from  the  false  views  suggested  by  prejudice,  passion, 
and  interest,  to  make,  upon  all  occasions,  the  necessary  discrimina- 
tion between  the  rights  of  the  church,  and  the  rights  of  the  state  ; 
and  as  the  line  of  distinction  is  not  always  obvious  to  an  ordinary 
observer,  those  who  keep  on  one  side  of  the  line  are  very  apt  to  bring 
the  charge  of  Erastianism  against  those  who  keep  on  the  other.  In 
modern  times,  this  charge  is  not  understood  to  imply  that  those, 
against  whom  it  is  brought,  deny  the  church  any  power  except  what 
she  derives  from  the  state ;  for  few  follow  the  principles  of  Erastian- 
ism so  far.  The  charge  is  meant  to  impute  to  the  members  of  an 
established  church  too  great  a  deference  to  the  civil  authority  from 
which  they  derive  protection,  and  an  unbecoming  tameness  in  sub- 
mitting to  invasions  of  those  rights,  which  the  church  ought  to  hold 
sacred.  It  is  a  charge  very  commonly  brought  by  the  dissenters  of 
-this  country  against  the  church  of  Scotland  ;  and  in  both  the  esta- 
blished churches  of  this  island,  there  are  members,  whose  zeal,  in 


736  NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF 

defence  of  what  they  account  the  rights  of  the  church,  leads  them  to 
accuse  of  hikewarmness  and  Erastianism  those  who  do  not  entertain 
the  same  opinion  concerning  the  nature  of  the  rights,  or  concerning 
the  most  prudent  and  effectual  manner  of  preserving  them  inviolate. 
It  is  often  a  matter  of  intricate  discussion,  how  far  the  accusation  is 
just.  Many  of  the  cases,  to  which  it  has  been  applied,  will  occur  in 
the  progress  of  illustrating  other  general  positions  respecting  church 
government ;  and  I  will  not  anticipate  the  mention  of  them.  It  is 
enough  that  I  have  given  notice  of  the  modern  meaning  of  Erastian- 
ism ;  and  from  that  meaning  it  will  be  perceived  that  my  first  gene- 
ral position  may  be  considered  as  incontrovertible  ;  for  almost  all  who 
are  now  accused  of  Erastianism  admit  that  the  church  has  powers 
independent  of  the  state.  They  differ  from  others  as  to  the  measure 
and  extent  of  those  powers,  or  the  prudence  of  exercising  them: 
they  may  perhaps  regard  the  advantages  which  the  church  derives 
from  an  union  with  the  state  as  more  than  a  compensation  for  any 
restrictions  which  are  imposed  upon  her  ;  but  they  consider  the  acqui- 
escence in  these  restrictions  as  a  voluntary  surrender,  a  compact  in 
which  the  church  has  gained,  by  giving  up  what  she  had  a  right  to 
retain.  And  thus  the  modern  system  of  Erastianism  proceeds  upon 
this  principle,  that  the  power  of  the  church  is  essential  and  intrinsic  :• 
it  admits  of  modifications  of  this  intrinsic  power  which  to  some  ap- 
pear exceptionable  ;  but  it  acknowledges,  that  if  the  church,  instead 
of  deriving  any  benefit  from  the  state,  were  opposed  and  persecuted 
by  the  civil  magistrate,  it  would  be  not  only  proper,  but  necessary,  to 
put  forth  of  herself  those  powers,  which,  in  more  favourable  circum- 
stances, she  chooses  to  exercise  only  in  conjunction  with  the  state. 

2.  My  second  general  position  is,  that  the  power  inherent  in  the 
nature  of  the  Christian  society,  which  it  derives  from  divine  institu- 
tion, and  not  from  civil  regulation,  is  merely  a  spiritual  power ;  in 
other  words,  it  is  concerned  only  with  the  consciences  of  men,  and 
gives  no  claim  to  any  authority  over  their  persons  or  their  properties. 

It  includes  a  right  to  administer  instruction,  admonition,  reproof, 
censure — all  that  may  establish  those,  who  submit  to  it,  in  the  prac- 
tice of  their  duty,  may  improve  their  character,  or  make  them  ashamed 
of  their  faults.  It  includes  also,  we  have  seen,  what  is  commonly 
called  the  power  of  excommimication,  i.  e.  a  right,  by  a  judicial  sen- 
tence, to  deprive  of  the  privileges  and  benefits  of  continuing  mem- 
bers of  the  Christian  society  those  who  are  found  unworthy.  But 
this  is  the  utmost  length  to  which  it  can  go.  Whenever  a  person  is 
excommunicated,  or  when  he  says  that  he  no  longer  submits  to  the 
authority  of  church  government,  that  authority  ceases  with  regard  to 
him :  he  is  to  the  church  "  as  a  heathen  man  and  a  publican  ;"  and 
excommunication,  being  the  severest  infliction  within  the  compass  of 
the  power  implied  in  church  government,  completely  exhausts  that 
power,  so  as  to  leave  nothing  more  which  it  can  warrantably  do. 

That  the  power  of  which  we  are  speaking  is  merely  a  spiritual 
power,  may  easily  be  deduced  from  the  purposes  for  which  the  Chris- 
tian society  was  instituted  ;  and  this  deduction  is  confirmed  by  expli- 
cit declarations  of  the  divine  founder. 

Human  government  is  ordained  of  God,  for  the  purpose  of  securing 
the  subjects  in  the  possession  and  enjoyment  of  their  rights.     The 


POWER    IMPLIED    IN    CHURCH    GOVERNMENT.  737 

administration  of  it,  therefore,  implies  the  exercise  of  a  coercive 
power,  which  may  restrain  those  who  are  disposed  to  invade  the 
rights  of  others,  or  which,  if  the  execution  of  their  purpose  is  not  pre- 
vented, may  intiict  such  a  punishment  upon  the  transgression,  as 
shall  deter  from  a  repetition  of  the  like  outrage.  But  the  kingdom 
of  Christ,  being  founded  in  opposition,  not  to  human  violence, 
but  to  the  influence  of  an  evil  spirit,  was  established  for  the  pur- 
pose of  delivering  men  from  this  spirhual  thraldom,  by  imparting 
to  them  the  knowledge  of  that  truth  which  Christ  reveals,  by 
cherishing  those  graces  which  his  Spirit  forms,  and  by  leading  them, 
in  the  obedience  of  his  precepts,  and  the  imitation  of  his  example,  to 
that  future  happiness  of  which  his  mediation  encourages  them  to  en- 
tertain the  hope.  This  kingdom  was  not  intended  to  secure  men  in 
the  enjoyment  of  their  rights.  For  although  the  principles  which  it 
inspires  renders  its  dutiful  subjects  incapable  of  doing  injury  to  others, 
and  although  the  establishment  and  propagation  of  it  have  produced 
a  salutary  effect  upon  the  manners  of  mankind  in  general,  still  it  sup- 
poses that  the  evil  passions  of  men  will  continue  to  operate  ;  it  gives 
notice  that  wrong  will  be  done ;  it  teaches  how  wrong  ought  to  be 
borne ;  and  it  represents  reproach,  and  injury,  and  persecution,  as 
forming  part  of  that  discipline,  by  which  its  subjects  are  prepared 
for  a  higher  state  of  being,  where  their  sufferings  are  to  cease,  and 
their  patience  is  to  be  rewarded.  The  administration  of  this  kingdom, 
therefore,  does  not  imply  the  exercise  of  force.  Although  all  power 
in  heaven  and  in  earth  is  committed  to  the  Lord  of  this  kingdom,  yet, 
in  that  branch  of  the  administration  of  his  kingdom,  which  he  has  re- 
served in  his  own  hands,  he  does  not  employ  his  power  to  place  a 
guard  round  his  faithful  subjects.  To  that  protection,  which  they 
derive  from  the  general  course  of  Providence,  and  from  the  means  of 
defence  furnished  by  human  government, he  makes  no  other  addition, 
than  the  influence  which  his  doctrine  has  upon  the  minds  of  their 
neighbours,  and  the  esteem  and  good-will  of  which  their  own  cha- 
racter, formed  by  his  doctrine,  renders  them  the  object.  In  like  man- 
ner, in  that  branch  of  the  administration  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ, 
which  we  call  church  government,  he  does  not  suppose  that  his  office- 
bearers are  invested  with  civil  power.  The  end  of  their  appoint- 
ment is,  to  bring  to  a  better  mind  such  of  their  brethren  as  have  erred 
and  transgressed  ;  and  in  this  end  they  often  succeed  by  the  spiritual 
power  which  is  given  them.  But  they  are  not  allowed  to  employ  a 
method  of  cure  inconsistent  with  the  spirit  of  the  Christian  religion  ; 
and  those  who  are  obstinate  and  incorrigible  they  are  commanded  to 
leave  where  they  found  them. 

There  were  three  occasions  in  our  Lord's  life,  upon  which,  agreea- 
bly to  the  deduction  that  has  now  been  made,  he  declared  explicitly 
that  the  administration  of  his  kingdom  upon  earth  implied  a  spiritual, 
not  a  civil  power.  The  fir§t  was  his  answer  to  an  application  made 
to  him  by  one  of  his  hearers,  "  Master,  speak  to  my  brother,  that  he 
divide  the  inheritance  with  me."  Luke  xii.  13.  Instead  of  using 
his  influence  with  either  of  the  parties,  or  giving  any  decision  upon 
the  matter  in  dispute,  he  said,  "  Man,  who  made  me  a  judge  or  a 
divider  over  you  ?"  And  he  proceeded  to  guard  his  hearers  against 
covetousness  ;  intimating,  in  the  most  significant  manner,  that  his  re- 
6  1*  5  D 


7J8  NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF 

ligion  tends  to  form  that  elevation  of  desire — that  degree  of  detach- 
ment from  the  paltry  and  unsatisfying  goods  of  this  world,  which 
will  preserve  his  disciples  from  injuring  one  another  ;  but  that,  if  this 
tendency  fails  in  any  instance,  the  party  who  considers  himself  ag- 
grieved, must  resort  to  the  laws  of  his  country,  and  seek  redress  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  justice. 

The  second  occasion  was  a  request  from  two  of  his  disciples,  who, 
employing  the  fondness  of  a  mother  as  a  cover  for  their  own  ambition, 
asked  of  Jesus  that,  in  his  kingdom,  which  they  then  expected  to  be 
a  kingdom  of  pomp  and  triumph,  they  "  might  sit  the  one  on  his 
right  hand,  and  the  other  on  his  left."  After  exposing  their  ignorance 
and  folly,  he  turned  to  the  ten,  who  were  moved  with  indignation  at 
these  two  for  asking  an  honour  to  which  each  thought  himself  equally 
entitled,  and  he  said,  Matt.  xx.  25,  26,  "  Ye  know  that  the  princes  of 
the  Gentiles  exercise  dominion  over  them  ;  and  they  that  are  great 
exercise  authority  upon  them.  But  it  shall  not  be  so  among  you ; 
but  whosoever  will  be  great  among  you,  let  him  be  your  minister." 
In  human  governments,  great  men  xataxv^Kvovai  xm  xate^ov^ia^ovai.;  words 
which  do  not  imply  the  abuse  of  power  by  tyrannical  rule,  but  merely 
the  possession  and  the  exercise  of  power,  that  degree  of  influence  and 
authority  which  renders  their  offices  an  object  of  ambition.  "  It  shall 
not,"  says  Jesus  to  his  disciples,  "  be  so  among  you."  Although 
there  are  persons  distinguished  by  the  station  which  they  hold  in  my 
kingdom,  their  office  is  a  ministry,  not  a  dominion.  They  are  sub- 
servient to  the  improvement  of  their  brethren.  They  have  the 
authority,  and  they  are  entitled  to  the  respect  which  their  subserviency 
requires.  But  they  have  none  of  the  power  and  authority  which  is 
implied  in  the  office  of  earthly  rulers;  and  their  station  is  not  an 
object  of  ambition. 

The  third  occasion  was  furnished  by  the  examination  of  our  Lord 
before  Pilate.  The  astonishment  expressed  by  the  Roman  magistrate, 
at  the  mean  appearance  of  a  man  who  claimed  to  be  king  of  the  Jews, 
drew  from  our  Lord  this  declaration,  John  xviii,  36,  37,  "  My  king- 
dom is  not  of  this  world ;  if  my  kingdom  were  of  this  world,  then 
would  my  servants  fight,  that  1  should  not  be  delivered  to  the  Jews; 
but  now  is  my  kingdom  not  from  hence.  Pilate  therefore  said  unto 
him.  Art  though  a  king  then  ?  Jesus  answered.  Thou  sayest  that  I  am 
a  king.  To  this  end  was  I  born,  and  for  this  cause  came  I  into  the 
world,  that  I  should  bear  witness  unto  the  truth.  Every  one  that  is 
of  the  truth  heareth  my  voice."  These  words  require  no  commen- 
tary. Our  Lord  disclaims  the  use  of  force ;  represents  the  influence 
of  truth  over  the  mind  as  the  great  instrument  of  his  dominion ;  and 
characterises  the  power  exercised  in  his  kingdom  as  a  spiritual,  not  a 
civil  power. 

The  conduct  of  our  Lord  was  agreeable  to  these  declarations.  He 
paid  tribute  ;  he  inculcated  submission  to  the  established  government, 
saying,  "Render  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Csesar's;"  and 
although  his  miracles  appeared  at  different  times  to  have  given  him 
entire  command  of  the  multitude,  he  studiously  avoided  that  ostenta- 
tion of  popularity,  which  might  have  disturbed  the  public  peace.  His 
apostles,  in  like  manner,  with  the  utmost  solicitude,  warned  the  first 
Christians  against  considering  their  faith  as  furnishing  any  pretext 


POWER    IMPLIED   IN    CHURCH    GOVERNMENT.  739 

for  resisting  the  authority  of  civil  government.  "  Submit  yourselves 
to  every  ordinance  of  man  for  the  Lord's  sake."^  "  Let  every  soul 
be  subject  to  the  higher  powers."t  The  weapons  of  the  Christian 
warfare  are  said  to  be  "  not  carnal  ;"J  and  persecution  for  conscience 
sake,  however  sinful  in  those  from  whose  authority  it  proceeds,  is 
not  allowed  by  the  apostles  to  justify  resistance. §  The  first  establish- 
ment of  the  Christian  church  required  the  frequent  exercise  of  that 
apostolical  authority,  which,  upon  all  proper  occasions,  is  asserted 
with  becoming  dignity.  But  this  authority  is  distinguished,  both  in 
the  words  and  in  the  practice  of  the  apostles,  from  every  thing  which 
can  be  called  a  "  lordship  over  God's  heritage."  In  all  the  ordinances 
which  they  issued,  they  kept  sacredly  within  the  province  which 
belongs  to  a  spiritual  power ;  and  in  the  directions  given  to  Timothy 
and  Titus,  the  most  critical  eye  cannot  discern  the  smallest  deviation 
from  that  pure  standard  of  church  government,  which  the  head  of  the 
church  exhibited  in  these  words,  "  my  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world." 

Thus  clear  and  superabundant  is  the  proof,  that  the  power  implied 
in  church  government  is  purely  a  spiritual,  not  in  any  degree  a  civil 
power.  The  uses  which  may  be  made  of  the  position  are  not  less 
important  than  the  proof  of  it  is  clear. 

It  exposes,  in  the  first  place,  the  fallacy  of  the  great  argument  upon 
which  the  Erastian  system  rests.  There  cannot,  it  is  said,  be  any 
power  in  the  state  which  is  not  created  by  the  state;  otherwise  there 
would  be,  imperiiwi  in  imperio.,  two  separate  authorities  and  jurisdic- 
tions, which  might  require  inconsistent  services,  and  assert  opposite 
claims,  so  as  to  place  the  subjects  in  a  situation  in  which  it  was  impossi- 
ble for  them  to  obey  both.  This  argument  would  be  unanswerable  if 
the  powers  were  of  the  same  order,  if  both  disposed  of  the  persons 
and  properties  of  the  subjects,  and  both  employed  force  to  insure 
obedience  to  their  commands.  But  if  the  one  is  a  civil  and  the  other 
a  spiritual  power,  they  may  unite  with  the  most  perfect  harmony ; 
and  instead  of  any  inconvenience,  the  greatest  advantages  may  result 
to  both  from  their  union. 

The  advantages  whicli  the  church  imparts  to  the  state  arise  from 
the  nature  and  the  purpose  of  that  power  which  exists  in  every 
Christian  society.  This  power,  addressing  itself  to  the  understanding, 
to  the  conscience  and  the  heart,  may  correct  excesses  of  the  passions 
which  human  regulations  cannot  reach,  and,  by  furnishing  refined 
and  permanent  principles  of  good  conduct,  may  minister  most  effec- 
tually to  the  order  and  happiness  of  the  community.  This  is  the 
genuine  influence  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ.  The  power  which  is 
founded  upon  his  doctrine  ministers  its  part  of  this  influence,  so  long 
as  it  retains  the  character  of  being  purely  spiritual.  It  is  perverted 
when  it  is  rendered  the  instrument  of  disturbing  the  public  tranquillity; 
and  it  goes  beyond  the  purpose  of  its  institution,  when  its  particular 
requisitions  intrench  upon  that  right  over  the  persons  or  properties  of 
the  subjects,  which  belongs  exclusively  to  the  sovereign  authority  in 
the  state. 

Such  abuses  have,  indeed,  frequently  taken  place  in  the  Christian 

•iPet.  ii.  13.  f  Rom.  xiii.  1.  %1  Cor  x.  4. 

f  1  Pet.  ii.  19,  20,  iii.  14.  Rom.  xiii.  5. 


740  NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OP 

church.  Bat  they  have  always  arisen  from  confounding  a  spiritual 
and  a  civil  power ;  and  the  position  which  we  have  now  illustrated, 
if  well  understood  and  followed  out  through  its  consequences,  will 
always  be  sufficient  to  correct  them.  The  correction  of  such  abuses 
is  the  second  purpose  to  which  this  posUion  may  be  turned.  This  I 
shall  illustrate  by  applying  the  position  to  the  extravagant  assertions 
of  some  of  the  sects  which  appeared  after  the  Reformation ;  and  also 
to  the  exemptions  and  powers  claimed  by  the  church  of  Rome. 

At  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  when  the  minds  of  men,  newly 
emancipated  from  spiritual  tyranny,  were  in  a  state  of  effervescence 
and  commotion,  such  as  they  had  not  before  experienced,  there  arose 
various  sects,  who,  although  they  differed  in  some  points,  received, 
from  their  repetition  of  baptism,  the  common  name  of  Anabaptists, 
and  who  agreed  also  in  considering  the  church  of  Christ  as  a  society 
of  saints,  to  which  none  could  belong  who  were  not  free  from  sin.  In 
consequence  of  this  principle,  they  considered  the  office  of  magistracy, 
\vhich  is  appointed  for  the  punishment  of  evil-doers,  as  useless 
amongst  Christians.  From  talking  of  it  as  useless,  they  came  to  re- 
vile it  as  sinful ;  and  men  of  violent  spirits,  irritated  by  opposition, 
proceeded  from  words  to  actions ;  collected  a  great  army  in  the  year 
1525,  and,  to  use  the  words  of  Mosheim,  "  declared  war  against  all 
laws,  governments,  and  magistrates,  of  every  kind,  under  the  chime- 
rical pretext,  that  Christ  was  now  to  take  the  reins  of  civil  and  eccle- 
siastical government  into  his  own  hands,  and  to  rule  alone  over  the 
nations."*  That  army  was  dispersed  by  the  princes  of  Germany ; 
but  the  principle  upon  which  the  army  had  acted  was  far  from  being 
eradicated.  It  often  broke  forth  in  occasional  tumults ;  it  was  fos- 
tered under  a  slight  disguise  in  the  creeds  of  those  sects,  which  de- 
rived their  names  from  the  ancient  Anabaptists  ;  it  lifted  its  head  in 
this  country  during  the  turbulence  of  the  17th  century  ;  and  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  it  still  lurks  in  some  of  those  sects  which  exist 
upon  the  Continent.  It  is  a  principle  which  requires  to  be  corrected 
by  punishment,  not  by  reasoning  ;  and  every  approach  to  it,  in  the 
creed  of  any  Christian  society,  ought  to  be  narrowly  watched  as  formi- 
dable to  the  state.  It  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  prove  that  this  horrid 
tenet  is  contrary  to  Scripture.  I  shall  only  refer  to  our  Confession  of 
Faith,  chap.  xx.  xxiii.  where  passages  are  adduced  in  support  of  the 
positions  there  laid  down,  "  that  it  is  lawful  for  Christians  to  accept 
and  execute  the  office  of  a  magistrate  ;  and  that  they  who,  upon  pre- 
tence of  Christian  Uberty,  shall  oppose  any  lawful  power,  or  the  law- 
ful exercise  of  it,  whether  it  be  civil  or  ecclesiastical,  resist  the  ordi- 
nance of  God,  and  may  lawfully  be  called  to  account,  and  proceeded 
against  by  the  censures  of  the  church,  and  by  the  power  of  the  civil 
magistrate." 

The  second  position  may  also  be  applied  to  the  exemptions  and 
powers  claimed  by  the  church  of  Rome. 

It  was  one  great  object  of  the  policy  of  the  church  of  Rome  to  ren- 
der the  clergy  of  every  country  a  distinct  body  in  the  state  ;  and  thus, 
liaving  no  close  connexion  with  any  community,  and  acknowledging 
no  other  sovereign  authority,  they  might,  throughout  all  Christendom, 

*  Mosheim's  Eccles.  Cent.  xvi.  Art.  Anabaptists. 


POWER    IMPLIED    IN    CHURCH    GOVERNMENT.  741 

be  kept  entirely  dependent  upon  Popes.     For  this  purpose  it  was  as- 
serted that,  in  virtue  of  the  sacredness  of  the  sacerdotal  character,  the 
clergy  were  exempted  from  the  ordinary  jurisdiction  of  the  countries 
where  they  resided,  not  only  in  spiritual,  but  also  in  civil  matters  ; 
that  they  were  not  bound  to  pay  tribute  ;  and  that  when  they  com- 
mitted any  crime,  they  were  amenable  only  to  their  ecclesiastical  su- 
periors, and  could  not  be  punished  by  the  civil  magistrate.     These 
claims  withdrew  from  obedience  to  the  laws  a  numerous  order  of 
men,  wlio,  iu  addition  to  their  large  property,  had  more  learning  than 
any   other  order ;  and   by   instituting  a  gradation  of  ecclesiastical 
courts,  from  which  there  lay  an  appeal  in  the  last  resort  to  the  court 
of  Rome,  rendered  them  subject  to  a  foreign  power.     Claims  so  dan- 
gerous to  the  peace  and  order  of  society  were  advanced  by  slow  de- 
grees ;    were  artfully   accommodated   to   times   and   circumstances; 
were  always  resisted  by  wise  and  able  princes ;  and,  in  Britain,  were 
abridged  by  various  statutes  enacted  in   the   times  of  Popery,  and 
were  finally  abolished  at  the  Reformation.     In  England  it  was  de- 
clared by  Parliament,  and  by  the  clergy,  that  to  "  the  king's  majesty 
the  chief  government  of  all  estates  of  the  realm,  whether  they  be  eccle- 
siastical or  civil,  in  all  causes,  doth  appertain,  and  is  not,  nor  ought  to 
be,  subject  to  any  foreign  jurisdiction."*     In  Scotland,  too,  all  papal 
jurisdiction  was  at  the  same  period  abolished  ;  and  our  Confession 
of  Faith  declares,  that  "ecclesiastical  persons  are  not  exempted  from 
the  duty  of  the  people  to  pray  for  magistrates,  to  honour  their  per- 
sons, to  pay  them  tribute  and' other  dues,  to  obey  their  lawful  com- 
mands, and  to  be  subject  to  their  authority  for  conscience  sake."t 
Both  in  England  and  Scotland,  indeed,  clergymen  are  exempted  from 
certain  personal  services,  which  are  conceived  to  be  inconsistent  with 
their  sacred  function.     They  are  not  summoned  as  jurymen,  and  they 
are  not  obliged  to  serve  in  war.     But  these  exemptions  are  the  result 
of  positive  statute,  or  of  that  immemorial  custom,  which  receives  the 
name  of  common  law  ;  and  they  form  part  of  that  provision,  which 
the  state  judges  it  proper  to  make,  for  the  regular  discharge  of  the 
duties  incumbent  upon  the  ministers  of  religion.  Such  exemptions,  be- 
ing accepted  as  a  civil  privilege,  and  being  limited  by  the  terms  of  the 
grant,  are  a  recognition  on  the  part  of  the  church,  that  it  has  no  claim 
of  right  to  any  exemption,  but  that,  agreeably  to  the  declarations  of 
Scripture,  and  the  conduct  of  our  Lord  and  his  aposdes,  "every  soul 
is  subject  to  the  higher  powers ;"  in  other  words,  that  the  authority 
of  the  state  extends  over  ecclesiastical,  as  well  as  other  persons. 

The  church  of  Rome  claimed  not  only  exemptions,  but  also  powers. 
The  sentences  of  the  ecclesiastical  courts  often  affected  the  most  valua- 
ble civil  rights  of  Christians.  The  ministers  of  religion  arrogated  a 
precedency  of  all  civil  magistrates,  and  a  right  to  control  the  exercise 
of  all  civil  jurisdiction.  The  popes  granted  the  investiture  of  eccle- 
siastical benefices  in  a  kingdom,  without  the  consent,  often  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  declared  pleasure  of  the  sovereign.  They  presumed  to 
absolve  subjects  from  all  obligation  to  obey  their  civil  rulers,  when 
the  conduct  of  the  rulers  gave  offence  to  the  church.  They  often  de- 
posed princes  for  heresy  or  contumacy  ;  and  some  popes  proceeded 

•  Art.  xxxvii.  f  Confession  of  Faith,  xxiii.  4. 


742  NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OP 

to  such  extravagance,  as  to  afRrm  that  Jesus  Christ  had  given  them 
power  to  dispose  of  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth.  These  claims,  op- 
posite as  they  are  to  the  genius  of  Christianity,  and  hostile  to  the 
peace  of  society,  were  for  many  ages  strenuously  asserted,  and  often 
submitted  to.  Had  the  church  been  able  to  support  them  as  uni- 
formly, and  to  extend  them  as  far  as  she  wished,  they  would  have 
produced  throughout  Christendom  a  vile,  oppressive,  and  rapacious 
despotism.  The  resistance,  which  was  naturally  and  nobly  made  to 
them,  produced  some  of  the  most  calamitous  contests  which  history 
records  ;  and  the  memory  of  this  usurpation  should  warn,  not  only 
rulers  in  Protestant  countries  to  restrain  every  attempt  which  any 
sect  may  make  to  engraft  civil  upon  ecclesiastical  power ;  but  also 
the  office-bearers  in  the  church  of  Christ  to  follow  the  directions  and 
the  example  of  their  Master,  by  keeping  scrupulously  within  their 
own  province. 

In  order  to  prevent  misapprehension  upon  this  subject,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  observe,  that  in  the  progress  of  the  connexion  between  the 
church  and  the  state,  it  generally  happens  that  some  matters  of  a  civil 
nature  are  committed  to  the  judgment  and  decision  of  ecclesiastical 
courts.  This  delegated  jurisdiction  is  no  usurpation  on  the  part  of 
the  church,  because,  like  the  legal  immunities  of  the  clergy,  it  is  the 
effect  of  statute ;  and  in  the  manner  of  exercising  the  civil  powers 
thus  delegated  to  the  church,  there  is  generally  an  acknowledgment 
that  they  flow  from  the  state. 

In  Scotland,  the  sentence  of  the  church,  admitting  and  receiving  a 
person  minister  of  a  parish,  gives  him  a  legal  right,  which  he  would 
not  otherwise  have,  to  draw  the  stipend  and  other  emoluments  which 
belong  to  the  minister ;  and  the  sentence  of  the  church  courts,  de- 
posing him  from  the  sacred  office  of  the  ministry,  deprives  him,  ipso 
facto,  of  all  right  to  the  stipend  and  emoluments  which  he  had  for- 
merly drawn.  These  civil  effects  of  the  sentences  of  our  church 
courts  are  an  essential  branch  of  the  establishment  of  Presbytery  in 
Scotland ;  and  there  is  one  kind  of  business  connected  with  that  es- 
tablishment, in  which  presbyteries  are  constituted  by  law  civil  courts. 
The  expense  of  the  manses  and  glebes,  which  the  law  allows  to  the 
ministers  of  the  church  of  Scotland,  is  defrayed  by  the  landholders 
of  the  parishes.  They  are  assessed  for  this  purpose  by  a  judgment 
of  the  presbytery,  to  whom  application  must  be  made  in  the  first 
instance,  and  who  proceed,  like  civil  courts,  in  the  examination  of  the 
necessary  witnesses.  But  as  this  is  merely  a  regulation  of  conveniency, 
in  a  matter  concerning  which  it  would  be  very  improper  that  the  de- 
cision of  a  church  court  should  be  final,  the  powers  of  the  presby- 
tery, in  assigning  the  manses  and  glebes,  are  limited ;  and  there  lies 
an  appeal,  in  any  stage  of  their  proceedings,  to  those  courts,  which 
usually  determine  questions  that  respect  the  property  of  the  subjects. 

In  England,  besides  those  branches  of  jurisdiction  that  belong  to 
the  institution  and  deprivation  of  the  ministers  of  the  church,  the 
law  has  submitted  various  other  matters  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
bishops.  In  ancient  times,  all  matters,  as  well  spiritual  and  temporal, 
were  determined  in  the  county  court,  where  the  bishop  and  earl  sat 
together.  But  William  the  Conqueror  separated  the  ecclesiastical 
from  the  temporal  courts  •,  and,  since  his  days,  all  the  causes  called 


POWER  IMPLIED  IN  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT.  743 

ecclesiastical  or  spiritual,  have  been  tried,  not  in  the  civil  courts  of  the 
realm,  but  in  courts  held  by  authority  of  the  bishops,  and  according 
to  the  forms  of  proceeding  peculiar  to  those  courts.  The  spiritual 
causes,  which  most  nearly  affect  civil  rights,  are  questions  respecting 
testaments  or  wills,  and  questions  respecting  marriage  and  divorce. 
Both  these  are  in  England  subjected  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  bishop; 
the  first,  because  testaments  are  often  made  in  extremis,  when  the 
clergy  may  be  supposed  to  be  present ;  the  second,  because  marriage, 
which  is  considered  by  the  Roman  Catholics  as  a  sacrament,  is  gene- 
rally solemnized  in  churches.  In  order  to  discuss  the  multiplicity  of 
intricate  business,  which  may  be  expected  to  arise  upon  these  ques- 
tions in  such  a  country  as  England,  the  bishops  appoint,  for  hearing 
and  judging  in  causes  that  occur  in  their  dioceses,  officers  under  dif- 
ferent names,  generally  laymen,  skilled  in  the  law,  who,  in  the  name 
of  the  bishop,  but  without  his  being  present,  and  generally  without 
his  knowledge,  decide  according  to  established  rules.  With  the  name 
of  one  description  of  these  officers  we  are  acquainted  in  this  country. 
For  when  the  episcopal  jurisdiction,  which  had  been  exercised  under 
the  authority  of  the  pope, was  abolished  in  Scotland  at  the  Reforma- 
tion, that  the  course  of  justice  might  not  be  stopped,  a  commissary 
was  named  for  every  diocese  ;  and  a  commissariot  court,  with  juris- 
diction over  all  Scotland,  was  established  at  Edinburgh.  The  com- 
missaries of  Scotland,  at  least  the  commissariot  court  in  Edinburgh, 
still  retain  the  power  of  judging  in  questions  of  marriage  and  divorce, 
and  confirmation  of  testaments,  and  thus  afford  us  a  specimen  of  those 
spiritual  courts  in  England,  where  one  considerable  branch  of  the 
business  of  the  nation  is  transacted. 

Whether  the  constitution  of  these  spiritual  courts  be  proper  or  not, 
is  a  question,  concerning  which,  those  who  live  under  a  different  reli- 
gious establishment  ought  to  be  very  scrupulous  in  declaring  any 
opinion.  But  thus  much  is  manifest,  that  all  the  jurisdiction  which 
they  exercise  in  civil  matters  is  conferred  by  the  law  of  the  land ; 
and  they  are  perpetually  reminded  and  made  to  feel,  in  the  exercise 
of  this  jurisdiction,  that  they  are  under  the  control  of  the  law.  The 
canon  and  civil  laws,  by  which  the  spiritual  courts  judge,  have  their 
force  in  England,  not  from  any  original  obligations  to  obey  the  re- 
scripts of  emperors,  or  the  decrees  of  popes,  but  purely  because  they 
have  been  received  and  allowed  of  by  statute  law,  or  by  custom ; 
and  while  the  spiritual  courts  are  permitted  to  judge  by  those  laws, 
the  courts  of  common  law  have  a  superintendence  over  them,  ex- 
plaining the  laws  which  concern  the  extent  of  their  jurisdiction,  keep- 
ing them  within  the  limits  of  that  jurisdiction,  and,  if  they  exceed 
those  limits,  issuing  prohibitions  to  restrain  them,  or  summoning  them 
to  answer  for  their  conduct  in  the  civil  courts. 

Although  then  the  courts  in  England,  which  are  called  spiritual, 
exercise  jurisdiction  in  many  questions  totally  distinct  from  those, 
which  properly  fall  under  the  cognizance  of  a  power  purely  spiritual, 
tliis  is  not  to  be  regarded  either  as  an  usurpation  on  the  part  of  the 
church,  or  as  an  acknowledgment  on  the  part  of  the  state,  that  the 
church  has  any  inherent  civil  power,  but  merely  as  a  part  of  the 
English  constitution ;  a  branch  of  the  civil  and  religious  establish- 


744  NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF 

ment  of  that  country,  by  which  questions  of  a  certain  kind  are  ap- 
pointed by  the  state  to  be  tried  and  judged  in  a  certain  manner. 

The  last  use  which  I  shall  make  of  the  second  position  is  to  apply 
it  to  the  effects  of  excommunication.  We  have  seen  that  church 
government  implies  a  right  to  exclude  from  the  privileges  of  the 
Christian  society  those  who  are  deemed  unworthy ;  and  that  this  is 
the  utmost  length  to  which  that  power  can  go.  We  find,  indeed,  the 
apostle  Paul  explaining  that  expression  of  our  Lord,  "let  him  who 
will  not  hear  the  church  be  to  thee  as  an  heathen  man  and  a  publican," 
by  exhorting  the  Christians  to  withdraw  themselves  from  any  that 
walked  disorderly,  not  to  mingle  freely  with  a  brother  who  had  been 
guilty  of  any  scandalous  sin;  not  to  keep  company  with  him,  that  he 
may  be  ashamed.*  The  primitive  Christians,  too,  a  body  of  men 
who  were  discouraged  and  persecuted  by  the  state,  felt  that  it  would 
have  brought  disgrace  upon  the  society  of  the  faithful,  if  any  person 
who  had  committed  a  flagrant  crime  had  been  allowed  to  remain 
amongst  them,  or  to  live  upon  terms  of  intimacy  with  the  members 
after  he  was  excluded.  In  all  times,  as  circumstances  may  render 
excommunication  necessary,  it  is  natural  for  the  office-bearers  of  the 
church  to  warn  the  people  against  that  familiar  intercourse  with  the 
excommunicated,  which  might  corrupt  their  own  manners;  and  if 
the  people  approve  of  the  sentence,  they  will  be  inclined  to  support  it, 
by  behaving  to  the  excommunicated  with  a  degree  of  distance  and 
reserve,  expressive  of  the  sentiments  with  which  they  regard  his  con- 
dition. At  the  same  time,  it  follows  clearly  from  the  second  position, 
that  the  civil  effects  of  excommunication  depend  entirel}'"  upon  human 
laws.  They  vary  with  times  and  circumstances ;  and  the  church  has  no 
right  to  say  that  a  sentence,  excluding  a  person  from  the  participation 
of  the  ordinances  of  religion,  shall  in  any  manner  affect  his  liberty, 
his  property,  or  his  condition  as  a  member  of  civil  society.  The  time 
indeed  was,  when,  from  the  superstitious  fears  of  ignorance,  and  the 
deep  persevering  policy  of  the  church  of  Rome,  the  excommunicated 
was  considered  as  having  forfeited  not  only  the  privileges  of  a  citizen, 
but  the  rights  of  a  man ;  when  subjects  were  absolved  from  their 
allegiance  to  an  excommunicated  prince,  when  all  the  connexions  of 
human  life  were  understood  to  be  dissolved  by  this  sentence,  and, 
according  to  the  system  of  the  ancient  druids,  quibiis  ita  inferdictum 
est,  Us  omnes  decedunt,  ef  adit  urn  eorum  sernionemque  defughintA 
These  exertions  of  spiritual  tyranny  are  the  tale  of  former  times  ;  and 
however  earnestly  the  office-bearers  of  the  church  may  warn  the 
people  against  associating  freely  with  the  excommunicated,  and  how- 
ever much  the  people  may  think  it  their  duty  and  their  wisdom  to 
listen  to  this  warning,  it  is  now  clearly  understood  that  excommunica- 
tion has  no  civil  effects  independent  of  positive  statute. 

In  England,  where  a  great  deal  of  civil  business  is  transacted 
through  the  medium  of  the  spiritual  courts,  excommunication  being 
the  sentence  pronounced  upon  those  who  are  contumacious,  and  the 
instruments  by  which  the  spiritual  courts  support  their  autliority,  is 
made  by  statute  to  infer  certain  legal  disabihties  ;  and  if  the  excom- 
municated does  not  submit  to  the  authority  of  the  ecclesiastical  courts 

•  1  Cor.  V.  2  Thes.  iii.  6—14.  f  Cjes.  de  Bell.  Gall.  vi.  13. 


POWER    IMPLIED    IN    CHURCH    GOVERNMENT.  745 

'vVithin  fortj'-  days,  the  bishop,  /.  e.  his  delegate,  who  exercises  jurisdic- 
tion in  his  name  within  his  diocese,  may  apply  to  the  civil  courts  for 
a  writ,  dc  excomynunicuto  capiendo.  The  civil  courts  are  thus  con- 
stituted judges  of  the  occasion  upon  which  the  sentence  w;is  pro- 
nounced, and  may  either  lend  their  assistance  to  the  spiritual  courts, 
or  refuse  the  writ,  as  they  see  cause.  The  effect  of  tlie  writ  being 
issued,  is,  that  the  excommunicated  person  is  committed  to  prison, 
and  remains  there  without  bail  till  he  submits.  In  Scotland,  where 
there  is  hardly  any  civil  business  before  the  ecclesiastical  courts,  ex- 
communication, according  to  the  original  design  of  that  sentence,  and 
the  practice  of  the  primitive  church,  is  pronounced  only  in  the  case  of 
those  offences,  which  fall  properly  under  the  cognizance  of  a  society 
invested  with  spiritual  power.  The  legal  disabilities  whicli  it  inferred 
in  ancient  times  were  abolished  after  the  Revolution;  and  it  is  in  this 
country  purely  a  spiritual  censure. 

It  is  not  upon  this  account  a  nugatory  sentence.  It  may,  indeed, 
be  pronounced  in  so  unadvised  a  manner  as  to  be  contemptible  ;  and. 
an  ill-timed  display  of  spiritual  power  may  do  more  harm  than  good. 
In  this  case  the  fault  lies  with  the  office-bearers  of  the  church.  Even 
when  it  is  just  and  well  founded,  it  may  be  despised  by  men  who 
have  no  sense  of  religion,  and  no  desire  to  maintain  the  appearances 
of  decency  in  the  eyes  of  their  neighbours.  With  them,  it  only  shares 
the  contempt  which  they  pour  upon  all  the  institutions  of  the  gospel ; 
but  every  person,  who  believes  that  Christ,  a  teacher  sent  from  God, 
established  a  visible  society  upon  earth,  and  required  his  disciples,  as 
members  of  that  society,  to  unite  in  acts  of  worship,  by  which  they 
testify  their  reverence  for  their  common  master,  and  promote  the 
edification  of  one  another,  must  consider  a  sentence  by  which  he  is 
justly  excluded  from  that  society  as  placing  him  in  a  dreadful  situa- 
tion ;  and  although  it  does  not  produce  any  consequences  that  are 
immediately  felt  to  be  hurtful  in  the  business  and  common  intercourse 
of  life  ;  yet  if,  in  this  state  of  separation,  he  retains  the  faith  of  the 
gospel,  his  mind  will  not  be  at  ease,  till  he  takes  every  proper  and 
competent  method  of  being  restored  to  the  communion  of  the  church. 

3.  My  third  general  position  is,  that  the  spiritual  power  implied  in 
church  government,  being  derived  from  the  Lord  Jesus,  is  subordinate 
to  his  sovereign  authority  over  the  church. 

The  whole  system  of  truth  revealed  in  the  gospel  directs  our  atten- 
tion to  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  person  by  whose  generous  interposition 
the  human  race  was  redeemed  ;  and  it  is  stated,  that,  in  recompense 
of  the  sufferings  which  he  underwent  in  accomplishing  this  object, 
"all  things  are  put  under  his  feet,  and  God  hath  given  him  to  be  the 
head  over  all  things  to  the  church."*  As  every  doctrine  is  false, 
therefore,  which  derogates  from  any  of  the  offices  that  belong  to  Jesus 
as  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  and  which  pretends  to  substitute  any 
thing  else  in  place  of  his  interposition,  so  all  authority  in  the  cliurcli 
that  is  not  derived  from  him  must  be  an  usurpation.  Neither  is  it 
enough  that  those  who  exercise  the  authority  use  his  name  in  acknow- 
ledgment of  the  origin  of  their  power ;  for  the  sovereign  authority 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  requires,  that  what  they  profess  to  derive  from  him, 

•  Ephes.  i.  22. 

Q5  5  E 


746  NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OP 

they  uniformly  exercise  according  to  his  directions.  Although  he 
said  to  his  apostles,  "  He  that  heareth  you,  heareth  me  •,  and  he  that 
despiseth  you,  despiseth  me  ;"*  yet  the  commission  which  he  gave 
them  was,  "Go,  make  disciples  of  all  nations,  teaching  them  to  observe 
all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you."t  That  commission 
implies,  that  the  apostles  were  entitled  to  respect  and  obedience  from 
the  Christian  world,  only  while  they  spoke  agreeably  to  those  words 
which  their  Master  had  put  into  their  mouth,  and  which  his  Spirit 
brought  to  their  remembrance.  Accordingly,  our  Lord  condemned 
the  Pharisees,  the  religious  teachers  of  his  day,  because,  while  they 
sat  in  Moses'  seat,  they  taught  for  doctrines  the  commandments  of 
men,  and  made  the  word  of  God  of  none  effect  by  their  traditions  : 
and  he  warned  his  disciples  against  that  submission  to  those  who 
taught  in  his  name,  which  the  Jewish  people  paid  to  their  teachers, 
saying,  "  Be  not  ye  called  Rabbi ;  for  one  is  your  master,  even  Christ, 
and  all  ye  are  brethren.  And  call  no  man  your  father  upon  earth, 
for  one  is  your  Father,  which  is  in  heaven.  Neither  be  ye  masters  : 
for  one  is  your  Master,  even  Christ."J  It  is  known,  indeed,  that 
Jesus,  having  confined  his  own  teaching  to  the  land  of  Jndea,  com- 
mitted the  propagation  of  his  religion  in  other  countries  to  the  labours 
of  his  apostles,  that  he  left  it  to  them  to  make  the  necessary  provision 
for  the  continued  instruction  of  Christians  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  and 
that  the  Christian  church  received  its  form,  not  from  any  thing  that  is 
recorded  to  us  as  having  been  said  by  him,  but  from  the  orders  given 
by  his  apostles  in  their  discourses  and  their  writings.  It  is  in  like 
manner  conceivable  that  the  apostles,  who  did  not  even  travel  over 
all  the  regions  which  have  already  received  the  gospel,  who  saw  only 
the  beginnings  of  the  Christian  society,  and  who  lived  in  times  of  per- 
secution, might  leave  it  to  the  wisdom  of  succeeding  teachers  to  accom- 
modate the  apostolical  establishment  to  the  more  enlarged  and  more 
peaceful  state  of  the  Christian  church.  But  as  the  apostles  unques- 
tionably followed  the  spirit  of  those  instructions,  which  they  received 
from  Jesus  when  he  spoke  to  them  after  his  resurrection  "  of  the 
things  pertaining  to  the  kingdom  of  God,"  so  every  legitimate  exer- 
cise of  authority,  in  succeeding  ages,  is  regulated  by  the  words  of 
Jesus  and  his  apostles.  As  no  body  of  men,  acting  in  his  name,  has 
a  right  to  declare  that  to  be  a  doctrine  of  his  which  he  did  not  teach,  or 
that  to  be  an  institution  of  his  which  he  did  not  appoint,  so  he  is  to 
be  considered,  according  to  his  promise,  as  "alway,  even  unto  to  the 
end  of  the  world,"  with  those  who  bear  office  in  his  church,  superin- 
tending the  regulations  which  they  frame,  and  the  acts  which  they 
perform  in  his  name  ;  giving  his  sanction  to  those  which  are  agreeable 
to  the  spirit  of  his  religion  ;  but  bearing  his  testimony  against  his 
ministers,  when,  forgetting  the  subjection  which  is  implied  in  the 
origin  of  their  power,  they  encroach  upon  the  authority  of  him  who 
is  the  supreme  Teacher,  Lawgiver,  and  Judge  ;  the  Head  of  his  body 
the  church;  the  King  of  his  own  kingdom. 

All  Protestants  hold  that  the  infallibility,  the  dominion  over  the 
faith  of  Christians,  the  power  of  dispensing  with  the  laws  of  Christ, 
or  of  adding  to  Scripture  by  tradition,  and  many  of  the  other  claims 

*  Luke  X.  16.  t  Ma"'  iiviii.  19,  20.  i  Matt,  xxiii.  8,  9,  10. 


POWER    IMPLIED    IN    CHURCH    GOVERNMENT.  747 

advanced  by  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  and  for  many  ages  submitted  to  by 
a  great  part  of  Christendom,  were  a  daring  invasion  of  the  sove- 
reignty of  Christ ;  and  one  of  the  great  principles  of  Protestantism  is 
a  rejection  of  all  authority  in  the  church  that  is  not  subordinate  to  him. 
Some  Protestant  churches  have  been  accused  of  departing  from  this 
principle  in  their  practice,  by  making  additions  to  the  laws  of  Christ, 
and  by  exercising,  in  his  name,  powers  which  he  did  not  delegate  to 
his  office-bearers.  If  the  charge  should  in  some  instances  be  true,  it 
is  only  a  proof  that  churches,  calling  themselves  Protestant,  often  re- 
tain some  of  the  corruptions  of  Popery.  But  when  we  apply  the 
general  principles  to  particular  cases,  it  will  probably  appear  that  the 
charge  arises  merely  from  a  difference  of  opinion  amongst  Protestants, 
with  regard  to  the  number  and  extent  of  those  matters,  which  the 
Lord  Jesus  has  left  subject  to  human  regulations;  and  that  those  who 
are  accused  of  invading  his  prerogative  are  as  incapable  as  their  breth- 
ren of  claiming  any  authority  which  they  consider  as  opposite  to 
his  authority,  or  even  as  co-ordinate  with  it. 

There  was  a  phrase  used  in  England  by  authority,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Reformation,  which  gave  great  offence  to  the  more  zeal- 
ous adversaries  of  the  church  of  Rome,  and  appeared  to  them  incon- 
sistent with  this  third  position.  It  was  said  in  the  edition  of  the  thirty- 
nine  articles,  which  was  published  in  the  reign  of  Edward,  "The 
king  of  England  is  supreme  head  in  earth,  next  under  Christ,  of  the 
churches  of  England  and  Ireland."  This  was  conceived  to  transfer 
to  the  king  of  England  all  that  usurped  power,  with  regard  to  the 
churches  in  his  dominions,  which  the  Pope  had  exercised  with  regard 
to  the  church  universal ;  and  it  was  said  that  a  title  which  the  apostle 
seems  to  give  exclusively  to  Christ,  when  he  calls  him  "  the  head  of 
the  church,"  was  not  fitly  applied  to  any  mortal.  In  order  to  remove 
these  scruples,  the  phrase  was  omitted  in  the  edition  of  the  thirty-nine 
articles,  published  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  which  is  now  the 
received  and  authentic  edition  ;  and  the  queen,  by  a  solemn  declara- 
tion, explained  the  act  of  supremacy,  which  was  passed  upon  the 
abolition  of  papal  jurisdiction,  to  mean  no  more  than  "  that  under 
God  she  had  the  sovereignty  and  rule  over  all  manner  of  persons 
born  within  her  realm,  either  ecclesiastical  or  temporal ;  so  as  no 
other  foreign  power  shall  or  ought  to  have  any  superiority  over 
them."  The  confession  of  faith  of  the  church  of  Scotland,  having 
been  composed  at  a  season,  when  the  circumstances  of  the  times 
were  understood  to  call  for  a  testimony  against  the  revival  of  any 
claims,  which  might  be  abused  as  an  engine  of  spiritual  tyranny,  de- 
clares, chap.  xxv.  that  "  there  is  no  other  head  of  the  church  but  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  nor  can  the  Pope  of  Rome,  in  any  sense,  be  head 
thereof"  This  clause  in  our  Confession  of  Faith  leads  us,  upon 
solemn  occasions,  to  use  a  phrase,  which,  I  believe,  is  seldom  used  in 
England,  "The  Lord  Jesus,  the  king  and  head  of  his  church."  But 
the  use  of  this  phrase  does  not  constitute  any  mark  of  difference  in 
opinion  between  the  two  churches,  with  regard  to  the  third  posi- 
tion. For  both  acknowledge  the  sovereign  authority  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  to  which  all  other  authority  in  the  church  is  subordinate  ;  and 
were  we  to  apply  this  general  principle  to  particular  cases,  we  should 


748  NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OP 

find  that  the  two  churches  differ  less  in  the  application,  than  superfi- 
cial observers  or  hot  disputants  are  willing  to  allow. 

4.  The  spiritual  power  implied  in  church  government  is  given  "for 
edification  and  not  for  destruction."  I  employ  this  phrase,  because 
it  is  used  by  the  apostle  Paul,  3  Cor.  x.  8,  and  xiii.  10,  in  relation  to 
his  authoriiy,  Bii  oi.xobourji'.,xai,oux  Hi  xaOM^eaivvjxuv.  It  is  equally  applica- 
ble to  the  authority  of  the  ofiice-bearers  of  the  church  in  every  age  ; 
and  it  expresses  most  significantly  what  I  mean  to  include  under  this 
fourth  position. 

Those  who  entertain  just  views  of  civil  government  consider  it  as 
instituted  by  God  for  the  good  of  the  subjects.  It  is  not  for  the  sake 
of  one,  or  of  a  few,  to  gratify  their  ambition,  and  to  minister  to  their 
pleasure,  that  others  are  made  inferior  to  them  in  rank,  subject  in 
many  respects  to  their  command,  and  dependent  upon  their  protec- 
tion. But  all  the  privileges,  and  honours,  and  powers  which  distin- 
guish individuals,  are  conferred  upon  them  for  the  sake  of  the  multi- 
tude, that  by  these  distinctions  they  may  be  the  more  proper  and  suc- 
cessful instruments  of  communicating  to  those  who  are  undistin- 
guished the  blessings  of  good  government.  The  spirit  of  enlarged  be- 
nevolence, which  forms  the  character  of  the  Gospel,  gives  perfect  as- 
surance, that  the  church  government  created  by  that  rehgion  has  the 
like  impartial  destination.  The  great  prophet,  who  "came  not  to 
be  ministered  unto  but  to  minister,"  "  the  shepherd  and  bishop  of 
souls,"  who  came  "  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost,"  taught 
his  apostles  to  do  as  he  had  done  ;  and  they,  instructed  by  his  dis- 
course, and  guided  by  his  example,  spoke  and  acted  as  the  servants 
of  those,  over  whom  they  exercised  the  authority  that  was  committed 
to  them.  "  Not  for  that  we  have  dominion  over  your  faith,  but  are 
helpers  of  your  joy.  We  preach  not  ourselves,  but  Christ  Jesus  the 
Lord,  and  ourselves  your  servants  for  Jesus'  sake."*  "All  things 
are  yours,  whether  Paul  or  Apollos,  or  Cephas.  Who  is  Paul,  and 
who  is  Apollos,  but  ministers  by  whom  ye  believed,  as  the  Lord  gave 
to  every  man  ?"t  Paul  reminds  the  servant  of  the  Lord,  to  whom 
was  committed  the  care  of  the  church,  that  "he  must  be  gentle  unto 
all  men,  apt  to  teach,  patient,  in  meekness  instructing  those  who  op- 
pose themselves,  if  God  peradventure  will  give  them  repentance  to 
the  acknowledging  of  the  truth-," J  and  Peter  exhorts  the  elders,  who 
had  the  oversight  of  the  flock,  to  behave  "  not  as  lords  over  God's 
heritage,  but  as  ensamples  to  the  flock."|| 

It  is  manifest,  then,  that  the  government,  which  Christ  had  estab- 
lished in  his  church,  was  not  intended  by  him  to  create  a  separate 
interest  in  the  Christian  society,  by  aggrandizing  a  particular  order 
of  men,  and  for  their  sake  placing  all  others  in  a  state  of  humiliating 
subjection.  It  is  one  branch  of  the  provision  which  is  made  in  the 
Gospel  for  propagating  and  maintaining  the  truth,  for  restraining  vice, 
for  assisting  Christians  in  the  discharge  of  their  duty,  and  for  promot- 
ing the  universal  practice  of  virtue  ;  and  when  we  consider  the  power 
which  church  government  implies,  as  thus  instrumental  in  carrying 


* 


2  Cor.  i.  24  ;  iv.  5.  f   1  Cor.  iii.  5,  21,  22. 

i  2  Tim.  ii.  24,  25.  H    I  Peter  v.  1,  2,  3. 


POWER    IMPLIED    IN    CHURCH    GOVERNMENT.  749 

forward  the  £?reat  cause  for  which  Christ  died,  we  are  taught  to  ex- 
pect in  the  operation  of  this  instrument  the  same  regard  to  the  reason- 
able nature  of  man,  and  the  same  tender  consideration  of  every  cir- 
cumstance essential  to  his  comfort,  which  appear  m  the  other  institu- 
tions of  the  Gospel.  The  exercise  of  a  power  which  is  piu'ely  spiri- 
tual cannot  indeed  affect  the  lives  or  the  outward  estate  of  Christians. 
But  men  have  other  rights  as  sacred  as  those  which  respect  their  persons 
or  their  properties.  There  is  liberty  of  thought,  the  right  which  every 
man  has  of  exercising  the  powers  of  his  mind  upon  any  subject,  irom 
which  he  hopes  to  derive  pleasure  or  improvement.  There  is  the  right 
of  private  judgment,  which  necessarily  results  from  liberty  of  thought, 
the  ri^ht  which  every  man  has  of  forming  his  own  opinions,  and  of 
determining  for  himself  what  he  ought  to  do.  He  may  form  the  opi- 
nion and  the  determination  hastily  or  upon  false  grounds  ;  but  he  is 
not  a  rational  aijent,  if  he  conceives  it  to  be  his  duty  implicitly  to 
allow  another  to  form  them  for  them.  There  is  liberty  of  conscience, 
that  branch  of  the  right  of  private  judgment  which  respects  our  duty 
to  God ;  the  right  which  every  man  has  of  judging  what  God  requires 
of  him,  and  of  resisting  any  attempt  to  teach  for  doctrmes  the  com- 
mandments of  men,  or  to  impose  obedience  to  regulations  merely  hu- 
man, as  a  matter  of  conscience  towards  God. 

As  these  rights  belong  to  the  nature  of  a  moral  and  accountable 
creature,  any  power  which  could  claim  the  privilege  of  violating 
them  would  be  given  not  for  edification,  but  for  destruction.  It 
would  destroy,  not  perhaps  the  person,  but  the  character  of  the  being 
over  whom  it  was  exercised ;  it  would  degrade  his  mind ;  and  it  is 
so  diametrically  opposite  to  the  general  conduct  oi  the  Alnnghty  to- 
Avards  his  reasonable  creatures,  to  the  style  of  argument  by  which 
Jesus  always  called  forth  into  exercise  the  understandings  oi  those 
who  heard  him,  and  to  all  the  other  parts  of  the  provision  which  he 
has  made  for  enlarging  and  improving  the  mmds  of  his  disciples,  that 
this  cannot  possibly  be  the  description  of  any  power  instituted  by 

It  was  not  necessary  to  dwell  long  upon  the  proof  of  the  third  and 
fourth  positions:  because,  after  the  meaning  of  the  terms  is  fairly 
stated,  the  truth  of  them  appears  hardly  controvertible.  But  it  was 
necessary  to  enumerate  them  thus  distinctly,  because  they  are  the 
foundation  of  my  fifth  general  position,  which  assumes  the  third  and 
fourth  as  proven,  and  applies  them  to  a  variety  of  subjects. 

5  The  power  implied  in  church  government  is  limited  by  the 
sovereign  authority  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  the  liberties  of  his  disci- 
ples, both  as  to  the  objects  which  it  embraces,  and  as  to  the  manner 
in  which  it  is  exercised.  ,  •       ^i 

It  professes  to  maintain  the  credit  of  religion,  by  preservmg  the 
truth  uncorrupted,  and  by  watching  over  the  conduct  of  Christians; 
and  it  professes  to  minister  to  the  edification  of  individuals,  by  allord- 
in»  them  various  assistance  in  following  after  righteousness,  and  by 
employing  various  means  to  reclaim  them  from  error  and  vice.  These 
objects  are  in  themselves  excellent ;  but  it  is  not  competent  for  church 
government  to  take  every  conceivable  method  of  accomplishing  them, 
because  a  spiritual  power  subordinate  to  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  not 
given  for  destruction,  is  restrained  by  these  characters  from  doing 
65* 


750  NATURE    AND    EXTENT,    ETC. 

many  things,  which,  at  particular  times,  may  appear  expedient.  No 
exercise  of  any  power  can  be  legitimate,  which  is  in  direct  opposition 
to  the  nature  of  that  power ;  and  the  evils  arising  from  admitting  a 
contradiction  between  the  general  character  of  the  power,  and  a  par- 
ticular exertion  of  it,  will,  in  the  result,  infinitely  overbalance  any 
local  or  temporary  advantage,  which  might  be  purchased  by  an  ex- 
ercise of  the  power  that  is  illegitimate. 

In  applying  the  limits  suggested  by  the  third  and  fourth  positions, 
to  the  power  implied  in  church  government,  the  easiest  and  safest 
method  is  to  follow  an  established  distribution.  The  subject  has  been 
so  fully  canvassed  since  the  reformation,  that  we  may  be  assured  none 
of  the  objects  which  require  to  be  considered  under  the  fifth  position 
were  omitted  by  the  many  able  men,  who,  with  much  zeal,  particu- 
larly in  the  course  of  the  seventeenth  century,  combated  one  another 
upon  the  various  questions  to  which  it  has  given  birth.  Taking, 
therefore,  the  distribution  which  is  found  in  the  ordinary  systems,  I 
shall  divide  church  power  into  three  parts,  which,  for  the  sake  of 
memory,  are  expressed  by  three  single  words,  the  jjotestas  boy^iatixr^, 
Siataxtixr;,  and  Stax^cf  1x7.  The  first  respects  Soyi^ata,  doctrines  or  articles 
of  faith ;  the  second  respects  6taT'a|«j,  ecclesiastical  canons  or  consti- 
tutions; the  third  respects  discipline,  or  the  exercise  of  judgment  in 
inflicting  or  removing  censures. 

To  each  of  these  three  I  shall  apply  the  limits  and  regulations  sug- 
gested by  the  third  and  fourth  positions. 


POTESTAS   Aoy^afiXJf.  751 


CHAPTER  IV. 


POTEST  AS   Aoy^aftx*;. 


1.  The  pofestas  Boynatixtj  is  limited  and  regulated  by  the  sovereign 
authority  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  the  liberties  of  his  disciples. 

The  church  of  Rome,  in  the  progress  of  that  influence  which  she 
acquired  over  the  Christian  world,  laid  down  the  following  positions, 
\yhich  were  received  as  true  by  the  members  of  her  communion  : — 
That  the  authority  of  Scripture,  its  right  to  the  faith  and  obedience 
of  Christians,  depends  entirely  upon  the  testimony  of  the  church  : 
that  besides  the  written  word,  consisting  of  the  books  which  Chris- 
tians receive  in  consequence  of  the  judgment  of  the  church,  there  is 
also  an  unwritten  word,  of  which  the  church  are  the  keepers  : 
that  it  does  not  appear  to  have  been  intended  that  the  Scriptures 
should  contain  a  complete  rule  of  faith  and  manners ;  but  that  this 
defect,  which  arose  unavoidably  from  their  having  been  written  by 
diflferent  authors  upon  particular  occasions,  is  fully  remedied  by  those 
traditions,  which,  although  not  written  in  any  apostolical  book,  have 
been  safely  conveyed  down  through  the  church  from  the  days  of  the 
apostles :  that  these  traditions,  pertaining  either  to  faith  or  to  morals, 
are  to  be  received  with  the  same  piety  and  reverence  as  the  Scrip- 
tures :  and  that  the  church,  by  being  in  possession  of  this  unwritten 
word,  is  qualified  in  its  teaching  to  supply  the  imperfection  of  the 
written  word :  that  the  Scriptures,  being  in  many  places  obscure,  it 
is  impossible  for  the  people,  by  the  exercise  of  their  own  faculties,  to 
derive  from  thence  the  knowledge  of  all  things  necessary  to  salva- 
tion ;  and  that  their  attempting  to  form  opinions  for  themselves  out 
of  the  Scriptures,  while  it  cannot  lead  them  certainly  to  the  truth, 
may  produce  a  multiplicity  of  dangerous  errors,  and  much  bitter  con- 
tention :  that,  to  avoid  these  evils,  it  is,  in  general,  expedient  to  debar 
the  people  from  the  free  use  of  the  Scriptures,  or  to  grant  it  only  to 
those  whom  their  teachers  judge  the  least  likely  to  abuse  that  privi- 
lege :  that  the  church,  being  assisted  by  the  Spirit  of  God  in  search 
of  the  Scriptures,  having  the  promise  of  the  presence  of  Jesus  to  the 
end  of  the  world,  and  having  possession  of  the  unwritten  word  as  a 
commentary  upon  the  written,  is  the  only  safe  interpreter  of  Scrip- 
ture, and  the  supreme  judge,  by  whose  definitive  sentence  all  con- 
troversies with  regard  to  the  meaning  of  particular  passages,  or  the 
general  doctrine  of  Scripture,  must  be  determined :  that  it  is  the  duty 
of  Christians  to  acquiesce  in  this  infallible  determination :  and  that, 
although  they  do  not  understand  the  grounds  upon  which  it  rests,  or 


"52  POTESTAS    AoyfiaHixtj. 

although  other  doctrines  than  those  which  the  church  declares  to  be 
true  appear  to  their  minds  agreeable  to  Scripture,  it  is  presumption 
and  impiety,  a  breach  of  that  reverence  which  they  owe  to  the  insti- 
tution of  Christ,  and  a  sin  for  which  they  deserve  everlasting  punish- 
ment, to  oppose  their  own  private  judgment,  which  cannot  of  itself 
attain  the  truth,  and  which  may  depart  very  far  from  it,  to  the  de- 
cision of  the  church  which  cannot  err :  that  the  faith  which  becomes 
the  dutiful  subjects  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  and  by  which  they  are 
saved,  is  an  entire  submission  of  the  understanding  to  the  decisions 
of  the  church  ;  a  faith  which  does  not  include  a  knowledge  of  the 
things  believed,  which  is  more  fitly  defined  by  ignorance,  and  which 
supposes  nothing  more  than  an  implicit  and  cordial  acquiescence  in 
all  that  is  taught  by  the  church. 

The  foregoing  positions,  or  doctrines  of  the  church  of  Rome,  are 
combated  in  ditferent  parts  of  the  ordinary  systems.  I  have  brought 
them  together  in  one  view,  in  order  to  give  a  full  account  of  the 
extent  of  the  potesfas  ^oyf^attxy;,  as  claimed  by  that  church.  And  I 
need  not  stop  to  expose  the  monstrous  nature  of  a  claim,  which  con- 
stitutes the  great  body  of  Christians  mere  machines;  which  invades  the 
prerogative,  and  usurps  the  office  and  the  honours  of  the  great 
Prophet,  whom  it  is  the  duty  of  Christians  to  hear;  and  which,  by 
ascribing  to  the  church  an  infallibility  which  is  nowhere  promised, 
and  which  is  inconsistent  with  the  weakness  of  humanity,  has  pro- 
duced in  that  church  errors,  contradictions,  and  absurdities,  which 
appear  to  every  rational  inquirer  most  disgraceful  and  pernicious  to 
those  by  whom  they  are  held. 

To  so  monstrous  a  claim  all  Protestants  agree  in  opposing  this 
principle,  that  the  Scriptures  are  the  only  rule  of  faith.  Tliis  principle 
they  understand  to  include  the  following  positions: — The  authority 
of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  does  not  depend  upon  the  judg- 
ment of  the  church.  The  history  of  what  we  call  the  canon  of  the 
New  Testament  may  be  thus  stated.  While  many  books,  which 
claimed  to  be  written  by  divine  inspiration,  were  rejected  in  early 
times,  those  which  we  now  receive  were  declared  to  be  canonical, 
because  they  had  been  conveyed  down  from  the  days  of  tlie  apostles, 
with  satisfying  evidence  of  their  authority.  This  evidence,  as  laid 
before  those  who  fixed  the  canon  of  the  New  Testament,  consisted  of 
internal  marks  of  authenticity, of  which  a  scholar  in  every  age  is  equally 
qualified  to  judge,  of  the  consent  of  the  Christian  world,  of  the  testi- 
mony of  adversaries  to  the  Christian  faith,  and  of  many  collateral 
circumstances,  which  must  have  been  better  known  to  them  tharrto 
us,  who  live  at  such  distance  from  the  date  of  the  books.  But  had 
any  early  council  presumed  to  contradict  the  amount  of  this  evidence, 
by  rejecting  a  book  which  was  authentic,  or  admitting  one  which 
was  spurious,  the  voice  of  the  Christian  world  would  have  risen 
against  so  daring  a  decision  :  and  the  remains  of  Christian  antiquity 
which  have  reached  our  days,  would  have  enabled  us  to  disregard  it. 
In  judging  then,  of  the  authenticity  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, we  pay  no  further  regard  to  the  decision  of  the  church,  than 
as  it  constitutes  a  part  of  that  tradition  which  must  be  the  voucher 
of  every  book  written  in  a  remote  age  ;  and  having  satisfied  ourselves 
in  the  only  rational  manner — in  the  same  manner  as  we  do  with 


POTEST  AS    Aoyfiartxtj,  753 

regard  to  all  other  ancient  books — that  the  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment were  written  by  the  persons  whose  nainas  they  bear,  we  learn 
from  the  evidence  of  the  divine  mission  of  Jesus,  and  from  the  nature 
of  the  commission  given  to  his  apostles,  of  both  which  we  are  qualified 
to  judge,  the  entire  respect  and  credit  which  are  due  to  every  thing 
contained  in  the  books. 

Now,  this  credit  which  is  due  to  the  books,  not  upon  account  of 
the  testimony  of  the  church,  but  upon  their  own  account,  includes  a 
belief  of  their  sufficiency  and  their  perfection.  It  does  not  admit  of 
what  the  church  of  Rome  calls  tradition,  or  an  unwritten  word,  being 
put  upon  a  level  with  them.  It  implies,  that  all  things  necessary  to 
salvation  are  contained  in  the  books  themselves;  that  the  attainment 
of  the  knowledge  of  these  things  is  not  attended  with  difficulties,  so 
insuperable  to  an  individual  as  to  render  the  judgment  of  the  church 
indispensably  necessary;  that  every  person  who  has  the  use  of 
reason  miy,  by  a  proper  exercise  of  his  rational  powers,  and  by 
availing  himself  of  the  opportunities  within  his  reach,  satisfy  his  mind 
what  is  the  doctrine  of  Scripture,  and  understand  that  doctrine  as  far 
as  it  is  necessary  he  should  understand  it ;  and  consequently,  that  no 
individual  Christian  is  required  to  exercise  an  implicit  faith,  of  which 
he  can  give  no  other  account  than  that  it  rests  upon  the  authority  of 
the  church;  but  that  as  it  is  contrary  to  the  laws  of  his  nature  to 
believe  what  appears  to  him  absurd,  so  it  is  a  duty,  required  of  him 
by  his  divine  teacher,  to  "  search  the  Scriptures,"  so  as  to  judge  for 
himself,  that  what  he  professes  to  believe  is  therein  contained,  and 
thus  to  be  able  to  give  a  reason  of  his  faith  and  hope. 

By  stating  the  foregoing  positions,  I  have  endeavoured  to  unfold 
that  principle,  which,  being  characteristical  of  Protestantism,  is  avowed 
by  all  who  have  departed  from  the,  errors  of  the  church  of  Rome. 
But  it  is  held  under  different  modifications  ;  and  those  who  agree  in 
receiving  the  Scriptures  as  a  sufficient  rule  of  faith,  and  as  the  only 
authoritative  rule,  do  not  agree  concerning  the  power  reserved  to  the 
church  as  the  doctrines  of  religion. 

The  followers  of  Socinus,  who  were  among  the  earliest  Reformers, 
were  led,  by  the  general  principles  of  their  system,  to  an  extreme 
solicitude  in  guarding  against  the  abuses  of  ecclesiastical  authority ; 
and  having,  upon  many  points,  departed  very  far  from  the  received 
opinions  of  Christians,  they  were  obliged,  in  self  defence,  to  lay  down 
such  a  plan  of  church  government,  as  did  not  admit  that  the  church 
at  any  time  possessed  the  right  of  intermeddling  in  articles  of  faith. 
The  Socinians  hold,  that  as  the  Scriptures  are  the  rule  of  faith,  the 
essential  articles  of  faith  are  so  few,  so  simple,  and  so  easily  gathered 
out  of  clear  explicit  passages,  that  it  is  impossible  for  any  man  who 
has  the  exercise  of  his  reason  to  miss  them ;  that  all  the  mistakes  and 
differences  of  opinion  amongst  those  who  search  the  Scriptures  respect 
points  which  are  not  essential,  and  concerning  which  it  is  both  vain 
and  hurtful  to  try  to  establish  an  uniformity  of  opinion ;  that  it  is  in 
all  cases  a  sufficient  declaration  of  Christian  faith  to  say  that  we 
believe  the  Scriptures ;  that  no  harm  can  arise  from  allowing  every 
man  to  interpret  the  Scripture  as  he  pleases ;  and  that,  as  Scripture 
may  be  sufficiently  understood  for  the  purposes  of  salvation,  without 
anv  foreign  assistance,  all  creeds  and  confessions  of  faith,  composed 

5F 


754  POTESTAS    Aoyftattxi;. 

and  prescribed  by  human  authority,  are  an  encroachment  upon  the 
prerogative  of  the  supreme  teacher,  an  invasion  of  the  right  of  private 
judgment,  and  a  pernicious  attempt  to  substitute  the  commandments 
of  men  in  place  of  the  doctrine  of  God. 

According  to  this  plan,  there  is  left  to  the  church  and  its  ministers, 
m  their  teaching,  merely  the  office  of  exhortation.  Over  the  doctrines, 
which  are  the  principles  upon  which  the  exhortation  proceeds,  it  is 
conceived  to  be  incompetent  that  they  should  have  any  control ;  and 
both  the  proceedings  of  ecclesiastical  assemblies,  and  the  ministrations 
of  private  teachers,  are  understood  to  depart  from  their  proper  sphere, 
and  to  be  very  much  misemployed,  when,  instead  of  confining  them- 
selves to  recommendations  of  the  practice  of  virtue,  they  intermeddle 
Avith  points  of  doctrine,  all  of  which  are  either  so  plain,  that  they  can- 
not be  illustrated,  or  so  unimportant,  that  every  one  may  be  allowed, 
according  to  an  ancient  phrase  which  is  often  used,  to  abound  in  his 
own  sense. 

To  most  Protestant  churches  this  plan  appears  very  defective ;  and 
when  I  state  the  following  views,  you  will  perceive  how  far  it  falls 
short  of  the  purposes,  for  which  a  church  seems  to  have  been  esta- 
blished by  Christ. 

The  books  of  the  New  Testament  are  written  in  a  language  which 
is  now  understood  only  by  the  learned.  Yet,  in  that  language,  it  was 
intended  they  should  be  sent  over  the  world  to  be  the  rule  of  faith 
to  all  Christians.  However  plain,  therefore,  these  books  might  be  to 
the  nations  who  spoke  that  language,  the  great  body  of  the  people  in 
all  other  countries  stand  in  need  of  an  interpreter.  They  are  igno- 
rant of  the  meaning  of  single  words  and  phrases.  If  different  trans- 
lations are  offered,  they  do  not  know  which  is  most  correct ;  and  con- 
sequently they  must  remain  in  doubt  and  suspense,  unless  there  is 
some  human  authority  upon  which  they  can  rest. 

But  further,  after  the  meaning  of  single  words  and  phrases  is  ana- 
lysed, there  still  remain  in  all  ancient  books  many  passages  which 
cannot  be  understood  without  a  knowledge  of  local  customs  ;  of  points 
in  chronology,  geography,  and  history  ;  of  figures  of  speech  ;  and  of 
that  peculiar  character  which  every  language  derives  from  the  man- 
ners and  the  science  of  those  by  whom  it  is  spoken.  It  is  impossible 
that  the  great  body  of  the  people  in  any  country  can  make  the  neces- 
sary progress  in  so  large  and  multifarious  a  branch  of  study ;  so  that 
here  also,  as  well  as  in  the  meaning  of  single  words  and  phrases,  they 
must  rest  upon  the  authority  of  others.  Our  Lord  has  not  left  these 
wants  of  his  disciples  to  be  supplied  in  a  casual  manner,  by  any  per- 
son more  learned  than  themselves  whom  they  chance  to  meet.  But 
having  provided,  in  the  constitution  of  his  religion,  a  standing  method 
of  instruction,  he  directs  all,  who  in  searching  the  Scripture  feel  their 
own  deficiencies,  to  have  recourse  to  the  persons  who  are  set  over 
them  in  the  Lord.  When  the  apostles  went  forth  to  make  disciples 
of  all  nations,  they  were  enabled,  by  the  gift  of  tongues,  to  speak  so 
as  to  be  understood  by  all  who  heard  them.  Now  that  the  written 
word  of  the  apostles  is  transmitted  to  future  ages  in  a  particular  lan- 
guage, the  learning  of  the  Christian  teachers  may  render  that  written 
word  as  intelligible  to  the  people,  as  if  they  themselves  understood 
the  original  language  ;  and  since  the  Christian  teachers  appeared  to 


POTESTAS    ^oyftattxt^.  755 

US  formerly,  as  intended  by  Christ  to  constitute  a  society  co-operating 
for  the  same  great  purpose,  it  is  natural  to  expect  that,  instead  of  a 
private  rendering  of  the  Scriptures  by  every  individual  teacher,  all 
who  minister  to  persons  speaking  the  same  language,  will  join  in  pre- 
paring or  adopting  a  common  translation.  This  translation,  recom- 
mended by  the  concurrent  authority  of  the  body  of  teachers,  will  give 
the  people  all  the  assurance  which  the  nature  of  the  case  admits,  or 
which  it  requires,  that  the  book  which  they  read  is  the  same  in  sense 
with  that  which  was  written  by  the  apostles  ;  and  this  book,  receiv- 
ing in  the  ministrations  of  the  individual  teachers  those  elucidations, 
which  their  knowledge  of  antiquity,  and  the  fruit  of  their  various 
studies  qualify  them  to  give,  will  be  "profitable"  to  all  "  for  instruc- 
tion in  righteousness." 

It  appears,  then,  to  be  unquestionable,  that  the  succession  of 
teachers  in  the  Christian  church  were  intended  to  be  interpreters  and 
expounders  of  the  sacred  book ;  and  that  one  part  of  the  office  as- 
signed them  is,  to  afford  the  disciples  of  Christ  that  assistance  in  learn- 
ing the  truth  therein  contained,  of  which,  from  the  nature  of  the 
books,  the  language  in  which  they  were  written,  and  the  customs  of 
the  persons  addressed  in  them,  the  great  body  of  the  people  in  every 
country  stand  much  in  need.  But  there  is  a  farther  'part  of  their 
office,  in  relation  to  the  doctrines  of  religion,  which  a  due  attention  to 
the  subject  does  not  suffer  us  to  omit.  When  we  recollect  the  lan- 
guage and  the  spirit  of  the  directions  given  to  Timothy  and  Titus, 
and  when  Ave  hear  Paul  saying  to  Timothy,  ii,  2,  "  The  things  that 
thou  hast  heard  of  me,  the  same  commit  thou  to  faithful  men,  who 
shall  be  able  to  teach  others  also,"  we  are  led  to  consider  the  suc- 
cession of  Christian  teachers  as  intended  to  be  the  guardians  of  that 
truth  which  may  be  learned  from  the  Scriptures  ;  and  the  church,  the 
great  society  composed  of  those  teachers,  is  presented  to  our  view 
under  the  idea  of  the  keepers  of  a  sacred  deposit,  over  which  they  are 
appointed  to  watch.  It  is  by  the  illustration  of  this  idea  that  we 
show  the  imperfection  of  what  I  stated  as  the  Socinian  plan. 

The  foundation  of  the  character  of  a  disciple  of  Christ  is  laid  in  the 
acknowledgment  of  a  system  of  divine  truth.  That  system  may  be 
learned  by  searching  the  Scriptures.  But  our  Lord  and  his  apostles 
do  not  lead  us  to  suppose,  that  it  is  learned  by  every  person  into 
whose  hands  the  Scriptures  are  put,  or  who  professes  to  expound 
them.  Our  Lord  gives  notice  of  false  prophets,  who  should  come  to 
his  disciples  in  sheep's  clothing,  while  inwardly  they  were  ravening 
wolves.*  The  apostles  saw  the  fulfilment  of  this  prediction ;  and 
their  Epistles  abound  with  complaints  of  false  teachers,  men  "  who 
corrupted  the  word  of  God  ;  Avho  had  erred  concerning  the  truth  ; 
who  subv^erted  whole  houses,  teaching  things  which  they  ought  not; 
who  brought  in  damnable  heresies ;  who  were  moved  not  by  the 
spirit  of  truth,  but  by  the  spirit  of  error ;  men  unlearned  and  unstable, 
who  wrested  the  Scriptures  to  their  own  destruction."!  The  apostles 
mention  many  particular  errors  which  had  arisen  in  their  days  ;  they 
combat  them   with   zeal ;  they    call  upon  Christians  to    "  contend 

•   Ma(t.  vii.  15. 

■f  Z  Cor.  ii.  17.     2  Tlia.  ii.  18.    Titus  i.  U.    2  Pet.  ii.  I ;    iii.  16.     1  John  iv.  6, 


756  POTEST  AS    AoyjUOTtx*?. 

earnestly  for  the  faith  which  was  once  dehvered  to  the  saints,"  and 
to  "beware  lest  any  man  spoil  them  through  philosophy  and  vain 
deceit,  after  the  tradition  of  men  ;"  and  they  represent  it  as  one  of  the 
purposes  for  which  Christ  gave  prophets,  and  apostles,  and  evang'e- 
lists,  i.  e.  for  which  he  established  a  church,  Eph.  iv.  13,  that  Chris- 
tians might  "  be  no  more  children  tossed  to  and  fro,  and  carried  about 
rta»"j-ca»'fjH9t>?5  5'5afrxaxttt5,  with  cvcry  wiud  of  doctriuc,  by  the  sleight  of 
men,  and  cunning  craftiness,  whereby  they  lie  in  wait  to  deceive." 
In  like  manner  the  apostle  thus  writes  to  the  Hebrews,  xiii.  7,  8,  9, 
"  Remember  them  Avhich  have  the  rule  over  you,  who  have  spoken 
to  you  the  word  of  God  ;  whose  faith  follow,  considering  the  end  of 
their  conversation,  Jesus  Christ,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day  and  for 
ever.  Be  not  carried  about  with  divers  and  strange  doctrines." 
These  verses,  when  taken  in  connexion,  present  this  whole  sense,  that 
as  the  doctrhie  of  Cln-ist,  like  himself,  is  unchangeable,  his  disciples, 
instead  of  hastily  adopting  the  various  opinions  which  may  happen 
to  be  in  circulation,  should  continue  in  the  truth  which  they  receive 
from  the  spiritual  teachers,  who  are  set  over  them  in  the  Lord,  imitat- 
ing their  faith.  In  order  to  qualify  the  Christian  teachers  to  perform 
the  important  service  implied  in  these  passages,  the  apostle  exhorts 
Timothy,  and  through  him,  every  succeeding  minister  of  the  Gospel, 
to  "  hold  fast  the  form  of  sound  words."  He  excites  him  to  the  assi- 
duous exercise  of  his  talents  in  counteracting  the  restless  and  insidi- 
ous attempts  of  seducers ;  and  he  introduces  the  following  words, 
Titus  i.  9,  10,  11,  into  the  description  of  what  a  bishop  or  minister 
ought  to  be,  "Holding  fast  the  faithful  word,  as  he  hath  been  taught, 
that  he  may  be  able  by  sound  doctrine  both  to  exhort  and  to  convince 
the  gainsayers.  For  there  are  many  unruly  and  vain  talkers  and  de- 
ceivers, whose  mouths  must  be  stopped."  These  directions  of  the 
apostle  apply  by  parity  of  reason  to  the  heresies,  which  he  gives 
notice  were  to  arise  in  latter  times,  as  well  as  to  those  which  he  him- 
self combated.  They  impose  a  duty  upon  the  ministers  of  religion, 
and  consequently  they  create  a  corresponding  duty  in  the  people  to 
whom  they  minister ;  in  other  words,  while  they  invest  the  ministers 
of  religion  with  some  kind  of  authority  in  relation  to  its  doctrines, 
they  require  a  degree  of  reverence  for  every  lawful  exercise  of  that 
authority.  They  teach  clearly  that  an  acknowledgment  of  the  truth 
of  Scripture  is  not  a  sufficient  security  for  soundness  of  faith,  because 
they  state  a  perversion  of  Scripture  by  those  who  have  received  it,  as 
not  only  a  possible  case,  but  as  a  case  which  then  actually  existed  ; 
and  consequently  they  imply  that  it  is  lawful  for  the  ministers  of  ro- 
hgion  to  employ  some  additional  guard  to  that  "form  of  sound  words," 
which  they  are  required  to  hold  fast  and  to  defend. 

Two  striking  instances  of  a  perversion  of  Scripture  in  the  days  of 
tiie  apostles  are  mentioned,  the  one  by  Paul,  the  other  by  John.  In 
his  Epistles  to  Timothy,  Paul  speaks  of  Hymeneus  and  Philetus,  who 
"  concerning  the  truth  had  erred,  saying  that  the  resurrection  is  past 
already,  and  overthrew  the  faith  of  some  ;"  i.  C;  they  did  not  deny 
that  the  Scriptures  speak  of  a  resurrection,  but  by  an  allegorical  inter- 
pretation, they  resolved  all  the  declarations  of  the  future  resurrection 
of  the  body  into  a  figurative  expression  of  the  present  renovation  of 
the  heart  and  life,  which  is  produced  in  ChristiariS  by  the  grace  of 


POTESTAS    Aoy^uot'txi;.  '^57 

the  Gospel.  John,  in  his  first  and  second  Epistles,  speaks  of  de- 
ceivers, whom  he  calls  antichrists,  persons  moved  by  a  spirit  in  oppo- 
sition to  Christ,  "  who  confessed  not  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the 
flesh."  They  did  not  deny  that  the  Scriptures  speak  of  his  manifes- 
tation, but  they  thought  that  the  most  rational  interpretation  of  the 
words  of  Scripture  is  found  by  considering  the  body  of  Christ  as  a 
phantasm,  which  answered  the  purpose  of  liis  holding  communica- 
tion with  men,  without  subjecting  the  Son  of  God  to  that  degradation, 
and  his  rehgion  to  the  many  difficulties,  which  appeared  to  them  to 
arise  from  his  being  aUied  with  a  material  substance.  Now  both 
these  kinds  of  deceivers,  because  they  did  not  hold  the  truth  of  Scrip- 
ture, although  they  spoke  the  words  of  Scripture,  were  opposed  by 
the  apostles,  who  earnestly  warned  the  Christians  to  beware  of  their 
doctrine.  In  like  manner,  therefore,  when  in  future  ages  some  arose 
who  said  that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God,  but  who  gave  such  an  inter- 
pretation of  that  phrase,  as  rendered  it  consistent  with  the  opinion 
which  they  avowed,  that  Jesus  was  a  mere  man  ;  when  others  spoke 
in  the  language  of  Scripture  concerning  the  Spirit,  but  considering 
that  language  as  meaning  nothing  more  than  the  influence  of  God, 
published  as  a  part  of  their  creed  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  not  a  divine 
person ;  when  others  interpreted  all  the  variety  of  expressions,  in 
which  Jesus  is  said  to  have  died  for  sin,  as  meaning  only  that  our  sin 
was  the  occasion  of  his  death,  and  that  his  death  tended  to  take  away 
sin,  but  not  as  conveying  any  idea  of  atonement ;  when  such  opi- 
nions arose,  and  were  held,  and  defended,  and  propagated  by  men 
who  professed  to  venerate  the  Scriptures,  those  Christian  teachers 
who  considered thedivinity of  ourSaviour,the  personality  of  the  Spirit, 
and  the  doctrine  of  atonement,  to  be  important  branches  of  the  truth 
as  it  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  were  not  only  warranted,  but  were  called  to 
combat  these  opinions,  to  guard  "  the  form  of  sound  words"  from 
corruption,  and  to  warn  the  Christians  committed  to  their  charge 
against  being  led  aside  by  these  perversions  of  Scripture.  It  was  not 
enough  to  exhort  Christians  to  believe  what  the  Scriptures  declared 
upon  these  points;  for  those  who  were  accused  of  perverting  the 
Scriptures,  professed  this  belief.  It  was  not  possible  to  have  recourse 
to  any  such  infallible  authority  as  that  which  the  apostles  exerted, 
when  they  branded,  as  fundamental  errors,  the  doctrines  of  Hyme- 
neus  and  other  deceivers,  who  arose  in  their  days.  There  is  clear 
evidence  that  Jesus  did  not  intend  any  such  infallible  authority  should 
continue  to  exist  in  his  church  ;  yet  in  all  ages  the  Scriptures  have 
been  liable  to  perversion  ;  in  all  ages  it  appears  to  have  been  part  of 
the  charge  committed  to  the  Christian  teachers  to  maintain  and  de- 
fend the  truth  ;  and  it  is  left  to  them  to  devise  the  most  prudent  and 
eff"ectual  methods  of  fulfilling  that  duty. 

The  mode  of  fulfilling  this  duty,  to  which  the  Christian  teachers 
very  early  had  recourse,  was  of  the  following  kind.  When  they  ap- 
prehended a  danger  of  the  propagation  of  false  opinions  concerning 
an  important  article  of  Christian  faith,  they  assembled  in  larger  or 
smaller  numbers,  from  more  or  fewer  districts,  according  to  circum- 
stances. In  these  assemblies,  which  are  known  by  the  name  of 
councils,  and  which  gradually  assumed  the  forms  essential  to  the  or- 
derly transaction  of  business  in  a  great  meeting,  the  controverted 
66 


758  POTEST  AS   Abynatixij. 

points  Avere  canvassed;  and  the  opinion,  which  appeared  to  the 
council  agreeable  to  Scripture,  was  declared  in  words  so  contrived,  as 
to  form  their  explicit  testimony  against  the  opinions  which  they  ac- 
counted erroneous.  It  is  not  impossible  that  this  method  of  deciding 
controversies  was  suggested  to  the  early  Christians  by  the  practice  of 
the  States  of  ancient  Greece,  who  held  councils  upon  important  occa- 
sions. But  it  is  of  more  importance  to  observe  that  the  method  ap- 
pears to  be  agreeable  both  to  the  nature  of  the  case  and  to  Scripture. 
It  is  agreeable  to  the  nature  of  the  case.  For  the  consent  of  a  num- 
ber of  teachers  in  any  doctrine  was  the  best  security  of  their  having 
attained  the  truth,  which  their  fallibility  admitted;  and  the  unequivo- 
cal declaration  of  that  consent  was  the  most  likely  way  of  conciliat- 
ing respect  for  their  opinion,  and  of  giving  it  that  authority  with  the 
people,  which  might  render  it  a  preservative  against  error.  This 
method,  in  itself  natural  and  expedient,  may  be  said  to  be  agreeable 
to  Scripture,  and  even  to  have  received  a  sanction  from  the  practice 
of  the  apostles.  One  of  the  earliest  disputes  in  the  Christian  church 
respected  the  necessity  of  circumcision.  Paul  and  Barnabas,  after 
having  had  no  small  disputation  in  the  regions  where  they  laboured, 
went  up  to  Jerusalem  to  consult  the  apostles  and  elders  about  this 
question.  The  apostles  and  elders,  having  met  to  consider  the  mat- 
ter, and  canvassed  it  at  length,  came  to  a  definitive  sentence,  which 
they  published  in  an  epistle  to  the  churches;  and  Paul,  upon  his  re- 
turn to  the  region  which  he  had  left,  as  he  went  through  the  cities, 
Acts  xvi.  4,  5,  "  delivered  them  the  decrees  for  to  keep,  that  were 
ordained  of  the  apostles  and  elders  which  were  at  Jerusalem ;  and  so 
were  the  churches  established  in  the  faith." 

It  was  most  natural  for  the  Christian  teachers  in  future  ages  to 
consider  this  apostolical  council,  as  a  direction  and  a  warrant  with 
regard  to  the  most  expedient  method  of  terminating  the  controversies 
which  arose  in  their  time.  Accordingly,  when  the  Arian  opinions 
Avere  propagated  with  zeal  and  success  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourth 
century,  a  council,  which  is  known  by  the  name  of  the  first  general 
council,  was  held  at  Nice  under  the  authority  of  the  Roman  Empe- 
ror, then  become  a  Christian,  and  declared  in  the  creed,  called  the 
Nicene  creed,  the  divinity  and  con  substantiality  of  the  Son.  A  se- 
cond council,  held  at  Constantinople  in  the  end  of  that  century,  de- 
clared in  opposition  to  the  errors  of  Macedonius,  the  divinity  and  per- 
sonality of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  two  councils,  held,  the  one  at  Ephe- 
sus  and  the  other  at  Chalcedon,  about  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century, 
testified  their  disapprobation  of  the  systems  taught  by  Nestorius  and 
Eutyches,  and  declared  what  continues  to  be  the  received  opinion  in 
most  Christian  churches,  concerning  the  union  of  the  divine  and 
human  nature  of  our  Saviour, 

These  four  general  councils  are  mentioned  with  honour  in  ecclesi- 
astical history,  and  are  spoken  of  by  most  Christian  writers  as  enti- 
tled to  a  degree  of  respect,  which  is  not  due  to  any  succeeding  coun- 
cil. Not  that  they  were,  according  to  the  literal  sense  of  the  word, 
general  councils,  /.  e.  assemblies  consisting  of  deputies  from  all  parts 
of  Christendom.  The  difficulties  which  must  occur  to  every  person, 
who  considers  what  such  a  meeting  requires,  are  of  such  a  kind,  that 
it  has  never  taken  place  in  fact ;  and  were  it  practicable^  it  would  not 


P0TESTA3    Aoyiiatixr,.  759 

derive  from  the  number  or  the  miiversality  of  the  representation  an 
infallible  security  against  error.  Neither  is  the  peculiar  respect  paid 
to  these  councils  founded  on  a  belief,  that  every  part  of  their  pro- 
ceedings was  conducted  in  an  unexceptionable  manner.  There  might 
be  much  faction  and  altercation,  weakness  in  some  of  the  members, 
and  political  views  in  others.  But  they  are  respected,  because  the 
opinions  which  they  declared  appeared  to  the  great  part  of  the  Chris- 
tian world  to  be  founded  in  Scripture.  We  receive  the  opinions  not 
for  the  sake  of  the  declaration  of  the  councils ;  but  we  honour  the 
councils  for  declaring  opinions  which  we  believe  to  be  true  ;  and  we 
testify  this  honour  by  adopting,  in  our  profession  of  those  opinions, 
the  significant  phrases  by  which  these  early  councils  discriminated 
tlie  truth  from  the  errors  with  which  it  had  been  blended.  Many  of 
the  succeeding  councils  declared  what  we  believe  to  be  false  ;  and  the 
council  of  Trent,  held  in  the  thirteenth  century,  which  the  Christian 
world  had  loudly  demanded  as  the  most  effectual  method  of  reform- 
ing the  errors  of  the  church  of  Rome,  was  so  managed  by  the  influ- 
ence and  artifice  of  the  Pope,  that  it  lent  its  authority  to  the  establish- 
ment of  those  very  errors. 

When  the  Protestants  of  Germany  judged  it  necessary  for  them  to 
leave  a  church,  whose  corruptions  they  could  find  no  method  of  cor- 
recting, they  delivered  to  the  diet  of  the  empire  as  their  apology,  what 
is  called  the  confession  of  Augsburg  ;  Confessio  Augustana ;  and  in 
every  kingdom  and  state,  which  afterwards  left  the  communion  of 
the  church  of  Rome,  an  assembly  of  teachers,  held  generally  by  the 
authority  and  direction  of  the  state,  compiled  a  confession  of  their 
faith,  or  a  declaration  of  the  truths  which  they  believed  to  be  con- 
tained in  Scriptm-e.  These  confessions,  which  differed  from  one 
another  in  some  points,  were,  in  general,  so  framed  as  to  form  a  tes- 
timony against  the  errors  of  the  church  of  Rome,  without  renouncing 
any  of  the  truths  which  that  church  held ;  the  Protestants  wishing  to 
hold  themselves  forth  to  the  world  as  Christians,  who  retained  the 
great  doctrines  of  the  Gospel  unadulterated  by  any  of  the  heresies 
which  had  arisen,  and  who  forsook  only  those  corruptions  in  doctrine 
and  in  practice  which  a  particular  church  had  introduced.  From 
these  early  confessions  arose,  in  process  of  time,  with  some  variations, 
what  are  called  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  of  the  church  of  England, 
what  we  call  the  Confession  of  Faith  of  the  church  of  Scotland,  and 
the  Symbols,  Formularies,  and  Catechisms  of  other  Protestant 
churches. 

When  the  ophiions  of  Arminius  were  spreading  in  Holland  about 
the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  a  council  or  synod  was 
summoned  at  Dort  by  the  authority  of  the  States-General ;  and 
deputies  were  invited  to  attend  from  the  neighbouring  principalities, 
and  from  the  two  churches  of  Great  Britain.  This  council,  which  is 
known  by  the  name  of  Synodus  Dordracena,  after  sitthig  many 
months,  condemned  the  tenets  of  Arminius,  and  published  a  declara- 
tion of  the  Christian  faith  upon  the  controverted  points,  for  which 
some  Protestant  churches  entertain  a  high  respect,  as  it  is  agreeable 
to  their  opinions,  and  which  others  regard  with  indifference,  or  hold 
in  contempt.  The  result  of  the  synod  of  Dort  is  a  lesson  to  the  Pro- 
testant church,  that  the  expediency  of  general  councils  expired  with 


760  POTESTAS   Aoyjuafwej;. 

the  division  of  the  Roman  Empire;  that  in  the  present  situation  of 
Christendom  it  is  chimerical  to  think  of  obtaining  by  this  method  any- 
greater  uniformity  of  doctrine,  than  ah'eady  subsists  amongst  those 
■•vho  have  left  the  communion  of  the  church  of  Rome;  and  that  in 
every  independent  kingdom  or  state,  the  Christian  teachers,  sup- 
ported by  the  civil  authority,  in  the  manner  that  is  agreed  upon,  are 
fully  competent,  without  waiting  for  the  judgment  of  Christians  in 
other  countries  to  prepare  such  a  general  declaration  of  the  Christian 
Faith,  and  sucli  occasional  preservatives  against  error,  as  may  answer 
the  purposes  for  which  the  church  was  invested  with  what  we  have 
'galled  the  potestas  doy/xatix?]. 

The  objection  commonly  made  to  confessions  of  faith  is,  that  they 
f>re  too  particular;  that  a  declaration  of  faith  which  is  meant  to  unite 
Christians,  should  comprehend  only  the  fundamental  doctrines  of 
Christianity,  without  descending  to  those  controverted  points,  and 
those  niceties  of  doctrine,  upon  which  men  have  differed ;  and  that  it 
would  in  general  be  better  that  these  confessions  were  expressed  in 
the  language  of  Scripture,  than  in  the  terms  of  human  science. 

The  persons  most  ready  to  bring  forward  this  objection  are  those 
whose  system  excludes  some  of  the  doctrines  which  the  great  body 
of  Protestants  agree  in  receiving.  In  their  manner  of  stating  the 
objection,  they  are  careful  to  conceal  their  disbelief  of  particular  doc- 
trines, under  a  zeal  for  liberty  of  conscience,  and  the  right  of  private 
judgment ;  and  instead  of  atfirming  that  a  confession  declares  what 
is  false,  they  choose  rather  to  say,  that  by  the  particularity  with 
which  it  states  the  received  opinion,  it  abridges  and  invades  that 
freedom  in  every  thing  that  concerns  religion,  which  Christians 
derive  from  the  spirit  of  the  gospel. 

The  subject  has,  of  late,  received  much  discussion  in  England.  The 
objection  is  stated  with  ability  and  eloquence  in  a  book  entitled  the 
Confessional ;  and  when  you  turn  your  attention  to  this  matter,  you 
will  easily  become  acquainted  with  the  answers  and  replies  that  have 
been  published.  I  do  not  mean  to  enter  into  any  detail,  but  simply 
to  lead  your  thoughts  to  that  answer  to  the  objection,  which  may  be 
deduced  from  the  principles  that  have  been  stated. 

It  is  easy  to  ask  that  only  fundamental  articles  should  be  introduced 
into  confessions;  but  it  is  not  easy  to  say  what  articles  are  funda- 
mental. There  is  no  enumeration  of  them  in  Scripture ;  and  no 
attempt  that  has  ever  been  made  to  enumerate  them  has  given 
universal  satisfaction.  The  very  point  upon  which  different  sects 
divide  is,  that  some  account  articles  fundamental,  which  to  others 
appear  unimportant ;  and  that  even  things,  which  all  admit  to  be 
fundamental,  are  held  by  some  with  such  limitations,  as  to  appear  to 
others  very  much  to  enervate  their  meaning.  It  is  certainly  not 
desirable  that  confessions  should  descend  to  minute  controversies; 
and  perhaps  all  of  them  might  be  abridged.  But  the  very  purpose 
for  which  they  are  composed,  being  to  guard  against  error,  it  is  plain 
that  they  become  nugatory,  if  they  deliver  the  truths  of  religion  in 
those  words  of  ScripFure  which  had  been  perverted,  or  in  terms  so 
general  as  to  include  both  the  error  and  the  truth. 

In  judging  how  far  the  particularity  of  confessions  invades  the 
right  of  private  judgment,  it  is  necessary  to  attend  to  an  essential  dis- 


POTESTAS    Aoyiwat'txj;.  761 

tinction  beween  the  condition  of  teachers  and  that  of  the  people.  The 
confession,  in  which  any  number  of  teachers  unite,  is  that  "  form  of 
sound  words,"  which  they  think  they  find  in  Scripture,  and  which 
they  consider  it  as  their  duty  to  "  hold  fast."  Every  teacijer,  who 
belongs  to  the  community,  is  of  course  supposed  to  assent  to  the  truths 
contained  in  their  confession ;  and  the  community  of  teachers  ought 
not  to  admit  any  person  to  take  part  of  their  ministry,  unless  by  his 
subcribing  the  Cv)nfession,  or  declarinf;  his  sentiments  in  some  other 
way,  they  know  that  he  entertains  the  opinions  which  are  there  pub- 
lished. Witliout  some  such  requisition,  the  confession  of  the  com- 
munity, and  the  ministrations  of  the  individual  teachers,  might  be  in 
opposition  to  one  another.  Many  of  them,  holding  opinions  that 
were  condemned  in  the  confession,  and  animated  with  zeal  for  the 
propagation  of  those  opinions,  might  instil  into  the  minds  of  the  peo- 
ple the  very  errors  against  which  it  was  the  purpose  of  the  confession 
to  guard  them;  and  thus  the  negligence  of  the  community  would 
become  the  instrument  of  exposing  the  people  to  be  "  carried  about 
with  divers  and  strange  doctrines,"  of  inflaming  their  breasts  with 
that  animosity  which  generally  attends  religious  disputes,  and  of 
bringing  upon  them  those  evils  from  which  (hey  would  have  been 
preserved,  if  there  had  been  an  uniformity  in  the  doctrine  of  their 
teachers.  If,  then,  the  church  in  general,  and  any  division  of  the 
church,  consisting  of  the  office-bearers  of  a  particular  district,  united 
m  a  society,  have  a  right  to  declare  their  opinion  concerning  con- 
troverted points,  and  if  it  is  part  of  the  duty  of  their  office  by  a  declara- 
tion of  this  opinion  to  oppose  the  propagation  of  error,  it  follows,  by 
consequence,  from  this  right  and  this  duty,  that  they  are  entitled 
to  require  from  every  person,  to  whom  they  convey  the  powers  im- 
plied in  ordination, a  declaration  of  his  assent  to  their  opinions.  This 
is  merely  prescribing  the  terms  of  admission  to  a  particular  office;  it 
is  employing  the  nature  of  the  office  to  regulate  the  qualifications ; 
and  it  is  no  infringement  of  the  right  of  private  judgment,  because  if 
any  person  does  not  possess  the  qualifications,  or  does  not  choose  to 
comply  with  the  terms,  he  has  only  to  turn  his  attention  to  some 
other  office.  For  if,  instead  of  becoming  a  teacher,  he  prefers  to  con- 
tinue one  of  the  people  in  the  Christian  society,  he  is  under  no  obliga- 
tion to  declare  his  assent  to  the  confession,  which  has  been  published 
by  the  teachers  as  the  declaration  of  their  faith,  and  the  directory  of 
their  teaching.  How  far  heretics  are  liable  to  censure,  will  be  con- 
sidered, when  we  speak  of  the  judicial  power  of  the  church.  What  I 
am  now  stating  is  this  essential  distinction  between  the  teachers  and 
the  people  in  a  Christian  society,  that  the  judgment  of  the  body  of 
people  is  not  necessarily  concluded  under  the  judgment  of  the  office- 
bearers; in  other  words,  that  the  potestas^oy^anxri,  which  we  con- 
ceive to  be  inherent  in  the  nature  of  the  church,  does  not  imply  a 
right  of  imposing  upon  the  consciences  of  Christians  the  belief  of  that 
which  the  church  has  determined  to  be  true. 

From  this  account  of  the  potestas  Soyixanxrj,  as  exercised  by  Protes- 
tants, it  appears  to  be  neither  inconsistent  with  the  supremacy  of 
Christ,  nor  destructive  of  the  liberties  of  Christians.  It  is  not  incon- 
sistent with  the  supremacy  of  Christ;  because  it  is  purely  ministerial, 
professing  to  interpret  the  words  of  Christ  and  his  apostles;  proving 
66*  5  G 


762  POTESTAS    Aoyjuai-iXJ?. 

out  of  them  all  the  assertions  which  it  pubHsIies ;  directing  to  them 
as  the  infallible  standard  of  truth  ;  and  warning  Christians  against 
listening  to  any  other  doctrine  than  that  which  Christ  commanded  to 
be  taught.  The  confessions  of  Protestant  churches  claim  to  be  true, 
not  in  respect  of  the  authority  by  which  they  are  composed,  but  in 
respect  of  their  conformity  to  the  words  of  Scripture  ;  and  therefore, 
instead  of  invading,  they  assert  the  prerogative  of  the  Supreme  TeacJier, 
Nor  is  it  inconsistent  with  the  liberties  of  Christians.  When  Christian 
teachers  either  give  a  general  declaration  of  the  faith,  or  bear  testi- 
mony occasionally  against  particular  errors,  a  respect  is  certainly  due 
to  the  judgment  of  the  men  invested  with  an  office  in  the  church,  and 
exercising  this  office  for  a  purpose  which  is  declared  in  Scripture  to 
be  important.  But  this  respect  does  not  imply  a  submission  of  the 
understanding.  It  is  acknowledged  that  the  decision,  proceeding 
from  fallible  men,  may  be  erroneous;  and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  Chris- 
tians to  "judge  of  themselves  what  is  right,  to  search  the  Scriptures 
whether  the  things  are  so,  to  try  the  spirits  whether  they  be  of  God." 
This  exercise  of  the  pofestas  doyfiatixr;  may  give  warning  of  error ; 
may  detect  the  sophistry  upon  which  the  error  rests,  and  may  collect 
the  proofs  of  the  sound  doctrine.  All  these  are  helps,  which  private 
Christians  derive  from  that  order  of  men  instituted  by  Christ  for  the 
edification  of  his  body,  the  church.  But  the  understanding  is  not 
overruled,  because  it  is  assisted ;  with  these  helps  Christians  are  only 
better  able  to  exercise  their  understanding,  upon  subjects  less  familiar 
to  them  than  to  their  teachers ;  and  if,  after  making  the  proper  use 
of  this  assistance,  they  are  satisfied  that  the  decision  of  the  church  is 
not  well  founded,  and  that  what  the  church  brands  as  an  error  is 
agreeable  to  the  word  of  God,  they  are  perfectly  acquitted  in  the 
judgment  of  their  own  consciences,  and  in  the  sight  of  God,  for  re- 
fusing to  adhere  to  what  appears  to  them  an  erroneous  decision  ;  and 
it  is  as  much  their  duty  to  hold  what  they  account  true,  although  con- 
trary to  the  judgment  of  the  church,  as  it  was  the  duty  of  thechurch 
to  warn  them  against  what  she  accounted  an  error. 

And  thus,  by  the  potestas  Boyixan-xtj,  as  claimed  by  Protestants,  the 
church,  according  to  the  true  meaning  of  that  expression  of  Paul,  1 
Tim.  iii.  15,  is  "  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  trutli,"  arvxa?  xm  tb^aw^ia 
tfii  aXriOnar,  uot  as  it  is  interpreted  in  the  church  of  Rome,  the  founda- 
tion upon  which  the  truth  rests,  but  the  publisher  and  defender  of  the 
truth.  In  ancient  times,  edicts  and  other  writings  intended  for  the 
information  of  the  people  were  affixed  to  pillars ;  and  this  was  the 
legal  method  of  promulgation.  So  the  church  declares,  holds  up  to 
public  view,  the  truth  recorded  in  Scripture;  and  when  the  truth  is 
attacked,  the  church  by  its  decisions  supports  the  truth,  stating  fairly 
Avhat  had  been  perverted,  and  exhibiting  the  proofs  of  what  has  been 
denied.  It  remains  with  those,  to  whom  the  church  ministers,  to 
compare  what  is  inscribed  upon  the  pillar  with  the  original  record, 
from  which  it  professes  to  be  taken,  and  to  examine  the  statement 
and  the  proofs  which  are  submitted  to  their  consideration.  The 
church  discharges  its  office  by  warning  them  against  error ;  they  do 
their  duty,  when  they  listen  with  attention  to  the  warning,  and  yet 
are  careful  not  to  be  misled  by  those  who  are  appointed  to  assist  their 
endeavours  in  searching  after  the  truth.     If,  in  consequence  of  fulfil- 


POTESTAS   Aoyiuanxj;.  763 

ling  this  duty,  they  sometimes  reject  tlie  truth  which  is  proposed  to 
them,  and  adopt  erroneous  tenets,  this  is  only  a  proof,  that,  in  the 
present  imperfect  state,  uniformity  of  opinion  is  not  consistent  with 
the  free  exercise  of  the  human  understanding  ;  and  it  is  unquestiona- 
bly better  that  men  should  sometimes  err,  than  that  they  should  he 
compelled  to  the  acknowledgment  of  any  system,  by  an  authority 
which  is  not  competent  to  faUible  mortals,  and  which  destroys  the 
reasonable  nature  of  those  over  whom  it  is  exerted. 

I  conclude  this  subject  with  stating,  that  the  view  which  I  have 
given  of  the  pofestasSoyfiatix*;  is  agreeable  to  the  declared  sentiments 
of  both  the  churches  in  this  island.  In  the  twentieth  article  of  the  church 
of  England,  are  these  words :  "The  church  hath  authority  in  mat- 
ters of  faith.  And  yet  it  is  not  lawful  for  the  church  to  ordain  any 
thing  that  is  contrary  to  God's  word  written  ;  neither  may  it  so  ex- 
pound one  place  of  Scripture,  that  it  be  contrary  to  another.  Where- 
fore, although  the  church  be  a  witness  and  keeper  of  holy  writ,  yet 
besides  the  same,  ought  it  not  to  enforce  any  thing  to  be  believed  for 
necessity  of  salvation."  In  the  twenty-first  article,  it  is  said, "  General 
councils,  forasmuch  as  they  be  an  assembly  of  men  whereof  all  be 
not  governed  with  the  spirit  and  word  of  God,  may  err,  and  some- 
times have  erred  even  in  things  pertaining  unto  God.  Wherefore 
things  ordained  by  them  as  necessary  to  salvation  have  neither 
strength  nor  authority,  unless  it  may  be  declared  that  they  are  taken 
out  of  the  holy  Scriptures."  The  whole  first  chapter  of  our  Confes- 
sion of  Faith,  concerning  the  holy  Scriptures,  is  a  testimony  against 
the  potestas  Soyfianx??  claimed  by  the  church  of  Rome.  In  the  thirty-first 
chapter,  it  is  said,  "  It  belongeth  to  synods  and  councils  ministerially 
to  determine  controversies  of  faith  ;  and  their  determinations,  if  con- 
sonant to  the  word  of  God,  are  to  be  received  with  reverence  and 
submission,  not  only  for  their  agreement  with  the  word,  but  also  for 
the  power  whereby  they  are  made,  as  being  an  ordinance  of  God, 
appointed  thereunto  in  his  word.  All  synods  and  councils,  since  the 
apostles,  whether  general  or  particular,  may  err,  and  many  have 
erred ;  therefore  they  are  not  to  be  made  the  rule  of  faith  or  practice, 
but  to  be  used  as  an  help  in  both." 


764  POTESTAS   AtaraxTtxi?. 


CHAPTER  V. 


POTEST  AS   Atar'axfixjj. 


The  potestas  Sua-taxtixr^,  that  which  respects  ecclesiastical  canons  or 
constitutions,  is  limited  and  regulated  by  the  sovereign  authority  of 
the  Lord  Jesus,  and  the  liberties  of  his  disciples. 

The  church  of  Rome,  professing  to  be  the  keepers  of  an  unwritten 
word,  out  of  which  they  can  supply  at  their  pleasure  the  deficiencies 
of  Scripture,  and  claiming  an  authority  to  which  Christians  owe  im- 
plicit subjection,  conceive  that  they  have  a  right  to  enact  laws  which 
bind  the  conscience,  and  which  cannot  be  transgressed  without  incur- 
ring the  same  penalties,  which  are  annexed  to  every  breach  of  the 
divine  law.  They  have,  in  virtue  of  this  claim,  made  numberless 
additions  to  the  essential  parts  of  the  worship  of  God,  which,  although 
not  enjoined  in  Scripture,  they  represent  as  indispensably  necessary, 
in  order  to  the  acceptance  of  the  worshipper.  They  impose  re- 
straints in  the  enjoyment  of  the  comforts  of  life,  in  the  formation  of 
different  connexions,  and  in  the  conduct  of  the  business  of  society ; 
restraints  which,  although  not  founded  upon  the  word  of  God,  can- 
not be  broken  through  without  incurring,  in  the  judgment  of  the 
church,  the  guilt  of  a  deadly  sin.  They  not  only  command,  upon 
pain  of  eternal  damnation,  many  performances,  as  fasts,  and  penan- 
ces, and  pilgrimages,  which  the  Scriptures  do  not  require  ;  but  they 
even  enjoin  by  their  authority,  as  in  the  case  of  the  worship  of 
images,  and  other  services  which  appear  to  us  idolatrous,  what  the 
Scriptures  seem  to  have  forbidden ;  and  they  abridge  the  liberty  of 
Christians  by  a  multitude  of  frivolous  institutions,  a  compliance  with 
which  is  not  left  to  be  regulated  by  the  discretion  and  circumstances 
of  individuals,  but  is  bound  rigorously  upon  all,  unless  the  church 
chooses  to  give  a  dispensation  from  the  duty,  which  her  authority  had 
created. 

All  this  constitutes  one  branch  of  what  Protestants  account  the 
usurpation  and  tyranny  of  the  church  of  Rome.  It  appears  to  them 
to  be  an  encroachment  upon  the  prerogative  of  the  "  one  Lawgiver, 
who  is  able  to  save  and  to  destroy,"  who,  having  delivered  in  his 
word  the  laws  of  his  kingdom,  has  not  committed  to  any  the  power  of 
altering,  repealing,  or  multiplying  these  laws,  but  has  left  his  disciples 
to  learn,  from  his  own  discourses,  and  the  writings  of  his  apostles, 
"  all  things  whatsoever  he  has  commanded  them  to  observe."  By 
this  encroachment  upon  the  prerogative  of  the  one  Lawgiver,  the 
rights  of  Christians  too  are  invaded ;  because,  instead  of  having  to 
walk  by  a  precise  rule  delivered  in  Scripture,  which  all  may  know. 


POTESTAS  Aiataxti**;.  765 

their  consciences  are  subjected  to  regulations  indefinite  in  number, 
which,  depending  upon  the  views  and  the  pleasure  of  particular  men, 
may  not  only  become  oppressive,  but  may  involve  them  in  the  most 
distressing  embarrassment,  by  requiring  tliem,  as  a  condition  of  salva- 
tion, to  do  that  which  to  their  own  judgment  appears  sinful. 

Against  this  usurpation  and  tyraimy,  all  Protestants  have  revolted ; 
and  in  opposition  to  it  they  hold  that  the  church  has  no  power  to  pre- 
scribe any  new  terms  of  acceptance  with  God,  or  any  other  condi- 
tions of  salvation  than  those  which  are  declared  in  Scripture ;  that 
every  person  who  worships  God  according  to  the  directions  which  he 
himself,  has  given,  may  hope,  through  the  merits  of  Jesus,  to  please 
him ;  that  the  law  of  God  is  fulfilled  by  abstaining  from  what  he  has 
forbidden,  and  by  doing  what  he  has  commanded ;  and  that  God 
alone  being  the  Lord  of  conscience,  no  ecclesiastical  regulation  can 
justify  us  in  doing  what  we  account  sinful,  or  in  abstaining  from  what 
we  think  commanded  ;  or  can  so  far  alter  the  nature  of  things  as  to 
convert  an  action,  concerning  which  the  word  of  God  has  not  left  any 
direction,  into  a  necessary  indispensable  duty,  which  we  may  in  no 
situation  omit  without  incurring  the  divine  displeasure. 

Notwithstanding  these  limitations,  which  the  supreme  authority  of 
Christ  and  the  rights  of  his  subjects  obviously  require,  there  remains 
a  large  field  for  the  potestas  SMtaxuxr;,  and  many  questions  have 
arisen  amongst  Christians  concerning  the  proper  and  lawful  exercise 
of  it  within  that  field. 

There  is  one  branch  indeed  of  the  exercise  of  the  potest  as  Si^ataxttxtj, 
which  admits  of  no  dispute.  It  may  be  employed  in  enforcing  the 
laws  of  Christ ;  not  that  the  authority  of  these  laws  derives  any  ac- 
cession from  that  of  the  church.  But  as  the  church  is  the  publisher 
and  defender  of  the  rule  of  faith  contained  in  the  Scriptures,  so  she  is 
also  the  publisher  and  defender  of  the  rule  of  practice  there  delivered. 
The  ministers  of  religion,  in  their  individual  capacity,  exhort  and 
persuade  Christians  to  observe  this  rule.  When  the  rule  is  generally 
violated,  or  when  it  is  perverted  by  gross  misinterpretations  which 
are  likely  to  spread,  the  teachers  of  any  district  united  in  a  society, 
forming  what  we  call  the  church  of  that  district,  may  address  an  ad- 
monition or  explanation  to  all  who  are  of  their  communion.  The 
interposition  of  this  visible  authority  may  awaken  the  minds  of  the 
people  to  a  recollection  of  that  superior  authority  which  is  not  an 
object  of  sense  ;  and  the  infliction  of  those  censures,  which  are  within 
the  power  of  the  church,  may  serve  as  a  warning  to  those  judgments 
which  the  Almighty  has  reserved  in  his  own  power.  In  all  churches 
there  are  standing  laws  of  the  church  enjoining  the  great  branches 
of  morality.  There  are  also  occasional  injunctions  and  ordinances 
prohibiting  those  transgressions  which  are  most  flagrant ;  reproofs  and 
Avarnings  against  sins,  which  at  any  time  particularly  abound  in  a 
district.  As  no  person  who  attends  to  the  manners  of  the  world  will 
say  that  such  laws,  and  injunctions,  and  reproofs,  are  unnecessary,  so 
experience  does  not  justify  any  person  in  saying  that  they  are  wholly 
ineffectual.  While  civil  government  prohibits  many  immoralities 
under  this  view,  that  they  are  hurtful  to  the  peace  of  society,  church 
government  extends  its  prohibitions  to  other  immoralities  also,  which 
do  not  flill  under  this  description  ;  and  when  the  two  conspire,  as,  if 


766  POTESTAS    AwifoxT'iXJ;. 

both  are  legitimately  exercised,  will  never  fail  to  be  the  case,  they 
are  of  considerable  use  in  restraining  enormity  of  transgression,  and 
in  preserving  that  decency  of  outward  conduct,  which  is  a  great  pub- 
lic benefit,  and  which,  with  many,  might  not  proceed  from  the  unas- 
sisted influence  of  religion. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  dwell  longer  upon  this  undisputed  exercise  of 
the  authority  of  the  church  in  commanding  what  Christ  has  com- 
manded, and  forbidding  what  he  has  forbidden.  The  discussions, 
which  the  pot  est  as  Si,a/taxtixtj  requires,  respect  those  numberless  occa- 
sions upon  which  the  church  is  called  to  make  enactments  by  her 
own  authority.  To  these  enactments  there  was  applied,  in  early 
times,  the  name  canons,  which  is  derived  from  the  Greek  word  xwuv, 
7'egula,  and  which  means  to  convey  that  these  enactments  are  not 
put  upon  a  footing  with  the  laws  of  Christ ;  but,  being  subordinate  to 
them,  are  merely  regulations  applying  general  laws  to  particular  cases. 

The  first  object  of  these  regulations  is  what  we  may  call  matters 
of  order.  The  church  being  a  society,  in  which  a  number  of  per- 
sons are  united,  and  are  supposed  frequently  to  assemble,  there  must 
be  regulations  enacted  to  give  the  outward  polity  of  the  society  its 
form,  to  ascertain  the  terms  upon  which  persons  are  admitted  to  bear 
office  in  the  society,  and  to  direct  the  time  and  place  of  assembling 
for  all  the  members.  It  is  manifest  that  such  matters  of  order  can- 
not be  left  to  the  discretion  of  individuals,  because  the  variety  of  their 
determinations  would  produce  confusion.  It  may  be  supposed  that 
with  regard  to  all  such  matters,  individuals  are  ready  to  follow  that 
authority  which  they  unite  in  recognising  ;  and  if  the  Christian  soci- 
ety is  not  necessarily  dependent  upon  any  human  society,  but  may 
exist  by  itself,  and  has  within  itself  the  powers  necessary  for  its  own 
preservation,  this  authority  of  order  must  be  lodged  in  the  office- 
bearers of  the  society. 

One  of  the  most  important  circumstances  of  order  in  the  Christian 
society  is  the  time  of  holding  the  assemblies.  I  do  not  mean  the 
hours,  but  the  days,  of  meeting ;  a  circumstance  with  regard  to  which 
an  uniformity  may  naturally  be  expected  in  a  society  united  by  the 
same  faith.  It  has  been  common  for  men  in  all  ages  to  connect  the 
remembrance  of  interesting  events  with  the  solemnization  of  the  days, 
upon  which  such  events  originally  happened  :  and  the  first  teachers 
of  the  Gospel  appear  to  have  given  their  sanction  to  tbis  natural 
propensity,  by  changing  the  weekly  rest,  from  the  seventh  day  to 
the  day  upon  which  Christ  rose  from  the  dead.  From  emotions  of 
respect  and  gratitude,  and  from  the  authority  of  this  example,  there 
was  early  introduced  in  the  Christian  church  the  annual  solemniza- 
tion of  Christmas  as  the  day  upon  which  Christ  was  born  ;  of  Easter, 
as  the  day  upon  which  he  rose  •,  and  of  Whitsunday  as  the  day  upon 
which  the  Holy  Ghost  was  poured  forth.  Although  these  anniver- 
sary solemnities  were  very  early  observed,  there  was  not  an  uniform 
tradition  in  the  church  with  regard  to  the  precise  day  of  the  year, 
upon  which  each  of  the  three  events  had  happened.  Even  in  the 
second  century,  there  were  violent  disputes  between  the  Asiatic  and 
the  western  Christians,  whether  Easter  should  be  kept  always  upon 
a  Sunday,  or  whether,  without  regard  to  the  day  of  the  week,  it 
should  be  kept  on  the  third  day  after  the  day  of  the  Jewish  passover. 


POTESTAS    Aiataxftxt;.  'JQ'J 

which  Avas  considered  as  a  type  of  the  death  of  Christ,  and  which 
happened  invariably  upon  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  first  Jewish 
montli.  This  controversy,  insignificant  as  it  appears  in  our  times, 
agitated  the  whole  Christian  world  for  many  years,  and  was  not  de- 
cided till  the  council  of  Nice,  giving  their  sanction  to  the  practice  of 
the  western  Christians,  established  throughout  Christendom  tlie  ob- 
servance of  the  day  called  Good  Friday,  in  remembrance  of  Christ's 
death,  and  of  the  succeeding  Sunday,  in  remembrance  of  his  resur- 
rection. 

In  the  progress  of  the  superstitions  of  the  church  of  Rome,  a  multi- 
tude of  days  were  consecrated  to  the  memory  of  saints;  and  it  was 
impressed  upon  the  minds  of  the  people,  that  the  scrupulous  observ- 
ance of  all  the  fasts  and  feasts,  which  the  church  chose  to  ordain,  was 
an  essential  part  of  religion.  The  spirit  of  the  Reformation  led  men 
to  throw  off  a  bondage,  most  hurtful  to  the  interests  of  society,  and 
most  inconsistent  with  the  whole  character  of  the  Christian  religion, 
which  ranks  the  distinction  of  days  amongst  the  rudiments  of  the  law, 
and  declares  by  the  mouth  of  Paul,  that  "  he  that  regardeth  the  day, 
regardeth  it  unto  the  Lord,  and  he  tliat  regardeth  not  the  day,  to  the 
Lord  he  doth  not  regard  it."*  Upon  the  principle  implied  in  this 
declaration,  such  of  the  reformers,  as  wished  to  depart  very  far  from 
the  corruptions  of  the  church  of  Rome,  abolished  those  days  which 
from  early  times  had  been  kept  sacred  in  honour  of  Christ,  as  well  as 
those  which  had  been  dedicated  to  the  saints;  and,  as  is  the  case  in 
Scotland,  where  no  day  in  the  year,  except  the  Lord's  day,  is  statedly 
appropriated  to  religious  service,  they  retained  only  the  Sabbath, 
which  they  considered  as  of  divine  institution.  It  was  understood, 
however,  that  the  church  has  a  power  of  appointing  days  occasionally, 
according  to  circumstances,  for  the  solemn  services  of  religion,  although 
the  annual  return  of  festivals  appeared  to  them  to  lead  to  abuse.  Such 
of  the  reformers,  again,  as  judged  it  expedient  to  conform,  as  far  as 
could  be  done  with  safety,  to  the  ancient  practice  of  the  church,  re- 
tained the  names  of  the  days  sacred  to  the  memory  of  the  apostles, 
and  distinguished  with  peculiar  honour  the  three  great  festivals  in 
which  the  Christian  world  had  long  agreed,  Christmas,  Easter,  and 
Whitsunday.  In  the  church  of  England,  these  days  are  statedly 
and  solemnly  observed.  Some  of  the  more  zealous  assertors  of  the 
authority  which  appointed  those  days  attempted,  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  to  conciliate  greater  reverence  for  the  appointment,  by 
placing  them  upon  a  level  with  the  Lord's  day.  They  maintained 
that  the  change  from  the  seventh  to  the  first  day  of  the  week  was 
made,  not  by  divine,  but  by  ecclesiastical  authority ;  they  denied  the 
morality  of  the  Sabbath ;  and  they  gave  the  countenance  of  law  to 
those  sports  and  recreations,  after  the  time  of  divine  service  upon  that 
day,  which  had  been  usual  upon  the  multiplicity  of  festivals  in  the 
times  of  Popery. 

The  controversy  concerning  the  morality  of  the  Sabbath,  in  which 
the  Puritans  and  the  violent  Episcopalians  of  the  seventeenth  century 
eagerly  opposed  one  another,  has  long  since  terminated  in  those 
rational  views  which  are  now  generally  entertained.     That  a  seventh 

*  Romans  xiv.  6, 


768  POTESTAS   Aiaraxtixri. 

part  of  our  time  should  be  kept  holy  to  God,  appears  to  be  an  express 
positive  appointment  of  our  Creator.  On  what  day  of  the  week  that 
seventh  part  should  fall,  is  a  matter  of  indifference.  But  the  consent  of 
the  Christian  world,  and  many  other  circumstances,  conspire  in  show- 
ing that  the  change  from  the  last  to  the  first  day  of  the  week  was 
made  by  apostohcal  authority ;  and  in  this  respect  the  Sabbath  is 
clearly  distinguished  from  all  the  days,  which  the  laws  of  the  church 
may  either  statedly  or  occasionally  set  apart  for  the  exercises  of  reli- 
gion. As  to  the  manner  of  keeping  the  Sabbath  lioly,  that  significant 
expression  of  our  Lord, "  The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,"*  and  the 
general  principles  which  he  unfolded,  as  he  occasionally  touched  upon 
the  subject,  may  preserve  his  disciples  at  once  from  Jewish  or  Puri- 
tanical strictness,  and  from  those  levities  which  party  spirit  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  enacted  by  a  law.  The  same  principles  apply  to 
those  days,  upon  which  ecclesiastical  authority  enjoins  the  performance 
of  particular  services.  There  may  be  much  expediency  and  edifica- 
tion in  such  appointments ;  they  are  matters  of  order,  which  must  be 
regulated  by  the  powers  that  are;  and  any  person  who  wantonly 
pours  contempt  upon  tliem,  or  who  obstinately  refuses  (o  observe 
them,  knows  very  little  of  the  spirit  of  the  gospel,  and  has  much  need 
to  examine  his  own  heart. 

But  the  principles,  upon  which  obedience  to  the  potestas  ^•■o-rax'tixri 
ought  to  proceed,  will  be  more  fully  unfolded  in  considering  the 
second  object  of  ecclesiastical  canons  or  regulations. 

The  Christian  society  having  been  founded  for  this  purpose, 
amongst  others,  that  the  members  may  join  in  worshipping  one  God 
and  Father  of  all,  through  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  many  of  the  regula- 
tions enacted  by  the  church  respect  the  conduct  of  divine  ^^'orship. 
The  Father,  indeed,  requires  from  all  a  worship  in  spirit  and  in  truth. 
It  were  impious  to  raise  up  new  objects  of  worship;  and  Christians 
are  not  warranted  to  make  any  alteration  upon  the  substance  of  tlie 
two  sacraments,  or  to  place  any  human  institution  upon  a  level  with 
them.  This  would  be  what  the  apostle,  Col.  ii.  23,  calls  f6if?.o^^?jaxpia, 
will-worship,  that  is,  worship  of  our  own  framing,  which  all  Protes- 
tants agree  in  disclaiming.  Still,  in  the  manner  of  performing  that 
worship,  which  is  the  most  strictly  agreeable  to  the  genius  and  character 
of  the  Gospel,  there  are  circumstances  which  the  wisdom  of  God  has 
left  to  be  regulated  by  human  authority.  These  circumstances  res- 
pect the  decency  and  solemnity  which  ought  to  he  maintained  in  pub- 
lic worship,  both  for  the  credit  of  religion  in  the  eyes  of  strangers, 
and  also  for  the  purpose  of  cherishing  and  preserving  a  becoming 
reverence  in  the  minds  of  the  worshippers.  There  is  no  man 
whose  conceptions  of  spiritual  objects  are  at  all  times  so  refined, 
as  to  be  wholly  independent  of  that  which  is  external ;  and  with 
regard  to  the  generality,  there  is  much  danger  that  if  the  different 
parts  of  the  worship  prescribed  by  the  gospel  were  to  be  performed 
in  a  slovenly  and  irreverent  manner,  no  small  portion  of  the  con- 
tempt incident  to  the  outward  action  would  be  transferred  to  religion 
itself. 

All  these  circumstances,  which  do  not  make  any  essential  addition 

*  Mark  ii.  27. 


POTESTAS   AiafaxTexij.  769 

to  the  worship  of  God,  which  respect  merely  the  manner  of  its  being 
conducted,  and  which  are  intended  to  maintain  the  credit  of  rehgion, 
and  to  excite  the  devotion  of  the  worshippers  by  the  solemnity  of  the 
outward  action,  are  known  by  the  name  of  rites  and  ceremonies  ;  and 
it  is  understood  by  all  Protestant  churches,  with  the  exception  only 
of  a  few  sects,  that  rites  and  ceremonies  fall  under  the  potestas 

hia.'ta.x'tixti' 

If  the  apostles  of  Jesus  had  established,  by  their  authority,  a  pre- 
cise formulary  of  rites  and  ceremonies  binding  upon  Christians  in  all 
ages,  it  would  follow  that  succeeding  office-bearers  had  no  occasion 
and  no  warrant  to  exercise  this  branch  oiihe  potestas  Siaraxtixrt ;  and 
that  it  was  incumbent  upon  Christians  to  follow,  without  alteration, 
the  rule  prescribed  to  them.  Such  a  formulary  might  perhaps  be 
extracted  out  of  a  book  entitled.  The  Apostolical  Constitutions,  iu 
which  the  names  of  the  apostles  are  prefixed  to  very  particular  rules 
and  directions  about  -Christian  worship.  But  the  most  learned 
inquirers  into  Christian  antiquity  are  decidedly  of  opinion,  that  this  is 
one  of  the  many  spurious  books  which  ignorance  and  zeal  produced 
in  the  very  first  ages  of  the  church;  "the  work,"  as  Mosheim  says, "  of 
some  austere  and  melancholy  author,  who,  having  taken  it  into  his 
head  to  reform  the  Christian  worship,  made  no  scruple  to  prefix  to 
his  rules  the  names  of  the  apostles,  that  thus  they  might  be  more 
speedily  and  favourably  received."*  The  only  regulations,  therefore, 
concerning  rites  and  ceremonies,  which  we  have  any  reason  to  ascribe 
to  the  apostles,  are  those  which  we  find  in  their  epistles :  and  the  fol- 
lowing observations  cannot  fail  to  occur  to  any  person  who  considers 
them.  Some  of  the  directions,  which  Paul  gives  to  the  Corinthians 
concerning  the  worship  of  God  in  their  assemblies,  have  a  manifest 
reference  to  the  abundance  with  which  extraordinary  gifts  of  the 
Spirit  were  then  poured  forth,  and  to  the  abuses  which  that  abundance 
occasioned  ;  and  they  apply  only  by  analogy  to  other  states  of  the 
church.  Other  directions  of  his  were  dictated  by  the  manners  of 
those  times,  which  have  now  given  place  to  very  different  manners. 

He  intimates  that  some  of  the  regulations  which  he  prescribes  did 
not  proceed  from  the  Spirit  of  God,  but  were  his  own  judgment, 
given  by  him  "as  one  that  had  obtained  mercy  of  the  Lord  to  be 
faithful."  He  concludes  the  particular  directions  which  occupy  1 
Cor.  xiv.  with  these  words,  "Let  all  things  be  done  decently,  and  in 
order ;"  and  he  writes  to  Titus,  "  For  this  cause  left  I  thee  in  Crete, 
that  thou  shouldest  set  in  order  the  things  that  are  wanting."  La^dng 
all  these  things  together,  we  thus  reason.  As  the  apostle,  from  his 
own  judgment,  gave  such  directions  in  external  matters  as  the  circum- 
stances of  his  times  seemed  to  him  to  require  ;  as  he  committed  to  the 
church  at  Corinth  a  discretionary  power  with  regard  to  such  matters, 
by  desiring  them  to  "  do  all  things  decently,  and  in  order ;"  and  as 
he  charged  one  minister  whom  he  ordained,  to  supply  what  he  had 
left  deficient,  it  is  a  part  of  the  duty  of  the  office-bearers  of  the  church 
in  succeeding  ages — a  duty  which  does  not  require  inspiration,  which 
is  included  in  their  ordinary  commission,  and  to  which  they  are  fully 

*  Mosh.  Eccles.  Hist.  Cent.  1,  Part  II.  Chap.  ii. 
67  5  H 


770  POTESTAS    ^nafaxfixti. 

competent — to  make  such  regulations  with  regard  to  the  like  matters, 
as  to  them  appears  expedient. 

This  inference,  which  the  writings  of  the  apostles  seem  fairly  to 
warrant,  is  agreeable  to  the  whole  genius  of  the  gospel.  It  requires 
what  is,  in  the  highest  sense  of  that  phrase,  "a  reasonable  service." 
It  does  not,  with  regard  to  any  branch  of  morality,  prescribe  what  is 
called  "  bodily  exercise ;"  but,  inspiring  those  generous  sentiments 
which  are  in  every  possible  situation  the  principles  of  good  conduct, 
it  leaves  a  Christian,  in  the  expression  of  these  sentiments,  the  full 
liberty  that  belongs  to  an  accountable  agent.  We  hold  that  no  par- 
ticular form  of  church  government  is  so  precisely  marked  down  in 
Scripture,  as  to  render  any  other  unlawful.  There  are  general  rules 
to  which  all  that  bear  office  in  the  church  of  Christ  are  required  to 
conform,  whatever  be  their  names  or  their  distinctions  of  rank.  But 
tliese  rules  admit  of  that  variety  in  the  forms  of  church  government, 
by  which  the  religion  of  Jesus  is  qualified  to  receive  the  countenance 
and  protection  of  all  the  possible  forms  which  civil  government  can 
assume.  In  like  manner  we  assert  that  that  liberty  with  regard  to 
rites,  which  we  have  inferred  from  the  writings  of  the  apostles,  is 
most  agreeable  to  the  character  of  our  universal  religion  ;  for  the  ideas 
and  usages  of  men  differ  widely  in  diiferent  countries,  and  in  different 
states  of  society.  Immersion  at  baptism,  which  was  commonly  prac- 
tised where  Christianity  was  first  published,  would,  in  our  northern 
climates,  be  inconvenient  or  dangerous.  The  posture  of  reclining  on 
couches,  in  which  the  apostles  received  the  bread  and  wine  from 
Jesus  at  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  supper,  not  being  used  by  Euro- 
peans upon  ordinary  occasions,  is  laid  aside  at  that  solemn  service. 
The  vestures  of  the  ministers  of  religion,  which  in  one  country  are 
thought  decent,  might,  upon  many  accounts,  appear  unsuitable  in 
another;  and  ceremonies,  which  at  their  first  appointment  had  a 
salutary  effect,  may  by  accident,  abuse,  or  change  of  manners,  require 
to  be  altered  or  repealed. 

It  corresponds  then  with  that  wisdom  which  pervades  the  whole 
dispensation  of  the  gospel,  and  with  the  character  of  religion  fit  for 
all  ages  and  for  all  climates,  that  there  should  be  in  the  church  an 
authority  to  regulate,  that  is,  to  accommodate  to  circumstances,  so  as 
may  best  promote  the  purposes  of  edification,  those  ceremonies  and 
rites  which  from  their  nature  are  changeable.  Such  an  authority  is 
not  inconsistent  with  the  sovereign  authority  of  the  Lord  Jesus;  because 
it  does  not  presume  to  alter  any  thing  which  he  appointed.  It  admits 
that  reading  the  Scriptures,  prayer,  and  praise,  are  unchangeable 
parts  of  Christian  worship  ;  that  the  administration  of  the  sacraments 
ought  to  be  agreeable  to  the  institution  of  Christ;  and  that  no 
authority  committed  to  the  church  can  either  omit  or  add  any  thing 
essential.  It  professes  only  to  regulate  those  things  which  may  be 
varied,  without  touching  what  is  substantial ;  and  in  the  canons 
enacted  for  this  purpose,  far  from  invading  the  prerogative  of  Christ, 
it  professes  to  follow  out  the  directions  which  he  left  by  his  apostles, 
and  to  exercise  the  authority  created  by  these  directions  in  the  manner 
which  is  most  agreeable  to  him,  because  most  conducive  to  the  ends 
for  which  the  directions  are  given. — Neither  is  this  authority  incon- 


POTESTAS  ^w-taxftixfi.  771 

sistent  with  the  liberties  of  Christians  ;  because,  being  exercised  purely 
for  the  sake  of  decency  and  order,  it  does  not  profess  to  alter  the 
nature  of  those  objects  about  which  it  is  conversant,  so  as  to  fetter  the 
conscience.  The  ceremonies  are  chosen,  because  they  appear  fit  for 
the  purpose ;  and  the  authority  by  which  they  are  ordained  creates 
an  obligation  to  observe  them ;  but  no  such  holiness  or  worthiness  is 
annexed  to  them,  as  to  render  them  indispensable  to  the  worship  of 
God.  If  a  person  is  placed  in  such  a  situation,  that  it  is  physically 
impossible  for  him  to  obey  the  ecclesiastical  canons  which  ordain  the 
ceremonies,  or  that  he  cannot  yield  this  obedience  without  much 
inconvenience  and  the  neglect  of  some  higher  duty,  he  will  be  accepted 
by  offering  that  worship  "  in  spirit  and  in  truth,"  which  his  Lord 
prescribes.  If  he  accounts  the  ceremonies  sinful,  this  judgment, 
however  erroneous  it  may  be,. yet  if  it  is  deliberately  formed  after  the 
best  consideration  which  he  can  bestow,  will  justify  him  for  neglecting 
the  ceremonies,  and  will  render  it  his  duty  to  abstain  from  them.  Even 
while  in  obedience  to  the  authority  by  which  they  are  ordained  he 
uniformly  observes  them  "  for  conscience  sake ;"  if  his  mind  be  well 
informed,  he  will  continue  to  regard  them  as  in  their  own  nature 
indillerent,  i.  e.  as  matters  which  the  law  of  God  has  not  determined 
to  be  either  good  or  evil,  which,  from  views  of  expediency,  have  been 
made  the  subject  of  human  regulations,  but  which,  from  the  same 
views,  may  be  laid  aside.  - 

In  order  to  perceive  how  that  authority  of  enacting  ceremonies 
with  which  the  church  is  invested,  and  the  correspondent  duty  of 
observing  them  are  consistent  with  the  liberties  of  Christians,  it  is  ne- 
cessary to  form  a  distinct  idea  of  what  is  called  liberty  of  conscience. 
Liberty  of  conscience,  as  the  word  impHes,  has  its  seat  in  the  mind. 
Its  essence  consists  in  freedom  of  judgment,  not  in  freedom  of  practice. 
If  Christians  are  required  to  believe,  as  doctrines  of  God,  any  propo- 
sitions which  his  word  has  not  taught,  or  to  receive  as  command- 
ments of  God  what  his  word  has  not  prescribed,  their  liberty  of  con- 
science is  invaded.  But  if  their  judgment  is  left  free,  their  practice 
may,  without  any  sacrifice  of  their  liberty,  be  restrained  by  difierent 
considerations.  The  writings  of  Paul  furnish  several  examples  of 
the  restraint  of  Christian  practice  without  any  invasion  of  Christian 
liberty ;  and  the  best  way  in  which  I  can  illustrate  the  distinction  is 
by  directing  your  attention  to  these  examples. 

Paul  teaches  that  no  kind  of  meat  is  of  itself  unclean,  and  that  the 
distinction  of  meats,  known  under  the  law  of  Moses,  is  abolished  by 
the  Gospel.*  And  he  mentions  it  as  one  branch  of  that  corruption  of 
the  Gospel,  which  was  to  arise  in  the  latter  days,  that  men  should 
command  "  to  abstain  from  meats,  which  God  hath  created  to  be  re- 
ceived'with  thanksgiving  of  them  who  believe  and  know  the  truth.t'* 
Yet  because  many  Christians  converted  from  Judaism  retained  those 
prejudices  as  to  the  distinction  of  meats,  which  they  had  learned  from 
the  law ;  because  it  would  have  been  sinful  in  them  to  eat  the  kind 
of  meat  which  they  thought  unlawful ;  and  because  tliey  would  have 
been  offended,  and  might  have  been  led  into  sin,  by  imitating  their 
Christian  brethren  in  eating  that  meat,  the  apostle  declares  his  reso- 

•  Rom.  xiv.  14— 21.  -j-  1  Tim.  iv.  1,3. 


772  POTESTAS    AtttT'ajn'ix};. 

lution  to  abstain  from  what,  in  his  own  judgment,  was  lawful,  and  he 
exhorts  Christians  to  follow  him."  "  It  is  good  neither  to  eat  tlesh, 
nor  to  drink  wine,  nor  any  thing  whereby  thy  brother  stumbleth,  or 
is  offended,  or  is  made  weak.  Let  us  follow  after  the  things  which 
make  for  peace,  and  things  wherewith  one  may  edify  another." 
Here  is  liberty  of  conscience  remaining  entire  ;  yet  practice  restrained 
by  Christian  charity.  Another  example,  furnished  by  the  writings 
of  Paul,  has  relation  to  Christians  converted  from  heathenism.  In  the 
heathen  sacrifices,  a  part  of  the  animal  being  offered  upon  the  altar 
of  a  god,  the  remainder  was  consumed  by  the  worshippers  at  a  feast  in 
honour  of  that  god,  where  he  was  supposed  to  be  present,  and  where 
the  worshippers  conceived  themselves  to  be  partakers  with  him. 
Hence  a  doubt  arose  among  the  Christian  converts,  whether,  if  they 
were  invited  to  a  feast,  and  the  meat  sat  before  them  was  that  which 
had  been  offered  to  an  idol,  they  might  lawfully  eat  of  it ;  or  whether 
the  partaking  of  this  meat  did  not  imply  upon  their  part,  as  it  did 
upon  the  part  of  the  heathen  worshippers,  an  acknowledgment  of  the 
idol,  and  a  testimony  of  reverence.  The  apostle  decides  the  matter 
in  respect  of  the  conscience  of  Christians,  by  saying,  "  we  know  that 
an  idol  is  nothing  in  the  world,"  and  consequently  that  meat  is  nei- 
ther the  better  nor  the  worse  for  having  been  ofiered  to  an  idol.* 
But,  in  respect  of  the  practice  of  Christians,  he  says,  that  as  every 
man  had  not  that  knowledge,  as  some  still  believe  that  an  idol  is 
something,  and  notwithstanding  that  belief  might  be  emboldened  to 
eat  by  the  liberty  of  him  who  had  knowledge,  Christians,  for  the  sake 
of  the  consciences  of  others,  ought  to  refrain  from  doing  what  their 
own  conscience  would  permit  them  to  do.  "  All  things  are  lawful  for 
me,  but  all  things  are  not  expedient ;  all  things  edify  not."t  The 
New  Testament,  moreover,  furnishes  an  instance  in  which  the  liberty 
6f  practice  with  regard  to  the  distinction  of  meats,  and  the  eating  of 
things  offered  to  idols,  which,  in  certain  circumstances,  should  have 
been  restrained  by  Christian  charity,  was  also  restrained  by  autho- 
rity. The  council  of  apostles  and  elders  mentioned  in  Acts  xv.  sent 
this  mandate  to  the  uncircumcised  Christians  in  Antioch,  Syria,  and 
Cilicia,  "  That  ye  abstain  from  meats  ofi'ered  to  idols,and  from  blood." 
Paul  was  one  of  the  bearers  of  this  mandate,  and  we  are  told,  that  in 
passing  through  these  countries,  he  delivered  it  to  the  churches  to 
keep.  Yet  at  that  very  time  he  was  arguing  in  his  epistles,  that  in 
respect  of  conscience.  Christians  are  at  liberty  to  eat  every  kind  of 
meat.  His  doctrine  asserted  that  freedom  of  judgment  in  which 
liberty  of  conscience  consists :  the  decree  in  which  he  concurred,  and 
of  which  he  was  the  bearer,  enjoined  that  restraint  upon  practice, 
which  circumstances  rendered  expedient,  in  those  very  things  which 
to  the  judgment  appeared  free.  Nay,  liberty  of  conscience  is  asserted 
in  the  same  decree,  which  restrained  the  practice  of  Christians  in  mat- 
ters indifferent.  For  the  decree  declares  that  the  apostles  had  given 
no  commandment  to  those  teachers,  who  said  to  Christians,  Ye  must 
be  circumcised.  Here  then  is  apostolical  authority,  issuing  by  the 
same  decree,  a  declaration  of  liberty  of  conscience,  and  an  injunction 
as  to  practice ;  and  we  find  the  conduct  of  the  apostle  Paul  corres- 

•   1  Cor.  viii.  4—13.  f  1  Cor.  x.  23. 


P0TESTA3   AtaT'axrtxr;.  773 

ponding  most  accurately  to  the  spirit,  both  of  the  declaration  and  of 
the  injunction.  At  the  very  time  that  he  was  carrying  the  decree  to 
the  churches,  he  circumcised  Timothy,  whose  father  was  a  Greek, 
and  whose  mother  was  a  Jewess.*  He  did  it  because  of  the  Jews 
who  dwelt  in  those  parts ;  considering  that  Timothy  would  be  a  more 
useful  minister  of  the  Gospel  amongst  them,  and  more  likely  to  over- 
come their  antipathy  to  the  faith  of  Christ,  when  it  appeared  that 
neither  he  nor  the  apostle,  from  whom  he  had  received  the  know- 
ledge of  the  Gospel,  had  any  objection  to  his  acknowledging  his  he- 
reditary connexion  with  the  Mosaic  dispensation.  But  when  cer- 
tain Judaizing  teachers,  who  wished  to  bring  Christians  into  bondage 
to  the  ceremonies  of  the  law,  would  have  compelled  Paul  to  circum- 
cise Titus,  who  was  a  Greek,  he  did  not  yield  subjection  to  them, 
"no,  not  for  an  hour."t  In  a  matter  of  indifference,  he  had  volun- 
tarily accommodated  himself  to  the  prejudices  of  the  Jews:  but  when 
an  attempt  was  made  to  impose  that  matter  of  indifference  as  a  mat- 
ter of  conscience,  he  asserted  the  liberty  of  Christians  ;  and  thus  by 
these  two  parts  of  his  conduct,  considered  as  a  commentary  upon  the 
apostolical  decree,  he  has  set  an  example  to  the  Christian  world  of 
the  distinction  which  ought  always  to  be  maintained,  between  liberty 
of  judgment  and  hberty  of  practice. 

The  principles,  which  may  be  educed  out  of  the  Scripture  instances 
which  I  have  mentioned,  apply  to  all  that  has  ever  been  known  in 
the  Christian  church  under  the  name  of  rites  and  ceremonies.  While 
they  vindicate  the  lawfulness  of  this  branch  of  the  jiotestas  Scaraxuxr;, 
they  serve  also,  when  fully  considered,  to  establish  the  rules  which 
ought  to  be  observed  in  the  exercise  of  it ;  and  they  illustrate  the 
foundation  and  the  measure  of  that  obedience  which  is  due  to  the 
enactments. 

The  rites  and  ceremonies  of  the  Christian  church,  agreeably  to  the 
general  rules  of  Scripture,  ought  to  be  of  such  a  kind  as  to  promote 
the  order,  the  decency,  and  the  solemnity  of  public  worship.  At  the 
same  time,  they  ought  not  to  be  numerous,  but  should  preserve  that 
character  of  simplicity  which  is  inseparable  from  true  dignity,  and 
which  accords  especially  with  the  spiritual  character  of  the  religion 
of  Christ.  The  apostles  often  remind  Christians,  that  they  are  deliv- 
ered from  the  ceremonies  of  the  law,  which  are  styled  by  Peter  "  a 
yoke  which  neither  they  nor  their  fathers  were  able  to  bear."  J  The 
Avhole  tenor  of  our  Lord's  discourse,  and  of  the  writings  of  his  apos- 
tles, elevates  the  mind  above  those  superstitious  observances  in  which 
the  Pharisees  placed  the  substance  of  religion  ;  and,  according  to  the. 
divine  saying  of  Paul,  "  the  kingdom  of  God  is  not  meat  and  drink, 
but  righteousness,  and  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost."|l  The  na- 
ture of  this  kingdom  is  forgotten,  when  frivolous  observances  are  mul- 
tiplied by  human  authority  ;  and  the  complicated  expensive  pagean- 
try of  Roman  Catholic  worship,  together  with  the  still  more  childish 
ceremonies  which  abound  in  the  Eastern  or  Greek  church,  appear  to 
deserve  the  application  of  that  censure  which  the  apostle  pronounced, 
when  he  represented  the  attempts  made  in  his  days  to  revive  the 

»  Actsxvi.  1,3.  t  Gal.  ii.3,  4,  5. 

i  Acts  XV.  10.  It  Rom.xiv.  17. 

67* 


774  POTEST  AS    Aiafaxtixr^. 

Mosaic  ritual,  as  a  '•'turning  again  to  weak  and  beggarly  elements,"* 
The  multiplicity  of  external  observances  is  not  only  an  unnecessary 
burden,  to  which  Jesus  did  not  mean  to  subject  his  followers,  but  it 
has  a  tendency  to  substitute  "  the  rudiments  of  the  \vorld,"  in  place 
of  a  worship  "in  spirit  and  in  truth."  While  it  professes  to  render 
the  services  of  religion  venerable,  and  to  cherish  devotion,  it  in  reality 
fatigues  and  absorbs  the  mind  ;  and  it  requires  such  an  expense  of 
time  and  of  money,  that,  like  the  heathen  amidst  the  pomp  of  their 
sacrifices.  Christians  are  in  danger  of  thiiilcing  they  have  fulfilled  their 
duty  to  God  by  performing  that  work,  which  the  ordinance  of  man 
had  prescribed,  and  of  losing  all  solicitude  to  present  to  the  Father  of 
Spirits  that  homage  of  the  heart,  which  is  the  only  offering  truly  valu- 
able in  his  sight.  Further,  all  the  Scripture  rules  and  examples  sug- 
gest, that  in  enacting  ceremonies,  regard  should  be  had  to  the  opi- 
nions, the  manners,  and  prejudices  of  those  to  wbom  they  are  pre- 
scribed;  that  care* should  be  taken  never  wantonly  to  give  ofi'ence : 
and  that  those  who  entertain  more  enlightened  views  upon  the  sub- 
ject should  not  despise  their  weak  brethren.  Upon  the  same  princi- 
ple, it  is  obvious,  that  ceremonies  ought  not  to  be  lightly  changed. 
In  the  eyes  of  most  people,  those  practices  appear  venerable  which 
have  been  handed  down  from  remote  antiquity.  To  many,  the  want 
of  those  helps,  to  which  they  had  been  accustomed  in  the  exercises 
of  devotion,  might  prove  very  hurtful ;  and  frequent  changes  in  the 
external  parts  of  worship  might  shake  the  steadfastness  of  their  faith. 
The  last  rule  deducible  from  the  Scripture  examples  is  this,  that  the 
authority  which  enacts  the  ceremonies  should  clearly  explain  the  light 
in  which  they  are  to  be  considered,  should  never  employ  any  expres- 
sions, or  any  means  of  enforcing  them  which  tend  to  convey  to  the 
people  that  they  are  accounted  necessary  to  salvation,  and  should  be- 
ware of  seeming  to  teach  that  the  most  punctual  observance  of  things 
in  themselves  indifierent  is  of  equal  importance  with  judgment,  merc}^, 
and  the  love  of  God. 

If  there  is  an  authority  in  the  church  to  enact  rites  and  ceremonies, 
there  must  be  a  correspondent  obligation  upon  Christians  to  respect 
that  authority  ;  and  the  same  considerations  of  order,  decency,  and 
edification,  which  establish  the  existence  of  the  authority,  require  the 
obedience  of  Christians.  The  more  nearly  that  the  manner  of  exer- 
cising this  authority  approaches  to  the  rules  which  we  have  educed 
out  of  Scripture,  it  will  the  better  answer  the  purpose  of  the  institu- 
tion, and  will  be  entitled  to  the  more  willing  obedience.  But  it  must 
be  carefully  marked,  that  the  rules,  which  those  who  exercise  the  au- 
thority ought  to  prescribe  to  themselves,  are  not  the  measures  of  obe- 
dience. There  is  no  authority  vested  in  the  hands  of  fallible  men, 
which  is,  upon  all  occasions,  exercised  in  the  best  possible  manner. 
Yet  we  do  not  conceive  that  the  subjects  of  civil  government  are  ab- 
solved from  their  allegiance,  merely  because  they  think  that  the  laws 
prescribed  to  them  might  have  been  enacted  with  more  wisdom. 
From  the  peculiar  nature  of  the  potestas  6taraxnx»;,  there  is  hardly  a 
possibility  of  its  being  exercised  in  such  a  manner  as  to  give  entire 
satisfaction  to  everj^  understanding.     Between  the  unnecessaiy  mul- 

*  Gal.  iv.  9. 


POTESTAS   Atafoxrixj;.  775 

tiplication  and  parade  of  ceremonies  upon  one  hand,  and  a  hurtful 
deficiency  upon  the  other,— between  the  regard  which  antiquity 
claims  upon  one  hand,  and  the  consideration  due  to  occasional  offence 
upon  the  other,  the  shades  are  numberless ;  and  were  the  precise  me- 
dium always  attained  by  those  who  have  authority,  it  might,  for  op- 
posite reasons,  be  condemned  by  persons  of  different  habits  and  views. 
The  rule  of  peace  and  order,  therefore,  with  regard  to  the  members 
of  the  Christian  society,  is  compliance  with  the  ceremonies  which  are 
established  by  authority,  unless  they  appear  to  them  unlawful.  In 
particular  circumstances,  they  may  find  it  necessary  to  protest  against 
a  multitude  of  ceremonies  which  they  consider  as  burdensome,  or 
against  any  attempt  to  impose  things  indifferent  as  a  matter  of  con- 
science. But  if  there  is  nothing  unlawful  in  the  ceremonies  that  are 
appointed,  they  have  need  to  deliberate  well  whether  it  is  justifiable 
for  such  a  cause  to  disturb  the  peace  of  society,  or  whether  it  is  not 
more  agreeable  to  the  quiet,  condescending,  and  accommodating  spirit 
of  the  Gospel,  while,  by  judging  that  the  things  are  indifferent,  they 
keep  their  minds  free  from  bondage,  to  maintain  that  conduct  which 
"  gives  none  offence  to  the  church  of  God." 

This  last  was  not  the  judgment  of  that  description  of  men  known 
by  the  name  of  Puritans,"whose  opposition  to  this  branch  of  the 
potesfas  Siaraxitxr,  fomis  a  large  portion  of  the  ecclesiastical  history  of 
Britain  for  above  a  century,  and  produced  very  important  effects  upon 
its  civil  government.     Early  after  the  Reformation,  in  the  reign  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  the  Puritans  objected  in  general  to  the  lawfulness 
of  imposing  ceremonies  by  authorhy,  as  an  abridgment  of  the  liberty 
of  Christians  in  matters  not  commanded  by  the  word  of  God  ;  and 
they  objected,  in  particular,  to  the  vestments  appointed  to  be  worn 
by  the  clergy  hi  their  public  ministrations,  because,  having  been  worn 
in  times  of  Popery,  they  had  then  been  abused  to  superstition  and 
idolatry.     They  objected  also  to  the  lawfulness  of  using  the  sign  of 
the  cross  in  baptism,  of  kneeling  at  the  Lord's  supper,  and  of  other 
observances  of  the   like  kind.     The  objections  were  ans\vered  by 
asserting  the  power  of  the  church  in  regulating  matters  indifferent,  by 
stating  t"he  prudential  considerations  which  led  the  church  of  England 
to  retain  some  of  the  popish  ceremonies,  in  the  hopes  of  keeping  the 
Papists  within  the  church  ;  and  by  declaring,  as  is  done  in  the  preface 
to  the  Common  Prayer  Books,  "That  no  holiness  or  worthiness  \yas 
annexed  to  the  garments  of  the  priests  ;  and  that  while  the  excessive 
multitude  of  ceremonies  used  in  times  of  Popery  was  laid  aside,  some 
were  received  for  a  decent  order  in  the  church  for  which  they  were 
first  devised,  and  because  they  pertained  to  edification,  whereunto  all 
things  done  in  the  church  ought  to  be  referred."     These  answers  did 
not  remove  the  objections  of  the  Puritans.     The  controversy  was 
agitated  with  much  violence  during  a  great  part  of  the  seventeenth 
century.     It  was  the  subject  of  numberless  publications,  of  debates  in, 
parliament,  and  of  judicial  discussion.     The  Puritans,  not  content 
with  argument  and  petition,  employed  various  methods  of  inflaming 
the  minds  of  the  people,  and  made  many  attempts  to  obtain  their 
object  by  faction  and  commotion.     The  church,  irritated  by  opposition 
to  her  authority,  was  little  disposed  to  condescend  to  weak  consciences, 
in  points   which  might  have  been  yielded,   and   often    employed 


776  POTESTAS   ^lataxTfLxyj. 

severity  to  bend  those  whom  she  could  not  convince.  It  is  not  my 
province  to  enter  into  a  detail  of  these  proceedings,  or  to  compare  the 
conduct  of  the  different  parties.  I  mention  them  only  as  furnishing 
the  most  interesting  occasion,  upon  which  this  branch  of  the  potestas 
tiata.xt(.xri  was  thoroughly  canvassed.  There  probably  were  faults  on 
both  sides ;  and  the  reflection,  which  the  whole  history  of  that  period 
suggests  to  us,  is  this,  that  we  have  much  reason  to  congratulate 
ourselves  upon  living  in  times,  when  a  knowledge  of  the  nature  and 
the  measure  of  church  authority  is  conjoined  with  a  respect  for  those 
principles  of  toleration  and  condescension,  which,"  although  most  con- 
genial to  the  spirit  of  the  gospel,  were,  for  many  ages,  little  understood 
by  the  disciples  of  Christ.  The  application  of  these  principles,  and 
the  manner  in  which  they  may  be  reconciled  with  the  legitimate  exer- 
cise of  church  power,  will  be  illustrated  after  we  have  considered  the 
last  branch  of  that  power,  which  we  distinguished  by  the  name  of 

potestas  ii'O.x^t.twri- 


POTESTAS  Atax^trtXTj.  777 


CHAPTER  VI. 

POTESTAS  Aiax^cnxij. 


The  pot  est  as  hiax^Ltixr,,  that  which  respects  discipline,  or  the  exer- 
cise of  judgment  in  inflicting  and  removing  censures,  is,  Hke  the  otlier 
two  brandies,  limited  and  regulated  by  the  sovereign  authority  of  the 
Lord  Jesus,  and  the  liberties  of  his  disciples. 

We  found  formerly  that  this  branch  of  power  belongs  to  the  church. 
Even  a  voluntary  association  has  an  inherent  right  of  removing  those 
who  are  judged  unworthy  of  remaining;  and  the  church,  that  society 
constituted  by  Jesus  Christ,  into  which  it  is  the  duty  of  his  disciples  to 
enter,  is  invested  by  its  Divine  Founder  with  the  right  of  exercising, 
by  its  ministers,  the  office  of  admonishing,  reproving,  suspending,  or 
excluding  from  the  privileges  of  the  society,  according  to  the  conduct 
of  the  members.  In  order,  however,  to  perceive  in  what  manner  the 
exercise  of  the  pov/er  implied  in  this  office  is  regulated  and  limited  by 
the  sovereign  authority  of  Christ,  and  the  liberties  of  his  disciples,  it  is 
necessary  to  recollect  particularly  the  words  in  which  the  power  is 
conveyed  or  expressed,  and  the  claims  which  ha\^e  been  founded  upon 
the  interpretation  of  them. 

When  our  Lord  said  to  Peter,  "  I  will  give  unto  thee  the  keys  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,"*  he  seems  to  have  intended  to  explain  this 
figurative  expression,  by  adding,  in  the  words  then  addressed  to 
Peter,  but  afterwards  addressed  to  all  the  apostles,  "  Whatsoever  thou 
shalt  bind  on  earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven  ;  and  whatsoever  thou 
shalt  loose  on  earth  shall  be  loosed  in  heaven,"!  After  his  resurrec- 
tion our  Lord  "  breathed  on  the  apostles,  and  said  unto  them.  Receive 
ye  the  Holy  Ghost.  Whose  soever  sins  ye  remit,  they  are  remitted 
unto  them  ;  and  whose  soever  sins  ye  retain,  they  are  retained."^ 
The  apostle  Paul,  in  the  exercise  of  that, authority  thus  given  to  the 
apostles,  judged  that  the  incestuous  person  at  Corinth  should  be 
"  delivered  unto  Satan  ;"§  and  he  says  of  Hymeneus  and  Alexander, 
who  "concerning  faith  had  made  shipwreck,  I  have  delivered  them 
unto  Satan,  that  they  may  learn  not  to  blaspheme." || 

The  expressions  used  in  these  passages  of  Scripture  occur  in  the 
earliest  accounts  of  the  discipline  exercised  by  the  Christian  church  ; 
and  the  practice  of  the  church  in  primitive  times  explains  the  sense  in 
which  these  expressions  were  understood.  When  disciples  of  Christ, 
who  had  dishonoured  his  religion  by  committing  any  gross  immoral- 

*  Matt.xvl.  19.  f  Matt,  xviii.  18.  ^  John  xx.  22,  23. 

§  1  Cor.  V.  3,  4,  5.  ||  1  Tim.  i.  19,  20. 

51 


778  POTESTAS    ^lax^iiix*;- 

ity,  or  by  relapsing  into  idolatry,  were  cut  off  from  the  church  by  the 
sentence  of  excommunication,  they  were  kept,  often  for  years,  in  a 
state  of  penance,  liowever  desirous  to  be  readmitted.  They  made  a 
public  confession  of  their  faith,  accompanied  with  the  most  humiliat- 
ing expressions  of  grief.  For  some  time  they  stood  without  the  doors, 
while  the  Christians  were  employed  in  worship.  Afterwards  they 
were  allowed  to  enter ;  then  to  stand  during  a  part  of  the  service ; 
then  to  remain  during  the  whole :  but  they  were  not  permitted  to 
partake  of  the  Lord's  supper,  till  a  formal  absolution  was  pronounced 
by  the  church.  The  time  of  the  penance  was  sometimes  shortened, 
when  the  anguish  of  their  mind,  or  any  occasional  distress  of  body, 
threatened  the  danger  of  their  dying  in  that  condition,  or  when  those 
who  were  then  suffering  persecution,  or  other  deserving  members  of 
the  church,  interceded  for  them,  and  became  by  this  intercession,  in 
some  measure,  sureties  for  their  future  good  behaviour.  The  dura- 
tion of  the  penance,  the  acts  required  while  it  continued,  and  the  man- 
ner of  the  absolution,  varied  at  different  times.  The  matter  was, 
from  its  nature,  subject  to  much  abuse  ;  it  was  often  taken  under  the 
cognizance  of  ancient  councils  ;  and  a  great  part  of  their  canons  was 
employed  in  regulating  the  exercise  of  discipline. 

From  a  perversion  of  several  parts  of  the  primitive  practice,  and 
from  a  false  interpretation  of  the  passages  which  have  been  quoted 
from  Scripture,  there  arose  gradually  that  gross  corruption  of  the 
jiotesias  Stox^ti'ixj?,  which  prevailed  in  the  church  of  Rome.  It  came 
to  be  understood  that  the  sentence  of  excommunication,  by  its  own 
intrinsic  authority,  condemned  to  external  punishment ;  that  the  ex- 
communicated person  could  not  be  delivered  from  this  condemnation, 
unless  the  church  gave  him  absolution  ;  and  that  the  church  had  the 
power  of  absolving  him  upon  the  private  confession  of  his  fault,  either 
by  prescribing  to  him  certain  acts  of  penance,  and  works  of  charity, 
the  performance  of  which  was  considered  as  a  satisfaction  for  the  sin 
which  he  had  committed,  or  by  applying  to  him  the  merits  of  some 
other  person.  And  as,  in  the  progress  of  corruption,  the  whole 
power  of  the  church  was  supposed  to  be  lodged  in  the  Pope,  there 
flowed  from  him,  at  his  pleasure,  indulgences  or  remissions  of  some 
parts  of  the  penance,  absolutions,  and  pardons,  the  possession  of 
which  was  represented  to  Christians  as  essential  to  salvation,  and  the 
sale  of  which  formed  a  most  gainful  traffic. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  state  how  opposite  this  system  of  the  potestas 
Siax^iuxr;  is,  botli  to  the  sovereign  authority  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  to 
the  rights  of  his  disciples.  Instead  of  holding  them  accountable  to 
their  Master  in  heaven,  who  alone  ''  is  able  to  save  and  to  destroy," 
it  teaches  them  to  depend  for  salvation  upon  conforming  to  the  ca- 
price, and  gratifying  the  avarice  of  men,  equally  subject  to  him,  and 
often  more  corrupt  than  themselves. 

To  avoid  any  approach  to  this  system,  one  fundamental  principle 
must  never  be  forgotten,  that  the  future  and  eternal  punishment  of 
sin  is  in  the  power  of  God ;  that  none  can  forgive  sins,  so  as  to  de- 
liver from  that  punishment,  but  God  alone  ;  and  therefore,  that  the 
judgments  pronounced  by  the  church  can  respect  only  those  external 
censures  and  penalties  of  sin,  which  it  has  the  power  of  inflicting,  and 
which,  consequently,  it  has  the  power  of  removing.     Holding  this 


POTESTAS    Aiax^itixr;.  779 

principle,  of  which  the  whole  system  of  religion  affords  unquestiona- 
ble assurance,  we  cannot  give  a  proper  interpretation  of  the  passages 
which  I  quoted  from  Scripture,  without  making  a  distinction  between 
that  branch  of  the  judicial  power  of  the  church  which  is  merely  de- 
clarative, and  that  which  is  authoritative.     We  are  taught  in  Scrip- 
ture, that  sin  deserves  the  wrath  of  God,  both  in  this  life  and  in  that 
which  is  to  come  ;  that  every  obstinate  and  impenitent  sinner  shall  cer- 
tainly endure  the  everlasting  effects  of  this  wrath,  but  that  all  who 
repent  and  believe  in  Christ  have  "  redemption  through  his  blood, 
the  forgiveness  of  sins ;"  and  thus  by  faith  in  him  are  delivered  from 
the  power  of  Satan,  and  translated  into  the  kingdom  of  God.     This 
is  the  great  doctrine  of  the  Gospel,  which  the  church  is  appointed  to 
publish  by  the  ministry  of  the  word,  and  which  her  ministers  apply, 
according  to  circumstances,  to  those  over  whom  their  office  gives 
them  inspection.     When,  by  virtue  of  that  inspection,  they  are  called 
to  attend  to  the  transgressions  of  a  particular  person,  the  general  doc- 
trine is  applied  to  warn  him  of  the  danger  of  sin ;  and  when  he  be- 
comes ashamed  of  his  conduct,  it  is  applied  to  compose  his  mind  with 
the  hope  of  forgiveness.     This  application  may  be  accommodated  to 
his  temper  and  situation,  with  a  prudence  that  renders  it  more  useful 
to  him  than  any  general  discourse  ;  and  it  claims  his  attention,  because 
it  proceeds,  not  fi'om  an  individual,  but  from  those  who  are  set  over 
him  in  the  Lord,  and  who  speak  in  the  name  of  their  Master,  from 
whom  they  derive  a  commission  to  make  this  application.     They 
may  be  mistaken  in  judging  of  the  sincerity  of  his  repentance ;  for 
although  it  is  possible  that  the  gift  of  discerning  spirits,  whh  which 
the  apostles  were  endowed,  might  enable  them  to  know  whether  a 
person,  who  had  sinned,  was  qualified  by  the  state  of  his  mind  to  re- 
ceive forgiveness  from  God,  and  so  might  direct  them  infallibly  in 
retaining  and  remitting  sins,  yet,  as  no  such  gift  now  exists  in  the 
church,  succeeding  office-bearers  may  often  retain  the  sins  which  God 
is  ready  to  forgive,  and  remit  those  which  he  sees  cause  to  condemn. 
But  as  the  office  of  the  church,  in  regard  to  the  future  and  eternal 
consequences  of  sin,  is  merely  declarative,  no  evil  can  arise  from  the 
fallibility  of  those  by  whom  that  office  is  exercised.     They  only  pub- 
lish a  general  truth  :  they  call  the  person  to  whom  the  publication  is 
specially  addressed,  to  examine  himself  how  far  he  is  concerned  in 
that  truth;  and  they  leave  the  determination  of  his  final  condition  to 
God,  who  knows  his  heart. 

But  there  is  another  branch  of  the  judicial  power  of  the  church 
which  is  authoritative,  in  which  those,  by  whom  the  power  is  exer- 
cised, act,  strictly  speaking,  as  judges,  pronouncing  a  sentence,  the 
eflects  of  which  operate  in  virtue  of  their  right  to  judge.  To  under- 
stand the  manner  in  which  our  Lord  has  expressed  this  authoritative 
power,  you  will  observe,  that  "the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  the  keys  of 
which  he  gave  to  Peter,  and,  as  Protestants  believe,  to  the  other 
apostles  also,  does  not  in  the  passage  referred  to,  mean  that  state  of 
glory  for  which  Christians  are  prepared  by  the  discipline  of  this  life; 
but,  according  to  a  phraseology  often  used  by  our  Lord,  it  denotes  the 
dispensation  of  the  gospel,  that  spiritual  economy  which  he  has  estab- 
lished, his  church,  the  great  society  of  which  he  is  the  head.  You 
will  find  "  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven"  commonly  divided  iu 


7S0  POTESTAS    ^lax^itiXTj. 

theological  books,  into  two,  the  key  of  doctrine  and  the  key  of  dis- 
cipUne.  This  is  the  very  distinction  which  I  am  now  making,  between 
the  declarative  and  the  authoritative  power  of  the  churcli.  By  the 
key  of  doctrine,  the  office-bearers  interpret,  declare,  and  apply  the 
truth ;  by  the  key  of  discipline,  they  have  the  power  of  admitting  inti 
the  church  and  excluding  from  it.  In  reference  to  this  figure  of  the 
keys,  there  is  added  by  our  Lord,  in  explication,  the  other  figurative 
expression  of  "  binding  and  loosing."  For,  as  he  who  has  the  keys 
of  a  prison  is  invested  with  the  office  of  imprisoning  or  releasing  from 
prison,  so  those  who  have  "  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven," 
i.  e.  the  power  of  admitting  into  the  church  and  excluding  from  it,  are 
invested  with  a  judicial  office,  in  the  exercise  of  which  their  sentences 
bind  upon  men  their  sins,  so  that  they  are  prevented  from  entering  into 
the  church,  or  loose  them  from  their  sins,  so  that  they  find  admission. 
The  bodily  act  of  binding  is  put  for  that  sentence  of  condemning,  which, 
after  his  resurrection,  our  Lord  expressed  by  "retaining  sin;"  the 
bodily  act  of  loosing  for  that  sentence  of  absolving,  which  he  then 
expressed  by  "  remitting  sins."  The  phrase  "  delivering  unto  Satan," 
has,  in  like  manner,  a  reference  to  admission  into  the  church.  For 
the  gospel  represents  the  existence  of  two  opposite  kingdoms ;  one 
in  which  Christ  is  king;  the  other  in  which  Satan  reigns.  Persons  at 
their  baptism  renounced  Satan;  there  was artoralcj Saraw ;  awra^ii x^iet^. 
When  they  were  excluded  from  the  church,  they  returned,  were  sent 
back  to  that  kingdom  of  Satan,  out  of  which  at  their  baptism  they 
had  been  translated. 

The  administration  of  baptism  to  grown  persons  supposes,  on  their 
part,  previous  instruction,  and  submits  the  judgment  of  their  qualifi- 
cations to  those  by  whom  they  are  baptized.  Infant  baptism  is 
indeed  administered  indiscriminately ;  but  there  is  a  subsequent  act, 
either  confirmation,  as  in  the  church  of  England,  or,  as  with  us, 
admission  for  the  first  time  to  the  Lord's  supper,  by  which  those  who 
had  been  baptized  are,  at  the  age  of  discretion,formally  received  into 
the  church,  so  that  their  qualifications  also  are  submitted  to  the  judg- 
ment of  the  office  bearers.  We  saw  formerly,  that  the  same  persons, 
who  are  invested  with  the  oflice  of  admitting  into  the  church,  are  also 
invested  with  the  office  of  excluding  from  it.  The  two  offices,  which 
we  naturally  expect  to  be  conjoined,  make  up  what  is  meant  by  the 
key  of  discipline  or  jurisdiction  ;  and  as  Jesus  says,  "  I  give  this  key," 
the  two  offices  are  a  leghimate  part  of  the  constitution  of  his  church, 
the  exercise  of  which,  far  from  being  any  invasion  of  his  sovereignty, 
is  an  act  of  obedience  to  him,  and  a  fulfilment  of  his  purposes.  He 
has  left  directions  to  the  persons  employed  in  those  offices,  for  the  due 
observance  of  which  they  are  accountable  to  him ;  and  when  they 
conform  to  his  directions,  the  acts  performed  by  them  in  the  exercise 
of  these  offices  are  his  acts,  which,  being  done  in  his  name,  and  by 
his  authority,  will  receive  his  sanction.  But  there  is  no  promise  of 
infallibility  to  those  to  whom  the  offices  are  committed.  They  are 
called  to  exercise  their  own  judgment  in  applying  general  directions 
to  particular  cases.  They  may  wilfully,  or  from  some  corrupt  motive, 
pronounce  an  unjust  sentence ;  or,  with  the  best  intentions,  they  may 
be  mistaken.  It  is  impossible  that  Jesus  can  give  his  sanction  to  any 
sentence  pronounced  in  opposition  to  liis  own  directions;  and,  there- 


POTESTAS  Aiax^irtxj;.  7S1 

fore,  with  respect  to  him,  such  a  sentence  is  the  same  as  if  it  had  not 
been  pronounced.  His  subjects  may,  indeed,  suffer  bv  sentences,  ex- 
cluding those  who  ought  to  be  admitted,  or  admitting  those  who  ought 
to  be  excluded.  But  this  is  an  inconvenience  of  the  same  kind  with 
tliose,  wliich  always  must  result  from  power  being  lodged  in  the 
hands  of  fallible  men.  It  does  not  affect  the  final  salvation  of  any, 
because  that  depends  entirely  upon  the  judgment  of  God  ;  and  even 
with  regard  to  those  external  privileges  which  may  be  unjustly  with- 
held, or  improperly  communicated,  the  inconvenience  is  not  altogether 
without  remedy.  For,  as  Jesus  can  compensate  by  his  grace  for  the 
want  of  those  external  privileges,  which  are  only  the  means  of  con- 
veying grace,  so  there  are  cases  of  necessity,  in  which  Christians  are 
justified  in  departing  from  the  established  order  of  the  church,  and  in 
resorting  to  an  extraordinary  method  of  enjoying  that  comfort  and 
edification,  of  which  they  are  deprived  by  the  tyranny  or  gross  abuse 
of  its  office-bearers. 

Having  thus  seen  that  the  pofestas  haxQi-tixr,,  when  rightly  under- 
stood, is  not  inconsistent  either  with  the  sovereign  authority  of  Christ 
or  with  the  liberties  of  his  disciples,  it  may  be  observed,  in  general, 
that  it  must  be  of  equal  extent  with  the  other  two  branches  of  the 
power  of  the  church  ;  that  is,  that  the  censures  and  penalties  must 
somehow  be  applicable  in  all  the  cases  which  come  under  the  potestas 
boynatixri  and  the  potestas  Bia.ta.x-ei.xri.  For,  if  any  one  case  were  totally 
withdrawn  from  the  potestas  Stax^irtx)?,  the  power  of  the  church  would 
in  that  case  be  nugatory  ;  because  being  left  without  defence,  it  might 
be  despised  with  impunity.  Yet  the  nature  of  things  may  require  a  very 
great  difference  in  the  mode  of  exercising  the  potestas  Scax^i.tixr]  upon 
different  occasions;  and  there  may  arise,  from  principles  already  ex- 
plained, limitations  and  regulations  of  that  power  which  all  Christians, 
who  "  know  what  manner  of  spirit  they  are  of,"  will  not  fail  to 
observe.* 

*  For  the  application  of  the  principles  mentioned  above,  to  the  different  objects  about 
which  the  potestas  St-ax^otixr;  is  conversant,  and  for  the  account  of  our  national  church, 
which  the  plan  of  the  Lectures  embraces,  the  reader  is  referred  either  to  the  author's  View 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  or  to  his  Theological  Institutes.  The  last 
work  also  contains  the  conclusion  of  the  Lectures,  viz.  Observations  on  the  different  parts 
of  the  Office  of  a  Parish  Minister,  and  Counsels  respecting  the  manner  of  performing  them 
properly. 

68 


FINIS. 


(f^  .4^/vw     6    "^    6  ^ 


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1932YG^Jffi2l 


Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  01130  3940 


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